Author Topic: what surprised you today...  (Read 74052 times)

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Offline PsPBuRnOuT

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Re: what surprised you today...
« Reply #345 on: January 23, 2017, 04:58:12 PM »
That My Grandson Can Also Walk Backwards :)


For Mum R.I.P.

Offline smokester

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Re: what surprised you today...
« Reply #346 on: January 24, 2017, 03:07:29 PM »
That My Grandson Can Also Walk Backwards :)

Reminds me of a song by the Goons.
Don't put off until tomorrow, what you can put off until the day after.

There is an exception to every rule, apart from this one.

Offline 8ullfrog

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Re: what surprised you today...
« Reply #347 on: January 24, 2017, 06:10:25 PM »
Health insurance terminated for lack of income.

I'm going to die.

Offline brickbatz

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Re: what surprised you today...
« Reply #348 on: January 24, 2017, 07:33:03 PM »
Health insurance terminated for lack of income.

I'm going to die.

You must qualify for Medicaid.

Offline 8ullfrog

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Re: what surprised you today...
« Reply #349 on: January 24, 2017, 08:14:06 PM »
Medi-Cal in my state, that is what was cut off.

The good news is that the county will cover me until the end of the month - next week, and I have two medication refills.

I already have legal representation, hopefully they will be able to help.

But yeah, reading that notice was like receiving a death sentence.

Offline 6pairsofshoes

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Re: what surprised you today...
« Reply #350 on: January 25, 2017, 12:02:23 AM »
This is an uncivilized country, so backwards, especially in the context of most other industrialized nations.  That you should live in fear of not being able to get access to a doctor or a hospital should you become sick when this country is one of the wealthiest on earth is a shameful situation.  That it's filled with ignorant people who would vote against their own interests so that the current administration will do all in its power to throw the poor and disadvantaged to the dogs is just another thing to sigh about.  What to do?  I have few answers.  I march in the streets and a fat lot of good it does, although it makes for good tv and interesting press.

Offline smokester

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Re: what surprised you today...
« Reply #351 on: January 25, 2017, 04:35:33 PM »
The idea of no social healthcare frightens the life out of me (no pun intended).  I recently had a couple of health scares that I had assessed at the Chelsea and Westminster hospital and I was treated so well, thoroughly and efficiently, that I commented that private healthcare could not have competed with their service.

Mind you, St George's hospital in Tooting where I usually go is just pants.

Don't put off until tomorrow, what you can put off until the day after.

There is an exception to every rule, apart from this one.

Offline 8ullfrog

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Re: what surprised you today...
« Reply #352 on: January 26, 2017, 07:58:28 AM »
For those that wonder, I used to pay $40 a pop for clinic visits if I had a condition that kept me from work. California is an "at will" employment state, so if you piss off the scheduling manager, you can kiss your ass goodbye.

So if an eye swelled shut, or an airway closed, $40.

Oh, and they are not nice about it. If you've got two issues, you're poo out of luck, they'll hear one.

Then medication bleeds your bank account.

So medi-cal was a bless'ed godsend. Flash the card, see the doc, collect the meds. I even felt bad about it, because of the expense.

Today might be my last doctors visit. I didn't sleep, obviously.

Offline goldshirt*9

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Re: what surprised you today...
« Reply #353 on: January 26, 2017, 08:11:29 AM »
wouldn't have Obama care made things easier (be nice as  dont know that much about it)

Offline 8ullfrog

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Re: what surprised you today...
« Reply #354 on: January 26, 2017, 10:48:30 AM »
They actually got me my medi-cal coverage that is now being cancelled.

Trump executive ordered the states to "find relief" from the ACA.

Offline dweez

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Re: what surprised you today...
« Reply #355 on: January 26, 2017, 12:19:33 PM »
Obama care certainly shaked things up and wasn't initially received well.  Understood.  For many, it was another added expense that was hitting their already bruised and beaten wallet.  But again for many, and for a large percentage, the initial detractors, it turned out to be a good thing and now that they've had a taste, taking it away, IMO, is going to leave the US in a worse spot then it started at.  Not to mention a waste of the funds used to start it added with the funds used to shutter it.

Was Obama Care implemented in the best way possible?  Probably not, but it was a foot in the door that if the Trump wasn't so dead set to close, could allow us to continue to build on and improve it.  I think the next step should be not to close it but to do a re-audit of the medical procedures.  The cost for many of the medical procedures are still based on the original analysis by the insurance companies from decades ago.  An operation that currently costs several hundred thousand dollars now realistically costs a small percentage of that thanks to advances in medical technology and research.  Yet the price is still being set by the analysis from years ago.

I respect doctors and the training they go through to help people live better and think they should get paid what they deserve but I don't want the insurance companies bilking the people just because they can (it sort of reminds me of record producers, giving the musicians a drop while they take the whole ocean).
--dweez

Offline smokester

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Re: what surprised you today...
« Reply #356 on: January 26, 2017, 02:35:03 PM »
Tooting? You must know Wolfie Smith.

I do. He drinks in the Corner Pin and cleans windows for a living these days.
Don't put off until tomorrow, what you can put off until the day after.

There is an exception to every rule, apart from this one.

Offline 6pairsofshoes

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Re: what surprised you today...
« Reply #357 on: January 26, 2017, 03:14:59 PM »
Before the ACA, our health insurance premiums were more expensive than our mortgage.  Without help from the government, our insurance premiums, for two adults, were $1500/month, or $18k/year.  The ACA allowed us to pay $500, but then it was to go up to $800, but we were able to switch to a less expensive plan.  We live in fear of what the Trump administration will do to our living expenses, if the subsidy goes away.  We are both self employed so we have to purchase insurance on the marketplace.

People who have employer-provided health insurance have no idea what the rest of us deal with.  And it's not like we have an option when a single visit to the emergency room can run into the thousands of dollars.  What was amazing was how expensive the "retail" price of care was versus the price that was billed to the insurance company on our billing statements.  There would be the retail price for the procedure, then the "allowable amount" that the insurance company would pay (which the provider had to reduce their charge to) then the insured's "copay" responsibility.  It's really astonishing how these middlemen (insurers) cause an inflation in the medical fees. 

When I was a college student in a small town, you could go see a doctor and pay for the visit.  It wasn't something that would break the bank.  Now it's nuts.  You can't really pay for doctor visits as a private citizen unless you are very wealthy.   The idea of not having health insurance is just not feasible.

Offline 8ullfrog

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Re: what surprised you today...
« Reply #358 on: January 28, 2017, 01:57:04 AM »
I managed to cobble together a stargate collection from resale shops, I'm missing the film "ark of truth" and have yet to find dvd copies of atlantis.

I did find breaking bad season 2 today.

Sleep is poo. I called the county to try and fix my healthcare issue. They said they got my updated info packet and that I need to wait.

Good news is I had a follow up appointment with the doc. Most of it looks good, and he rammed through a fill order for my meds. Last visit he was woried that my condition had adapted to the meds.thankfully that isn't so.

Bad news is it didn't include refills, so I've got a month to fix my problem or, as a randite would prefer, croak.

It's funny, one pill a day seems like the smallest thing in the world, until it extends to your death.

Gods know the current pharmaceutical industry will never cure anything again. Like Chris Rock said, they're probably still pissed they can't sell a "treatment" for polio.

Offline smokester

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Re: what surprised you today...
« Reply #359 on: January 28, 2017, 03:30:55 PM »
Iceland (the frozen food shop) really surprised me today. I hadn't been there for a while and didn't realise is had gone posh.

It had posh prices too, which really confused me.
Don't put off until tomorrow, what you can put off until the day after.

There is an exception to every rule, apart from this one.