Planning The Fun
1 hour ago
Thursday, May 4, 2017
Flooding and medical care
It's flooding in the North Country of New Hampshire, worse than snow melt time. We've had few days without rain. In fact, rain is predicted for the next 10 days. It might rain after that, but the forecast only goes out 10 days. Noah was lied to.
Personally, it's not much of problem for me. My swamp might get wetter, but it is a swamp after all. We might have to start picking our roads to get into town. Flooding and washouts will most likely become a travel issue.
I see the the Republicans in the House passed a “Healthcare” bill. For me, it promises to be worse than the programs I already can't afford. It's not all bad news. The wealthy get some nice tax breaks. I guess it's my own darn fault for not being wealthy. Okay, it looks like the unpopular insurance mandate will also be dropped, so I guess that's something.
Of course, now we have to wait to see what the Senate does with it. By the time they are finished, the proposed law could be completely different. The political pundits have serious doubts that a majority will be able to agree on a final package.
Personally, I'm still waiting for the rest of my totally out of pocket medical bills to come in. So far it's been an ER visit, a doctor's visit, two sets of lab tests, three types of medication and at least one more doctor's visit scheduled. Thank goodness I'm actually seeing progress. No doubt it will be weeks yet before I'm all better, but the trend is in the right direction.
I can prepare for natural disasters like flooding. Risks can be mitigated. The disaster known as Congress is much harder to prepare for.
-Sixbears
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Some folks seem to love their Obamacare. As for me, Blue Cross-Blue Shield was getting $8,400 a year for a policy that we couldn't use. I dropped out at the end of the year, as it was cheaper to pay the fines, since I had a $6,000 deductible anyway. The company then tried to get an extra $267 a month from me, and STILL IS, but I wouldn't know which 10 days of the month not to eat, as our budget is that tight.
ReplyDeleteI was pretty much in the same boat before I dropped mine. I've bought a house for less than what I paid in health care.
DeleteBefore Medicare I was paying $1,000. a month for BCBS and I'm one of those who only go to a doctor if absolutely necessary. It's never going to be inexpensive.
ReplyDeleteMaybe not, but it can certainly be better than the mess we have now. I first dropped my insurance when it hit $1000/month.
Deletei'm thankful for medicare as i would now be immobile without the hip replacement.
ReplyDeleteof course, it is your fault that you are not wealthy.
our neighbor was broken into 3 times by the same druggie family.
every time the police told her it was her fault that she didn't have strong locks. she got strong locks so the thieves broke the door next time. this time it was her fault that she didn't have a strong door.
apparently all criminal behavior is the fault of the victims.
the police never arrested the criminals even though security footage showed one of the using the victim's credit card at a local shop.
so, when congress makes a pig's breakfast of something simple and we pay for it , it is our fault.
the system is so rigged that even though we vote for the ones we hope will do least harm the harm is always done.
i seem to be peeved about this!
before medicare my premium was 1000$ per month and one year the insurance coughed up 9$ for some meds.
that was their total outlay for the year.
if only i had that 12,000$ per year in my bank account.
well, i have vented and the criminals are still running the country so i will stop.
glad your leg is healing. summer is coming and you have work to do!
frost here a couple of nights the coming week and possible snow on sunday--n.e. ohio.
I won't qualify for Medicare. Just another crack that I slip though -unless the rules change in my favor. Not holding my breath.
DeleteThis is not the better, cheaper, all inclusive plan Trump promised on the campaign trail. Turns out he's just another politician after all. Only takes 100 days to become one.
I like your definition of Congress. . . a disaster.
ReplyDeleteI calls 'em as I sees 'em.
DeleteThere are no clear winners in the insurance game, except for the insurance people themselves.
ReplyDeleteIt's disturbing when the hospital has more office space than treatment areas.
DeleteOnce upon a time, we had good insurance through the Georgia state employee program, as my wife was a teacher.
ReplyDeleteIt had no copayment, no deductibles, no coinsurance.
Then along came Barrack Obama. Of course, it was not right for some people to have good insurance while others had none at all.
So soon, we had a copayment every time we went to the doctor. Then we had "deductibles." This was a deal where you paid a percentage ( a very high percentage) of the costs of any lab work or specialists, until you reached an "annual out of pocket" fee, usually around $1400 per person.
Then they said now we had to have a "co insurance." That meant that in addition to your "copay" and "deductible" you had to pay a percentage of the health care costs, usually about 40%, until you reached a family annual out of pocket "coinsurance" sum of about $24,000. At the same time all this was going on, the state paid less of the premiums, and passed the cost on to the teachers. So our premiums went from abuot $140 a month for the family, to the current $760.00 a month.
Of course, if you couldn't pay all this, then you couldn't use the policy at all. But it was all good, because more people "had insurance", whether they could afford to use it or not, so Obama was happy.
The Republicans won't solve this, because they are tools of the Insurance Industry.
I said some years back that the Canadian system of socialized medicine was good. My daughter was a student in Vancouver for three years. She has health issues and on a number of occasions had to be hauled to the hospital in an ambulance, and treated there for several days.
For all this care she got, and it was timely and first class, she paid $100.00 Canadian.
But having suggested this on line, my friends descended on me like a cloud of hornets. How could I even suggest socialized medicine? Didn't I know people were dying in the halls in London Hospitals, uncared for by physicians and ignored? Well, actually ,no I didn't and neither did some of the people I kept up with in England. But hell, it made so many people so mad, I just decided to not mention it anymore and I haven't until now.
I'm come to the conclusion that we should treat health care the same way we treat fire departments. At one time fire departments worked for the insurance companies. It was a mess. Eventually it came down to government providing a public service. Health care is a mess and socialized medicine could fix it. I've yet to meet anyone from Canada who'd trade health systems with us.
DeleteHeck, I hear people paying out pocket to get better and cheaper treatment in Mexico. That's just embarrassing.