I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

pupmom

Yes, blue, SOMEWHERE, the sky IS falling! Maybe where that double standard exists.?? 

lewing

Enjoyful, your trip sounds delicious. 

(Speaking of trips . . . I'm game for a thread meet-up virtually anywhere.  All of the suggestions - Niagara Falls, Vermont, Chincoteague, Las Vegas - would be doable for me.  Also speaking of trips, my sweetie and I are FINALLY closing in on a honeymoon destination.) 

Linda

pupmom

Congrats on the honeymoon plans Linda! What a great time of life! 

IllinoisLady

Good morning from my little frosty part of the world.  The lawn is alive with the sound of crunchy footfalls, but it is pretty with that thin white layer.  Nice part is now that the outdoor doggies are fed...I can look out on it and admire it from a warm room.  I'm not quite as "COLD" natured as I was when much younger.  Nice that there are certain benefits of getting a mite older.

One of the many reasons I wanted to be a part of this thread is that everyone here seems to be totally willing to gather cold hard facts ( is there any other way ) and not go looking for all the out-points of something, but to work with it ( knowing all things seem to need tweaking of some kind ) and let it bear fruit. 

I'm not at all sure how I will get along with the "newer" ways of Ins. use, but I'll be darn if I'll be a naysayer and just knock it all the time.  I think if one approaches new things in the light and spirit of how can I make this work for me and therefore for everyone I care about, it will be possible to use it fruitfully while any bugs get ironed out. 

Just my opinion but I feel there are a number of people who just get off on whining and complaining and finding fault.  That is what they do best and it is counter-productive.  I get up every morning thrilled that I am alive and able to live to the best of my abilities.  No one that I know wants to here me while about every little thing.  The motto I and they have had for a long, long time is simply.....MAKE IT GO RIGHT.  Whatever you have to do...get out there and make it go right. 

Jackie

bluedahlia

You know, I read all the sob stories, and I am truly sorry.  I can say one thing though.  Those sob stories wouldn't exist here in Canada, where we have UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE!  No one loses their home here because of health issues.  I should know, as I have had my share of health issues, and losing my home, even on a disability pension was never a problem.  I lived on my own for 10 years with health issues and on disability.  AND, I got the best care possible.

bluedahlia

Oh forgot to say.  The sky is still up there.  Agenda 21?????  WTF??????????

lassie11

What Blue said.  We don't lose health care because of job changes and we certainly don't lose a house because of health problems.  Why someone in that position would complain about a plan to prevent that very thing is beyond me.

I thought of that sort of health care with my shoulder Friday.  My decision to go to the hospital was based entirely on the injury, not on cost.  Within 3 1/2 hours I was seen by a dr, x-rayed, seen again, given a sling and sent home with the number for the orthopod who I saw on Monday, costing me $0.  That seems to me like universal health is doing just fine.

pip57

My daughter received excellent care during her fight with cancer. We estimate that her total tx costs were close to 1million dollars. On our first trip over the border after her death, we were alarmed to see a jar for money collection so a child could get just the basic tx started. And then we would read in the paper about families holding events to pay for an adult to get tx. We were solo glad that we had the luxury of getting first class Rx and being able to focus on our daughter and her siblings. All systems have problems, but access to tx regardless of income or job status should never be the biggest one.



How did the US system get tied to employment to begin with? I can't imagine how that was even considered as a possibility and has always intrigued me.

bluedahlia

Anonymous

Happy Medicare Enjoyful, it will be 3 years in March for me.  I LOVE IT.  Save SO much from the self-employed monthly amount I was paying to BCBS of MA.  Now use BCBS of MA as the supplement to my Medicare. All the Boston hospitals take it, haven't paid anything except the premiums.  My PCP is the same person I've used for awhile, only thing different for me, is I get more blood tests,( since bc) and an Annual Physical which I didn't get b4.  Also lotsa cheers about my weight loss;-)

Blue - you made me giggle, Agenda 21  - created in 1992, at the United Nations Conference for Sustainable Development in Rio.  Wow, that takes me back.  Haven't heard much about it since then, when many of the wonderful people I know working in global sustainable development were involved in its creation. How the heck does that come up now???  It's been around for 20 years.  Honest, google it, Rio in 1992.  Stages of implementation globally, think 2002 was a "major" part, don't remember, it was too long ago.

As for Chicken Little, haven't heard much from her since my days working on Wall Street, and that goes awaaaaaaay back - someone once sent me a card - showing the chicken screaming:" the sky is falling" - and inside it said :" Sell Sky!"

Hugs to all...

QuinnCat

Being a federal employee, working and eligible to retire, or retired, one lives in quasi ACA land.  Once you reach that point...for many, around 50, or with 25 years (don't quote) and involuntarily separated or retired, one keeps their health insurance, no matter what.  Their contribution is about 1/3rd the value of the total premium.   It is a comforting feeling.  I believe when some figure this out, that they don't have to worry about health insurance going away when they lose their job, or breaking the bank, or developing a condition that ups their rates, or running out of some bogus liftetime cap, they will be greatful.  Some people will never be greatful, though, and will continue to see only bad, because that is their real intention. 

Those who complain, but plan to collect on Medicare. I have no words.

Blue - that cartoon gave me a belly laugh!

Enjoyful - I'm so glad you got to make that trip.  It makes me smile knowing some of the women here have connected in real life.  Hugs for you today on seeing the RO.

QuinnCat

Missed that - honeymoon?  Does that mean there is a wedding? 

Chickadee

Medicare house here. Husband this year, total knee replacement(years of climbing tel poles), subsequent heart attack. Son has numerous meds. None of the Drs have any plans to drop it. I will be on Medicare by late this summer.



Fortunate for us we are a union household and have secondary health benefits in retirement. Our former employer continues to rake in the big bucks despite the big bad union. Can anyone say Verizon. Each contract they try to take them away and each contract our active members and retirees local to Washington negotiate to keep them.



Unions don't destroy Twinkie companies, the twinkies that run them do.



Hope I didn't get to political. But I thank the powers that be every day for our health insurance and prescription coverage. I know I'm among a smaller and smaller demographic sadly.

alexandria58

Pip57 - I heard a story on NPR about how health insurance got tied in with employment.  I believe it was in WWII that it became widespread - because employers were not allowed to give pay increases - wages were frozen - so health insurance was offered as an alternative to more money. http://www.ebri.org/publications/facts/index.cfm?fa=0302fact

I still maintain that the system we have now is massively more expensive than a single payer would be - that we are paying for profit etc for the insurance companies.  I also think that having universal health care would decrease costs on Medicare.  If people - actually like me, who lost my job at 59 (although I'm insured through DH) - can't afford personal insurance and can't find a job that offers it - spend years without preventative care, there are going to be a number of people who are much sicker and therefore more expensive to treat than there would be if everyone had had access to medical care.  IMO

Anonymous

chickadee - a big smile, back in the Washington DC days, the union of "telephone operators" were negotiating for a new contract, while Verizon was trying to install a system to work "without operators" -  I found out ( think the statute of limitations must be over by this time??? ;-)))  what the "code" words/prompts were to get the automatic voice to get you ( the customer) to an Operator -  and had a friend who worked at the Washington Post ..tee, hee.. PUBLISH the words ( at the time, it was (agent, operator, help) they've probably long ago changed them by now - but it was years ago, and it helped - more tee, hees...once it was published - the unions went into negotiations with more, well, power!!!  Nobody would use the "telephone tree automatic systems Verizon was trying to use to replace human beings!) until the negotiations were over....

One an organizer, always an organizer!  Yes We Can, and we will.  YEAH, too for Medicare, so glad others are benefiting from it too.  SUCH A COMFORT to know my health insurance is stable.

QuinnCat

I totally agree that Universal Healthcare would be the best option.  Profitizing healthcare is ridiculous.   I say this in case anyone thought I was a strong advocate for ACA.  I think it was the best we could do given the no-matter-what-you-propose opposition in Congress.  My post above was meant to (maybe) give people some hope that have lost their insurance, or can't afford their insurance, or worried about pre-existing conditions and losing their insurance, etc. and most importantly, how secure it feels to know that atleast under ACA, most of us will be covered, one way or another without having to lose our homes or exhaust our savings/retirement, or just choose to die so they don't do the latter to their spouse or children.

I always tell this tale of my mother and her 2 sisters.  They all had BC at exactly the same age, 52.  My mother (in USA) had good health insurance and adequate resources.  She got the best treatment money could buy.  One aunt, living in the USA, did nothing. She was single, no health insurance - I think she felt hopeless.  My mother and this aunt both died at age 54 -- (btw, they say if cancer does not respond to hormonals or chemo, you will live exactly the same length of time, treated or no treatment and they did.  With that, I'm assuming they had similar cancers as we are all er+ brca).  My aunt in Canada was treated for BC and lived another 26 years.  Ok, what this says to me is Canada, with their Universal Healthcare, has a good enough system to both detect and treat my one Aunt's BC early enough and to give her this longevity without a financial burden.  My Aunt in the USA was not given this opportunity.   I realize this is not scientific and other variables play into this, but I think clearly my Canadian relatives get as good, or superior treatment! (And this also comes from talking with my Canadian cousin, also with BC.)

lewing

Sunflowers, love your phone company story! 

Kam, yes, a wedding is in the works.  After a six-year courtship, most of it in different cities, we're getting married at the end of December.  (The honeymoon won't be until sometime in February.)

Linda

1Athena1

Oh, congratulations Lewing - how wonderful for you!

River_Rat

Congratulations, Lewing!

alexandria58

Congratulations!!!

scuttlers

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=467428496642882&set=a.331332823585784.93687.326372480748485&type=1&ref=nf

Chickadee

Sunflower, those code words still work on many of these dang voice response systems. Ugh, I hate them.

Anonymous

Chickadee - the response to the Washington Post article lo those many years ago was hysterical - emphasized the union were IN NEGOTION while this "new" automation was being introduced.  I still SCREAM the words, if I need to, seems if ya really YELL - well,  feel the same way about that as I did when the "automatic" checkouts were introduced at the supermarkets...anybody noticed how many of them are being removed?

Yup - seems more folks just walked thru...alas, and many rebelled at the taking away of JOBS for people..they're being removed from many stores now...

Best way to get thru some of those telephone loops - is to be a 'New customer responding to an ad" - alas, I'm tired of "fighting" all this...

Thanks to the person who pm'd me about why Agenda 21 seems to be in the, Faux News, that is really, REALLY hysterical - so much of the groundwork for the USA representation in Rio took place during the later years of the fist Bush administration, into the early 1990's - Blue - time for you to be yelling "IDJUTS" on this one, really.

So glad we're being entertained...it really is funny.

Chickadee

CWA was one of the more innovative unions and has so far survived, though much weaker than when we were when I first joined.



Met my husband on a picket line in 1969. I was a directory assist opr. The guys always hung around the operators picket line, flirting. Although it was not til 1977 that we starting really paying attention to each other, by then I was an installer in his garage and he asked me to be one of his stewards. He was chief steward at the time.



Never a dull moment.

bluedahlia

Scuttlers, that's hysterical.

Congrats Linda!

OK, Sunny, just for you..........IDJUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!

bluedahlia

Man, I just watched some Youtubes on Agenda 21.  All I have to say is............

bluedahlia

They also gave me a massive headache!  Faux News...........bah humbug!

Anonymous

Blue,

guess it's best to read the ORIGINAL from the UN COnference on Sustainable Development, Rio de Janero, 1992.

Don't know how it's being "interpreted" today - but didn't raise a wrinkle since then....like most good ideas, conventions, it sits, wonder why it's on the radar now?  remember the Convention on the Rights of the Child , ah, well, tell it to the girls recently killed in arson in Bangladesh.....conventions, talks, convention, and more talks...

Chickadee - HOW ROMANTIC.

Lewing - wedding bells, YEAH!!!!  Happiness always...

bluedahlia

I know Sunflowers.  It would be a "Star Trek" kind of world but it is being demonized!  Can you imagine the whole world working together for the benefit of humanity, while making sure Mother Earth is not destroyed?

bluedahlia

This is too funny!