March 7, 2021

I still want better healthcare.

Like most Americans who are still lucky enough to be working, I have crummy, rationed healthcare with financially crippling copays. My employer and I together pay my HMO, which shall remain nameless, 19.1% of my gross.

But that is just the premiums! Oh, no, it gets better...

Here are my copays:
Primary care - $30
Specialty care - $50
Urgent care - $60
Emergency - $350
Hospital - 20% co-insurance up to the 'out-of-pocket maximum' of $4,000. Each.

So, worst case scenario, I am out $28,000 with premiums and the financially crippling 'co-insurance.'

But...wait...

That is not the worst case. It could get far worse. The new agreement between the HMO and my employer leaves them wiggle room on the out-of-pocket maximum - if I require something like a hip replacement, which their bean counters now say is 'elective surgery,' my 'coinsurance' can go up dramatically, leaving me in danger of bankruptcy.

WHY, WHY, WHY, WHY is there SO much resistance to Medicare for all Americans? A single payer plan paid for with tax dollars? Like what they have in Britain? Or Canada? Or Australia? Or pretty much any other advanced industrial democracy in the entire world?

Oh, because we would not be able to choose our doctor!
Well, I have to choose between a bunch of HMO in-system docs. I cannot go to anyone out of system without paying an arm and a leg. So that excuse does not cut it.

Oh, because we have to wait too long for basic surgeries!
My wife's left hand is useless because of arthritis, and after the rigamarole we had to go through to finally get her an appointment for surgery, we are looking at several months - more like a year. And in terms of a scar-tissue removal surgery to relieve chronic pain from her failed knee replacement, we are looking at never, because the doctor simply does not want to do such a surgery. So that is a myth.

Oh, we do not want the Federal Government running our healthcare!
Oh, ok. So we would rather have a public sector CEO who makes $17.2 million with around $11 million of that tied to shareholder profits running our healthcare? Our care dictated by a for-profit insurance company whose interest in maximizing shareholder profits is in direct conflict with our best interests as patients? Maybe with some nice MBA bean counters working with nurses to deny care? That is what we have now.

I want better healthcare. We should not even have to worry about going to the doctor. We should just be able to go in, get the treatment we need, and be done. The profit motive needs to be removed from healthcare because it is a public good.

A colleague of mine was in Australia at one time in his student days. He broke his ankle. His friends took him in to the hospital and asked how much it was going to cost. Nothing.

After treatment, as they were leaving, they were asked to visit the cashier. Oh, no, my colleague thought. Here's the fine print...

So he gets up to the window and they GIVE him $40 to pay for a cab. Seriously.

Please tell me why we Americans do not deserve this kind of healthcare here at home.

March 5, 2021

Well, yesterday I got my first shot of COVID vaccine.

It is the Pfizer vaccine, and the shot itself didn't hurt at all. My arm is sore today just a bit, and I had some minor cramping last night.

To be honest, I was kind of scared of the shot because of the potential side effects, but even if it makes me sick, I figure it is better than dying of COVID.

I just wish the provider could have got my wife in at the same time. She's further down the list because she's just a baby at age 60.

Oh, and (on edit) I know this is the lounge, but under Trump, I did not think this day would ever come. Isn't Biden doing a bang-up job? He's great.

February 10, 2021

Mitch McConnell's hypocrisy is sickening. He and the forty-four Republicans he led to

vote 'no' on the contitutionality of the Senate trial are Americans in Name Only. AINOs.

They have put party over country for so long, they have forgotten how to be Americans, the republic, and the people.

Americans in Name Only.

AINO.

February 6, 2021

I'd like a bit of help, some ideas from all of you.

I just read this post and replied to it, asking for input, but I decided I ought to post this by itself in General Discussion.

I am doing serious research on the post-pandemic future of commercial real estate, workforce patterns and concentrations, community planning and economic development. As part of that, I would like to ask for your thoughts, if you'd care to give them. And any links to stuff you have read would also be quite appreciated. Many on here are quite bright.

If you read the Hudson Yards article it does beg the question of what our economy will look like post pandemic. Erstwhile retail stores converted to offices or industrial space, even residences. A vast, cold mall standing empty.

The philosophy of the capitalists, particularly the conservative Chicago School variety, is one of unlimited growth. But unlimited growth is also the philosophy of cancer cells.

There are economic development people who ramrod projects like this through by pressuring local and state governments to give massive tax incentives to investors, which then squeeze their ability to provide the local and state government services people count on. That has been an issue for some time - at least the last decade - and there are related articles at the bottom of this one about how NYC outdid itself to 'attract' this wonderful new thing.

Remember when AOC took all that flak about protesting against $3.5 billion politicians in NYC had foolishly offered Amazon to open its HQ2 there? That would have amounted to a $146,000 handout to Jeff Bezos per job that was promised, and now look what has happened to this pile of foolishness called Hudson Yards.

Maybe we need a new paradigm. Maybe seeking unlimited growth is as illusory as chasing unlimited power, as the Emperor Palpatine did in Star Wars. It is stupid over the long haul. You know, China was a victim of this - it has huge empty cities it built, to which no one ever came. Brand new, shiny, and filled with the ghosts of the hopes of politicians and investors.

Here's my question to you:

I really want to know what you all think because I am doing a research project on this.

January 28, 2021

Appreciation thread for Joe Biden.

Biden was not my first choice in the primaries, but I got behind him in the campaign, and I am profoundly happy that I did.

He is shaping up to be a transformational president. The things he does and accomplishes may well benefit Americans for decades to come.

Also, Biden is clearly a very decent and moral man, a loving husband, father and grandfather.

We elected a real winner here.

January 19, 2021

I'm watching the remembrance ceremony.

It's tearing my heart out. The grief just came on me.

January 16, 2021

Righteous rant from AOC on white supremacy and the insurrection.

I don't post much on this forum, and I did do a search for this to make sure I did not duplicate.

This is an unvarnished presentation from AOC after the traumatic events of January 6, and I found it quite worth listening to.

So you know, it IS an hour long, so budget the time. Note that Rachel Maddow played an excerpt from it last night.

January 8, 2021

Watching Biden announce his economic team and agenda.

And I watched yesterday when he did the same with his DOJ team.

Thank God for this man! He is passionate, competent, and surrounding himself with actual competent, bright people.

One remark - I can remember many times during Trump's early years when hopeful media heads would say things like, "Well, he looked presidential today," and "Today, he became president!" What a joke. We will never, ever, ever have any media heads having to do that with Biden, because he IS presidential. There is absolutely no doubt he is in charge and on it.

December 21, 2020

Just a ramble. I have been re-reading Frank Herbert's book, Dune.

It is a good book, science fiction, written by a reporter who had covered the Mid-East and decided to write a book about how a society forms, socially and economically, around its scarcest resource.

In many ways, the book, which was written in 1965, presages modern times. I first ran across it in the early '70s on a Safeway book rack.

Anyway, in reference to the article about the right-wing megachurch pastor who used CARES Act PPP funds to buy himself a new jet, and to the right-wing evangelical movement in general, I would like to cite a passage from Dune:

Of course, if you've read the book, you will know that the Fremen, who are curiously similar to the Arab Muslims, declare Jihad and are unleashed on the universe with the boy Paul Muad 'dib as their leader.

See this is the thing - I don't want us to be carried off the cliff with these lemmings. I believe Trump is in the process of becoming less and less relavent as he breaks down. The latest we have heard is he is sounding out his staff about declaring martial law, and bringing in the military to 're-do' the election in the battleground states.

But that is not going to happen. The military has made it very clear that it 'has no role' in redoing any presidential election. Just as the Supreme Court has made it clear his frivolous lawsuits to subvert the election have 'no standing.'

No, in the end, Trump will be exposed as all truly evil people are - banal, narrow-minded, mean-spirited - basically a nobody who made life miserable for everyone. His followers will end up going back under their rocks, while the Republicans who are still standing frantically try to distance themselves once the monster is out of power.

Anyway, I'd like also to wish all of you, my DU friends, a very happy Holiday Season, and may our new year be AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE BETTER THAN THIS SUCKY ONE WE'VE JUST GONE THROUGH. 2020 was the ABSOLUTE WORST.

Also, let us release the multitude of fellow humans who have died in this plague to eternal rest in perpetual light.

And finally let us, who are blessed with enough, hold those are homeless, hungry, and without enough of anything, in our hearts, and give to them if we can.

As Tiny Tim, a character from yet another favorite book, said, "God bless us, everyone!"

On edit - I misspelled 'relevent.' Geez. Senior moment.

December 3, 2020

'Time' Names Its Kid Of The Year: Water-Testing Scientist Gitanjali Rao

Source: NPR

Gitanjali Rao, a Colorado teenager who invented a mobile device to test for lead in drinking water, is Time's Kid of the Year for 2020. The magazine announced the award Thursday, citing Rao's ability to apply scientific ideas to real-world problems — and her desire to motivate other kids to take up their own causes.

It's just the latest recognition for Rao, 15, who was named last year to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. She won praise in 2017 after she responded to the Flint, Mich., water crisis by creating a device named Tehys, using carbon nanotube sensors to detect lead in water. The Lone Tree, Colo., native was named America's Top Young Scientist when she was in the seventh grade. She went on to collaborate with scientists in the water industry to try to get the device on the market.

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2020/12/03/942034617/time-names-its-kid-of-the-year-water-testing-scientist-gitanjali-rao#:~:text=Gitanjali%20Rao%2C%20a%20Colorado%20teenager,take%20up%20their%20own%20causes.

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What a great kid!