# Biggest loser of primary season now that it is decided? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [March 22, 2020, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-loser-of-primary-season-now-that-it-is-decided/849991 "2020-03-22T00:25:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2020, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-loser-of-primary-season-now-that-it-is-decided/849991/42 "2020-03-23T23:37:05Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > As one who sells health insurance, the number of elderly people who pine for their private coverage over Medicare is 0. Zero. None. Nada. > > ." Now it is one. My private insurance, since I am a Govt retiree is better than Medicare and cheaper, and for a small amount extra I can cover my wife. So yeah, I signed for Part A, Free, but declined parts B, etc. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2020, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-loser-of-primary-season-now-that-it-is-decided/849991/43 "2020-03-24T01:13:26Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > You keep on going on about how your hero won the Grapefruit League. Hell, just the first half of the Grapefruit League, not even the whole thing. You started a thread your own self about how predictive winning the first couple of states was. Don’t pull this “grapefruit league” stuff on us because you don’t like Buttigieg. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2020, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-loser-of-primary-season-now-that-it-is-decided/849991/44 "2020-03-24T15:11:34Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > I am just going to comment on your post and ignore all the pitting this thread has degenerated to. > > Canada does have socialized insurance, with each province running its own scheme. But hospitals get an annual block grant and have to make do with that. Doctors are private and get a fee for each act they perform but based on a provincial fee set by the province. Unless they choose to practice outside the plan, they must accept those fees. If they practice outside the plan they set their own fees and cannot get anything from the government. In other words their practice is either entirely in the plan or entirely outside. (There is an exception if a doctor comes to an accident scene and renders emergency service.) At least that’s how Quebec works. If you see a doctor for treatment, no money changes hands. Nothing. He is allowed to charge for filling out forms, say for a driver’s licence for example, but that is the only exception. If you go to a hospital, you never see a bill. Ever. There is no dental care, which is a big lacuna. > > The other serious problem is a shortage of doctors. I have using one family physician for 40 years and he is now semi-retired. When he does finally quit, I don’t know what I will do. There is a clinic about 1/4 mile from my apartment. While they will give emergency care if you need it, they are not accepting any new patients into their system. I do not know what I will do. They do not even maintain a wait list. > > So far, it has worked well for me and my family, but I can see a future problem. > > Oh, and there is also a provincial drug insurance that has both a deductible and a co-pay, but beyond a certain amount per month, you pay nothing. They negotiated strongly with the drug companies, unlike the US which is forbidden by an act of congress to negotiate prices but must pay list. Thanks for the details. I’m fairly familiar with the Canadian system (for an American, anyway), having married into a Canadian family, a family that has had, unfortunately, extreme medical needs. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in Canada (mostly in NL), met many, many people, and in all that time I’ve met exactly \*one \*person who would trade his system for the American system. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2020, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-loser-of-primary-season-now-that-it-is-decided/849991/45 "2020-03-24T15:14:54Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Now it is one. > > My private insurance, since I am a Govt retiree is better than Medicare and cheaper, and for a small amount extra I can cover my wife. > > So yeah, I signed for Part A, Free, but declined parts B, etc. My father, also a government retiree, elected to keep his private insurance upon retirement. Like you, he does have Part A. He chose that because his wife was, at the time of his retirement, very, very sick (terminally sick, as it turned out), and they thought it best not to change horses in midstream, so to speak. Now, some years later, it’s turning out that Medicare would be much, much better for him. He’s in a “memory care” residence, and everything there is geared towards Medicare. The doctors there won’t even take his insurance. Not second-guessing your choice, but in the long run, that was the wrong choice for my father. Everyone’s circumstances are different, of course. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2020, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-loser-of-primary-season-now-that-it-is-decided/849991/46 "2020-03-24T15:16:44Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > You keep on going on about how your hero won the Grapefruit League. Hell, just the first half of the Grapefruit League, not even the whole thing. Perhaps you know nothing about baseball. The Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary counted for real delegates. They aren’t spring training games. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2020, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-loser-of-primary-season-now-that-it-is-decided/849991/47 "2020-03-24T15:56:11Z")
> [@Linden\_Arden](#): > > That is what you socialists will never understand. Markets discover price relevance. I’m a Free Marketeer, and trying to apply this thinking to healthcare is a crock of ripe shit. If you have a heart attack, you need care _now_. You can’t shop around. You can’t price things out. You get care _now_ or you die _now_. The market can’t function in that scenario. You are at the mercy of the monopoly of St. Whichever Fucking Hospital You End Up At. Even if you get a longer-term health condition, you still aren’t in a free market because of your inability to negotiate with health insurers and hospitals and clinicians on your own. You’re a health insurance consumer, and your money means absolutely jack fucking shit when it comes to which treatments are covered and how much they cost. You might as well try to convince Ford to make a new kind of car, all on your lonesome. Healthcare isn’t a free market in this country. It’s also one big market failure. If you don’t understand those things, you don’t understand enough to debate me. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2020, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-loser-of-primary-season-now-that-it-is-decided/849991/48 "2020-03-24T20:09:41Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > Perhaps you know nothing about baseball. The Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary counted for real delegates. They aren’t spring training games. They might as well be, in terms of delegate impact - especially given the delegate lead you’re boasting about. What was it, _a whole two delegates?_ And then on March 3, **1,344 delegates** got voted on. What’s a difference of two delegates matter, going into that? It’s the difference between a spoonful of water and Lake Michigan. But feel free to continue making a big deal out of practically nothing, on account of your ridiculous hero worship of a small-town mayor who desperately wants to be a big shot. And I will feel free to continue mocking you when you do so. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2020, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-loser-of-primary-season-now-that-it-is-decided/849991/49 "2020-03-24T20:15:53Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > Perhaps you know nothing about baseball. I know a great deal about baseball. The season is 162 games long. For a team to have as insignificant a lead in a pennant race as the delegate lead toward the nomination your hero had that you boast so much about, a team would have to be 1-0 after one game\* in a thousand game season\*. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2020, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-loser-of-primary-season-now-that-it-is-decided/849991/50 "2020-03-24T20:44:52Z")
You’re a smart, earnest guy. That’s why it’s so annoying when you’re purposely full of shit. The Grapefruit league has zero impact on the regular season. It’s not the first couple of games of the regular season. Since you know a great deal about baseball and all. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2020, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-loser-of-primary-season-now-that-it-is-decided/849991/51 "2020-03-25T00:08:45Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > I know a great deal about baseball. The season is 162 games long. For a team to have as insignificant a lead in a pennant race as the delegate lead toward the nomination your hero had that you boast so much about, a team would have to be 1-0 after one game\* in a thousand game season\*. It’s maybe equivalent to getting the first out in the first inning of the season. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2020, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-loser-of-primary-season-now-that-it-is-decided/849991/52 "2020-03-25T07:46:53Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > They might as well be, in terms of delegate impact - especially given the delegate lead you’re boasting about. What was it, _a whole two delegates?_ > > And then on March 3, **1,344 delegates** got voted on. What’s a difference of two delegates matter, going into that? It’s the difference between a spoonful of water and Lake Michigan. > > But feel free to continue making a big deal out of practically nothing, on account of your ridiculous hero worship of a small-town mayor who desperately wants to be a big shot. And I will feel free to continue mocking you when you do so. 😃 And Pete would have won a decent chunk of those delegates had he stayed in. I wish like hell Biden and Bernie would have sat this out, but they didn’t and here we are. Pete comes out of this primary season a winner and with a good job in the Biden administration. I have a feeling we will be back at this in 2024. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-loser-of-primary-season-now-that-it-is-decided/849991.md?page=2)