patrick.net

I’m wondering if other individuals

My individual plan (PPO with BlueShield) started at $170/mo for a $1700/yr deductible in 2008.

Now it's $170/mo for a $4500/yr deductible.

Thank you Republicans for blocking the public option in the cynical attempt to make reform Obama's "Waterloo".

High deductible with HSA not a bad idea probably.

I'm not sure how you're buying your health care, but less than 10 employees puts you at their mercy really. Most companies that size use an HR company. I'm guessing someone at your company is "using" the insurance, thus they can jack up your rates to get rid of you, while they can't do that as easily with an HR company because of the sheer number of people involved there.

They still jack up rates insanely anyways. Higher copays + flex spending helps. By 2018, you'll probably be able to find another provider to dodge that. But realistically, yoy increases on any provider is going to be a problem. If 33% puts you over the limit now, that means even if you had a 4% increase yoy, it would basically put you into the same boat in 7 years.

thunderlips11 says

how on earth an MRI costs $300 in Tokyo but $2000 in Tampa

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120545569

I think someone mentioned here that joining with your chamber of commerce, might allow you to buy into their health care package?

I'm not sure if that's for individuals, or if small businesses could benefit from that.

they can pretty much charge what they want, using non-discriminatory things such as costs, age of employees & health status, etc. You're totally screwed. Sorry. A public option would have been nice but unfortunately healthcare will continue to soar upward.

Think of it this way... I had a credit card at 9%. It was raised to 19% when the cc reform was suggested, then 29% with a small monthly rebate after it passed but before it took effect.

"reform" is certainly not reforming...

Does this mean physician salary will go up?

Nah more likely it keeps going down / staying stable and patient premiums keep going up. I wonder where it's going to? Oh yeah I know 1) HMO CEOs and administrative cost (private and govt) 2) "self-pay" aka no-pay patient cost coverage

Thanks Troy. My wife if an MD so perhaps she has some insights here...

cheers.

https://x.com/RobertKennedyJr/status/1852039026456285455

https://x.com/KimDotcom/status/1852306377504608646

@Rin cocktail for infections, lift to defer frailty in old age. Other than that, do the opposite of what grlobohomo is telling you to do:

!00% grass fed beef from local farms - it's a complete nutrient (100%). It's the same for fatty fish (salmon), seals, and any other fatty animal.
Saturated fats are your friends - butter, cream, lard, suet, etc.
Seed oils are the devil - Olive and Peanut in moderation, maybe coconut or avocado, but these are almost expensive as pure lard and suet.
No sugar or processed carbs which are converted immediately to sugar by the amylase in your saliva.
Tubers like potatoes and sweet potatoes are good, as well as vegetables that taste good. If a tomato tastes like nothing, it's shit. Remember - our sense of taste evolved to let us find the tastiest and most nutritious forage.

stereotomy says

our sense of taste evolved to let us find the tastiest and most nutritious forage.

True, but only stuff that is naturally scarce, which is why sugar taste so sweet.

HeadSet says

stereotomy says

our sense of taste evolved to let us find the tastiest and most nutritious forage.

True, but only stuff that is naturally scarce, which is why sugar taste so sweet.

The sense of taste is not just for sugar. Why do you think humans think clad coins are stinky - they reveal the scavenger origins of our ancestors. Oxidizing metals in the blood of slain animals being carried in the wind.

stereotomy says

they reveal the scavenger origins of our ancestors

Ugh. I would rather think of my ancestors as fierce hunters who brought down and barbequed mammoths rather than ghouls who competed with buzzards for carrion.

https://x.com/newstart_2024/status/1862529235249758393

Most doctors are full-on ineffective. They will tell you the current narrative lie just to get you to gobble $$$pharma$$$hite.

RFK Jr. has it right - seek whole foods - it's the big ag and big chem companies that are poisoning our food.

It's gotten so bad now that possibly flour is not safe; instead, it's contaminated with "roundup ready" GMO wheat and glyphosate.

There's no such thing as GMO wheat that is commercially available.

True!

And the problem with ivermectin is that it is extremely cheap as well as very effective.

Similar for HCQ.

Our government is a mafia which is killing large numbers of people for profit.

https://ground.news/article/exclusive-unitedhealthcare-ceo-fatally-shot-outside-of-hilton-hotel-in-midtown-in-possible-targeted-attack-sources

UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson Fatally Shot in Manhattan

Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was fatally shot on Wednesday morning in a targeted attack outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel.
Thompson was in Manhattan for UnitedHealthcare’s 2024 investor conference when he was killed.
The New York Police Department reported that the suspect fled the scene and remains at large; no arrests have been made.

There are 50 million suspects, the customers of UnitedHealthcare.

Patrick says

There are 50 million suspects, the customers of UnitedHealthcare.

I was watching an interview of Eric Bethel on YouTube. He was saying that in China, there is no moral code. We are probably better than China as people but man a health system that exploits its children because its legal is not the nicest.

gabbar says

I was watching an interview of Eric Bethel on YouTube. He was saying that in China, there is no moral code. We are probably better than China as people but man a health system that exploits its children because its legal is not the nicest.

Remind me how did you react to mayor of NY banning oversized drink cups at fast food places some years ago. Did you, like other principled conservatives on this site, scream "you can pry that XL soda drink from my cold dead hands, you fucking Commie cunt!"? 🤡

Obligatory:

We do not yet know the motive for the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. But it would not surprise me if the killer stalked Thompson because UnitedHealthcare had denied medical coverage, or forced a family or an individual into bankruptcy, after the company failed to cover a serious illness. Insurers reject about 1 in 7 claims for treatment, often by deciding the treatment is not “medically necessary.”

Among 10 high-income nations, the United States spends the most on health care but has the worst health outcomes. Americans die four years earlier than their counterparts in other industrialized nations.

There are more than 200 million Americans who rely on private health insurance, but once they become seriously ill, they are often tossed aside, left with crippling medical bills and unable to receive adequate treatment. Exorbitant medical bills account for about 40 percent bankruptcies. Many of those driven into bankruptcy because of medical bills had medical insurance.

The revenue of six largest insurers -- Anthem, Centene, Cigna, AVS/Aetna, Humana and UnitedHealth -- have more than quadrupled from 2010 to $1.1 trillion. Combined revenues of the 3 biggest -- United, CVS/Aetna and Cigna -- have quintupled.

These corporations, in moral terms, are legally permitted to hold sick children hostage while their parents bankrupt themselves to save their sons or daughters. That many die, at the very least premature deaths, because of these policies is indisputable.

Nothing absolves the killer of Thompson, but nothing absolves those who run for-profit health care corporations that embrace a business model that destroys and terminates lives in the name of profit.

- Chris Hedges @ChrisLynnHedges

gabbar says

Insurers reject about 1 in 7 claims for treatment, often by deciding the treatment is not “medically necessary.”

That's exactly what UH did to me for jaw surgery I needed to correct for a birth defect.

Kaiser ended up doing it. $83k procedure + meds, ice packs and other supplies. My payment: $1,200.

Kaiser can be bureaucratic, yes. But once you learn the system, it's actually pretty good.

gabbar says

or forced a family or an individual into bankruptcy

No one is forced into BK. Unfortunately people of lighter skin don't understand this. This is where blacks excel. And so do lawyers looking to get fees.

You don't pay it. Goes to collections. They cannot garnish wages. It goes away literally. Yes you get a credit ding. Even a $100k bill they'll settle for $500 if you even care. You can't go to jail for it.

Never spend more than you can afford of course. But medical, you don't have to pay and it's just a credit ding. Trust me, they'll still take your monthly premium. That's all they want. It's all scare tactics. I'm in dispute medically for my on the job seizure. I really said fuck you and figure it out with my employer, I'm not paying a dime since it happened on the job and I'm not talking to you. Year later, crickets. Nothing they can do.

And I get not everyone can do what I'm doing, but you don't have to file BK. Their only recourse is reporting it to the credit agencies and having a collector call you 3 times a day. My credit score is above average to good. I have $100k in credit card limits all paid off. I have no need for having a top notch credit score for the foreseeable future. Like 20 years when I want a retirement home in the Caribbean which will be a cash payment. I got to the top of the credit mountain and give no shits anymore.

https://acasignups.net/24/12/04/update-mea-culpa-looks-i-may-have-completely-botched-one
Insurers are noticing fraud.

gabbar says

it would not surprise me if the killer stalked Thompson because UnitedHealthcare had denied medical coverage,

Is there really any doubt in your mind???

zzyzzx says

gabbar says

it would not surprise me if the killer stalked Thompson because UnitedHealthcare had denied medical coverage,

Is there really any doubt in your mind???

OR:
A hit made to look that way. Sorta how the Seth Rich murder was made to look like a robbery.