I used to be a state plan for the uninsurable that was started with tobacco suit money but when that ran out, went nuts costwise on its own. I paid $800 a mo for crap. Scared not to. I had docs walk in the ER room and say, "Do you thiknk your company will pay me?" I was told once no surgeons would talk to me because I had "bad insurance." What makes people think docs will take any govt option plan? Will we need supplementals to it—after we pay for it—you know, people whose other plans changed in some little way so they had to be transferred to govt option? Anyhow—none of this will help or hurt people for yrs—they have designed it to hit the fan when they are leaving or have left. These are politicians, people—they probably have never laid eyes on an EOB, have no idea what one is, have motorcycle escorts to hospitals—not $800 ambulance bills for yrs afterward. Politicians! We know more about this that any of them!

Is itpossible Code Carts story is apochryphal? It sounds kinda off to me.

You went along Ok, then…

The right wing conservaties are acting just like the taliban and al queda. 

 Ya lost me. And you will never get me back to read a comment.

If Maher is not making money, how does he get the marijuana he loves to joke about?

By the way—out here in AZ and my own personal HOUSE, jobs are Subject A, Subject B, and Subject C. We need jobs! We need an industrial policy, so America may regain or even have industries that make things, not just twitter about them. Any govt money should go to small companies each capable of hiring 3-100 people. Small companies have the will, the zip—but they can’t get startup money even though the govt has sloshed gazillions all over the stupid banks. Say some company gives my kid a job—give that company $5000just because…borrow it from China, run it off on the press, whatever they do… Make it worth a company’s time, tide them over, do something! We need jobs!!! Jobs mean taxes, taxes mean more money for them to waste or play with or whatever…but we need jobs and we need them now, like before the end of this year. And at very very least out here in AZ, we need an unemployment claims system where they take your claim and send you money, not lose claims, change computer systems, lose all those claims, have "hot lines" with 8 hr waits that all of a sudden go deet-deet-deet, if you’d like to make a call…Jobs, people! Give these people a job at the stupid unemployment travesty place—they couldn’t do any worse.

Well—how about how Hurricane Bill made big waves and he had to put his arrival on vacay off a few hours? I thought he could lower the tides…didn’t that come up…this ability…during the campaign. Well, to be fair, the stimulus was also creating 2.5 million jobs, not saving 150,000. 

Another point—notice that all this is getting done, in families…even rationing. We have decided no more mammos for Mom,

who is 92 and has had to be cared for for 20 yrs so far—we would not put her thru chemo, etc if anything were found. She is pretty OK—loves it when we take candy…goes to lunch with us, the hairdresser—-etc. No nausea, vomiting, pain, surgery, etc. I have atrial fibrillation—two major approaches have failed me—almost blinded me (clots-coumadin) and in the case of amiodarone, 9 montsh of hospitalizations and almost fatal lung complications. Still docs say, oh, you are not anti-coagulated—yeah, and I am not going to be beyond an aspirin. People have to decide, have to ration. I save Medicare a ton—no more caridiologists, with their waits and 24-hour hookups and inconclusive this and that. We don’t need the govt to manage this. I also have gallstones and had one painful attack in 10 yrs—would they MAKE me get surgery to save ER runs down the line? Where does this end, this stuff?

My mother fell and dislocated her shoulder—big dent, just all wrong…Anyhow, the ambulance people (the non-emergency ones—next time, the paramedics) stood there and would not take her until the directive was located and put in their hads so they could not extend care to her if she gorked in the ambulance. This stuff ges pretty graphic when you get into it. When my father was dying, Mom tried to say no kidney dialysis—and the doctor was horrified—"You want to murder him?" He got some dialysis, but did pass away. 

We are not talking about the govt coming over to your house and killing you with little Kervorkian IVs—that is a straw man. This is far subtler—constant pressure to reconsider your end of life choices, to focus, to calibrate them, if you will. As one politician pointed out, of course, no one will unplug Grandma—she won’t even be hooked up in the first place…They will take out her end of life directive—nope, no "extraordinary" measures…The House bill says even water might be on or off the table..it mentiond hydration. This is not made up…this turn of subject matter…and to sarcastically say I am not unplugging grandma is a straw man, a diversion. In fact, the president did say that if they hadn’t paid for his very sick, post-surgical grandmother to have yet another operation (hip), he would have paid out of his own pocket. To my knowledge he never ponied a cent, but I of course am not privy to his personal information, none of us is. So—he would have paid for an EXTRAORDINARY measure par excellence…thought maybe his end-of-life discussion would be different than ours…I did read the doctor said this very sick, bedridden woman would have bad "quality of life" without another BIG surgery. I never know what to make of that story…it seems weird to me.

passionate discourse of disagreement as you do on this site

 

Passionate discourse…insults like get more botox, or you twit, different. To me, anyhow. 

That comment was meant to relay the thinking of the WH—and regrettably, many younger people.

 As I have explained.

I think a RESET on pricing of services to relate them to actual costs plus a profit might bring costs down. There are hundreds of thousands of examples of how prices have gone out of control because of the game of only reimbursing a percentage—so they try tomake it a percentage of something huge. The NYT cited a guy getting a boil lanced in the ED—$24K! Even for emergency services, that is absurd. My mother spent two nites in the hosp for a fall-she was treated disgustingly, they lied about a bed, kept her in the ER, we hired our own nurse for $300 the second nite (she could not go home because they blasted her with ativan to shut her up)—$12K for this fun outing. My sister is getting her hip replaced—the metal hip parts are over $40K. This is not doctors, the hosp, drugs or anything—just the hip. You can get three cars full of metal for that—maybe more. Pricing…this is a huge area that needs attn.

Why would I want legal advice on my directive from a DOCTOR? I hardly trust their medical advice. This has to have some other purpose.

It is what it is. I can still use the computer pretty well—by the end of the day, I am pretty blurry. I also can’t read books or mags anymore—I listen to audios. And for the last remaining paper, a magnifying glass. The rest could go. My doctors never agree and I have little respect for them. I am pending. I do apprec your asking. We all have issues like this, I bet—the stuff in the stream we have to flow around. As for newsbusters—they don’t censor people off and if liberals try to bring the talking pts or something, they may at worst be branded a troll, but not this personal insult stuff.

Incidentally, I find your personal comments to me to have another lipo, etc., uncalled for. You don’t know me. I have never had cosmetic surgery and would not even if I could afford it, which I can’t. I did have four unsuccessful surgeries to try to save my right eye—but no. Why try to demean your fellow woman—I absolutely despise that about this list. We don’t get this on newsbusters.org, where we discuss the issues and maybe inject some humor. I think this kind of thing is discouraging.