'It worked!' GOP Senate candidate floats return to barter system to pay for health care

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Brad Reed
December 4, 2023 11:48AM ET

A top Republican candidate for the United States Senate in Montana floated eliminating all health insurance and bringing back the old-timey payment system where cash-strapped patients could barter with their doctors for medical care.

Semafor reports that Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy argued in a meet-and-greet with voters in August that "we need to return healthcare to pure privatization," despite the fact that the United States government has been providing financial assistance to help Americans get medical care for decades.

When asked about what this would entail, Sheehy pointed to the kinds of payment systems that were more common in the 19th century.

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That said, Sheehy's campaign telles Semafor that, despite his comments, he apparently doesn't support the idea of scrapping Medicare, a massive government program that provides health care to seniors.

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Article

[Aristus]

1. I'm in community health care, not private health care.

But they pay me in, you know, money. And I prefer it stay that way. If I’m treating Farmer Bill for a laceration or something, I don’t want a chicken or a bag of apples in return. Just some good old 21st Century legal tender, thank you.

Sheesh! How do this shitbrains get a national voice?

[thucythucy]

3. I wonder how many bags of apples you'd need to exchange for a brain MRI.

And also: how many chickens for each and every chemotherapy treatment?

Does this "candidate" actually have a chance? If so, I shudder for the fate of this nation.

[haele]

2. Okay, you have someone flat on their back in ICU for a month.

What are they going to barter with, after possibly losing job, home, and anything they own because they couldn't pay rent or bills?
Will the hospital seize everything they and any relative that has a dependence relationship with them own as "barter" for the ICU and rehabilitation process?

"Sorry kids, Grandma's stroke and cardiac episodes after her 64th birthday means the Hospital and Ambulance Company now own everything in our house and your uncle's home, including our kitchen stuff, your clothes and bicycles. Lucky thing we rent, your uncle and his family are losing their house and all the family heirlooms.
They're letting us buy our couch, beds and clothes back on layaway, but we're going to have to live off microwave food, paper plates and plastic silverware for the next two years and use the bus until the balance has been paid off and we can start buying the rest of our furniture and housewares again. Oh, and be careful! We have nothing left to pay the doctor if you break your arm again..."

Haele

[Hermit-The-Prog]

6. That's too rosey a picture -- they would take the kids for grunt work.

[Buns_of_Fire]

4. "I will gladly give you four hamburgers Tuesday for a triple bypass today!"

Lardbutt would try to trade five (5) of his perfect NFTs for 11,780 votes.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

8. Make those cheeseberders and I'll sharpen my pocket knife before the surgery.

[CTyankee]

5. That is just bizarre. What century are we in?

[dweller]

7. How much can I get for

1 kidney ?
1 eye ?

Can we get into a bidding war ?

🤔


✌🏻

[NowISeetheLight]

9. Sex Workers?

I wonder what a sex workers chargemaster would look like at the hospital. I don't want to know.

[WhiteTara]

10. how many goats for open heart surgery?

[onethatcares]

11. gaud damn, when did Americans become so fu..ing stupid?

on top of that, how the hell did this guy get elected?

Imagine giving pricksnott 300,000,000 chickens

[vanlassie]

12. We need this to get to the late night show(s.).

Ridicule this fool.

[dalton99a]

13. POS lives off government contracts to his company

[ExciteBike66]

14. My dads heart surgery was over 100k...

I don't think my chickens are going to cover it..

[mercuryblues]

15. I. would. be. dead.

We don't own enough to barter for my Cancer treatments.

1 car would barely cover the first shot of Chemo.

[Midnight Writer]

16. This could work, if

we scaled back our healthcare treatments to bloodletting, leeches, and prayers.

I recently spent three hours at the emergency room for an infection, and I walked out with a prescription for 10 bucks worth of anti-biotics and a bill for $12,000.

That's a lot of apples.

[Conjuay]

17. how many chickens does it cost

for a colonoscopy?

[ProfessorGAC]

18. I'm Sure Doctors Will Love This Idea

In Montana, those doctors will have tons of venison & firewood.
What more could they want?

[Tesha]

19. Ah...libertarian!

The FreeStaters in NH have been banging this same drum for a while here, along with secession, zero taxes, no worker protections, no minimum wage…these folks are trying to disassemble the social contract.

[Elessar Zappa]

20. Thank you doctor for the transplant, here's three chickens and a jug of milk.

[keithbvadu2]

21. It still works today. Clarence Thomas got a motor home.