Live&DieBillsFootball
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Posts posted by Live&DieBillsFootball
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Pretty simple really - you use before tax dollars on an HSA. We all know how much the Dems love tax dollars, though the figures I read show the uber rich get by far the largest benefit from HSA so we can also continue some class warfare.
HSA's wouldn't be a bad idea if there was transparency in pricing in health care. In a perfect world, you could shop with your dollars for the best deal and providers could compete for your dollars.
Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way in real life. Try getting a quote for anything more involved than a proctology exam. Hell, just try to pay cash for a visit at a doctors office...they don't even know what they charge depending on insurance discounts and what insurance you may or not have.
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So will opening up competition on a national level and not only a statewide level, plus you get the added benefit of eliminating the need for the government to be involved in your life any more than it already is.
The panacea? No. But a good first place to start without more government intrusion.
There are probably a lot of things that can be done without government intrusion. But the GOP doesn't appear to want to put forward anything other than opposing everything. They've spent more time perpetuating lies about "Death Panels" than in proposing anything to reform the current system.
Don't look now but the Dems may try to ram it through without any need for Republican support by splitting it into 2 bills. There may be a lot more government intrusion than if the repubs had played ball.
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Actually, my point was freedom of choice > health care reform.
But, I do like Gene's idea! Maybe we can spread it to Cuba as people leave on boats, 1959 Buicks, or wooden crates for Florida.
Hey, they have to be crazy if they want to leave the land of free health care, free education, and full employment for life.
Where do you see freedom of choice in today's health care market? Almost every employer that offers health care benefits now offers only one plan. Whoever provides the best or cheapest plan gets selected by a company for all employees. Even municipals and school boards are moving to just one plan.
And the individual insurance market is even worse. I've been looking for an individual plan for my healthy 19 yr old son in WNY and have found exactly one plan. There are lots of other plans but all are just discount plans. Go in the hospital for surgery and they pay a whopping $500 per day plus supposedly negotiate discounts for you. Sounds like a great plan.
Adding a public plan or co-ops to the existing landscape will only INCREASE choice, because right now there is none.
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I thought you wanted us to send you SMUT.
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This is the spam that the Fox News reporter at today's White House Press conference said people who have never contacted the White House for anything have been getting today. He asked Gibbs if the White House was buying mailing lists and Gibbs hemmed and hawed and didn't answer the question.
Yeah, it sucks that some people are now receiving true facts about health care reform instead of being told that the bills puts in place "death panels" and other BS by the GOP.
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The fact that you can't take the temperature of the current situation just goes to show how chaotic the end game will be. I am not even blaming you for this, as I know plenty of good people who can't do it as well.
There are plenty of quotes and literature on Emanuel out there. Obama has surrounded himself with some sick people. I would let Cheney and Rumsfeld babysit my kids before I'd shake the hands of a few of these clowns Obama has making his policy.
The country is bankrupt. The past 12 months has been a disgrace watching this cash grab. People are waking up though. You won't have to listen to me much longer. The wheels are in motion and a direction is being chosen. I chose my new screen name a while ago because the line that separates good from evil would become clearer for all to see. That line is starting to shine through. While many still don't understand what is taking place around them, soon everyone will have to choose sides. Many will be brainwashed into defending evil, but many will chose it on their own. Watching the reactions in this forum over the past 2 years has been a great learning tool for me, and I thank everyone for leaving little doubt in my mind where this country is headed.
We are just finishing up the preseason and entering the regular season. I am scared to see what the SuperBowl will look like.
If I thought the world was about to end, I would want to go big. Maybe see how much coke I could snort in one sitting. Or maybe, do a header off of the Empire State Bldg. Or, sucker punch a Hell's Angel in a biker bar. Just a few ideas for you.
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I think the cab driver and the 2 Kane's should get together and have a beer together. Oops, make that root beers.
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The one I hate the most is "state of the art".
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There was one running play that I saw Wood push his guy at least 7 yards downfield before finally putting him on the ground. Not sure the last time I saw a Bills guard do that. He may have made some mistakes, but he sure looked like a football player to this untrained eye.
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Everyone's favorite soundbyte chimes in on healthcare:
Sarah Palin is accusing President Obama's health care plan of looking to create a "death panel" that would weigh whether her parents or son Trig were "worthy of health care."
"And who will suffer the most when they ration care?" she wrote. "The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/
I thought she didn't want her kids involved in political discussions anymore.
It's great that this Statesman finally has been freed up to help provide constructive criticism to the urgent need for health care reform in this country. Her knowledge and unique perspective are whats been missing from the debate.
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Hope Plax can keep from dropping his soap in prison. No Club Fed for him. Looks like he's headed for pound me in the ask prison.
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Really? So when the last time I got laid off and my Cobra was $1200 per month, that's pretty affordable? Most people don't seem to understand that their companies eat the lion's share of the cost of health care. You seem to be one of them.
If someone has never been laid off, or moved without having a job lined up, or became disabled, or retired early, or worked for a company without a medical plan, or had to purchase an individual policy, or had their kids no longer covered under their policy, or ever had a pre-existing condition then...they might think that our current system is great.
I also like the posters who pay $10 a week toward their employer-paid coverage that think that the free market has great solutions for the uninsured. They get their medical insurance tax-free but want the uninsured to pony up $1200 a month of after-tax money for a substandard policy.
I'm not sure what the solution is. I just know that the current system sucks.
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Another good place to buy tv's believe it or not is Sears. Helped my mother-in-law buy one last month and got a Samsung 42" 1080p LCD for $675 plus tax. They frequently run a 10% off with a Sears card promo in addition to their sale prices.
Worth checking out if you are shopping around.
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Fuzzy math: O'Reilly says higher Canadian life expectancy is "to be expected" because "we have 10 times as many people"
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I'm bipolar, and my wife's got a long history of cancer in her family (and a history herself), so she keeps on top of things. And that includes dentists' visits - that's going to be covered under ObamaCare, right?
Most of that cost, though, is prescription meds. And frankly, I don't go to the doctor nearly as often as I should. And her coworker definitely was not a hypochondriac...if she were, she might not be dying.
Not to pick on you, but if you lost your coverage and had to buy in the market based on your health history you would be phucked.
Most likely you would be denied coverage for pre-existing conditions. Also, any coverage that you find would probably not include mental health or prescription coverage.
Like the Chef and most of us who have employer coverage, there is a worry that our sweet deal may get affected by health reform. However, the bigger worry that we should have is losing our coverage due to job loss or a major health issue.
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Sorry, but the status quo sucks worse. There are 40 million plus uninsured.
The private individual market is a joke...try to find an individual policy that you can afford if you have anyone in your family with a pre-existing condition. Even if you don't have existing issues, you probably won't find a policy to cover prescriptions.
I'm sure that the millions of recently unemployed are learning the hard truth about the cost of Cobra coverage. Try paying $1200 a month to cover your family while living on unemployment benefits.
Our current system is great if you work for a large company and plan to stay there for life. Otherwise, there are plenty of minefields.
Every feature of the proposed Obamacare has been trashed by the Republicans. Where is the GOP alternative? So far they have come out with a mission statement, but have yet to utter a single alternative. Their only plan is to keep things as they are.
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Still can't prove you didn't have it faked.
Fact is, even if Obama produced his authentic birth certificate and personally showed it to each and every "Birther" in the country, along with the OB who birthed him and signed the certificate vouching for its authenticity, a certain number of people (e.g. our own OwensManiac) would still demand "proof". It's not even an issue...it's just a group of morons whose mommies and daddies didn't give them enough attention growing up.
The worst part about this is that Rush, Lou Dobbs, Gordon Liddy, Liz Cheney and a number of GOP congressmen are all keeping this crap alive, although every one of them KNOWS it to be BS. Good job of inciting the lunatic fringe. At least the GOP has room in their tent for these folks.
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I've stated multiple times that I came to the conclusion we are approaching the end times BECAUSE of what I see taking place all around. I never claimed to be a prophet who was handing down godly proclaimations. The economic system is dead.....your government sold you out to the financial elite and China. The level of growth in technology and population is unsustainable and will have a major setback. These are facts. The current geopolitical climate happens to match up with prophetic verses too exact to be pure chance.
In the end, all I can do is warn. As some of the items have been unfolding in front of your very eyes over the past 2 years....it is up to you to determine how many acorns this blind squirrel finds.
Could you specifically tell us when the End Times will be? Additionally, can you promise to shut the !@#$ up after that date?
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My 19 year old son has been traveling around the country all summer with his rock band. I follow all of his bandmates on Twitter. From their tweets I know that they arrived safe each day, where they are staying, what they're doing, etc. I also seem to get a lot more details than what I get from texting or calling my son.
I've only tweeted back (or is it twatted
) a few times. Mostly just use it to follow. -
Single payer system may have worked for you where ever you were, but it is not a sustainable system over a long term with an aging population that will provide universal care to everyone. A single payer system means that one of two rationing schemes will happen - either someone will chose the procedure for you or you will have to wait a long time for your procedure. It also will mean that innovation will occur on a much slower basis, because there will be far fewer incentives to experiment for big pharma or for venture capitalists to fund new medical ventures. But hey it's great to talk about how universal health works, while ignoring the groundbreaking science and procedures that private US healthcare funds for the rest of the world.
Isn't that another big part of the problem? How is it that US Pharma can sell drugs to Canada at a low enough price that it can be re-imported to the US and sold for a lower price than someone can buy in the US?
I always thought that that was one of the more perverse things about people going to Canada to buy prescription drugs.
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I think that a big part of the current problem is that many people have too much health insurance. There are a lot of gold-plated plans that have no deductibles for doctor visits, prescriptions, etc.
I have 2 friends that work for local school districts. Neither pays a deductible for prescriptions whether they use brand-name or generic. They have absolutely no incentive to try to cut their prescription costs. My plan has tiers with different co-pays for different kinds of drugs. Whenever I get a script from my doctor I make sure that he writes it for one that is on the $10 for 90 day list at Walmart or Target. This costs my insurance carrier nada. I pay the $10 which pays for the script in full.
I think that it's a good idea to have zero deductibles for annual physicals and vaccinations. But if you have a $20 - $30 deductible for a doctor visit, maybe you'll think twice before going to a doctor and getting an MRI because your nose is stuffy.
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Here's a simple proposition to drive home a key issue in the Health Care Reform Debate.
The politico's want to insure the 50 million without insurance. Instead of muddying things up by tying it to broader reforms, let's simplify and separate the issues and see how the dollars add up. If insurance costs $5,000 a year, we need $250 billion a year to fill the gap. All the wind coming out of Washington is simply a deliberative smokescreen masking the fact that that money has to come out of somebodies pocket.
So let's have the 250 million who do have insurance pay for those who don't. If each insured person forks over $1,000 every year, we can provide a $5,000/yr plan for the rest.
If your family has insurance then your actual tax contribution would be $1,000 times the number of people in your household, but you get the idea... So let's get this enacted and see what people think before starting on the riskier and irreversable structural changes.
Any takers?
Wow, that's enlightening. Maybe we should knock 50 million off of the government health plans and then we could give the 200 million who have still health insurance a $1000 for each member of their family. That would be so cool. If we knock everyone who is insured by a public plan (seniors, military, government workers, teachers, etc), we could probably give $10,000 or even $20,000 each to the people on private plans.
If no one ever got sick any more and no one needed health care, think of how much we could give to the few people who still had health insurance. Probably something like a gazillion dollars. Awesome.
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Edit to my original post: Here's a synopsis of the article I was initially referring to.
These prices, unless I'm mistaken, just take into account cost of the parts. Not software, marketing, development, etc. I thought it was interesting just because I would have assumed the margin on electronics would be much higher than what these guys claim it to be.
I'm not arguing that Macs or better than PCs or vice versa. My point is that the idea that Macs are marked up 300% (more or less) is false. I'm sure you can price a machine with the basic components as a Mac for next to nothing, but I'd wager you're forgetting all the extras - firewire, gigbit ethernet, weight, battery length, software, etc.
The article you quote is comparing the cost of components in Jan 2006. That's like a century ago in terms of technology.
Intel macs and intel pcs have the same hardware inside. How can you justify spending the extra $1000 on an operating system and a fancy keyboard and mouse?
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It only seemed like Hillary resigned since she never did anything for NY. She never actually held a press conference and quit in the middle of her term.
Canadian health leader wants Private options
in Politics, Polls, and Pundits
Posted
There are a lot of critical parts that need fixing.
Hillarycare was fought tooth and nail back in the 90's and subsequently buried and very little reform has been brought about since. Health care takes up close to 20% of GDP and doesn't cover 50 million. The private market for insurance has very few options for even healthy young people. Choice is becoming scarce even for those working for big companies or municipalities.
Left on their own, the insurance companies haven't done squat to increase options or access to care. Proposed legislation may not be any better, but the insurance industry has shown a lack of interest in reforming anything while they are in charge. Maybe its time to say !@#$ them.