U.S. intelligence agencies say Iran, Russia have tried to interfere in 2020 election

[byco42]

Since our national- and many state-level politicians are willing participants in a freak show, I think moving Election Day to Halloween is altogether appropriate.

 

[Spartanmack]

I?ll be there wearing my maize and blue.

No vote for you!

 

[Spartanmack]

Since our national- and many state-level politicians are willing participants in a freak show, I think moving Election Day to Halloween is altogether appropriate.

I assume you’re in on it but just to be clear, the election is still Tuesday - I’m just trying to do my part for the Republican voter suppression effort.

Edit: I probably should have PM’d that to you - I’ve just gone and blown my own cover. I’m new to this election shenanigans effort thing.

 

[byco42]

In 2008 when I voted at my elementary school (pen and paper) I walked up to a neighbor who was in line and said “they ran out of ballots.” He laughed, but a lot of other people in line were not amused.

 

[mhughes0021]

Democrats or Republicans havent done shit for the middle class...maybe its time we give Putin a chance

Healthcare seems to be a big talking point again this year. Why? Democrats are saying they want to save Obamacare...

The reality: My government tell me i need to have healthcare. My work makes me have healthcare. I pay monthly for my family to have healthcare. Anyone in my family goes to the doctor and we pay 100% out of pocket until a deductible is met lmao...what kind of horseshit is that?

My work cforces me to get an annual exam. I get my annual labs which are supposed to be part of my FREE annual exam. The doctors office charges the insurance company $1200. the insurance company bills me $1200 because im not at my deductible yet. I call my doctor and they say "hmmmph....if you werent insured those labs only cost $150". Again....middle class gets raped by simply following what were told to do. Fuck the democrats and the republicans.

 

[Spartanmack]

Democrats or Republicans havent done shit for the middle class...maybe its time we give Putin a chance

Healthcare seems to be a big talking point again this year. Why? Democrats are saying they want to save Obamacare...

The reality: My government tell me i need to have healthcare. My work makes me have healthcare. I pay monthly for my family to have healthcare. Anyone in my family goes to the doctor and we pay 100% out of pocket until a deductible is met lmao...what kind of horseshit is that?

My work cforces me to get an annual exam. I get my annual labs which are supposed to be part of my FREE annual exam. The doctors office charges the insurance company $1200. the insurance company bills me $1200 because im not at my deductible yet. I call my doctor and they say "hmmmph....if you werent insured those labs only cost $150". Again....middle class gets raped by simply following what were told to do. Fuck the democrats and the republicans.

They may both suck, but lets be clear about the example of legislation you chose to make your point - Obamacare is why everyone other than people lucky enough to have an employer sponsored PPO, has a really shitty high deductible plan and it's why premiums and deductibles have and will continue to go up. It was a hyper-partisan law that passed on a party line vote and was signed into law by a Democrat POTUS. And, as if it needs to be pointed out, Republicans have been trying to repeal it for longer than the Democrats have been trying to undo the 2016 election.

Both parties may suck, but this is a lousy example for making that point.

 

[Thumb]

My work cforces me to get an annual exam. I get my annual labs which are supposed to be part of my FREE annual exam. The doctors office charges the insurance company $1200. the insurance company bills me $1200 because im not at my deductible yet. I call my doctor and they say "hmmmph....if you werent insured those labs only cost $150". Again....middle class gets raped by simply following what were told to do. Fuck the democrats and the republicans.

Sorry, but I'm going to call B.S. on this.

I have employer offered healthcare. It's not great, but the most I have ever paid for annual labs is a $28 processing fee, plus a $25 office visit co-pay. That's a once a year bill that's less then a full tank of gas in my pickup truck.

If someone is charging you $1200 for annual labs I wouldn't question the Republicans or the Democrats for not doing anything, I would suggest you do something about getting to the bottom of why it costs so much and you're not being covered if it's supposed to be free, and why labs only cost $150 unless your lab is overcharging your insurance for them and why you haven't tried to do something about that.

 

[Spartanmack]

A valid point. Don't pretend to count about one area of voter protection and not the other.

exactly, if they pretended to care about all voter protection measures, it would be a lot harder to tell when they're just saying they care about something because it gives them an edge or makes it easier for them to rig the election.

 

[tinselwolverine]

No vote for you!

The election in Cali is neither Tuesday nor Saturday, really - we?re all voting by mail.

Kanye was on the ballot for Veep for one of the partiez, do I voted for that one.

 

[mhughes0021]

Sorry, but I'm going to call B.S. on this.

I have employer offered healthcare. It's not great, but the most I have ever paid for annual labs is a $28 processing fee, plus a $25 office visit co-pay. That's a once a year bill that's less then a full tank of gas in my pickup truck.

If someone is charging you $1200 for annual labs I wouldn't question the Republicans or the Democrats for not doing anything, I would suggest you do something about getting to the bottom of why it costs so much and you're not being covered if it's supposed to be free, and why labs only cost $150 unless your lab is overcharging your insurance for them and why you haven't tried to do something about that.

I did end up taking 6 months of phone calls between insurance and the doctors office to re code everything and get it covered. But the issue remains the same.... doctors office charging insurance company $1200 for a lab that costs $150 to the uninsured. It should be fraud.

 

[tomdalton22]

I did end up taking 6 months of phone calls between insurance and the doctors office to re code everything and get it covered. But the issue remains the same.... doctors office charging insurance company $1200 for a lab that costs $150 to the uninsured. It should be fraud.

It is a scam. My son went away to basic training and tech school. He was covered when he left but got automatically dropped off of our insurance when he was covered by military insurance. When he got back, his military insurance was dropped and he missed open enrollment on ours. He had a somewhat serious medical emergency and was in the hospital for a several days. The bill was about $50K but since he was uninsured, and had a limited income, he only had to pay about $2K (which I paid). About 6 months later, after he went back on our insurance, he had the corrective surgery to correct the problem. The bill for the surgery and hospital stay was about $30K but our portion of the bill was over $4K.

If you don't make any money, it's better to just be uninsured.

 

[Spartanmack]

It is a scam. My son went away to basic training and tech school. He was covered when he left but got automatically dropped off of our insurance when he was covered by military insurance. When he got back, his military insurance was dropped and he missed open enrollment on ours. He had a somewhat serious medical emergency and was in the hospital for a several days. The bill was about $50K but since he was uninsured, and had a limited income, he only had to pay about $2K (which I paid). About 6 months later, after he went back on our insurance, he had the corrective surgery to correct the problem. The bill for the surgery and hospital stay was about $30K but our portion of the bill was over $4K.

If you don't make any money, it's better to just be uninsured.

The ACA is doing exactly what it was designed to do - make private insurance worse, not better. Virtually all the "newly insured" under Obamacare are covered by the massive expansion of medicaid - there was no need to touch private insurance in the act. But they made it worse for a reason. Now or soon, they will be able to tell low information lemmings who vote for them that they tried everything but the free market just doesn't work for health insurance (even though health insurance is nowhere near a free market) so the only solution is single payer or government provided health care.

 

[byco42]

I have an individual $3,500 deductible and a total family deductible of $6,600, After the individual is met, insurance covers 75% and then 100% after the $6,600. Some EOBs are discounted, some are not, but nothing is “no-charge” and my OOP outlays have increased since our coverage changed in January of this year.

 

[Spartanmack]

I have an individual $3,500 deductible and a total family deductible of $6,600, After the individual is met, insurance covers 75% and then 100% after the $6,600. Some EOBs are discounted, some are not, but nothing is “no-charge” and my OOP outlays have increased since our coverage changed in January of this year.

and your premium, which doesn't count toward your deductible is probably over $400/month so all-in you could spend >$11.4k on health insurance and medical costs.

My premiums are ~$480/mo with a family deductible over $7k, individuals are ~$3.6k and I have 5 people on my plan. We have three young kids, one w/ asthma, allergies, etc so we are consumers of health care - my tab can easily reach $12k+/yr. It's outrageous.

Only part of those expenses is pre-tax or tax deductible - that's a massive chunk of the gross income of most American families.

The not-so-affordable, affordable care act.

 

[Gulo Blue]

The flaw is in thinking voter ID laws cause a problem at all. Calling it racially discriminatory, if that?s what you?re doing is yet another example of the soft bigotry of low expectations. It?s total nonsense.


I bet every single one of those guys also has photo ID.

By the way, here?s a quick public service announcement - the election has been moved to this Saturday, October 31st. Tune into to ABC at noon for details on where and when to vote and don?t forget to wear your green shirt if you want to vote. I?m Spartanmack and I approve this message.

When I picked 'having a green shirt' my head was completely in a political space and I was looking for something totally neutral. But you're right, I did accidentally pick something that projects "low expectations".

 

[Michchamp]

The ACA is doing exactly what it was designed to do - make private insurance worse, not better. ...

What about the fact that the healthcare industry lobby drafted it, and it was initially a more or less right wing plan to ensure private insurers kept their place at the trough when Romney implemented almost the same thing (with a mandate and all) in Massachusetts?

are you just going to ignore those (as usual) so you can shoehorn this into your "government - only when democrats in charge = bad" worldview?

yes, you are.

Lost in the screaming about the ACA is the fact that Obama also allowed (which NEITHER party will undo) massive consolidation in the health insurance industry, and drawn by the stench of corruption, private equity forced their way to the trough as well, and is responsible for the "surprise billing" people get now.

Just fucking remove health insurers from the equation, and all these problems go away. A bunch of huge leeches feeding off something people have no control over: getting hurt or getting sick.

 

[Spartanmack]

When I picked 'having a green shirt' my head was completely in a political space and I was looking for something totally neutral. But you're right, I did accidentally pick something that projects "low expectations".

those are the expectations I have for most of your posts. By your own admission, you had to remove common sense from the analysis to make your point seem worth considering.

 

[Gulo Blue]

ACA sucks. Obama struck a deal with the healthcare industry. Cover some more people, lock in their profits.


The whole thing should be blown up so we can start over without it going through employers, but we don't have a government that can be trusted to do it right.

 

[Spartanmack]

What about the fact that the healthcare industry lobby drafted it, and it was initially a more or less right wing plan to ensure private insurers kept their place at the trough when Romney implemented almost the same thing (with a mandate and all) in Massachusetts?

are you just going to ignore those (as usual) so you can shoehorn this into your "government - only when democrats in charge = bad" worldview?

yes, you are.

Lost in the screaming about the ACA is the fact that Obama also allowed (which NEITHER party will undo) massive consolidation in the health insurance industry, and drawn by the stench of corruption, private equity forced their way to the trough as well, and is responsible for the "surprise billing" people get now.

Just fucking remove health insurers from the equation, and all these problems go away. A bunch of huge leeches feeding off something people have no control over: getting hurt or getting sick.

I stopped reading this after "it was initially more or less a right wing plan" thinking it would be tough to get any dumber. Then I came back to it and read the rest anyway and realized I was wrong. The amazing thing about this is you talk about private interests being drawn to the stench of corruption as government takes more control of healthcare and your solution, presumably to get rid of the corruption is to give the government even more control by making them the only consumer of the product. It would be hard to come up with a dumber solution.

 

[Gulo Blue]

I stopped reading this after "it was initially more or less a right wing plan" thinking it would be tough to get any dumber. Then I came back to it and read the rest anyway and realized I was wrong. The amazing thing about this is you talk about private interests being drawn to the stench of corruption as government takes more control of healthcare and your solution, presumably to get rid of the corruption is to give the government even more control by making them the only consumer of the product. It would be hard to come up with a dumber solution.

I stopped reading after "I stopped reading". Do I win anything?