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The sad part is that Randroid Paul only opposes it because it doesn't utterly repeal any and all government intervention in health care, including the ACA, Medicare and Medicaid. He would like to have a few dozen very ill people form a queue outside of his office so that he can kick them to the ground and then scream at them to bootstrap themselves vertical again.
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Sep 12, 2017 01:32
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VitalSigns posted:This is probably true, and it's very annoying that this works so very very well. It's a simultaneously heart-warming and spine-chilling example of unquenchable thirst for power blunting pure evil.
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Sep 12, 2017 01:44
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axeil posted:yeah Rand Paul is saying he's voting against because it's not conservative enough but it's really because he doesn't want to utterly gently caress his state. Wrong. He would gladly gently caress over anyone and everyone in KY out of principle, but it would probably cost him his seat come the next election cycle. It makes me sick to think about it, but it's basically an example of lust for power overriding a complete lack of human empathy.
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Sep 25, 2017 02:31
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Rich fuckwads who have profited ridiculously from regressive Republican policies withholding money from Republicans because those Republicans have been unable to take health care away from poor people who continually have more and more of the fruits of their labour taken from them by said same fuckwads. I honestly would like to vomit right now.
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Sep 26, 2017 03:24
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I lost what tiny bit of respect I had for Forbes from a physical copy of the magazine that someone in the business department of the university for which I was working brought in. I was waiting on someone and was bored, and this was before I owned a tablet. I flipped it open and saw a statement that said, and I paraphrase: "We think that the US has the most fair and progressive tax structure in the world". I scoffed so loud that people stared at me and I dropped the magazine on the floor. I'd have burnt it had I had matches.
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Oct 1, 2017 17:01
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Peven Stan posted:This. Pretty much the only way it's going to work is creating a universal public system and keeping the private, employer sponsored model around simultaneously so rich/white people can double dip whenever it is convenient. See how it works in brazil I want to be clear that I am not being a dick here and am bringing this up just as an important talking point: Pretty much everyone else has some form of universal or semi-universal coverage and they do not have massive unemployment. The British NHS was established in 1948 during the Great Reconstruction after the devastation of the war and I know of no massive unemployment. I believe that Canada's system began in the province of Saskatchewan in 1962 and I also know of no massive employment problem there. Why, then, is it impossible for the US system to transition without putting millions and millions out of work? After all, giving people better coverage will increase the number of people taking advantage of it, which will increase the need for health services, both medical and administrative, would it not? Even if you totally abolished private insurance, which even I am not sure is the best route, the need for health services will grow and, like any sector, a growing need for a service means more jobs in that field.
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Oct 25, 2017 03:11
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If this isn't the best thread for this question I hope that you will refer me and preferably not probate me, but I didn't see a more appropriate link in the OP. In short, I was too poor last year to afford health insurance for over half the year after losing a government job with disappointing pay but excellent benefits, and I'm wondering if there is any way that I can avoid paying the ludicrous ACA penalty on my tax this year as I am dirt loving poor this year as well and presently live in a lovely Red StateTM with no Medicaid for the destitute. I lost my job in mid-May of '17 and my benefits ended at the end of that month. Cobra was, of course, an option, but it was $600 a month and far out of my price range. I had to pay over $6000 for a life-or-death surgery and had to relocate, which forced me to cash in my meagre 401k. The moving company I hired screwed me blue as Peter and further destroyed my cash reserves. I only received a few hundred dollars a week in unemployment for a measly 14 weeks despite working full time for a year because I had the poor judgement to work in an Even Shitter Red Statealso TM. I was unemployed for months afterwards as I was taking care of my crippled mother who was recovering from major surgery, and I only started working again six months after losing my first job. I am technically full-time at this waste of time "job" and am benefits eligible, but I only get about 28 hours per week, the pay is poverty-level and the benefits are Utter Shitealso also TM so I can't really afford them. Both my mother and I being unemployed so long means my modest savings are gone, and I do not savour the idea of having to pay hundreds of dollars in tax because I had the unmitigated gall to be too poor to buy lovely, Overpriced Insurancevery TM indeed. I do not want to come across as some government-hating MY FREEDOM!!!! Ted Cruz-worshipping neocon prick, but I really don't relish the idea of paying nearly $1000 in penalties for the heinous crime of being broke. At this point that would be twisting a very large knife in a gaping, suppurating wound full of salt, lemon juice and hedgehogs. Any hope? Fake Edit: Merciful Moses on the Mountain, but I do miss the NHS. 
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Jan 18, 2018 04:19
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Willa Rogers posted:Even before this administration there were numerous ways to get an exemption from the penalty: https://www.healthcare.gov/health-coverage-exemptions/hardship-exemptions/ Thank you so much; I bookmarked that link. I also moved cross country twice in the space of two years, moving 1800 miles west in the summer of 2012 and then 2500 miles back east in 2014 to change from one poorly-paying job to another. Both had excellent benefits as they were for state governments, but the moving expenses wiped out my savings every time. You have both my gratitude and my empathy.
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Jan 18, 2018 05:00
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BlueBlazer posted:Just casually suggested to a friend that he should just go up to Canada to have a minor surgery done after getting a quote 3 times higher than he imagined. I just wanted to say that I'm so glad that your sister is doing well. I am a severe asthmatic who nearly died many times as a child and have the Canadian system and the British NHS to thank for my life, and I had an American friend, nicest guy you would ever meet, who died of CF at age 26, which is twice as long as they expected him to live.
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Feb 17, 2018 02:05
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Raldikuk posted:HSAs usually don't cost money to set up and maintain (and if yours does switch). They're great for people like me who never use their insurance now but know in the future they will (retirement for me). The trap would be getting a really lovely plan to qualify for one then having to eat a lot of out of pocket costs. I used to work a state government job for a very very red state where the pay was miserable but the benefits were out of this world. The state would give me something around $800 a month to spend on health, dental, and vision premiums while the rest went into an HSA. I did not pay a single penny in medical costs while I worked there except for OTC medications because every co-pay or deductible came out of money given to me by the state and placed into an HSA after paying monthly premiums; I was even given a debit card to use for this very purpose. I hate even the idea of for-profit health care right down to the taint hairs, but I am astonished to this day how well the state government of Republicanvania took care of me. Needless to say, I took care of every problem I had and went to see very specialist I could while I was there. Having said all that, HSAs are only useful for people who are already doing fairly well and Raldikuk is absolutely correct in saying that they do somewhere between gently caress and all for the most needy people. Poor people cannot save money, even for the most important things. Also, health care costs for anything not covered by excellent insurance are so ludicrous that the first problem more severe than a slight cough will wipe out anyone's carefully garnished wages.
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May 16, 2018 19:24
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Defenestration posted:Spiro is a largely reliable if often alarmist source. He's an Obama flunky who helped draft the ACA and now works at CAP so you can derive his general deal from that. I see your point and like what you have to say, but I can't even call being well-meaning but avoiding universal care "centrism". When you see something that has worked massively better than the status quo in dozens of places, avoiding the thing that provably works is just stupidity, and here probably massive ego too, moreso than centrism. There aren't many people who hate capitalism more than I do, but given how it's been done historically I can't blame people who have grave concerns about socialism and communism. This isn't that, though, and anyone now who denies that UHC is the better option is either a motivated by pure idiocy, pure ideology or pure selfishness. In the former two cases it's like talking to someone who denies climate change, refutes evolution or thinks that the Earth is flat; it's inexcusable in this modern age. In the latter case, the person in question probably realises that it is the better option for most people, but doesn't care because they want to make money. In that case, the only cure is a swiftly falling guillotine.
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May 18, 2018 05:02
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Peven Stan posted:Cost control is impossible in the US because of unrestricted ability for providers and the supply side to price gouge. You're only telling half the story and there should be concerted state action to bust doctors, "nonprofit" teaching hospitals, devicemakers etc and their pricing cartels. I agree strongly with this. The only way I can see to counter this huge problem is to create a huge monopsony wherein the only buyer is the federal government and the suppliers have to dance to their tune or make no sales at all. While I'm dreaming, I'd like to take the profit motive out of healthcare... and everything else, frankly. While I'm really dreaming, I'd like a flying horse that can sing Frank Sinatra's greatest hits.
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May 29, 2018 03:41
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I was just watching the local evening news over an admittedly lovely supper. They started doing a bit on out-of-control prescription drug prices and some soulless neocon in a suit said something the effect of "We need to lower prescription prices while avoiding the rationing in socalist systems" I have never wanted to simultaneously shatter a TV screen and break someone's neck at the same time, and having two arms I'm not sure how I'd manage it, but I was frothing out-for-blood at that moment.
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Jun 5, 2018 22:30
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Gunshow Poophole posted:Profit is anathema to provision As "extreme" as most people seem to think that this is, I'm basically with you. Capitalism persists due to humans being innately greedy because of basic survival instinct, which would not be a problem if we didn't live in a society that gleefully encourages that greed to make the rich richer. What's worse than infinite greed and gross overconsumption is that even the idea of an entire planet of 7+ billion people whose day-to-day activities are *not* based on making the most money possible has become inconceivable. Part of me understands it, but mostly it just makes me sad. I don't even use the words "socialism" or "communism" any more because they have become simultaneously incredibly nebulous and mostly despised, especially the latter. Everyone has their own definition of the former and nobody can understand that the latter and totalitarian Stalinism are not the same thing. In any event, people are idiots and both terms are best avoided. I prefer to say "utilitarianism" because it provokes the idea of practicality, marginal utility, maximising the use of resources, conservation and thinking about the long term. It's also a much less socially marked term, by which I mean nobody knows what the bloody hell I'm on about.
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Jun 12, 2018 04:01
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Crashrat posted:I think a major problem among wonks that think about the sliding-scale problem is that they're all economists or public policy people that have never spent a goddamned minute in the trenches of the social work field. I just wanted to personally thank you for this; it's very illuminating and a little shocking. I'd ask you for advice on my own horrible personal situation regarding America and it's contemptible system, but I don't feel that it would be within the spirit of the thread.
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Jun 13, 2018 02:51
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Ever since Crashrat made that very relatable and touching post, this thread has become nothing but pompous dipshits talking over everyone's head, trying to gainsay each other and wave their "Look how smart I am" cocks around, and I fancy that I'm not the only one who thinks so. I and others come here to keep up to date and to learn, and certain recent posters aren't helping anything. Either stop wanking off in thread, shut the gently caress up and take it to private messages or I'd say it's just about time for a mod to force everyone to take a little thread holiday. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Jun 14, 2018 00:25
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I just wanted to point out that I have basically become a walking example of what is called a "perverse incentive." I was approved for Medicad as I now live in a state that expanded it. I have been unemployed now since 1 May, and it has convinced me to avoid seeking most jobs except for jobs with excellent guaranteed benefits (of which there are very, very few) or non-benefited part-time jobs with super low salaries in order to stay under the income cap. There is a very small patient contribution that starts at $1 per month (seriously) for people with no income and goes up to I believe $15 a month for people near the monthly income cap, which is less than $1200. I would be fine to pay a higher absolute cost/percentage of my salary to keep what I have, but if I pass the maximum earnings threshold I lose everything. Naturally, any job that pays a paltry $300 a month would not allow me to purchase anything close to decent coverage, so it's in my best interest to either avoid full-time labour entirely or hold out for a "serious" job. I just wanted to point out the absurdity of this.
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Sep 25, 2018 01:53
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Arrgytehpirate posted:That’s really hosed up man. I hope you find a good job soon! I'll just say that I have a graduate degree and used to work in collegiate education for excellent benefits, shite money and no job security. I fell into the millennial trap of crippling debt, low wages and no job security, so I've committed myself to cheating the system until I eventually die prematurely. Willa Rogers posted:Yeah, it sucks the way if you're <$17,000/year poor then you qualify for Medicaid in an expansion state, but if you make $17,000/year then you're in for a world of hurt with $7,000/year deductibles + the cost of insurance premiums. Not calling you a liar, but do you have a source on the bolded bit? I thought that it was much lower; around 12-14k or so. I can't put anything into a retirement account since I don't earn anything, and I haven't paid a loving penny towards my student loans for years. I did a federal, income-based repayment consolidation years ago. When I was employed I made so little and had to relocate so often to find new work that having to pay anything towards student loans would have destroyed me... I never lied to the government, but I exploited the system and I don't apologise. I had to change jobs and relocate so often that every summer I would have to cash in my nascent 401k just to relocate to my next gig. Now that I have no money, I just don't pay; can't squeeze blood from a stone.
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Sep 25, 2018 04:37
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It is a system designed to use health care as another for-profit commodity so that it directs money from those who have little to those who have much. All is working as intended.
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Sep 25, 2018 17:21
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Malcolm XML posted:He's right though. Other countries do not have the same hosed up education system for doctors that saddles them with 400k in debt. Coming from a British family with doctors in it, I was about to say something to this end though I am myself not a physician. Admittedly I am a relentless cynic, but I've always feared that the American system, even putting aside the crippling debt, had a profit motive for its bizarre way of educating doctors, and even if some people may not express themselves well I still feel that my cynicism is justified in this case. I cannot stress how necessary an affordable education is given the need for doctors; America has a shortage of them despite the pay being very high. On the other hand, France has the highest or nearly the highest number of physicians per capita of any country in the world even though French doctors don't make nearly as much as the average American MD. One key difference is that medical school in France is free (though very competitive), while in America it means a terrifying amount of debt. It's fair to assume that other countries, even comparatively poorer ones, invest in the better health of their populations while in America education, like health care, is just another commodity to be bought and sold. When you have a profession like the American doctor which is in general very well compensated and highly respected, drat near revered even, yet there is a shortage of practitioners, something's very, very wrong. Making becoming a physician a potentially crippling, lifelong financial risk, requiring an unnecessarily restrictive training structure and artificially restricting the supply of doctors in order to keep wages up are genuine concerns. I know that everyone wants to pile on CAPS, but he has a point even if he's alarmist - sometimes when someone says that the whole loving system is corrupt, it's true. The fact that virtually all education in the US comes with various degrees of crippling debt that cannot ever be discharged apart from literal death into an overcrowded job market with depressed wages and inflated living costs is a huge problem that is totally unsustainable. The status quo is maintained because it makes money for those who care only about making money, and little modifications aren't sufficient. Most likely things will stay this way until there is a total collapse of the system, because usurers are probably not going to give an inch until they can no longer make money off of the whole lot of it. For what it's worth, I think that turning education and the health of a nation into just another product that can be bought and sold and also burden people with crushing and unfulfillable financial burdens is appalling, and the fact that people don't care more about it is unconscionable.
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Nov 2, 2018 01:20
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I've found myself in a position where I have to turn down employment because of the fact that the benefits are awful and the lovely pay would put me sometimes just above the Medicaid Plus (has some vision and dental benefits) threshold. I currently pay one single dollar per month as my contribution, but the max is $20. That is the end of the elasticity... if I earn more than I think $1406 per month, I can't just pay more of a monthly contribution, I just lose my benefit - period. Basically, the only jobs I can take are PT ones with no benefits that pay almost nothing or wait until I find a job that actually pays a living wage and has decent benefits. I refuse to have anything to do with the exchange, which is an insult to human decency.
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Nov 18, 2018 17:50
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Malcolm XML posted:hello i make 6 figures and still import drugs from india since it's insanely overpriced. literally the same drug by the same manufacturer is 1/10th the price Apart from some of the food, the NHS is the only thing that I miss from the UK. I find this slightly ironic given that the NHS is a second-rate system compared to any of the major continental countries, but it's miles better than anything in the US except for platinum-level care for upper-middle to rich people. I also get a dark... well, humour isn't the right word... a dark appreciation for the fact that conservatives (which, in the US, is everyone) is all about JOBS JOBS JOBS and then they create terrible social systems that somehow manage to give people incentive not to work. I recently turned down a lovely part-time job because the combination of inconsistent hours and laughable pay was less reliable per-week income than drawing unemployment. I realise that this is the norm everywhere, but if I could have drawn my tiny bit of dole money and worked part-time I would have done it, but it's one or the other and I went with the more reliable option. When it's a matter of such trivial sums of money, one can't afford to take any risks.
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Nov 19, 2018 04:54
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I'm not one who is automatically in favour of single-payer, and I agree that it has become something of a buzz-word. I don't have a terribly high opinion of Medicare either. It's much better than what many have, of course, but a country as wealthy as the US can do better. That being said, I realise that it's the closest thing to a realistic alternative in this miserable country given that the private insurance racket would rather spend mountains of cash preventing the end of their racket than actually spend the money on caring for people. I'm not the best person to ask, however, as I look at everything from a very utilitarian standpoint and have a violent disdain for capitalism and the profit motive in general. One thing you have to constantly keep in mind is that a lot of Americans, very specifically Americans, are phenomenal idiots who will gleefully go against their own self-interest due to their fear of SOCIALISM. There are tons of people who have been completely brainwashed by corporate propaganda to fear anything that the government does, even if it would help them. Keep in mind that libertarianism as it's known these days was a movement created by corporate interest after WW2 as a response to FDR's New Deal policies, and they've done a terrifying job of getting a lot of Americans to act against their own interests for the sake of corporate profits. Meanwhile, my former countrymen in the UK have basically sold their children's future out for the sake of what is essentially racism by leaving the UK, but they are fighting madly to try and preserve the NHS because, for all its flaws, they know what it's like in the US and they are terrified of that. The only people over there who are in favour of privatising health care are the rich, who don't care about anyone but themselves or they wouldn't be rich, and the free-market fetishists who are essentially religious zealots except God is replaced with capitalism.
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Nov 19, 2018 21:54
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WampaLord posted:Why do we let this liar continue to post here? VitalSigns posted:Seriously, he was banned from USPol for trolling why is he allowed in other US politics threads where he does the same thing. Leon is a complete loving imbecile; he ruined the Retail Collapse thread as well. The only way he's ever going to go away is if everyone ignores him, but it's a "tragedy of the commons" situation because, like all trolls, he feeds off of annoyance and it only takes one reply to give him reinforcement.
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Nov 20, 2018 02:22
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I actually really wanted to take this moment to talk about CPAP experiences, even though it's outside the spirit of the thread somewhat, because I have one and it's done me no good at all. Sadly, I can see that that isn't going to happen given the current tenor of the thread.
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Nov 21, 2018 21:50
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Well, since there was interest, here's what happened with my CPAP experience; Back in the spring of '15 I had a sleep study done of whose results I am fairly dubious. Reason being: All of the tubes that were hooked up to me forced me to sleep on my back, which I haven't been able to do since childhood, and I didn't get any sleep. I was diagnosed with severe apnoea (more than 30 incidents per hour, I believe) which wasn't that surprising, but that night was hardly representative of how I sleep. I have always been uniquely a side-sleeper and, even with CPAP, I cannot sleep on my back, period. I simply cannot doze off. Here has always been my sleeping problem: I sleep perfectly well when I don't need to. I have no problem sleeping at all when I don't have to get up early in the morning; when I do have to wake up at even a moderately early hour, I almost always struggle. I don't doubt that I have sleep apnoea as I have been a moderate to severe asthmatic my whole life and may have COPD despite never smoking or the like. As an example of how bad I could get, shortly before the sleep study I had a job where I had to be in at 10 AM, Monday through Friday. Not terribly early, but not having a day off in mid-week to get a decent sleep was brutal on me. One week, I hadn't slept in four nights running and, on a Thursday, I nearly fainted from exhaustion during my late lecture, which was utterly terrifying. Nevertheless, when I don't have to wake up at a specific hour I sleep perfectly well and wake up feeling refreshed and rested even though I snore like a chainsaw. In the previous example, I always slept very well on the weekend after being miserable all week. I was given a CPAP machine in the autumn of 2015. I tried this CPAP machine for 4 months, and it didn't help in the slightest. At the time that I received the CPAP machine, I had to be at work at 9 AM on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I would sleep very well four nights of the week and badly the other three; there's no prize for guessing which three. My difficulty sleeping would take many forms: I would have a hard time getting to sleep, I would wake up intermittently all through the night for no reason, or I would wake up at 5:30 AM for no reason and eventually get up because I knew that further sleep was impossible. The end result was always the same in that I would be exhausted all day. What is frustrating about this is that I gave the machine a proper try - I was looking for anything to help me rest better - and it didn't work, but every doctor I see acts as if I did something wrong and that a CPAP machine is a magic bullet. I've gotten very tired of looking for help with my sleeping problems because nobody listens. It seems to me that I have some kind of mental issue that causes anxiety and stops me from sleeping under stress, but doctors just keep blathering on about CPAP and I've kind of given up. The other problem is that I have very bad sinuses dating back from my childhood and, unless I take a shot of Afrin or the like, I cannot reliably breathe through my nose. My left nostril is bad but my right nostril, most of the time, is a no-passing zone. Because of that, the only CPAP mask I can wear is the huge one that covers my mouth and nose. Since I can only sleep on my side, it's almost impossible to contort my body in such a way that I can comfortably sleep while still maintaining the pressure seal around the mask. I also roll over often in the night, which exacerbates the problem. After months of fighting with that and not sleeping better nor feeling more rested come the morning, I gave up. I even bought one of those pillows that has the cut-out bits on each side for CPAP patients, but I'm guessing that it was designed for someone with a head the size of a grapefruit and a swan neck, because it didn't work for me and I wasted a fortune on it. I ended up donating the pillow to the sleep clinic. So, that's my CPAP story. I'm sad because I really hoped that it would help me and frustrated/bitter because doctors keep insisting that it will make my life better when it didn't.
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Nov 21, 2018 23:37
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hobbesmaster posted:Do you not have follow ups with your sleep physician about these concerns? Assuming that you mean me, yes, of course. The basic response seemed to be that I would be better off using it because I would get more oxygen during sleep and it's easier on my internal organs and so on. My concerns about not sleeping better and actually being able to wear the bloody thing were mostly ignored. Now you know why I became so frustrated.
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Nov 22, 2018 02:05
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Azhais posted:Out of curiosity did you try the nose mask or just write it off due to sinus issues? Unless you're a mouth breather (which the sleep study should tell you) it might be worth a shot to see if it works better for you. One of the big concerns I had going in was "what if I have a cold?" hobbesmaster posted:That probably varies greatly on your particular sinuses because while I’m not a mouth breather while sleeping if I don’t have a cold I am when I do have a cold. I eventually switched to a full face mask from nasal pillows because of that. That did come up, and the consensus was that, while sleeping, my body will naturally default to breathing more easily through my mouth and a nasal mask would be useless. I agree wholeheartedly that, if I were able to properly use the nose-only mask, I would have had a much better experience in terms of comfort. I am still of the opinion that it would not help me feel more rested as I am of the mind that my problem is more mental than physical.
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Nov 22, 2018 17:24
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Tiler Kiwi posted:Out of curiosity I looked up the WLF and the first thing I see on wikipedia that leaps out is I'm with you; I feel genuinely kill when these days when I see the word "freedom", particularly when talking about the US. It's become a buzzword for "my supposed right to be able to do anything I want and have no social conscience, regardless of consequences."
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Nov 25, 2018 17:35
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If I could lead the string of oligarchs off to the guillotine, and wouldn't that be fun, Charles Koch would be at the head of the queue. He's the most dangerous of the horrible people that run the world: A zealot with horrible beliefs and near-infinite resources who is competent. Trump is a piece of poo poo, but his ego and stupidity trip him up; Charles knows exactly what he is doing and uses that to the systematic imiseration of the masses. The most disgusting part is that I live in a world that tells me that I should admire him because he's
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Nov 26, 2018 22:42
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I just spent a full week in hospital due to not one but two pulmonary embolisms. I only have any insurance due to the Medicaid expansion, but I'm alive because of it. Cost to me: $0 with no hidden costs, including that of my own life which would have been lost without it. Tell me how only the free market can provide effective health care.
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Dec 6, 2018 23:10
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i am harry posted:I know there are some clear examples already, but I'm going to describe a scenario I currently find myself in, to illustrate the problem: Not to bury the lead, but how the bloody hell did you find a return ticket from Colorado to Britain for $300?!?
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Dec 14, 2018 20:53
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Mr. Nice! posted:The best thing to come out of the navy breaking my body and mind is I don't ever have to put up with that kind of bullshit. Everyone's healthcare access should be at least as good as mine. I have heard alternating stories that are wonderful and miserable, in regards to the VA, but I don't form opinions based on anecdotes regardless. However, I am sure that all of the republicans and a good number of the democrats, prodded by private health care interests and libertarian "think" tanks (spot the oxymoron here), are working hammer and tongs to dismantle health care for veterans and active service alike while endlessly repeating "We support our troops
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Jan 24, 2019 23:26
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Mr. Nice! posted:They want to privatize it, but I say gently caress that. Some things, yeah, it would be nice to see private practice. There are some speciality clinics that I have to drive to see. That part sucks. I'm with you mate. I'm a veteran myself, but not of the US armed forces and I served domestically in peace time, so I wouldn't begin to compare myself to servicemen who were in combat or dangerous postings. That said, the Medicaid expansion saved my life last month when I spent a week at the hospital with two sizeable pulmonary embolisms - cost to me was $0 and I pay $1 a month for my coverage. Without it, they either stabilise me and send me out with a large bill and the distinct possibility of dying or they care for me as they did and my cost would have been surely six figures. On a slightly different note, I realise that Medicare-for-All is a big issue right now and, while it would be a massive improvement for huge numbers of people, I'm not that chuffed with it. I fully understand that it's the only politically feasible idea for comprehensive health care in this joke of a country, but Medicare is very limited in a lot of ways and a nation as wealthy as the US can do better. I'm probably "spoiled" by functional health care systems like the NHS and la Sécu in France, but one thing that I really don't like about Medicare are the high co-pays due for services such as seeing doctors and the 300-some dollars for any surgery. Again, I'm not saying that it's worse than the status quo, but fees like that really disincentivise people seeking care and this hesitation can lead to things getting worse, and more costly. Given the masses of people in America who have no savings and are living meagre paycheck-to-paycheck, even a $30 co-pay to see a generalist is a huge expense and can lead to a triviality becoming serious. Nobody with half a brain believes that masses of people are going to see doctors for no reason or have scans done with no reason, and I feel strongly about that aspect of Medicare. Again, I'm probably biased in favour of the NHSs no-fee at the point of service model, but that doesn't mean that I'm wrong either.
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Jan 25, 2019 02:05
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Willa Rogers posted:Again: Bernie's plan for improved and expanded medicare for all is more like an improved & expanded medicaid for all: there are no premiums, no copays and no deductibles. You're right Willa, I was just criticising Medicare, as it is right now for seniors, generalised to the entire population.
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Jan 25, 2019 04:29
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BarbarianElephant posted:19% of uninsured people think m4a would leave them worse off... Can't help some morons, can you? To be fair, the amount of corporate propaganda of various forms is colossal. When oligarchs control the mass media, they control the narrative. It's one of the many reasons that I don't watch television and basically practice strategic deafness; it's just a lot of shite and lies trying to get me to buy rubbish I don't need or support ideas that benefit the powerful at the expense of the weak.
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Jan 25, 2019 17:25
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I love the fact that, no matter what the proposal, nobody but Bernie ever says "Tax the gently caress out of the rich since they took all of their money from working people anyway" I appreciate your rigour, MOOSE, but I am getting very tired of people (not you, but people in general) talking about the unfeasibility of universal health care in this country when far, far less wealthy countries manage to do so very well. I understand that the logistics are challenging and that Big Pharma/Care is going to do everything possible to sabotage it, just to be clear. Thing is, this isn't the USA being in the vanguard about universal health care and trying some brave new "socialist" experiment; this is something that's been proven to work well in dozens of societies with far less resources. I honestly cannot determine if the sceptics out there genuinely don't see how to do this or if they are being deliberately obtuse in order to hide their disdain for so-called communism or to better serve their corporate overlords.
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Jan 30, 2019 18:31
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Rhesus Pieces posted:The only reason anyone would want to spare private insurance is if they or a lot of their constituents make money off of the private insurance industry. I disagree in the very, very limited sense that very upper class and outright wealthy people are probably, and justifiably, very happy with their healthcare. I'm saying this more to support your position, with which I fully agree, than to argue against it, but American health care is quite possibly the best in the world... for a single-digit percentage of the population, so gently caress them because most of them are libertarians and/or made all of their money stealing wages from working people. Even in health care, America is a country with a lot of incredibly selfish people who still cling to the "disenfranchised millionaire" mindset and are certain that any day they will be millionaires with clones growing in a vat somewhere. Also, even people who are struggling, of which there are tens of millions, love to "punch down" and will gladly suffer terrible health care so long as someone they don't like has none... while not-so-secretly paying for that person's ER visit which is far more expensive than it should be due to a lack of obtainable preventive care and the profit motive. I am an American citizen and I feel that I have every right to say that, while humans are inherently very selfish and spiteful by nature, Americans in general are the worst of the lot among prominent nations. The entire country's culture is based off of using "hard work" (read: manipulation, nepotism and exploiting power) to get into a position where one can look down on everyone else and laugh at their misery for being so lazy while these supposedly workshy parasites work long hours for virtually nothing. As bad as my native Britain is, America always finds a way to lower the bar.
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Jan 30, 2019 21:33
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Willa Rogers posted:According to the instructions, you only have to formally file for an exemption for a handful of situations but I agree about keeping records. I'm hosed in regards to this and I don't know what to do. I had health coverage through my employer in 2017 through May of that year. My job officially ended on 15 May but my health care ran through the 31st. I didn't even try to get anything else because I was in a shite southern state that didn't accept the Medicaid expansion. However at the end of July '17 I moved to another state and that is a solidly "red" state, so I assumed that it didn't opt for the expansion either. It turns out that I was wrong, but I didn't end up signing on to the expansion until July of 2018 because I very literally believed that I couldn't get Medicaid in this lovely state. I was unemployed from when I arrived in this other state from about 29 July until the second half of November. The job that I took was technically full-time and offered insurance, but it the insurance on offer was awful: the monthly premium wasn't terrible but the job paid so poorly that it ate up a huge portion of wages, plus the plan had a huge deductible/excess as well as high out-of-pocket costs and other woeful inadequacies. I changed jobs in February of 2018 and it was the same story there... technically full-time, but horrid benefits that would eat up huge portions of my income for gently caress all coverage. I've been unemployed since 30 April '18 and on Medicaid, which has been great to me and literally saved my life, since about July. I filed my taxes for 2017 and claimed hardship, but I didn't back it up with anything. I couldn't afford to pay the huge mandate penalty and I assumed that being unemployed half the year counted as harship, but I may have just been grasping at straws due to being broke and not being able to absorb a steep fine for not paying for terrible insurance that does sod all. I was unemployed for 8 out of 12 months of 2018 and on Medicaid for about half the year, and I don't see much choice except to do what you mentioned earlier, Willa, about filing hardship (yet again, for me). Plus, I keep having to not try for jobs because the insurance they offer is awful but the income is high enough to disqualify me from Medicaid and I have a lot of health problems (the state classifies me as "medically frail", so I have access to all Medicaid benefits) and thus have to see a lot of doctors, so taking a job that costs me Medicaid would ruin me financially and healthwise. But, the max income for Medicaid is so low that I can't find jobs whose salary keeps under the threshold. Of course, America still has the best health care in the world. Apologies if I rambled; I'm half asleep as I write this. If anybody has any advice I'm all ears, but I'm very, very worried - particularly about tax year 2017 but also 2018. I have a feeling that the IRS is going to come back and cut my nuts off, but I only have a few hundred dollars to my name and, well, poverty makes people do stupid things.
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Feb 5, 2019 06:52
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I just wanted to say three things: 1) Firstly, thank you for the replies. 2) I'm surprised at how cogent my post was considering that I couldn't keep my eyes open. 3) One reason for my concern is that I slightly underpaid my state tax some years ago and, even though I'd moved across the country, they caught up to me two years later. I had to pay the tax and a tiny penalty. This annoyed me, but I could easily absorb the blow then because I had a passable income. Now I'm facing a bigger potential sum with virtually no income, and it frightens me. Edit: I wanted to make it clear that my remark about the US health care system was meant very much ironically. It is not only a shitstorm of ridiculously high costs and traps designed to enrich the already rich at the expense of the needy, but it is riddled with perverse incentives such as those that I mentioned.
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Feb 5, 2019 22:25
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