Make America Sick Again
Over at American Thinker, writer Ed Straker has pointed out the latest misstep the Democrats are making in their attempt to defy the Trump Administration and the new Republican Congress. Not content to seriously lose ground in virtually every sector of the American political structure in the November elections, the ding-a-ling Dems are digging in and digging deeper with poorly thought out campaigns like this:
What political operative in America would dream up a double-edged campaign slogan like that for his party? And worse, have the party leadership stand beside it for a nationally televised press conference? The unintended implications of that slogan are pure political insanity.
The Democrats are indeed infected with liberalism and as Dr. Michael Savage long ago advised us, liberalism is a mental disorder. Let’s hope that for the bunch pictured above the prognosis is politically terminal.
Category: Politics
Chuck “attention whore” Schumer and San Fran Nan… “leading from the front” on another donkycrat issue.
Love to see them give up their health insurance for their pet project “obamacare”… I’m sure that they would just love it.
Hey Commissar… your heroes “Balls Deep” Bernie and Liawatha are there to protect another bureaucratic nightmare. They want to make sure that you get as much FREE SHIT as you need so you don’t get stressed out about life.
Now go back to your tofu grape nuts, triple shot soy decaf latte and your Barbie coloring books…
Well, I’m not Lars, and while I’m not infected with liberalism, I was infected with cancer – and as I’ve alluded to before, the ACA (or ‘ObamaCare’ if you prefer) has been very helpful for me. Why? Not because I want free things. But because prior to its passing, I couldn’t be sure I’d be covered if my cancer returned. My only path was to ensure I kept my old, crummy job, since any change would render a new insurance policy and my cancer would qualify, in many cases, as a pre-existing condition. I left that job last year, without a new one lined up yet, and due to a bureaucratic quirk, it counted as being laid off. I could have collected unemployment (that ‘free shit’ which apparently liberals love), but I didn’t. I left of my own volition, had savings, and knew I’d find something soon. I wasn’t interested in free handouts, I just wanted to be sure that if my cancer returned I couldn’t be denied insurance and left to either pay hundreds of thousands… or, you know, die. So, I’m a bit of a fan of that part of the ACA. And it’s a complicated thing to solve, to be honest – adding higher-risk people to an insurance pool definitely changes the dynamics. If the GOP can solve that in a decent way, I’m all ears and I’ll embrace it openly. There are definitely issues with the ACA, no question. But right now, I heard the Republicans will have a plan by the end of the year, yet they want to repeal the ACA sooner than that. All in all, I don’t like my ability to get life-saving medical insurance in limbo for political reasons. Would you? (And, as Ex-PH2 has pointed out before, President-elect Trump has stated he wants to keep the provision that allows people with pre-existing conditions to acquire insurance. He wants to revamp it, not fully repeal it. So I’m happy about that. But the more clamoring I hear about repealing the ACA without a suitable replacement plan, the more I need to… Read more »
LC, I’m a conservative, NOT a Republican. Those feckless Repubs had 8 FUCKING years to have a replacement in hand, but did they? Not just no but FUCK NO!!
Sadly, both sides seem more keen on political positioning than actually achieving much. It’s half-understandable since, really, a lot of the issues we face as a country are really fucking complicated. Coming up with solutions is complicated, hard work.
Whether you or I like it or not, though, right now we’ve got a Republican President, Senate and House, so maybe, hopefully, they can stop whining about political opposition and actually get something useful done. I sincerely hope that’s the case.
I’m already reading the tea leaves that are being put out there by Republican leaders in Congress…nothing will happen tomorrow, the only reality is that a repeal will be based on a replacement which will most likely become more of a modification to what exists now so in the end we’ll take one cluster fuck and do our level best to fuck it some more and then release it into the wild as untested as its predecessor and probably as financially viable.
Ah, I see you’re optimistic as well!
I’ll admit to not knowing a heck of a lot about insurance costs, health care, etc., I only chimed in because the notion that liberals support it because they want free shit certainly isn’t true in my case. I think we can do better, but I’m more inclined to think ‘solving’ health care has more to do with tackling the cost of medicine, not the cost of insurance that then pays for that medicine.
To use another example from when I had to deal with all that shit, at one point I required some RBC booster shots – each one cost $6.3K here. But $50 in Mexico, and something like $125 (from memory) in Canada. How the hell that’s reasonable is beyond me.
Even now, ‘medical tourism’ is growing – need some minor surgery? Costs vary widely based on where you are in the country… but are almost inevitably much cheaper overseas, often with Western doctors and modern facilities. Addressing insurance alone, and not the sticker price of in-patient facilities and medicines themselves, is like trying to put out a wildfire by blowing on it really hard.
That’s my admittedly uninformed opinion. I think, like you said, it’s going to get worse until it’s completely unsustainable, and then maybe it’ll get better.
LC, my short answer would be government and lawyers.
I like your story and I’m happy it’d working for you. With that much optimism maybe you can explain why it’s not working for everyone? Like my sister-in-law with MS that has to pay $4.800.00 in deductibles before her coverage starts to pay? In the meantime her lab tests are running $6-8,000.00? She’s not able to work and gets further behind everytime she see’s a doctor. How is that affordable care?
I was being sarcastic with my ‘optimism’ – health care and health insurance are pretty screwed up in this country, no question.
Moreover, no plan is going to work for everyone. I think that’s a large part of the problem. How do we measure success? Is a low cost but often ineffective insurance better than a higher cost but mostly effective one? Depends on the person.
And again, I wasn’t offering a full-throated defense of the ACA, I was just pointing out that for me it’s been incredibly helpful. I certainly recognize many other people are hurting, clearly including your sister-in-law. I hope the Republicans can put together a good plan that’ll address the problems, but they’ve had years and we haven’t heard a peep, so I’m not incredibly optimistic.
Put a different way, there isn’t affordable health care for many right now. But the one positive, the one thing I’m thankful for, is that I can actually get catastrophic health care again, even if it’s costly.
I am unsure how anyone other than a sufferer of a chronic and catastrophic malady could possibly do well on this. A look at Humana and Blue Cross mid level plans showed you had to pay over $1600.00 per month in premiums, and on average you didn’t get a penny of reimbursement until you had spent over $7000.00 in costs out of pocket, and even then you still have hefty copays on that. That shit is insane.
bullshit
that was bullshit about Lars story
I’m not Lars. I even said that above. John or Hondo have basically said that, too. Hondo also once traced my old IP and can tell you, right around the time I moved, that where I typically connect from changed last year.
As for the cancer, I’ve mentioned it before, so either I’m an evil fucking bastard who invents horrible ailments months in advance just to make a minor point about the ACA in a thread few people are reading… or I’m telling the truth. Take your pick.
The former
LC is our resident Liberal and is nowhere near Lars or even like him.
akpual. You have been kicking around here long enough that you should recognize, w/o coaching, that Commissar and LC are not the same person. As for “the former” selection of yours, an apology to LC is in order. Or not. Take your pick.
I see now that you did apologize to LC, well before my cmt and way down below. Good. That’s the way it should go around here, with one exception: Commissar. He deserves nothing but a backhand and a quick dismissal. F’n guy has had more chances than Carter’s has liver pills. If I do go to Hell, I know what it will be: eternity with that SOB.
LC… I’m all for keeping the pre-existing conditions part of it. My problem with it is all the nonsense about not being able to tailor the plans to meet your needs (how many men do you know that need a pap smear or GYN exam?). Should someone pay more for care/services that they don’t need?
The system before Obamacare was not the best, but there needs to be something that works for Americans without Uncle Sam telling you that “this is what your need”. Younger people may want catastrophic health care coverage and may be able to pay for routine care at an urgent care clinic out of pocket.
My point it that the public needs to be allowed to decide what coverage that they need for them. If they elect to go without coverage, then so be it – but don’t punish them for making that decision.
BTW – I’m glad to hear that you’ve been treated for cancer and on the road to recovery. Hoping that your cancer stays in remission and for good health for years to come.
Oh, I agree the whole thing is a total mess – I’m just not sure that the mess is a result of the ACA, or just the natural progression of what we had, with increasing medical costs and profits. And, like I just said above in a reply to VOV, … I’ll admit I don’t know a whole lot about the system on the whole. Put differently, while I’m not a fan of the government telling you “you need this”, I’m ecstatic at the government telling insurance companies that they need to provide insurance. Not just for people who’ll make them gobs of money with as minimal risk as possible, but other people too. Now, to be fair, I get that I may have to pay more – and some people below are talking about a $10K premium being way too high. I’d have been fine with that – I expect I’m going to pay through the nose for insurance, I just don’t want to be told I’m going to die unless I’ve got $400K laying around in the next four months. And one aside, too, that I think is important – it used to happen with frightening regularity that people who were paying into various insurances would be dropped from their plans the moment they needed something serious. I mean, sure, insurance companies are out to make money, so if you’re about to lose money, it makes sense to reduce those losses if you can. But it’s pretty terrible when that comes down to things like when you signed your form ten years ago, you got your mother’s former boyfriend’s first dog’s middle name incorrect. Fine-print legal maneuvering like that is shady as well. The ACA also made that harder to pull off, and I like that too. As for people without coverage, I largely agree – with the caveat that I’ve heard (and haven’t investigated the claim) that the uninsured are part of what makes medical treatment so expensive. Eg, they go to the ER, the ER doesn’t refuse emergency treatment even without insurance, and that gets passed… Read more »
Save it, LC. What could possibly have gone wrong with a huge bill that no one read, that then-Speaker Pelosi assured us that had to be passed first and then they would see what’s in it, that then-Senate Majority Leader Reid played games with to get it through to oBaMa’s desk, with the urgency of stopping a pending nuclear war? It was fucked up from the start and, naturally, everything associated with it since its enactment has been fucked up. It needs to be taken out and shot.
I wasn’t defending the bill as a whole, I was saying that it’s been pretty pivotal in allowing me to change jobs and not get fucked over should my cancer return.
Not everything associated with it since its enactment has been fucked up – the prohibition on banning people with pre-existing conditions is something even President-elect Trump has said he wants to keep. How in the hell he’s going to do that while keeping premiums reasonable for those people is unknown, but time will tell.
Okay. And under Mussolini the trains ran on time. I suppose there is something positive to be gleaned from every bad thing but, on the whole, it’s better to jettison the bad thing.
As a practitioner of health care and being on both sides of the med cart and dealing with the ever present bureaucracies I can tell you that health care only got bad when the government got involved under the guise of being part of the general welfare.
The government needs to get out of it and if anything just provide insurance subsidies for those with pre-existing conditions and or in a financially depressed state.
The money spent on pretty much any government health care program would pay for insurance policies for all of the people mentioned above and the insurance companies could tailor their coverages to whatever they wanted and the market would bear…
Health care from the government is about the same as the DMV and nothing that anyone in government does will ever fix it.
Until they decide to get out of the way, it will stay screwed up, period…
I share your general distrust of government involvement, but I fear the reality is a bit more complicated. I’m all for a competitive healthcare marketplace, but one area where the government was sorely needed was some watching over of insurance providers.
An insurance provider exists to make money, not provide people with viable insurance. They’ll prefer to sell to the lowest risk, and ideally for the highest profit, but fortunately the market, in theory, takes care of the latter and makes pricing more reasonable. In theory. However, the amount of fraud with insurance companies finding reasons to reject coverage (because, again, their goal is to make money not pay it out) is absurd.
Here’s one such article, back from 2009 (before the ACA), where Blue Cross/Blue Shield executives were praising employees who dropped patients diagnosed with cancers or other costly treatments:
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jun/17/business/fi-rescind17
That is, these people paid for insurance for a while, developed a problem, and were dropped because it would cost BCBS money.
This meant they didn’t have insurance, they had the illusion of insurance. This is something that has to be fixed, but how is tricky. You can’t tell companies they can’t make a profit, right? But at the same time, if costs are low because they can suddenly drop patients who will cost them money rather than earn them money, then the insurance is just a scam.
I’m open to any ideas that solve the problems we face, be they from Democrats, Republicans or little green aliens from Mars. We need to do better, but it isn’t going to be an easy fix.
That was part and parcel of Obama’s and the socialist democrats’ attempt to collapse our economy. They had no interest, and absolutely no practical knowledge on what was needed for healthcare, they didn’t care. And they fraudulently claimed the bill would be up on the internet for a week so people could review and comment on it, except less than three days later they voted on it. We the people were NEVER a consideration in the matter. Add to that the bullshit and incompetent ruling from the Supremes on it being a “tax” rather than a fine, and there you have it.
ACA fucked my family. My wife had a kidney transplant in 2012. I had to leave my job due to bureaucratic reasons as well, in 2014. Because I was forced to change insurances (Both Blue Cross Blue shield; went from federal to florida BCBS) After the new job, my out of pocket max, monthly premium, copay, etc, all tripled… At least tripled.
And on top of this I cant get life insurance for her now because of the job change.
For a little more info, I only make around $6500 more than I used to.
So basically, Fuck the ACA…? Bu tI have to buy insurance, not because of the law, but because I love my wife and want her to be healthy.
I’m genuinely sorry to hear that. I wasn’t trying to say the ACA is a great thing in all scenarios – I believe ex-OS2 got fucked by it as well, with his wife’s cancer. Health care is pretty fucked up in general in this country right now.
I’m honestly not sure how much the increase in premiums is due to the ACA vs. just general trends (for example, look at the cost of some drugs which have gone up 300-500%… even long after they’ve recouped costs – that isn’t the ACA at work!), but that’s all academic in nature when you or your family are dealing with the effects.
My post wasn’t a staunch defense of the ACA in all cases, I was just pointing out that some of us support it not out of a desire for free things but because it’s important for my ability to survive if my cancer returns. And that a repeal without a plan is going to fuck over some of us. Hopefully the Republicans can come up with something sensible, and you, your wife and I can all have a viable option for insurance.
The ACA steamrolled thousands of people to help a few, the Democrats pat each other on the back for it too.
Premiums are going up just like the ACA opponents said they would.
The ACA has hurt more people than it has helped, just like the ACA opponents said it would.
The ACA is costing billions more than anticipated, just like the ACA opponents said it would.
Insurance providers are dropping out of the marketplace, just like the ACA opponents said they would.
Remember, they didn’t read it before voting for it.
I understand this is an especially frustrating conversation for you, ex-OS2, so let me just preface this with saying that any disagreement I have here is academic in nature, and second to the very understandable anger and frustration people dealing with the downsides of health insurance here are facing. The ACA steamrolled thousands of people to help a few, the Democrats pat each other on the back for it too. I half agree. It saddled people with additional, required costs. But where I disagree is that it helped lots of people (the ones who could afford those costs), but in a way they may not recognize – it made their insurance viable, whereas before it was often illusory. I posted this link above, too, but it’s a story from 2009 (and there are many others like it) about how insurance companies were rescinding coverage from people who paid for it as soon as they actually needed it for anything major. This is pre-ACA, so regardless of your thoughts on the ACA, it’s worth a read. Many people, prior to the ACA, had cheaper insurance… that would just as likely as not drop them in an instant the moment they needed it. That’s not really insurance, is it? Premiums are going up just like the ACA opponents said they would. Yes, and there are three key reasons why – (1) companies now have a much harder time just dropping people whom they’d have to pay out for, (2) by bundling higher-risk people with lower-risk people, costs are going to rise for the majority (because the majority are lower risk), and (3) medical costs are skyrocketing in general, so the insurance costs to cover them go up. I talked about the problem of ‘1’ above and I’m not sure we can ‘blame’ the ACA for making insurance companies operate less like a scam, but it’s arguable. For ‘2’, yes, this is absolutely the result of the ACA, and I’m open to any better options. For ‘3’, this has (almost?) nothing to do with the ACA, and really needs to be tackled in… Read more »
Fair enough, LC.
My point was, everyone knew the ACA was going to implode and could not be sustained. Now those that have their name on it are crying foul because others want to try and fix the mess they created.
What did they expect was going to happen given they didn’t even read it?
If these idiots worked in the real world, they would have been fired for losing billions.
America is sick but Big Brother did not go to medical school.
“It’s going to get worse before it gets better,.. if it gets better.”
It will get better when the government sticks to securing our borders not playing doctor.
Wish we could get a law passed that they had to use the same healthcare as the veterans.
The next few years with “get the hell out of my way there’s a tv camera Schumer” in charge are going to be lot’s of fun.
12 people on stage and 11 are old white ones from the party that sticks up for minorities. huh….
Schumerpoo is in charge???
WTF are you talking about. He got his ass kicked just like the rest of the DNC.
You may want him to be in charge, but clearly Trump is in charge and he is an equal opportunity asshole, which we need right now…
The likes of Reid, Schumer and Pelosi are what have lead the DNC off the face of a cliff and I’m all for them continuing to do so, more of the same and it could lead to the extinction of the dhimmirat political party.
I see Bernie the nerd there and the wannabee squaw, yeh, “Make America Sick Again, VOTE DUMOCRAPS”!!
Idiots self-identify, again.
We will be treated to stories now about how wonderful oBaMaCare is and how millions of sick and injured Americans will be, once again, strewn all over sidewalks and public parks, unable to obtain medical treatment for want of insurance. Personally, I’m looking forward to those reports from the new, improved, unbiased media. They make me laugh heartily. On a more serious note than the deaths of millions, I understand that much of the disastrous and household budget-busting oBaMaCare has been effected by regulation. That’s good. It means Trump can tear it to shreds while the Congress jerks off regarding the act’s repeal.
You gotta be kidding me.
I have yet to see anything from Trump saying he’s going to wipe out Medicare. He HAS said he wants to REVAMP Obamacare, so that it works better.
Oh, let’s DO generate another rumor-laden, angst-ridden panic attack on the good citizens of NeverNeverLand, who should fire their silly asses come next election go-round. Is anyone ever going to tell Chuckie Schumer that he is irrelevant, incorrect, and lying in his teeth, right to his face?
Someone tell me why they all look like they’re grabbing their own crotches, please!
After a while, Aesop’s fable takes hold and no one listens any more.
Looks more like a hide than a grab, Ex-. Could be that Bernie and those guys in dresses have woodies.
We know they get wet-dreams about controlling us deplorables….
Trump was spot on when he called Schumer the head clown
Takes after his niece, doesn’t he?
No. Clowns can actually be funny. Amy, not so much.
“Someone tell me why they all look like they’re grabbing their own crotches, please!”
Because no one else wants to grab them….
That’s it, right there! Thank you, Old Dog!
Ed Straker? The commander of SHADO?
Wow-they totally nailed 1980.
Odd bit of geektrivia:
Originally, “Space: 1999” was supposed to have been “UFO: 2000”, continuing the storyline of defending earth against organ-hunting aliens.
The “Warhawk” fighters featured in one episode were to have replaced the original “Interceptor” ship in UFO:2000. The space station destroyed in the “Breakaway” pilot episode was to be a fighter base. Moonbase Alpha was the follow on to the original base in UFO. etc. etc.
Kinda cool, what might have been……
I guess the movie business is too slow these days. Too bad … Harlington-Straker Studios used to send out some great films!
Welcome to the print world, Commander Straker!
That was actor Ed Bishop who’s not been with us for over ten years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Bishop
Oh, believe me, I know Mr. Bishop left us a while back. I was sorry to hear that, too … damn good actor given the chance. Just having a bit of fun with his most famous character’s namesake, the author of the article under discussion.
Had the very same thought!
You know what makes *ME* sick? These fuckers right here and their leftist crybaby ilk. THEY MAKE ME SICK.
You know what the Antidote for that is.
Motherfucking TRUMP!!
We are paying them as public servants why?
What entertaining is the claim that so many will lose insurance. I’m not sure how it’s been working out where you folks live, but I know folks right here in my neighbor to the south of CT who’ve discovered the insurance they can afford has $10,000 deductible before it kicks in…for most people that’s pretty much like being uninsured.
So we create a program that is useless for a great many people, and then we claim that those folks we forced to take this useless insurance are representative of how much more the Democrats care about the public than the Republicans while nothing’s really changed except we’re destroying smaller community based non-profit hospitals.
That’s some amazing work right there.
Spot on.
This pussy tantrum should further confirm why these fuckers have been losing control nationwide.
They also seem to forget who is paying for all of this “great” insurance.
The Democrats and Republicans alike are laughing their asses off at us while they become millionaires as public servants with pensions and health coverage for life.
Wasn’t anything wrong with the way it was.
Want better coverage, pay more money.
We all have a pre existing condition.
I believe they sell life insurance for that.
I get junk regarding Medicare Part C in the mail occasionally, and the ratea are reasonable.
But when I first started working in the civilian world a million years ago, after leaving Davy Jones’s Locker behind, my health insurance was an HMO that literally covered 100% of everything, 0% deductible, and the only things I ever had to pay for were OTC stuff like Advil, or glasses or dental insurance deductions, or Rxs with a co-pay, which was taken care of by our FlexCare savings plans: submit your receipts and get reimbursed out of your savings.
It was a good plan. No one was excluded. It worked for everyone. What in the blue-eyed world happened to that? Why would something as efficient and workable as that be labeled ‘not qualified’? I’ve seen stories from people who had something like my HMO coverage who lost all their coverage because it didn’t satisfy the mad-dog requirements of howbadismycare, for no explained reason, and they were literally left with nothing. A $10,000 deductible is unreasonable, period. It should never have been allowed.
If this crapweasel program isn’t repealed and revised so that it works, then working people literally have no health insurance coverage of any kind at all. That throws them onto Medicaid, which comes out of your pockets and mine, for no reason at all.
Yeah, a cost of $10K a year to insure a family of four, and a $10K deductible means you’re screwed 4 ways from Sunday. Can’t drop it, cuz if you do, you get fined. Can’t use it, because unless you get really sick, you’ll never use up the deductible.
So, Commissar Obama has made health insurance catastrophic care insurance.
And, I see my useless Senator, Debbie Stabenow, standing shoulder to shoulder with UpChuck. And Fauxchahontas. Good company, you useless turd.
I hope whoever runs against her has already saved that picture, it’ll make a great campaign ad.
Federal micromanagement.
For our good, of course.
Because it worked out so well for Vietnam?
Jane Fonda thinks so.
I have insurance through work (thank God) at just under $70 a month for United Health. This week I finally received the summary from my little heart issue back in October – $229,000 for two days. I paid $10 (not counting prescriptions).
If I had to play under Obamacare I would have been soooo screwed.
I don’t need anyone messing with my health insurance….
nbcguy54ACTUAL, did you say 229 THOUSAND for a two-day hospital stay? Was extensive intervention required in the ER? Did you require a cath? I’m trying to wrap my mind around that bill.
Five stents and the whole visit in ICU. Didn’t even know I was that messed up but evidently had 3 blockages. Go figure.
Also if I may correct myself – $70 per pay period/$140 a month. I’m still a lucky SOB as far as insurance goes.
My wife’s cancer treatment bills have exceeded $400,000 in less that five months. Surgery, radiation, reconstructive surgery in the coming weeks, months. I am guessing that number will double.
Two years ago I had to pay a fine because I couldn’t afford to buy insurance in addition to being taxed to death to pay for someone else to get free cheese.
I don’t remember signing anything that said I would take care of other peoples families and not my own.
“I don’t remember signing anything that said I would take care of other peoples families and not my own.”
That there is a classic. It’s sad and it’s infuriating but it’s a classic.
It’s also sad and infuriating watching the able-bodied leeches of society with two overflowing shopping carts of “groceries” strolling through electronics chatting on their iPhones to pick up the latest x-box one games after they just picked up their 5 monthly allowable prescriptions at the pharmacy, all of it not costing them one fucking dime except for the 24 pack of Busch and cartons of Marlboros they paid cash for after selling a few Oxy in the dog food isle. Then, to top it the fuck off, they load up their goodies in a new SUV that is parked in the handicap space.
Rinse and repeat the following month.
It is a wonder why these people don’t work, what’s the incentive?
I am sick and tired of paying for everyone else while barely being able to take care of my own family.
Fuck the ACA.
DITTO with waiting in line at the grocery checkout line behind a twenty-something young lady dressed in designer jeans with an immaculate hairdo and nails paying for groceries with WIC stamps sporting a smirk on her face. I say IF YOU CAN’T FEED ‘EM, DON’T BREED ‘EM, where does it say others are entitled to what I’ve worked my ass off for? I’m all for giving someone a helping hand up but TO HELL WITH giving people a perpetual hand out!
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime. Take other people’s fish and hand them out to those too lazy to go fishing and all you get is a group of perpetual parasites.
The cost and deductible levels are based on the false notion that everyone is/was getting paid high enough salaries to make up the difference.
Nothing has ever been a bigger falsehood.
My suspicions is that those morons were using figures that “average” pay for households, regardless of the number of people IN those households. If true, and I’d say it’s close to the truth, then that needs to be changed. I do not know very many people whose take home pay is high enough to tolerate a $10,000 per year deductible in addition to a $10,000 family policy premium.
My guess is that the numbers these bimbos relied on came from metropolitan areas with large populations, and “average” incomes of $150,000/year or more. Well, I lived in a very large metro area for 30 years and my income never came remotely close to that, and neither did the income of any of my co-workers.
So the entire thing was bogus, a move aimed directly at destroying the health insurance industry from the get-go, and putting every single one of us on welfare medicine, whether we like it or not.
A fitting punishment for those drips is to put them into the same program with the rest of us, so that they have to sit next to the Great Unwashed, just like we do. No more privileges, no more perks.
“So the entire thing was bogus, a move aimed directly at destroying the health insurance industry from the get-go, and putting every single one of us on welfare medicine, whether we like it or not.”
PRECISELY!
Before I hit the big 65 last year, my old insurance thru my AT&T retirement plan only cost me $95 bucks a month and it covered everything, including meds. Now on Medicare, it costs me over $600 bucks a month for just the basic shit, and I am paying about $1500 a month for my meds because I hit some fucking donut hole. They never even gave me a fucking donut either??? I Pray Trump will fix this mess???
Reagan had it right back in the sixties with his public service video and the LP.
Wiki has a page on it and the videos can be found on you toob.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan_Speaks_Out_Against_Socialized_Medicine
The only “socialized” medicine that ever worked was when you went to the tribal or clan medicine man or woman and paid him/her in trade. That means if you hunted, you gave the MMer a pheasant or a chunk of bison or some quail, something like that. You could be a herbalist, and pay or get paid in kind. That used to be like traditional Chinese medicine, and that works, but more slowly
I think the worst part is that the insurers are pulling out of the pools because they will go out of business if they don’t. That means that you and your families will end up on Medicaid. I think that was really the plan, all along.
When pharmaceutical companies raise prices on existing – actually old – drugs 700+%, that is a problem which should be addressed.
When the insurance we are mandated to buy has deductibles costing more than a car, that is a problem.
Letting insurance and pharmaceutical companies write our health care plan was insane.
Americans who can’t tolerate the idea of seeing whichever doc is up next in the rotation because “I want to see MY doctor” stands in the way of cheaper medical care. HMOs can work, and work well.
The idea that doctors MUST be one of the highest paid professions is ridiculous. (Too, paying may athletes 100X what teachers make is ridiculous as well)
After 60+ votes to repeal Obamacare, and NOT ONE alternative plan proposed, the Republicans have lost the moral high ground. Put up or shut up.
“The first time Pelosi said “to find out what is in it, you have to pass it” she should have been impeached. At minimum.
The fact that we spend several times per capita on healthcare and do not have the highest longevity in the world says our system is broken.
That people who scam Medicare or any other health care system rarely get punished or have to pay reparations is unforgivable.
Big Pharma charges Americans multiple times what it charges the rest of the world… theor BS excuse is that they recover all the R&D from us, not other countries. Screw that – why should we foot the bill for the world?
Yes, I think our healthcare system is severely broken. How to fix it? Not with the status quo ante, not with Obamacare… but a solid realistic look at where the system is currently broke and what needs to be done to fix it is long overdue. And if the answer is provably some form of socialized medicine, so be it. If some other system, so be it. But a dispassionate examination is needed.
David – you want to blame some group labeled Big Pharma? Want to know why these companies have been doing much of their research in the U.S.A. and not elsewhere? Because the others, in a move any socialist would love, have enacted laws that limit the expenses they can recoup and the prices they can charge? For those drugs that make it to market, there are many more that do not. Those experiments that failed? They cost money as well. Free capitalism means that those who do the hard work of developing these drugs get paid for that work. I don’t doubt there are some who abuse the system to their own profit – but not all of them. I am old enough to remember the polio and chickenpox terrors. Houston, my hometown, was an epicenter for the polio epidemic, and I can remember the vaccinations and children in braces because of those plagues. Who came to the rescue? Those you disparage as “Big Pharma”. The Feds have been trying to regulate the medical industry (long before Obamacare) – and some degree is needed I would argue. But the Feds (and by force of Federal mismanagement now, the insurance companies) have micromanaged the medical industry so much that a physician spends more time in paperwork than in healthcare – and has to hire (more cost!) multiple assistants to handle the paperwork. Blame the Feds and their socialist tendencies for the cost of medicines and medical care. If you want an example, Google “ICD-10 codes”. These are the codes that are mandated to be used by the Feds for every single healthcare issue. Read through those – and ask yourself: how much time must my physician spend to just enter the right code and not have to fight some bureaucracy for payment? Mrs. G and I are now “eligible” for the socialist program called “Medicare.” After watching her EOBs for a while I have realized: the Feds pay pennies on the dollar for a Medicare claim. Which is why some physicians will not take Medicare patients – they cannot afford to.… Read more »
The counterargument to what you said, Graybeard, is that pharmaceutical companies that make life-saving drugs, such as the Epi-Pen (CO: Mylan) arbitrarily raise the price of the drug for no real reason, other than ‘we can’. The price of the 2-dose pack of Epi-Pen went from $200 to $600 overnight, and there was no valid reason given for the increase in price. The Epi-pen 2-pack contains two one-dose vials of epinephrine. It isn’t some piece of luxury, it is emergency medicine, and the 2-pack has to be replaced yearly. When asked for the reason for the increase in price, the CEO of Mylan did not have a valid, arguable reason. She just fluffed it over.
There was no reason to do this, since this is considered an emergency remedy. Without it, someone may die. There is no nod to that possibility at all. And since it is simply epinephrine, a naturally occurring hormone and neruotransmitter, bumping the price up that much is unreasonable.
http://fortune.com/2016/09/21/mylan-ceo-epipen-price-hike/
And, as a former (thank God!) Epi-Pen user, I agree that something is rotten in Denmark with that.
As a Grandpa of someone who has to carry an Epi-Pen constantly, I resent this price gouging.
But I note in counterpoint that this occurred after Obamacare, and while I cannot point out what the connection is, I do not believe in that type of coincidence. I suspect that there is some connection – someone just needs to follow the money. And most of us could guess where that trail would lead.
While I don’t want to go to a post hoc ergo propter hoc position, I would bet good money that there is a strong correlation between what the
socialistsFeds have been doing and what the price gougers have been doing.Around here, parents pay for epi-pens, so the schools can hold onto them for the length of their shelf life. Then they buy another set for home.
Meanwhile, any doper who wants to shoot heroin can rely on the local, county, and state police, fire departments and ambulances to carry Narcan, so if they OD, they get a shot of Narcan, for free. If the first repsonders can get to them in time, and if their friends don’t just leave them in a bedroom and close the door, while they shoot up.
(Too, paying may athletes 100X what teachers make is ridiculous as well) That’s the marketplace, as far as pro athletes go. Quite frankly, it’s a tad tougher to find a 7-footer with decent shot, a pitcher who throws 90+ mph consistently, or a back that can run a 4.4 40 than it is to find a person with teaching credentials.
Greybeard – not to mention thalidomide and a few other things.. I do not deny that wonder drugs are just that… I am concerned that retail on many drugs is higher than a Bugatti Veyron annually, or that most pharmaceuticals make profit margins that would make a loan shark envious. It’s not 100% true all of the time… but yes, there are problems which need to be looked at. (By the way, I was at Willowbrook’s ER all day Monday when the wife was having chest pains. 9 hours…and yes, half the patients looked like they should see an MD. Wonder how many wanted to – but could not afford to? Second note – one of my best friends was raised just south of 610 and had polio as a kid. I remember.)
2/17 – agree, but in a sane world, the people who handle our kids’ future should make enough money to get by. And it’s odd that the highest paid employee in almost every state university system is an AD or head coach. We overpay athletes, and the “they only have a 10 year working life” is BS – when that work is over due to age or whatever, they can do like we did getting out of the service and go get another fucking job. Bluntly, a 99 mph fastball is not as important as someone who can actually make a kid like math in my book.
True enough regarding relative value to society but D1 coaches and ADs make millions for their schools. Coaches and ADs of high schools don’t make squat. Many of the former are themselves teachers and get a few extra coins for coaching. I think it is mistaken to compare and contrast a pro salary or a D1 coach’s salary with that of the average teacher. As far as college professors go, they, too, are a dime a dozen and largely overpaid. Their thing is grant funding, research, and writing. In larger schools, grad students teach many courses. There’s a damn
racket everywhere I look.
I don’t know what college professors you know – and who all you include in that designation, but my college professor (associate professor) had to quit teaching, which he is very gifted at doing, in order to get a job where he could actually get a job.
So – on the “largely overpaid” aspect I respectfully toss a conditional BS flag. YMMV
I am referring to actual college professors in large universities, not Joe’s Community College and Technical School. I’ll do the legwork later and deliver itt up. I don’t want to be accused of Larsfacting.
OK. In my son’s case, we are talking about Sam Houston State University, where he was an adjunct professor. So we can do an apples to apples.
Full professors don’t get much better than the adjuncts, although their families do get the healthcare.
Administrators? I suspect that is where the pork really is.
Okay, I have to sing a different tune. The first address goes to Sam Houston salaries and the second goes to those at other universities. They are all average salaries and I’ll accept them at stated w/o going elsewhere. An adjunct professor’s salary isn’t listed but it must be quite low. It pays better to be a grade-school teacher.
http://faculty-salaries.startclass.com/l/12541/Sam-Houston-State-University
http://faculty-salaries.startclass.com/
State-supported colleges and universities pay state-legislated salaries. Private colleges and universities do not.
A state school such as the UofI/Urbana or
UofI/Circle Campus, or Ohio State University in Columbus, OH, will pay far more in base salaries than a private university like the one where my sister teaches pre-med/pre-vet med.
2/17 – you ever taught school?
Teaching, imparting knowledge of a subject and a love of learning as contrasted with standing in front of a bunch of kids and haranguing them, is a rare gift.
Putting up with the BS that the Federal and State education agencies produce (not to mention what the local school board and administrators produce – the downhill effect) is a rarer gift.
Now, to be fair you said “teaching credentials” which could mean “a piece of paper that says the person can teach” – that’s a whole ‘nother issue.
What I do and have done I keep in the “My Life” file. If that sounds rude, I am sorry. I don’t mean it to be. Good teachers are rare birds. Good teaching is not an acquired art and it cannot be learned. It’s one of those things that people have or they don’t. The teaching profession is totally screwed up, with some teachers getting paid more than others for passing certain tests and attending so many seminars. How should teachers be paid? In my book, a base salary with increases for student performance on standardized tests.
No offense taken – just the point being that exceptional teachers and exceptional athletes may be equally rare for base population.
[…] From Darth Spitz The Political Hat: Meanwhile, In High School Health Class This Ain’t Hell: Make America Sick Again Weasel Zippers: No Men Allowed – Feminists Push For Female-Only Work Spaces, also, Yahoo Says […]
The same government that produced that sterling example of what quality healthcare can be under total government control gave us oBaMaCare. I refer. of course, to the VA.
Or “Medicare”
Hard to “opt out” of that program.
being in that lovely 64.5 year old category, any advice you can offer for negotiating the Medicare minefiled would be gratefully appreciated!
David – first, my condolences.
You have already begun receiving all the junk mail, haven’t you?
Second – I don’t know how to advise you. In my case, I work for the state (and am retired from another state agency) and am covered by some fairly decent insurance paid out of my retirement so it won’t lapse. In my case, my health insurance has a program I move into fairly seamlessly.(Been through it with my wife a couple of years ago, although I’m at 64 & 11/12 now and just got carded.)
Part A and B is all most folks need. Part D (the drug program) was good for my father, who had no insurance at all. Fortunately we never hit the ‘gap’ for Part D with him, he didn’t need much in the way of meds. But there is a “sour spot” that Part D pays up to n dollars, then doesn’t pay for n+m dollars, then pays for m+ dollars.
I had to go to the SW Houston SSA office when taking care of Dad, and found the people pretty helpful, really. For my brother I’m dealing with the Conroe SSA office by phone, and they’ve been pretty nice overall as well. If you really have some questions, I would recommend getting an appointment with whichever SSA office is closest to discuss options.
The various providers provide a challenge in trying to determine who will serve you best. That one is difficult question I don’t know how to help you with. I went with the known healthcare provider I have through the state, because I know how they work and am fairly familiar and comfortable with their processes. YMMV
Good luck.
I have been dealing with Medicare for a few years now. My advice:
Original Medicare not Medicare Advantage. Study the difference.
Supplemental (medigap) policy plan F.
I let them take the Medicare premium out of my SS check and I pay about $2500. per year for the plan F policy.
Plan D Walmart drug plan is great.
But then again I’m single. No deps.
I stay away from the VA
Part D not Plan D.
Damn bourbon.
Good whiskey never lets you down.
And it stays down.
I’ll agree on “Original” not the “Advantage” plan.
My wife’s premium takes exactly 1/2 of her SS check.
I don’t have any experience with the supplemental plan.
I believe (others may not) that the Avantage plans are designed to kill Original Medicare because it is not sustainable (duh). The best part about Original is that you can get treatment from anybody.
Not so with Advantage.
My Medicare monthly premium is $110 for 2017.
There is more than just one Medicare program. The letters start at “A” and “B” and proceed from there. “A” is the hospitalization payment. If you have a heart attack and end up in the hospital they bill under Part A. Part B is for doctor visits and other services like paying for hospital beds, wheelchairs etc…
There are tens of thousands of rules that prevent the provider whether it be the hospital, rehabilitation center or the doctors from getting paid. Much of the time when medicare does not pay we don’t find out until after the fact, then try to figure out how to get paid.
Medicare plans are not cut and dried. There are plans from Medicare A to medicare N, O, P etc… Each plan offers different benefits and different co-pays. Its often cheaper to pay for a Medicare N plan than to just sign up for Medicare A & B and buy a supplement like AARP (which are good plans) that picks up copays and medications.
Stay away from Medicare “Advantage” plans. These assign your medicare benefits to the insurance company and the Advantage they have is they then find ways to not pay for stuff you need and you have to go to doctors that take their plan. Banner BCBS Advantage HMO here in Arizona will pay a doctor $63 dollars for a visit of one of their subscribers. Doctors can’t pay the medical assistant, mortgage on the home and office, lights, insurance, and other bills making $63 dollars a visit.
Do some research and find someone who sells insurance who knows the ins and outs of Medicare. But DON’t sign up for an advantage plan.
Azygos, you are quite simply wrong regarding Medicare Advantage plans. Maybe you’ve had a bad experience, but as you can see from my response to David, ours works quite well and greatly simplifies the process of dealing with Medicare.
As I advised David: Shop around.
David, get into a Medicare Advantage program and let an insurance company deal with Medicare for you. We are with Humana here in Arkansas and it works very well for us. Our monthly premium actually decreased almost 50% for 2017 and all our co-pays remained the same. Our prescriptions are almost all included and are mailed directly to us. It is rare that I have to stand in line in a pharmacy. We get membership/use of a local health club and a monthly allowance for mail-order non-prescription medical products such as vitamins.
It’s a good program but they vary from state to state. The one we had in New Mexico wasn’t nearly as all inclusive as this one but all the Advantage plans beat straight Medicare. Shop around
Poe,
Sorry you are quite simply wrong about Advantage plans. I own a medical practice and do know something about how the insurance companies operate. I could burn up John’s bandwidth for the year with Advantage Plan denial of care horror stories.
Signing up for the right Medicare plan coupled with a supplement will give you the best coverage and allow you to see the doctors you choose to see.
One of the ways Advantage plans make money is by NOT providing care. Also some plans say it costs you nothing but don’t tell you they take the money out of your social security check before you receive it so it looks like you are not paying for it.
“Signing up for the right Medicare plan coupled with a supplement will give you the best coverage and allow you to see the doctors you choose to see.”
Yep. That’s it in a nutshell.
My THR cost me the price of the insurance premiums only.
It may also be a difference in states, might it not? David and I are in Texas. Different insurance laws. Poe in Arkansas may get something different than we do.
Or am I off base again?
Azygos, if you are a practicing physician then you should know that Medicare plans vary greatly from state to state, even within the same corporate structures.
What I find attractive about Advantage plans is their simplicity. My wife and I cared for her parents until their passing and had to deal with their straight Medicare plans with supplemental coverage. Not only were their premiums higher than ours, but they received fewer services from their plans than we did from our Advantage plans.
As for denial of services, my experience is just the opposite, where my primary internist has referred me to an orthopedic surgeon for shoulder replacement and I turned down the surgery. Ditto on an earlier knee replacement surgery and I’m an old geezer who should be an ideal candidate for denial of services. I just tried to talk my way out of a colonoscopy and ended up getting an endoscopy added to it, maybe to shut my big mouth, hm? Now does that sound like programmed denial of services?
And of course I know how the premiums are paid, both for straight Medicare and Advantage. A very large percentage of supplemental plans are sold by United Healthcare through their AARP affiliation and trust me, Doc, that’s a huge money-making racket for United and AARP.
Quite simply, I still think you are wrong to make such a blanket condemnation of all state Advantage programs based on your experiences in Arizona. I do believe you physicians call such evidence “anecdotal” as I realize my own arguments are. When I worked for a hospice in San Antonio, our worst insurer for denial of payments was Humana, the same corporation I’m lauding here in Arkansas. As I have said repeatedly, insurance companies function differently from state to state.
So I’m not denying that what you say about Arizona is true, but rather that it may not be true elsewhere. In truth I feel sorry for the seniors in Arizona who are being so poorly served by their Medicare Advantage programs.
David,
The best advice I can give you is that if you currently have health insurance, try to keep it at least long enough to prove to yourself that you will be OK to drop it. Once you give it up – it is likely to be gone forever.
There are huge differences between the states. Any/some/most advice we give you may not apply where you live at all. And if you move, it can be like starting all over again. Or not. When selecting a place to move, keep those insurance and medical expenses in mind.
Many civilian employers have excellent plans for their retirees. Even those who do not often have employees who know a lot about the options available for their retirees.
Good luck. I stayed in a near rage as that birthday approached. It offended me sorely that I was being forced into the gubmint plan. Sure, one can opt out, but most of us do not have the amount of expendable income necessary to do it.
“If you like your doctor….”
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Sorry- couldn’t resist. It sounds like something FDR would say…
David,
I guess I’ll add, since others are touting companies, that I have UnitedHealthcare HealthSelect of Texas.
Again, through my retirement from a state agency.
(Yes, I was and now am again a petty bureaucrat.)
A petty BUREAUCRAT!!! Good grief, Graybeard, you may be setting yourself up to get a bigger bullseye on your ass on this forum than poor ol’ Lars.
Heh…
Maybe he was a state trooper or worked in the crime lab. Ya never know.
Wow…. I’m gonna need to buy a ream of paper just to print all that!! But thank you… I hate to depend on VA for the wife and I, neither of our companies provides retirement coverage, so this is all good stuff. I don’t want to wait to get coverage despite still working; as I understand the cost just keeps going up regardless of whether you are covered privately.
Thanks again!!
Poe,
Yes there could be some differences region to region. I’m in region D, Texas and Arkansas are region C. I’m quite glad you are getting good treatment with Humana. The Humana programs here are atrocious, as are most of the other Advantage plans.
I see denials of service my patients don’t see because my assistant spends hours trying to find ways around them before giving up and telling the patient the care has been denied. I eat the cost for those denials in staff time and sometimes my own time. As with any service I sell my time. Its the most precious commodity I have. When I have to spend time arguing with the insurance company I’m not giving care and I’m not making money.
Denials of service are based on actuarial tables. We are going to deny X to patients because only Y number of patients will die from it and only Z number of patients or their families will sue us for it.
I’ve done consulting work for insurance companies and big pharma. I’m not in the camp that patients are treated based on what some bean counter decides. In reality its usually what some doctor or group of doctors who control the insurance company decides.
Knowing how insurance companies operate I still strongly suggest people never sign up for an Advantage plan.
A couple of thing of points if I may. My reason for calling LC story BS is because it seems so patent, if it is fact and it likely is I apologize. Also, I have been on an advantage plan for 5 years and so far so good.
$0.00 extra premium a month. Last year I had about $70,000 in medical bills and payed less than $1,000 out of pocket. However the rx donut hole cost me about $2,500. My problem is that I take about $950.00 a month in brand name drugs that there is no generic for, all the plans that cover a portion of the donut hole only seem to cover generics. so the advantage plan works ok for me. Next year it could all go to hell.
It is fact, but you’ve got nothing but my word on that and I understand the skepticism. I do hope my long history of being, I think, pretty honest and reasonable here gets me some benefit of the doubt though. Besides, I wasn’t saying the ACA is wonderful, just that it helped me – that doesn’t seem impossible.
And I certainly don’t need any apologies. I’m a big boy, not a ‘delicate flower’-type liberal.
Being a Retired Marine and over 65 I am REQUIRED to take Medicare part A and B or LOSE TRICARE as my secondary/PLan D coverage. So far no major health issues for me or the wife. Our maintenance drugs have to go through Express Scripts or we have to pay full price after 3 trips to retail pharmacy.
After the passage of 0bamacare the dhimmirats steadily lost seats everywhere and now they’ve decided to keep the same pathogenic characters in charge with the same inferior agenda that will likely keep them, their party and its agenda cascading into oblivion, I hope to see that now that working class Americans have truly spoken at the polls and voted for real change versus the milquetoast direction and candidates the GOP has fielded the past couple of Presidential elections.
Well, people, the problem has been solved. It’s all Bernie Sanders’s fault about abominablecare.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-obamacare-idUSKBN14Q2E5
The moral of this story is – you guessed it – NEVER take responsibility for what you screwed up, even if it has your name on it.
Deflecting blame… it’s what the JEF has done during his 8 years as POTUS.
“The moral of this story is – you guessed it – NEVER take responsibility for what you screwed up, even if it has your name on it.”
I think that is Rule #412 in the politicians handbook.