On the State of Politics

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow Right. There is something that *feels* wrong when a senior on a fixed income can't afford her heart medication because she makes $10 over the limit to qualify for Low Income Subsidy or Medicaid.

@ShadowSister For sure. I mean if my family lived a few hundred miles south my father would likely be dead because he could never afford American prices for insulin.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow Thankfully it's a little better after the Inflation Reduction Act... depending on the insulin. I remember quoting people $500+ a month for insulin, and it broke my heart every single time.

@sarabee1995 💯

@saragoodtimes Do you mean medicaid or medicare? Medicaid is offered at the state level and is based on income + assets. Medicare is for anyone 65 or older who has worked at least ten years. What makes you say they are a disgrace? I talk to VA beneficiaries all the time, and I hear people who love it and others who hate it. Very little middle ground. Medicare certainly has its problems... I could probably speak for hours about it... but that hardly qualifies it as a disgrace. My personally assessment from speaking with medicare beneficiaries every day is that it generally does for them what they need it to do. It's better than the insurance I have, and I work for the insurance company!

And if you did mean medicaid, well that's administered on a state-by-state basis, and it's going to change a lot based on where you live. I have limited experience with it.

@TexChik When I was running my dad's company back in 2015, I remember sitting down with our insurance agent to choose our options for employee benefits. In those days, we weren't required yet to make the switch to Obamacare plans. Because our employees had less-than-average claims, we did benefit from being able to stay with the non-Obamacare plans in those first couple years. But if one of our employees would have had a heart attack, for instance, our premiums the next year would likely have gone through the roof. We would have been grateful for that safety net!

When I left that position, before I started with my current company, I had a year where I might not have had insurance at all if not for Obamacare. I was going through a divorce, things were tight, and I wouldn't have known where to go for an individual policy. And while I had the good fortune that I probably would have passed underwriting, lots of other folks are not so lucky. All I know is, that would sure suck to not be able to get any insurance just because you don't have an employer who offers good coverage.

Again, it's certainly not perfect. And Obamacare is not my wheelhouse, I deal exclusively with Medicare. Like everyone, I would LOVE to see something better. But for folks who have no other options, I am grateful that we have something that can give them coverage. Because as I see it, the alternative was really bad for a whole lot of people.

And of course, it's always good to chat with you, my friend. 💜

@ShadowSister medicaid. it's a block grant to states who run the program on their own. here it's full of faults and fraud

@ShadowSister Despite having the most expensive health care system, the United States ranks last overall compared with six other industrialized countries—Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom—on measures of quality, efficiency, access to care, equity, and the ability to lead long, healthy, lives. It is that way for 2 reasons, one is because our population does not follow proper dietary and fitness goals, this is why we are so fat. The other is because of the influence of the private medical system on the legislatures. They get laws their way to keep profits up. Case in point, insulin was developed in 1921, one would think it would be generic by now but they keep tweaking the formula and getting laws passed so they can keep it expensive until the recent changes. Medicare was legally banned from negotiating drug prices and seniors are banned from using drug company coupons to lower prices of prescriptions the day they turn 65. I don't want Canada's system but would be glad to have Japan, Singapore or Germanys. Republicans are blind to the fact that by ignoring fixing this problem it is going to come back and bite them in ass.

@Aysel I can only represent my own views, but I agree with this statement. The key words being "in addition to." So if 'my guy' was lighting a match and threatening to blow up the institution, I would bail from my guy in a heartbeat. I just wish that was mutual.

I have crazy mad respect for conservatives like Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, who took a stand against the cult of personality. And the Cheneys and other conservatives who are standing with their values rather toeing the party line. I would ABSOLUTELY do the same if the situation were reversed.

Two decades ago, my father-in-law used to say, "Liberals tend to focus on outcomes to the neglect of principles, while conservatives tend to focus on principles to the neglect of outcomes." Now we are seeing which conservatives still care about principles.

@MasterLee I used to believe this. And it certainly makes sense on the surface. Competition is good. The free market drives prices down.

I few things about it give me pause. First, we don't have competition in reference to other public services. The fire department is a public service, and yet that seems to work just fine. I don't have to buy a private policy in order to have the fire department protect me. Same with the Post Office (though if any government office could benefit from a little competition, they sure could)! We could find lots of public services do exactly what they are supposed to do, and we don't call any of them "communism."

Second, we intuitively think of health care in similar terms as we think of public services. If someone goes to the ER, we expect them to be treated. If the person is released when they shouldn't be because they "didn't have the right insurance," we view that is inhumane. But why? That is a private business. They shouldn't have any obligation to provide their services to someone just because there is a need. We don't expect grocery stores to give food to people just because they are hungry. Why do we expect that private health care providers would provide care? At least for myself, it's because it just feels like doctors should be in the same category as fire fighters and mail carriers. It's bizarre to me that we DON'T consider it a right as a citizen like we do those other things.

Finally, insurance is not a product in the same way that other items on the free market are products. You don't "get" anything for it. There's nothing physical, there's no services rendered. It's a financial game. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for that game. I've needed it as a beneficiary. And as a licensed sales agent, it's also what puts food on my table. But if there was no government intervention, I have no question that my company would only offer individual policies to the healthiest of individuals. I signed up a senior with a major heart condition for my company's plan earlier today. I have no doubt that we will give him the care he needs. But without the government requiring that we accept him without underwriting, there is NO WAY he would have ever gotten a policy.

To be fair, Medicare is kind of a hybrid. Beneficiaries can choose any healthcare company they want to administer their Medicare (as long as we have a contract with Medicare). Medicare pays the insurance company a flat fee to administer their Medicare. Yet there is competition between carriers to see which of us can offer seniors the most benefits.

It's just sad to me that, with few exceptions, you can only get into this system after you turn 65. Before then, well, you're on your own. Hope you have good employer coverage. Or else it sucks to be you.