I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Pretty Little Flower

Translation: I get uncomfortable when the black people get militant on TV.

Is there still a way to flag this so the moderators can have a vote on how to punish this sock?

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

A. Health Care insurance should be actual insurance.

Elective and preventative care should be the patient's responsibility, and on the patient's dime. Insurance should only cover acute and chronic illnesses upon their occurrence. When people have to pay for care out of their own pocket, prices will naturally drop for two reasons: (1) lack of third party payer funds pouring into the system; and, (2) no more cost inflation by providers to make up for insurance discounts (docs charging $1000 for a $50 procedure because they know the insurance only pays a nickle on the dollar for it).

The argument that people don't want to do this is not an argument. They're adults. They are required to be responsible for themselves. The argument it will cause people to forego preventative care has some merit. But I'm confident that that is preventative care costs drop radically, that problem will be minimized. Additionally, dollars for preventative care will be freed up by the decreased cost of the monthly insurance, rather than the ludicrous monthly payments currently made for a TPA masquerading as insurance.

You're not making any sense to me here.

(1) Where's the market failure? Consumers prefer to buy coverage in the current fashion, for a variety of reasons. One is they face information asymmetries in trying to negotiate prices for these things, and know they don't do it well. Another is that they would rather buy care in a bundle. A third, related to the first, is that they don't know how much preventative care they need and will underconsume, to the detriment of their health.

(2) Insurance discounts are the real price -- almost no one is paying the nominal price. But the fact that some people are shows that you're wrong about the potential for cost savings -- the prices to people who are actually negotiating for themselves instead of using their coverage are much higher, not lower.

(3) The argument that people don't want to do what you are providing is fundamentally economic. (They are being responsible for themselves by obtaining coverage.) What you're proposing is like requiring that people buy eggs individually to ensure that they don't buy any that are broken.

eta (4) As the blog post points out, you see the same cost increases in veterinary care, which doesn't use this coverage model.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

You're not making any sense to me here.

(1) Where's the market failure? Consumers prefer to buy coverage in the current fashion, for a variety of reasons. One is they face information asymmetries in trying to negotiate prices for these things, and know they don't do it well. Another is that they would rather buy care in a bundle. A third, related to the first, is that they don't know how much preventative care they need and will underconsume, to the detriment of their health.

(2) Insurance discounts are the real price -- almost no one is paying the nominal price. But the fact that some people are shows that you're wrong about the potential for cost savings -- the prices to people who are actually negotiating for themselves instead of using their coverage are much higher, not lower.

(3) The argument that people don't want to do what you are providing is fundamentally economic. (They are being responsible for themselves by obtaining coverage.) What you're proposing is like requiring that people buy eggs individually to ensure that they don't buy any that are broken.

eta (4) As the blog post points out, you see the same cost increases in veterinary care, which doesn't use this coverage model.

Health economics are complicated as hell, and I wouldn't want to oversimplify.

But when comparing costs in the US to costs in other countries, there is one line item in the US that just doesn't exist in most other countries, or exists only as an elective not a necessity: insurance.

[Not Bob]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

Is there still a way to flag this so the moderators can have a vote on how to punish this sock?

Apropos of Nothing, my Pandora station has been giving me a regular dose of Letters to Clio and Veruca Salt today.

Yes, I know that I have the musical taste of an angsty suburban white teenaged girl in 1999. Carry on.

[Pretty Little Flower]

Originally Posted by Not Bob

Apropos of Nothing, my Pandora station has been giving me a regular dose of Letters to Clio and Veruca Salt today.

Yes, I know that I have the musical taste of an angsty suburban white teenaged girl in 1999. Carry on.

A guess: You once had an emotional connection with a woman that related in some way to Belly's song "Feed The Tree."

Jesus, man, that is so disappointing. But some nice funk riffs from the Meters will clear everything up. Today's Daily Dose is "People Say":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QYbZsBPawI

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

Is there still a way to flag this so the moderators can have a vote on how to punish this sock?

Aren't we past the point where the D listers try to elevate themselves by picking fights with the A listers?

[Not Bob]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

I'm not going to hold out on your REO tix for this, Brutus. But aren't you drifting into some territory you usually avoid?

And I think you know, over time, I'm probably the one with an inconvenient truth here.

Dude, you know I love you like that pledge who cock-blocked me sophomore year at the Tri Delt mixer by talking incessantly about the Stringed Cheese Incident, but you keep saying variations of "it's different this time; workers are doomed so I might as well get my tax cut" with not even a hint of doubt. You are precisely Damone-like in your self assured assertion of universal rules, but that's part of your charm.

It's always different this time, and predictions of doom always come true. We were supposed to run out of food due to overpopulation, but then came the green revolution. We were going to run out of gasoline a la Mad Max, and now we have too much capacity. We were going to have to build bubbles around our cities because of air pollution, and now there's less smog in LA than since before WW II (wild assertion that may not be true, but whatever).

Bad future stuff happens that is predicted and not predicted. So does good stuff. Hell and Utopia are each Not Preordained.

[Not Bob]

Originally Posted by Pretty Little Flower

A guess: You once had an emotional connection with a woman that related in some way to Belly's song "Feed The Tree."

Jesus, man, that is so disappointing. But some nice funk riffs from the Meters will clear everything up. Today's Daily Dose is "People Say":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QYbZsBPawI

You're not too far off. And Belly's "Gepetto" just came on.

Pandora's Liz Phair Radio, fwiw. Although my thumbs up/down have likely skewed the algo a bit.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Pretty Little Flower

A guess: You once had an emotional connection with a woman that related in some way to Belly's song "Feed The Tree."

You're thinking of me. I used to work with Tanya Donelly at Newbury Comics. Carry on.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

You're thinking of me. I used to work with Tanya Donelly at Newbury Comics. Carry on.

got big tits?

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

got big tits?

She made this not much later.

[Pretty Little Flower]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

You're thinking of me. I used to work with Tanya Donelly at Newbury Comics. Carry on.

Sounds like a wicked good time.

[Replaced_Texan]

I hate to do this again, but if you have no one else to reach out to, reach out to me. Or call the National Suicide Prevention hotline.

http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
National suicide prevention hotline. 800-273-8255

And for fuck's sake, don't jump off the Golden Gate Bridge leaving your wife to hunt high and low for two days before being told by the police that there's a video.

[SEC_Chick]

I am so, so sorry, RT.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally Posted by SEC_Chick

I am so, so sorry, RT.

Thank you. Apparently there's video of him jumping on Saturday night, but after two desperate days of searching, his wife wasn't able to find out until last evening. I feel so sad for her, and I also feel helpless since there's not much I can do from so far away other than to yell from the rooftops that there is help out there.