When Herself worked in the private sector, she had to deal with loons, asshats, feebs, ninnies, ne’er-do-wells and vicious lying swine. Her post-work tales of woe became so common that I took to asking, “So, who was the Dummy of the Day?” There was always at least one, and sometimes more than one.
Now she works with smart people she likes, but I have decreed that the Dummy of the Day shall live on in the form of snark directed at the would-be King of Fucktardia who most amusingly opens his fat yap around a note-taking reporter on Friday.
For our inaugural edition we have a tie — Reps. Mike Rogers of Michigan and Phil Gingrey of Georgia, both Republicans from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has been considering health-care legislation.
Under the public option, Rogers oinked: “You will have to call a bureaucrat and hope to God his calculator is more compassionate and smarter than your doctor.” Never mind that America’s seniors and soldiers — among them Rogers, a former Army officer — already enjoy public medical care that in my own personal experience beats the mortal shit out of that provided by the private sector.
Not to be outdone was Gingrey, a pro-life OB-GYN and Star Scout. In addressing a compromise that would not permit the use of public funds to pay for abortions, Gingrey bleated thusly: “We don’t compromise on the use of taxpayer funds for the destruction of human life.” Uh huh. How about all those post-birth abortions we funded in Iraq and Afghanistan, Doc? Whoops, almost forgot — as the late George Carlin once noted, dead brown folks don’t count.
Mad Blog Media 
This morning on NPR they interviewed a Portland, Oregon small business owner who reported that only four insurance companies were available for her to get health insurance for her employees and that each quoted the same amount. In the next minute there was a quote from some mindless Republican (redundant?) bleating about how health insurance is best left to “market forces” or some such well worn phrase. Hello! Four companies quoting the same price! I think your precious market place has failed…again.
Why do I bother. What’s the point. As long as there are lobbyists there will never be universal health care. I’ll just have to continue to rely on health care, American style: hoping I never get sick.
My health care was courtesy of the red, white and blue until I was no longer a dependent of Col. Harold J. O’Grady, USAF. And a good thing, too, as I had a wealth of health issues — severe allergies, asthma and a weird visual-migraine thing that cropped up briefly in high school.
As a free-lance journo’ I’ve spent a fair amount of time on various high-deductible plans that paid for nothing unless you really hit the jackpot (get run over by a Hummer, grow a big knot on your pancreas, that sort of thing).
The upshot, naturally, is that you never go to the doc because everything — the office visit, the meds, any follow-up or visits to a specialist — are out of pocket until you hit that massive deductible. A sinus infection was a $150 shot to the wallet. So you skip the doc and the Zithromax, drink lots of warm fluids and wait for it to go away on its own.
Now I’m on Herself’s policy, which is (I think) a fairly standard 80/20 deal. I’ve used it twice — once to get a nasty cut inspected and again to have a seborrheic keratosis removed. And I pick up a fresh albuterol inhaler twice a year.
But I’m lucky. I’ve heard some horror stories from people whose experiences with the private sector sound like something out of “Brazil,” or maybe “The Hospital.”
We desperately need a better health care system. It makes no sense to have people wait until a problem is catastrophic and costs huge amounts rather than the cost of a bottle of pills. We pay for it anyway.
As far as I am concerned, these Republican Fucktards (is that redundant?) need to be made to give up their Federal benefits and go live under a bridge in a cardboard box. Preferably either a bridge in Phoenix, AZ in the summer or Buffalo, NY in the winter.
A couple concerns. One is that any Federal program that includes everyone is going to have to control costs, since Uncle Sam is broke. The best way to do that is to promote preventive medicine, i.e., don’t get sick to begin with. I’d love for Obama and his entourage to see the connections between good diet and exercise, preventative medicine, and controlling costs. Maybe we would get better Complete Streets.
As far as the government running health care? I dunno, Patrick. I’m glad you and your kin got excellent care. But living in BombTown, all I have to say is that when you let the government and big business run a big enterprise in tandem, the results can be a glorious, inefficient, red-tape laden bureaucratic cluster fuck. God help us all.
It’s been amusing watching the ready-fire-aim crowd work themselves into an ideological Morbius on this. On the one hand, nothing’s too good for our troops, so their system but be the best, right? Well, their system is run by Uncle Sugar himself. But nothing Uncle Sugar runs can work worth a fuck, can it? So how can these two statements both be true? Easy … just say them to Faux Noise listeners, who are too easily distracted with an “Obama faked the moon landings” story or worrying about tits on a wine bottle.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2009/07/alabama_bans_wine_with_naked_n.html?ft=1&f=103943429%3Fsc%3Dfb&cc=fp
geebus … a dozen typos in that last shot … but y’all know what i meant …
“Obama Faked the Moon Landings” is T-shirt bound with a bullet!
Health stuff is so complicated that it is very easy to confuse/indoctrinate people with simple attacks. Hell, I’m preaching to the choir here, but I meet ’em every day {plus we’re damn fat people here in ‘Merica). Myself included, but I move around once in awhile. Can we get a vote on this shit? Testify.
I’m now a 1099 contractor–no more W-2. Over the last 20 years, I’ve worked for the government and for some gifuckingnormous corporations. I’ve gotta say, I miss my corporate group health care benefits. My wife’s corporate plan covers us (2 adults and a 7 year old). Well, used to. She got laid off about a month ago, so we’re paying for COBRA. Since COBRA = 102% of the full cost of her corporate group plan, we see the real cost of our healthcare coverage.
What I don’t get is why Corporate America isn’t lobbying like hell to get employees’ healthcare costs off the books. We’re the only developed nation that places half or more of healthcare costs on employers. U.S. corporations compete with companies from other first world nations (and third world nations for that matter) that don’t have any healthcare burdens. So it’s only logical that the fucktards who run Corporate America support the Republicans who support leaving healthcare costs to Corporate America. It’s a circle jerk or some weird naked fraternity elephant walk. And Rome burns.
Jeff, Rome Burns every weekday on ESPN at 1:….oh wait you meant the other one, sorry my bad.
Actually the solution is somewhere in between the extremes. Right now the market forces do rule the roost, hence the reason that the insurance companies will find any reason to not cover you.
“You say you’re breathing, heart beating, liver functions, brain firing. That’s a pre-existing condition called ‘pre-death.’ We don’t cover that.”
The solution is not to make one universal coverage plan, but to make a few plans to meet the needs of most of the population AND take away the profit incentive for the doctors, pharmaceutical companies and insurance dingbats. With COBRA being the true indicator of ‘market forces’ it really makes the case for this type of system.
Ask that medical insurance companies work to make the health of the population better, offer a discounted price if you are willing to try (and I mean TRY) to make yourself better, and then offer this at a cost that benefits the business community as well. 70/30 or 80/20 would probably work best because anything less (more?) would create a price war and a bidding war of benefits. Not a bad thing, but then again if you take away any profit incentive the whole plan will fail (Donks/Elephunks worst nightmare).
The best case would be a balance between government sponsorship, private sector finances and the reminder that doctors take an oath to “do no harm.” And since most of them are earning that degree on scholarships that we (taxpayers) pay for, maybe it’s time we got something for our effort.
I’m a contractor and a bike shop owner… I purchase insurance for myself and my family. Right now the cost isn’t terrible, we are in decent shape and are a decent age (medically). Now in about ten years this all goes straight into the crapper. I will have three teenagers and my wife and I will be over 40. Ohhh shit…. Now heaven forbid that something happens or crops up to make that even worse. This is one of our biggest fears. If something major crops up then a couple of nasty things happen: I won’t be able to afford the insurance increase, I will be discriminated against getting a job, and I won’t be able to afford medical care without a job. Yeeehaaa…. For a brief (very brief) second there I thought about selling the shop and getting a regular job. Of course with the regular job they just fire (downsize?) you if you get to sick.
So what is to be done? With our current political situation… Hopefully a whole bunch… Odds?
I always love when these oinkers start in on “you’ll have bureaucrats deciding whether you get treatment or not…” Uh-huh. And how is that different than depending on insurance company bureaucrats, who have to weigh a profit motive above all else when deciding what to or not to approve? Just too bad the voters can’t drum up the energy to do a healthy cleansing of the electoral system and send some of these allegedly brilliant minds back to the private sector where they may have to actually work for a living.
Under the current rules, once you make it to age 65, there’s Medicare. My insurance is tolerable with it; without it, I couldn’t afford health insurance. Medicare and Social Security are the only advantages to old age that I can think of. As for age discrimination in getting a job, it happened to me in my 40s, it probably will happen to you. At some point, self-employment becomes your only option unless you want to work for minimum wage at Walmart.
The other advantage of old age is that you can give the small children around your house back to their parents. Since you aren’t doing the Copper Triangle ride today, …
Below are a few FACTS about our healthcare system. I challenge any opponent of healthcare reform to dispute them.
“45 million people in our country have NO health insurance. Thousands more lose their coverage every day. Yet we spend far more of our GDP on healthcare than ANY other civilized nation while ranking poorly in every objective, measureable healthcare statistic compiled worldwide.”
The opponents of reform can spare us all the scare tactics about rationing, lower-quality care and exploding costs they fear will be the result of reform.
We’re already rationing care and providing low-quality results while spending so much of our GDP that the economic competitiveness of our country is being eroded.
We MUST reform this broken system as soon as possible. Once the basic reforms are in place, fine-tuning regarding costs, coverage and the like can be done over time.
The American people should NOT let this opportunity to reform the current system pass by due to obstructionist tactics by those who profit from the status quo or who simply fear change.
Jeff,
Did I read correctly that you are paying the full load on your Cobra coverage? My HR folks have been telling me that if I lay anyone off – ah non-voluntary separation- we pay 65% of their Cobra. That may only apply to your wife’s coverage, but unless I missed something or am stupid (both possibilities – this is why I hire out HR)you may want to talk to someone at her old firm.
But yeah when I was last between paying reasons to be off the bike Cobra was 102% of original cost. Man that hurt, but at our age and with a High School Junior we needed it as the far lesser of two expensive alternatives.
For the library’s (my current and hopefully last job) employees we pay all but $120 a year of the PPO or HMO coverage for all employees working over 32 hours a week. After payroll it is my biggest single budget line. But it is well worth it, our rate, well the industry’s pay scale for professional and non-professional staff is awful and the benefit is a very useful carrot. We do not subsidize non-employee family so I pay a lot to cover spouse and one son.
As an employer and a payer I really want the government to step in and reduce my business operating and personal costs by spreading the burden around a bit and cover those I don’t so they can be more productive.
Ben/Rush,
COBRA is 102% of your usual premium. That 2% being a “convenience charge/fee” for the ‘convenience’ of you being still on your previous employers’ coverage plan. It typically lasts up to 18 months, and is federally mandated.
Further Rush, you may inquire with any future employers as to the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993. It is a federal law which states that you can have unpaid (or paid) leave for up to 12 weeks for certain family medical issues. Employers can be held accountable if they do not inform you of this choice because it is offered as a ‘guarantee’ that you will have up to 12 weeks a year off for qualifying medical need. One thing to keep in mind is that some states (California has a similar program) offer this as well.
One thing that makes it so unique is that you are protected from discrimination based upon a medical condition. For example, if your wife gets preganant and notifies her employer of this, the employer MUST make concessions to her health and welfare. Essentially this means medical visits, hospital stays and such. It does not necessarily mean that she can get a scooter and sofa in her office. It does not ‘guarantee’ that she’ll have a job when she decides to return, but by not offering her a similar job, her employer can be fined.
Ben S:
Thanks for the heads up on the cost of COBRA. The 65% coverage your employer is providing sounds unique–and excellent. My wife’s former employer is not as generous. But just in case, I’ll confirm with her. She just completed the paperwork last week and wrote the first premium check.
Jeff,
The 65% isn’t a local or unique choice it’s Federal Law. From http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/cobra.html
“The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) provides for premium reductions and additional election opportunities for health benefits under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985, commonly called COBRA. Eligible individuals pay only 35 percent of their COBRA premiums and the remaining 65 percent is reimbursed to the coverage provider through a tax credit. The premium reduction applies to periods of health coverage beginning on or after February 17, 2009 and lasts for up to nine months for those eligible for COBRA during the period beginning September 1, 2008 and ending December 31, 2009 due to an involuntary termination of employment that occurred during that period. The TAA Health Coverage Improvement Act of 2009, enacted as part of ARRA, also made changes with regard to COBRA continuation coverage.”
There is a stiff penalty for employers not conveying this information to all eligible employees or ex-employees. Like I said I am not a benefits expert, but you may want to talk to your wife’s previous employer’s HR office.
Ben:
Gracias for the info!
Jeff,
De nada.
Shady, you forgot the med plan you had at El Rancho.Carefully laid out by Doc. Padilla. Kept us healthly for many a night.
Dr. Jethro,
I had forgotten the Doc Groovy® Health Care Plan — get weird, get sick, get better, get weird, get sick, get better, get weird, get sick, get better.
That will be $1,000 for the consultation. Cash will be fine, thank you — small bills, non-sequential, left in the coffee can under the oak tree in the dead of night.