patrick.net

Either way, the whole health care system is racket.

I once told my landlord that mold was growing on the dry wall due to a water leak. She offered to come paint over the mold.

Paint over mold. Hmmph! Like that solves anything!

Then you have "health care" in America. There are very few board certified clinicians who's profession does not involve "painting over mold."

"But it makes me feel better!"

Exactly.

Gogogan says

"But it makes me feel better!"

Sugar pills!

Gogogan says

I once told my landlord that mold was growing on the dry wall due to a water leak. She offered to come paint over the mold.

She is legally liable to clean up the mold. What state are you in?

FortWayne says

Gogogan says

I once told my landlord that mold was growing on the dry wall due to a water leak. She offered to come paint over the mold.

She is legally liable to clean up the mold. What state are you in?

Freedom 1789-2012

Thanks. I was aware of that, but was using this story to make a point.

Regarding the rental, the landlady hemmed and hawed, finally called an expert who said the entire wall had to be taken down and the adjacent windows re-set. She didn't want to do it. Our lease was close to cmpletion, so we waited a few weeks and moved out.

The Law is most beneficial if you are in a position to benefit from it. The legal battle would have done nothing for us short term and long term would have created plenty of animosity. So we left.

Precisely why he should be our next president.

HRHMedia says

I would also like to add Romneycare is not perfect and needs work. But It's a start.

Social Media Guru Since 1999

HRHMedia says

Healthcare for all is great thing.

It certainly is but Obamacare is nothing like that at all.

Obamacare (PPACA) does do a few good things and a whole lot of bad things which largely make the few good things moot.

I know some people like to think of the PPACA as a "thin edge of a wedge towards a UHS" but it really doesn't do that, if anything it entrenched for-profit-private-healthcare into our laws.

FWIW I'm more of a "do it right the first time" kind've guy so anything that isn't at least Medicare-for-All or a flat out UHS is a half assed patch on the situation.

tts says

I know some people like to think of the PPACA as a "thin edge of a wedge towards a UHS" but it really doesn't do that, if anything it entrenched for-profit-private-healthcare into our laws.

You were expecting something else? Money always wins.

Yet another article with no mention of an ACTUAL EOB (Explanation of Benefits) that ultimately tells us what a patient pays for services. The hospital pulls a number out of a rectal area and puts it on paper (say, 20,000 bucks) and sends it to you and your insurance company (if you have one). The insurance company negotiates and ends up paying 2 or 5 or 11 thousand (another rectal number), and the hospital says "OK", and then sends out another bill to someone who doesn't have an insurance "union" to bully the hospital down from their luxury prices.
The uninsured person files for bankruptcy, and the hospital files a loss claim to their bankruptcy insurance company (probably the same one that didn't pay the first hospital bill, and also the same company that financed the building of the luxury hospital in the exurbs, where only people who have enough money to drive a car will have access to the ER, thus reducing the risk of indigents showing up).
I'm talking about Wisconsin. I can't even begin to be cynical enough to discuss Californica's cluster...k.
P.S. The numbers I used above are REAL numbers from REAL E.O.B. statements. ..just rounded off.

Fascism: the marriage of corporations and the State.
Whether you want to call it a "tax" or not, it is fascism when the corporations set the prices and the government holds the gun to your head.
If the government (our 'representatives') decided to create a NHS, and regulated it via civil servants and tax us for it, then it would at least be done for the sake of the people (no matter how badly our government 'workers' would implement it).
When the anti-government zealots force the government to avoid doing government work under the guise of "cost cutting", the work that needs to be done gets swept under the carpet of "competitive contracting" and nobody takes on the responsibility for it because they are all trying to avoid being responsible for spending money.
This is the problem with making all decisions based on numbers on a piece of paper.

tts says

It certainly is but Obamacare is nothing like that at all.

Obamacare (PPACA) does do a few good things and a whole lot of bad things which largely make the few good things moot.

I know some people like to think of the PPACA as a "thin edge of a wedge towards a UHS" but it really doesn't do that, if anything it entrenched for-profit-private-healthcare into our laws.

Agreed, but please, let's make some footnote or something that recognizes the source of the ACA plan: it was the Republican counteroffer to Hillarycare, which would have expanded Medicare to everyone who wanted it, in order to provide a competitor for private insurance scheming and price fixing.
I'm not saying either one was better, just that "Obama"care is really not. I find it amusing that even President Obama is calling it "Obamacare". It's like some kind of Dave Barry novel.

FortWayne says

She is legally liable to clean up the mold.

I know, but painting over it is the first thing they are going to try.

I used to live in an apartment where occasionally a pipe would spring a pinhole leak. Every single time their "fix" was to put a rubber piece over the pile leak banded with hose clamps, then redo the drywall at a later date. Never once did they ever replace any piping. The whole painting over mold reminds me of that.

1. Excise tax on charitable hospitals ($50,000 per hospital hike).
2. Codification of the “economic substance doctrine” ($4.5 billion tax hike).
3. “Black liquor” tax hike ($23.6 billion hike).
4. Tax on innovator drug companies ($2.3 billion).
5. Blue Cross/Blue Shield tax hike ($400 million).
6. Tax on indoor tanning services ($2.7 billion).
7. Medicine cabinet tax ($5 billion).
8. HSA withdrawal tax hike ($1.4 billion).
9. Employer reporting of insurance on W2.
10. Surtax on investment income ($123 billion).
11. Hike in Medicare payroll tax ($86.8 billion).
12. Tax on medical device manufacturers ($20 billion).
13. Raise haircut for medical itemized deduction ($15.2 billion).
14. Special needs kids tax ($13 billion).
15. Elimination of tax deduction for employer-provided retirement Rx drug coverage.
16. Annual executive compensation limit for health insurance executives ($600 million).
17. Individual mandate excise “tax” (actually, this one is a penalty).
18. Employer mandate tax.
19. Tax on health insurers ($60.1 billion).
20. Excise tax on comprehensive health insurance plans ($32 billion).