The Goat Pen

hedge wrote:I said from the beginning that I'd be most pissed if I just been skating along without having to pay shit and now all of a sudden the government is doing me the "favor" of letting me actually pay for my own health insurance. <Irish girlfriend from Caddy Shack voice>Thanks for nut'in!</IgfCSv>. You would think making the slackers and sluggards actually having to pay their own way would brings costs down for everyone. After all, the "official" reason that health insurance cost so much was b/c the ones who were paying were having to pay extra for all those that didn't pay. Now we're getting all the slackers to pay their own way, and guess what? My rate now goes up 150%. I'm sure they'll find a way to explain that...

Obamacare says you can't have a basic no frills policy anymore, and because there are no pre-existing conditions limitations, there are going to be some people that are burning through insurance money that had caps or no insurance at all - which means that insurance companies are having to adjust to those costs - the net result is the uber cheap policies are gone, the high end premium policies are exorbitant and most people are going to be in a model where they not only pay noticeable premiums - unless they are poor - they will also have to set aside money for a rather healthy deductible. That is the new reality for the "non-poor" whether they are in exchanges or not.

However if insurance companies don't spend something like 85% on claims, you get a refund -assuming auditing is accurate and they don't hide shit (you ain't getting a refund)

Whats crazy is now you're going to have a whole subset of people who will be debating whether they want to earn a few thousand more a year, just to see a good chunk of that go to insurance, or just stay within the subsidized lines of where they are now - given that insurance is mandatory.

In the past if you were financially destitute like Hedge you could do without insurance and take your chances. Under the ACA if you're too poor to afford insurance they fine you for it and use your money to pay for coverage for illegals and welfare recipients.

Why we will never get it right anymore. We've all seen it play out live on here.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/10/12/bu ... d-too.html

80% and illegals are not covered under the ACA at all.

Bklyn wrote:Why we will never get it right anymore. We've all seen it play out live on here.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/10/12/bu ... d-too.html

yea, I've said that for awhile - having a 24/7 news channel that presents news slanted toward your particular view of the world is detrimental to this country and is why we are so divisive now.

I heard someone say that news should be mandatory and without advertising on every station - then it would eliminate the talking heads whose sole purpose is to attract viewers (and you don't attract viewers by pissing them off with views contrary to theirs) and generate advertising revenue.

Fox News and MSNBC are in the entertainment business, not news business, but far too many Americans see them as the gospel.

Owlman wrote:80% and illegals are not covered under the ACA at all.

could care less about illegals but the 80% are still highly effected by its results and mandates which is more infuriating.

eCat wrote:
Fox News and MSNBC are in the entertainment business, not news business, but far too many Americans see them as the gospel.

EFZ

"Fox News and MSNBC are in the entertainment business, not news business"

I'm not so sure there's a huge distinction b/w news and entertainment...

The 80% is that the insurance companies have to spend 80% on patients not overhead

You can't treat patients without incurring some overhead. The nurses need toilet paper. Etc...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/20 ... listening/

"However, the biggest problem is with “crisis messaging” itself and the media’s dissemination of it. Everything in America is now a “crisis” – nowhere more so than in Washington and to no one more than the media. The problem is that when everything is a “crisis,” nothing is."

Excellent window into the evolution of the Bush/Cheney relationship:

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/ma ... riage.html

Fox News and MSNBC are in the entertainment business, not news business, but far too many Americans see them as the gospel.



I thought what Dan Rather and CBS tried to do w/GWB was pretty damn entertaining myself.

Toemeesleather wrote:Fox News and MSNBC are in the entertainment business, not news business, but far too many Americans see them as the gospel.



I thought what Dan Rather and CBS tried to do w/GWB was pretty damn entertaining myself.

I never knew the whole story with that, but just because Rather did the story, I never felt he should be the fall guy for it.

Rather thought so to, so he sued CBS and his case was dismissed. He also still thinks the story was true despite the fact that it hinged on secret fake memos from a dead guy's "personal files"

still thinks its true eh?

well, he's had his moment in the sun

no idea if this photo is real or not but I love it anyways.

supposedly it happened during the veterans attempt to visit the WWII memorial during the shutdown

Not likely. Only about 200 showed up for the so-called million veteran march.

If it's about publicity though, then it was wildly successful. They've gotten a lot of press on it.

I don't think they'd let the plane fly over the mall like that...

oh my god, it would give off the totally different vibe if this was the million man march