As sad as this is, it also isn't much of a surprise if you've been paying any attention. She's been very sick for a long time and publicly struggling with enormous medical expenses (there have been various crowdfunding efforts over the years and she had to sell her `molly.com` domain to pay for treatment).
My wife and I were both born in the U.S. and have lived here most of our lives; we love this place. The above is why we have zero intention to retire here.
Where retire?
So, for example, if a young person from the US or elsewhere comes to Germany to study they will get health care basically for free.
I think (and I might be wrong) if you move to Germany as retiree the public health care system would not be open to you. You could choose a private insurance but, very much like in the US, the premiums depend on age and existing preconditions. I cannot tell if this would be cheaper than in the US, but I doubt that it could be much cheaper. Also, I think it would be similar in most other EU countries.
Of course you could move to a country with significantly lower living standards to save on medical cost, but then you would increase your likelihood of medical issues and not really gain any real advantage.
That's simply not true: per capita spending on healthcare (regardless of how that spending happens) is dramatically higher in the U.S. than anywhere else on the planet. For example, Germany spends 60% Per Capita compared to the U.S. https://www.pgpf.org/chart-archive/0006_health-care-oecd Spain spends just over 30% compared to the U.S.
And I've paid for/received healthcare in Portugal, Thailand, Nepal, and England. It's more cost effective (I started to say cheaper and better, but "better" is a loaded word) pretty much everywhere else.
The most advanced MRI in Bulgaria costs without insurance cost a fraction of the copay in the States.
Same for labs. I recently got a comprehensive labs including advanced lipid profile (with lipoprotein(A) and ApoB, cholesterol fractions, etc.) for less than $20 out of pocket with no insurance. Same with my wife's thyroid test - full picture, not just TSH for less than $15. All self-ordered by the way! No need for intermediary companies to authorize it - you just go directly to a lab, which keeps the costs low as there's fierce competition for your business unlike in America where Labcorp and Quest keep the prices ultrahigh!
An quantified American (by Abbott) COVID-19 IgM + IgG antibody test in Bulgaria was less than $20 - here a yes/no test starts at $75.
Again, I'm talking about paying pure cost plus hefty private companies' margins here - no subsidy, no insurance, all up-to-date technology and materials.
The margins in America are unimaginable for any humane organization anywhere in the world. Healthcare should never be a business!
One of those things is not like the others.
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The US is a plastic Imperialist joke of "democracy" -- its Oligarchs all the way down. Always has been.
Your insurance is employer provided? You risk that every day then. Lots of people in the past few years have woken up to find out that their job - and with it their employer provided insurance - has gone bye-bye.
Yeah, we have COBRA to continue it at exorbitant rates for some period of time. But health care should not be tied to employment.
I'd be OK with a universal health care system where employers can offer better but everybody has a baseline health care where nobody - absolutely nobody - has to struggle to get basic healthcare. (And that includes dental and vision, which is absolutely boggling that we've decided "oh, those body parts are not included.")
Twice in my career had the insurance plan swept out from under me. Both times my decent, but not great PPO was replaced with HSA only options. Forcing me to change jobs.
Personality, I’d rather not have my insurance options tied to the whims of a CFO and whatever kickbacks they’re getting.
The web will miss Molly E. Holzschlag.
Now, I could not find her on LinkedIn; she must have deleted her profile. She was reaching out to people when her illness progressed (I think it was LinkedIn). I remember feeling sad watching her videos, talking about how the treatment was tiring her.
It was always an excitement in the early days of the web when you are in a discussion forum and Molly was around too, answering to the list question. Looking up old emails, she owned https://www.molly.com but this seems to be something else now.
https://web.archive.org/web/20151211202252/http://www.molly....
https://web.archive.org/web/20151204202343/http://www.molly....
https://web.archive.org/web/20150711215305/http://www.molly....
https://web.archive.org/web/20160202163909/http://www.molly....
Its weird- she suddenly popped into my head the other day having not thought about her for years, and I was wondering how she was doing.
Our systems suck. Nobody should have to fight so hard to get the treatment they need. It's doubly sad when it's someone who has made significant contributions to the world and then is essentially forgotten. But that shouldn't happen to anybody.
Such a mesmerising human being!
Well, 20 years later and actively coding for a living, count me as having been inspired - Thank you Molly!!
May she rest in peace.
Mark Denny
I guess – this is what I did.
