It’s a new year, which means everyone is coming out of the woodwork to make predictions about what’s in store for 2023. In this episode, we’re going to be making reckless, unverifiable claims about the future of the movement for healthcare justice, the public health crisis in this country, the political landscape, and yes – how an impending alien invasion might impact our fight for Medicare for All!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbJS9RI_Oew

Show Notes

Gillian researched some of the predictions other folks have made about the coming year. Gillian is highly qualified to evaluate the veracity of these predictions, as an experienced Tarot reader who once filled in for the legendary Miss Cleo.

The Living Nostradamus, Brazilian “Investigative Paranormal" Athos Salome, says that Elon Musk will reveal himself to be the Antichrist and start World War III!

Baba Vanga, the "Nostrodamus of Bulgaria" (who predicted her own death in 1996!), says governments will ban natural birth and insist we grow babies in laboratories!

Baba Vanga also predicts an alien invasion will knock the earth off it’s orbit! But will they be covered by M4A? (We predict yes: everybody in, nobody out.)

Noted public health experts predict an alien invasion will completely upend the fight for healthcare justice.

Ben predicts that Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy will die of a heart attack before the end of the current legislative session. Judging by the prevalence of heart disease among men in the United States, and the fact that stress is a leading risk factor for cardiovascular issues, this prediction is not too off the wall.

Bringing things back to earth for a moment, what are actual public health experts and medical providers saying about what might happen in the coming year – is 2023 the year we finally get so healthy we no longer need healthcare?

Triple/Quad-demic!

In the fall of 2022, public health folks warned about the coming tripledemic this winter – a combo of COVID, the common flu, and RSV (a respiratory illness prevalent in children that would put additional strain on our healthcare system. Guess what? It happened and is still sort of happening! Over the holidays, available hospital beds were hard to find all over the country, and from Oregon to New Jersey, we’ve seen reports that local healthcare facilities are still overburdened.

Even though some experts say that we’re over the worst of the flu and RSV for this season, COVID infections have continued to rise going into the new year. Our friends at National Nurses United are actually calling this a “Quad-demic” because on top of all the illnesses that are circulating right now, we have drastically unsafe staffing conditions in hospitals all over the country.

“During the Covid-19 pandemic, regulatory flexibility afforded the hospital industry a rationale and opportunity to adopt—and normalize—crisis standards of care, even when not in a surge—from locking up and rationing personal protective equipment (PPE) to adopting harmful staffing models like team nursing. Hospital industry mistreatment and neglect of RNs and other health care workers has also led to many health care workers to leave their respective facilities in order to protect their health, wellbeing, and licenses, which has created a staffing crisis in health care.” – NNU 

Once again, viruses plus a for-profit healthcare system are really fucking us.

Prospects of Passing Medicare for All?

The Republican Party has a 4-seat majority in the House, and we’ve been watching them implode over the dry procedural task of nominating a Speaker. Things are ever-so-slightly better in the Senate this session. 

It's highly unlikely any healthcare legislation will be passed and sent to the President to sign. We might be lucky if government does anything at all in 2023-24, particularly passing budgets.

Both M4A bills will be re-introduced this session,