The coronavirus is now in the United States, and apparently the infection in California goes beyond just one person, because they can't figure out how that one person got it. Which means lots of people need to get tested, particularly if they have symptoms of a severe cold or flu which could indicate that they have the coronavirus. Here's the problem. The average deductible for Obamacare insurance programs is $4000, which means if a person has these symptoms and takes a half a day off work to go get tested, they could end up with a bill of several thousand dollars as well as the lost time from work.

And Health and Human Services secretary Alex Azar, the guy who made his fortune doubling the price of insulin when he was in the drug business, just said that he couldn't guarantee that a coronavirus vaccine would be affordable to the average person. In the name of so-called "free markets" we have created a country where paid sick time is rare and pretty much everybody has to pay thousands of dollars in co-pays and deductibles if they make a trip to the doctor or the hospital because they're concerned about being exposed to the coronavirus. Of all the developed countries in the world, we are the least prepared for this outbreak because of Republican policies.

And on top of that, Trump just put a guy in charge of the coronavirus crisis who's big public health policy program when he was governor of Indiana was to force women to have funerals for miscarriages or be arrested. Putting failed right wing talk show host Mike Pence in charge of public health is like putting Hannibal Lecter in charge of a restaurant. We need a political revolution in this country and we need it now.

-Thom

Thursday's Daily Stack

Article: "Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Enter Correction Territory as Coronavirus Selloff Intensifies" by Nicholas Jasinski.

Article: "Coronavirus outbreak could cause shortages of 150 drugs: report" by Zack Budryk.

Article: "Trump's pick to lower drug prices is a former pharma executive who raised them" by Carolyn Y. Johnson.

Article: "'An Outrage': HHS Chief Azar Refuses to Vow Coronavirus Vaccine Will Be Affordable for All, Not Just the Rich" by Jake Johnson.

Article: "Health Secretary Alex Azar Refuses To Guarantee Coronavirus Vaccine Would Be Affordable For All" by Isabel Togoh.

Article: "Trump Has Sabotaged America's Coronavirus Response" by Laurie Garrett.

Article: "Sen. Kennedy Grills DHS Chief Chad Wolf on Virus Mortality Rates" by Neil Munro.

Article: "Stock Market Futures Drop After Trump Press Conference" by Taegan Goddard.

Article: "Trump says US 'very ready' for virus; Pence to lead response" by Lauran Neergaard and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar.

Article: "President Trump made 16,241 false or misleading claims in his first three years" by Glenn Kessler, Salvador Rizzo and Meg Kelly.

Article: "Lie of the Year: 'If you like your health care plan, you can keep it'" by Angie Drobnic Holan.

Article: "Gulf of Tonkin incident" by Wikipedia.

Article: "George W. Bush really did lie about WMDs, and his aides are still lying for him" by Dylan Matthews.

Article: "A Miami man who flew to China worried he might have coronavirus. He may owe thousands." by Ben Conarck.

Article: "Coronavirus makes the case for Medicare-for-all" by Helaine Olen.

Article: "What's Medicare Supplement Insurance (Medigap)" by Medicare.gov.

Article: "2019 Employer Health Benefits Survey" by KFF.

Article: "Trump Has Brought Back the Kind of Junk Health Insurance That Obamacare Was Meant to Ban" by Jordan Weissmann.

Tweet: "The #TrumpBudget guts nearly $700,000,000.00 from the Centers for Disease Control. At the same time, Republican in Washington are trying to destroy our health care." by Nancy Pelosi.

Article: "CDC Refused to Test First Possible Community-Transmitted Coronavirus Case for Days" by Tobias Hoonhout.

Article: "Kids in border camps are 9 times likelier to die of flu. Trump's team won't vaccinate them." by Alan Pyke.

Quote: "There's no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families." - Margaret Thatcher.

Article: "Coronavirus Patient in California Was Not Tested for Days" by Roni Caryn Rabin and Sheri Fink.

Article: "Trump Proposes 16% Cut To CDC As Global Number Of Coronavirus Infections And Deaths Rise" by Lisette Voytko.

Tweet: "Low Ratings Fake News MSDNC (Comcast) & @CNN are doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible. Likewise their incompetent Do Nothing Democrat comrades are all talk, no action. USA in great shape! @CDCgov....." by Donald J. Trump.

Article: "Rush Limbaugh Suggests CDC Official is Out to Get Trump Because She's Rod Rosenstein's Sister" by Ken Meyer.

Article: "Just Like Her Corrupt Brother Rod Rosenstein - The CDC's Dr. Nancy Messonnier, Drops a Bomb on President Trump While On International Trip" by Joe Hoft.

Article: "Mike Pence" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Mike Pence's Defining Moment As Governor? Enabling An HIV Outbreak." by Erin Schumaker.

Article: "Two Times Mike Pence Brushed Off Science" by Anna Maria Barry-Jester.

Article: ""Smoking Doesn't Kill" And Other Great Old Op-Eds From Mike Pence" by Andrew Kaczynski.

Event: Fri, Feb 28, 7:30pm PT: Powell's, 1005 W Burnside St., Portland.

Event: Sun, Mar 1, noon: Frugal Muse Books, Chicago.

Article: "A government run by ideologues can make the impact of a pandemic far worse" by Joshua Holland.

Article: "How many people could become infected with coronavirus Covid-19?" by Alexandra Thompson.

Article: "The 3 Richest Americans Hold More Wealth Than Bottom 50% Of The Country, Study Finds" by Noah Kirsch.

Article: "John Locke" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Thomas Jefferson" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Declaration of Independence".

Article: "James Madison" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Alexander Hamilton" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Constitution of the United States".

Quote: "Our men are so happy at home that they will not hire themselves to be shot at for a shilling a day. Hence we can have no standing armies for defence" - Thomas Jefferson.

Article: "Dow tumbles more than 1,000 points to new low of the day" by Fred Imbert.

Article: "How to Prepare for the Coronavirus" by Gina Kolata.

Article: "What Is a Pandemic? And Is the Coronavirus About to Become One?" by Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder.

Article: "Health insurance coverage in the United States" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Hurricane Maria death toll controversy" by Wikipedia.

Hour Two: Now that the CDC Says It's Coming... How Are You Preparing For a Pandemic?
- Wendell Potter, Former health insurance executive / President - Business For Medicare For All / author, Deadly Spin

Article: "Coronavirus makes the case for Medicare-for-all" by Helaine Olen.

Article: "Safety net hospital" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Health care finance in the United States" by Wikipedia.

Bill: "S.1129 - Medicare for All Act of 2019" by Sen. Sanders, Bernard [I-VT].

Bill: "H.R.1384 - Medicare for All Act of 2019" by Rep. Jayapal, Pramila [D-WA-7].

Book: The Hidden History of Monopolies: How Big Business Destroyed the American Dream by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "The Black Death & The Renaissance" by Deborah Watson-Novacek.

Article: "1967 Oil Embargo" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Face mask prices are skyrocketing on Amazon. Do they protect you from coronavirus?" by Dawson White.

Article: "Empty shelves hit USA..." by KHON2.

Article: "Washington Becomes First State To Approve Publicly Funded Long-term Care" by Rachel M. Cohen.

Article: "Public Option 1.0: Washington State Takes An Important Step Forward" by Billy Wynne.

Article: "US fourth-quarter economic growth unrevised at 2.1%" by Reuters.

Article: "Here's how an obscure tax change sank Puerto Rico's economy" by John W. Schoen.

Article: "Mining coronavirus genomes for clues to the outbreak's origins" by Jon Cohen.

Poem: "A Psalm of LIfe" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Article: "Scots ministers told to seek 'unexplained wealth order' for Donald Trump resorts" by Martyn McLaughlin.

Article: "Trump is looking stronger in Pennsylvania, a new poll shows - but a double-whammy looms large" by Chris Brennan.

Tweet: "I just gave @SecAzar THREE chances to assure us that any #coronavirus vaccines or treatments developed with U.S. taxpayer dollars will be affordable and accessible to everyone and he flat out refused to do so. He's giving #BigPharma a blank check to monopolize them instead." by Jan Schakowsky.

Article: "'Periods for Pence' Campaign Targets Indiana Governor Over Abortion Law" by Mitch Smith.

Tweet: "A former #BigPharma CEO who doubled the price of insulin should not be in charge of regulating Big Pharma!
Pharma and their friends in the Trump Administration are only concerned about profit - not the health and livelihood of the American people. #Covid19" by SocialSecurityWorks.

Article: "Japanese woman confirmed as coronavirus case for 2nd time, weeks after initial recovery" by Reuters.

Article: "Supreme Court won't review abortion law signed by Pence" by Alice Miranda Ollstein and Rachana Pradhan.

Book: The Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Supreme Court upholds voting rights for women, Feb. 27, 1922" by Andrew Glass.

Article: "Judicial review" by Wikipedia.

Article: "2nd Amendment". A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Case: "District of Columbia v. Heller", 2008 (2nd Amendment).

Case: "Plessy v. Ferguson", 1896 (separate but equal).

Site: Move to Amend

Article: "Washington state coronavirus patient treated with investigational, unapproved Ebola drug" by Arielle Dreher.

Book: "The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America--and What We Can Do to Stop It" by Thom Hartmann

Article: "The US 'debt bomb is going to explode,' strategist Peter Schiff says" by Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

Article: "3 reasons the U.S. could be headed for a fresh debt crisis" by Jeff Reeves.

Article: "12th Amendment"

Article: "National Popular Vote Interstate Compact" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Republicans to convene Florida legislature to impose Bush electors" (2000) by Patrick Martin.

Case: "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission" (2010)

Law: "Tillman Act of 1907".

Movie: "Capitalism: A Love Story".

Article: "SiCKO patients got VIP treatment in Cuba" by Anthony Boadle.

Article: "Trump Has Created 1.5 Million Fewer Jobs Than Obama" by Chuck Jones.

Friday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET

I'll be talking about COVID19 with Dr. Leana Wen, Emergency Physician & Public Health Leader, Visiting Professor of Health Policy and Management at the George Washington University Milken School of Public Health / Author - When Doctors Don't Listen

Plus, COVID19 is the topic with Laurie Garrett, Former Senior Fellow for Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations / Pulitzer Prize winning science writer / Author, 3 books including The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week for "we the people"

And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...

Is America the Least Prepared for Coronavirus Outbreak?

Did Cuba Embargo, Change Socialist Experiment Forever?

Thom Explains How To Survive Corona Virus

Fri, Feb 28, 7:30pm PT: Powell's, 1005 W Burnside St., Portland.

Sun, Mar 1, noon: Frugal Muse Books - Chicago - Call the store to make a reservation..