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U.S. Politics part X


EHK for Darwin

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Now, I'm a 25 year old, athletic, non-smoking male. How difficult would this be for me? And, more importantly for my question, how hard is it for other people? For their families?

In my experience, the difficulty is really about preexisting conditions. If you have one that's more serious than, say, a normal allergy, you either won't get covered by normal insurance or else the condition will be excluded from the policy. It's either that or Medicaid, which I believe is means-tested.

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I feel a little ignorant asking this, but I want to hear something from other than news outlets: Just how hard to get/expensive is medical insurance in the US these days? I have been fortunate in my life, with benefits available to me before I really understood how it was they were benefiting me. In Peace Corps, I had excellent health care, provided by the US government. Now, I get insurance through the Korean government. I have never had to shop around for health care, nor have I ever paid for it.

I am in favor of universal coverage, because too many stories tell of uninsured people getting little/no care for very treatable things. Because I don't think a child should ever perish because the parents couldn't afford better coverage, couldn't pay to protect them. But, I have never actually had to think about how it affects me, nor have I had to worry too much about my family, either (sister works for state, so she and her family are good, brother and his wife have the same as I had). My father, in his mid 50s, spent 2 years without any insurance when he was laid off. But he never wanted to talk about it with me.

Now, I'm a 25 year old, athletic, non-smoking male. How difficult would this be for me? And, more importantly for my question, how hard is it for other people? For their families?

The idea of universal health care in the US has been around since 1912. And until recently the group most actively opposed to it was...the American Medical Association.

You may not have any medical issues now, but you are in a high-risk group--a young male, and according to the actuaries you are far more likely (statistically) to engage in high-risk behaviors. Even so, I'm not sure how much it would cost you.

I insure myself and my daughter. Because I work for the government, I pay a whopping $20 a month and believe me I know it could be a lot worse. I can't believe how many people bitched and complained when we had to start paying a little bit. They've worked here for so long they have no clue what's going on in the real world...I'm happy to only be paying that much!

My employer pays just under $1,000 a month. It was around $900, but it just went up again at the beginning of the year. They raise the premiums and decrease the amount of coverage you get. Now we have to do this thing called Lifestyle Returns. We'll get a $400 "rebate" if we complete this program, but if you don't do it, they will deduct $400 out of your paycheck next year. (In other words, it's not voluntary and it's not a rebate. You're paying $400 which is waived if you complete the program.)

I, too, am in favor of universal health care. I work public health and it's just horrifying to see young people dying of diseases that are either preventable or treatable. We do need a preventative component to it. A lot of diseases are preventable and we need to do a much better job educating people.

Hillarycare would have worked. Someone brought that up earlier. When her report was written, Congress (led by, of course, the Republicans) NEVER EVEN READ IT. They voted it down without reading a single page. The GAO said that it would be expensive at first, but it would have worked and we wouldn't be in this mess now. Instead of national health care, the insurance companies invented HMO's. Worst Idea Ever. All it did was ensure that the price of health care skyrocketed, keeping poor people sick and dying from treatable illnesses, and it ensured that the drug companies became fabulously wealthy.

And we wonder why the rest of the world thinks we're little better than arrogant barbarians.

Rich people don't care about the poor (and middle class) and uninsured, even uninsured children. They just don't. It's not in their best interest.

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Back to health care for a moment. My company is closing its doors, and announced only Friday that the health care group is being shut down at the end of the month.

Aw Tracker, I'm sorry to hear that. I hope you'll be all right. How is it that COBRA doesn't apply?

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Now, I'm a 25 year old, athletic, non-smoking male. How difficult would this be for me? And, more importantly for my question, how hard is it for other people? For their families?

My Mom is paying $600 a month for herself. She was rejected by a few companies due to her osteoporosis but not all; I forget who she ended up with.

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I'm pretty shocked that there's no COBRA coverage for you with your company shutting down. I thought that was precisely the sort of situation in which you were supposed to have that kind of coverage available. So you weren't left hanging and uninsured.

I guess this serves you right for choosing to work for the wrong company? If you had chosen to work for a better company, one that had been more successful, you wouldn't be in this situation. So it's all just an indication of how the market is working properly, or something.

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Putting this here as there's nothing substansive about it to warrant its inclusion in the Sotomayor thread.

Mark Krikorian, writing at the National Review's Corner, tells us in a post titled "It Sticks in My Craw" that "Putting the emphasis on the final syllable of Sotomayor is unnatural in English."

And why is that?

Part of our success in assimilation has been to leave whole areas of culture up to the individual, so that newcomers have whatever cuisine or religion or so on they want, limiting the demand for conformity to a smaller field than most other places would. But one of the areas where conformity is appropriate is how your new countrymen say your name, since that's not something the rest of us can just ignore, unlike what church you go to or what you eat for lunch. And there are basically two options -- the newcomer adapts to us, or we adapt to him. And multiculturalism means there's a lot more of the latter going on than there should be.

http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2009/05/27/...cing_sotomayor/

Mm mm mm. That's going to help with the Hispanic vote. Good grief.

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Aw Tracker, I'm sorry to hear that. I hope you'll be all right. How is it that COBRA doesn't apply?

Thanks. As to COBRA, that law only helps you if there is still an employer-maintained group plan in which former employees can participate. My employer is disappearing entirely and not maintaining the group, so there is nothing for me to, uh, COBRA with. Oh, and to add to the fun, that stimulus money that helps you pay for COBRA? Can't be applied to the private insurance I am now pursuing. So those who get laid off from solvent companies are much, much better off than those who go down with the ship.

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Sen. Roland Burris back in the news.

From the linked article:

The recording, secretly made by the FBI and released Tuesday by a Chicago federal judge as part of a Senate ethics investigation, contradicts a Jan. 5 Burris affidavit in which he said under oath that he had not discussed the Senate seat with Blagojevich or any of his representatives.

During the Nov. 13 conversation, Burris told the governor's brother, Rob Blagojevich, that he was willing to join a fundraising event and would send a personal check.

"I will personally do something. And it'll be done before the 15th of December," Burris said. He added, "And tell Rod to keep me in mind for that seat, would ya?"

Rod Blagojevich was arrested Dec. 8 on corruption charges that included allegations of trying to sell the Senate seat vacated by President Obama. Three weeks later, he appointed Burris to fill the remainder of Obama's term.

Burris did not send a check. He also did not mention his discussions with Rob Blagojevich, who headed the governor's fundraising operation, with state lawmakers investigating the governor -- either in his Jan. 5 affidavit or during sworn testimony Jan. 8.

So, is promising to send money for a position a crime, or an ethics problem, if you never actually sent the money? It seems as though it is perjury given that he swore he never talked to Blago about the seat but now he is shown to have expressly asked for the seat.

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As to COBRA, that law only helps you if there is still an employer-maintained group plan in which former employees can participate. My employer is disappearing entirely and not maintaining the group, so there is nothing for me to, uh, COBRA with. Oh, and to add to the fun, that stimulus money that helps you pay for COBRA? Can't be applied to the private insurance I am now pursuing. So those who get laid off from solvent companies are much, much better off than those who go down with the ship.

Damn, that's a whole lot of suck in five sentences. :(

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Damn, that's a whole lot of suck in five sentences. :(

Yes. So you'll understand why it really burns me when my coworkers will complain that they don't want to pay more taxes for UHC. They'd rather pay $400 or $500 a month for a private policy that excludes every condition that actually requires care to avoid paying an additional $100 a year for a basic plan that would cover them regardless of preexisting condition. Talk about penny wise and pound foolish!

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Now, I'm a 25 year old, athletic, non-smoking male. How difficult would this be for me? And, more importantly for my question, how hard is it for other people? For their families?

I too am a 25 year old athletic non-smoking male. I had health insurance (about 50/month) from my first employer out of college. then I've been freelance and didn't have health insurance from Sept 07-April 08. Then I decided I should probably get health insurance, since my employer at the time was making noises about bringing me on staff (and getting access to employer health insurance) I got a "good" rate for a few months of 90$ or so a month. (I wanted copay and a small deductible). the fucking company never even sent me an insurance card. anyways, after about five months they jacked it up to 130 a month, but I didn't worry because in a month or two it sounded like I was going to get on staff and company insurance. Then I got a new, better, higher paying job. instead and kept what I had. last week I got a letter that they're jacking it up to 170 a month.

I've never used this fucking insurance for anything in the 14 months I've had it. what a fucking waste of money. I'm canceling the policy and I'll probably go without for a few months. I'm hoping there'll be a decent government policy coming down the pike, but I refuse to subsidize a crappy insurance company when I'm nothing but money in the bank to them. they should treat me right, instead they want to fuck me. fuck them.

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I've never used this fucking insurance for anything in the 14 months I've had it. what a fucking waste of money. I'm canceling the policy and I'll probably go without for a few months. I'm hoping there'll be a decent government policy coming down the pike, but I refuse to subsidize a crappy insurance company when I'm nothing but money in the bank to them. they should treat me right, instead they want to fuck me. fuck them.

If while uninsured you should be diagnosed with some serious condition like diabetes, leukemia, cancer or the like you will be the one who gets fucked. There's not an insurer in this nation that will cover you with a serious preexisting condition, unless of course you pay a king's ransom in monthly premiums. So I'd rethink that stance if I were you, because the fact is that the rules of health insurance are set up to benefit employers and insurers, and not you or I. But as you like.

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Sen. Roland Burris back in the news.

It seems as though it is perjury given that he swore he never talked to Blago about the seat but now he is shown to have expressly asked for the seat.

Somehow I doubt "Perjurer" is going to make the monument.

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Thanks. As to COBRA, that law only helps you if there is still an employer-maintained group plan in which former employees can participate. My employer is disappearing entirely and not maintaining the group, so there is nothing for me to, uh, COBRA with. Oh, and to add to the fun, that stimulus money that helps you pay for COBRA? Can't be applied to the private insurance I am now pursuing. So those who get laid off from solvent companies are much, much better off than those who go down with the ship.

Ugh. I'm sorry to hear that TN. Good luck...

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Mm mm mm. That's going to help with the Hispanic vote. Good grief.

Good grief indeed. I suppose all those Americans of all ethnic backgrounds over the years who've given their daughters originally French names such as Michelle, Renee, Louise, Diane, Annette, etc. are somehow rudely corrupting the English language by asking people to accent them on the second syllable? And the Republican governor of Rhode Island should start pronouncing his last name as CAR-seery instead of car-CHAIR-ee?

The mind boggles at such nonsense.

P.S. Not to mention, why doesn't Mr. Krikorian change his Armenian surname to Gregory, its English counterpart, if he thinks keeping a name which sounds odd in English is unpatriotic?

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Sen. Roland Burris back in the news.

I'm pretty sure we're squarely in felony territory, aren't we? Fun!

Let me remind our right-wingers that most of us liberals thought he was scummy too.

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