# Health care horror story #13848732 **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 26, 2009, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612 "2009-12-26T08:01:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 21
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/401 "2010-01-14T13:07:22Z")
> [@legalsnugs](#): > > That is not an across the board rule for all Medicare recipients. Sometimes Medicare is the secondary provider. The rules are different depending on the retiree’s situation and the company providing the policy. But I’m sure you’ve already looked into the Medicare Secondary Payer provision to see where your mother’s policy falls. > > And, according to curlcoat, you can simply decline using Medicare benefits, if you want. However, that is currently \*\*not true \*\*as relates to Medicare Part A if you want to keep receiving social security benefits, which she apparently does. So, despite what she says and what she apparently wants, she’s in the system. You can, under some circumstances, decline Part B, but there may be financial penalties. A lawsuit has been filed and changes in the law suggested to allow people to opt out of all of it without endangering social security benefits, but right now, no. Nope, that’s not true. In just our situation alone, we’ve tried everything we can think of to get Medicare to allow my mom to use her own health insurance. My sister went as far as writing our congressmen(people). I don’t know what occurs with other people, but that’s our situation. There are just way too many things in this healthcare bill to cram into one little forum, but as to the doctors not taking medicare, just for one other small note, why should they? Basically medicare forces them to provide free care which actually costs them money (mounds of paperwork above and beyond that of patients who pay their own way or have regular insurance). And with the new healthcare bill, regs are in place to force doctors to do even more special steps, forms, auditing and procedures. My doctor opted out this year. If the bill passes, her practice would be one of about 200 doctors in our state that would have to go out of business. I’m not saying “don’t improve that which needs improving”. I’m saying THIS bill is not it. This bill is the very epitome of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/402 "2010-01-14T13:13:25Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > UPS calls their service Mail Innovations and Fed Ex calls theirs Smart Post. It’s not the regular UPS or FedEx service. My understanding is that UPS/Fed Ex gets the package to the destination post office and it is then delivered by the normal carrier. 😕 Why would they do this? I don’t know about other cities, but there are huge facilities at the airport for both UPS and FedEX. The UPS and FedEX planes taxi to their specific facility, the trucks load up from there, and then the deliveries begin. It wouldn’t make any sense whatsoever for them to take a package from the plane, to a Post Office with a FedEx truck. Or worse to have a USPS truck come and pick it up from the Airport facility), only to have a UPS or FedEX truck go to the facility, pick up the package they just received and THEN deliver it. And which “normal carrier” do you mean, a delivery company carrier, or a USPS carrier? And it still doesn’t speak to the fact that the USPS is losing money and is operating at a loss. The delivery companies aren’t. It also doesn’t address the overall ineptitude of government “services”. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/403 "2010-01-14T13:24:01Z")
> [@legalsnugs](#): > > Ah. Someone should tell **curlcoat**. > > But I don’t think a regular retiree can opt out of Part A without jeopardizing social security benefits. They’re linked together, which is the point of Dick Armey’s lawsuit against the DHHS. One [cite](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/aug/24/dick-armey/dick-armeys-claim-about-medicare-and-social-securi/). > > You want social security benefits, you get Medicare, too. It’s a stupid thing, but there it is. Thanks **legalsnugs**. My sister is the main person who deals with it, so I wasn’t sure what the actual cause was, but yes. My mom’s perfectly good coverage takes a backseat to medicare because of this and she would lose benefits. Her own healthcare would provide for things that medicare won’t. And talk about “out of network”. SHEESH, give us a break, you think finding an in network provider is hard when you’re on insurance? Try finding a doc that will accept medicare. I don’t know about other states, but as I said in a previous post, docs in my neck of the woods are opting out right and left before the bill takes effect (I think they’re among the few people in the country that have actually read the bill). What you say above reminded me of another issue. I completely forgot to mention SS. I’m 50 and I have a feeling that I might as well have just flushed my contributions of the last 35 years (yes, I’ve been working since I was 15) down the toilet. The way the gov’t mishandled SS, I doubt I will have any retirement at all in 15 years. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/404 "2010-01-14T14:05:16Z")
> [@CanvasShoes](#): > > And it still doesn’t speak to the fact that the USPS is losing money and is operating at a loss. The delivery companies aren’t. It also doesn’t address the overall ineptitude of government “services”. The USPS has been operating at a loss for a couple of years. Prior to 2007, it had turned a profit in something like 26 consecutive years. The USPS also has to serve every single address in the US, no matter how unprofitable, for the same cost as profitable routes- just like utility companies. FedEx and UPS do not, which is a pretty fucking huge advantage. In any case, the USPS is not supposed to turn a profit; it’s supposed to be revenue-neutral, meaning it neither makes a profit or a loss. Obviously, that’s impossible - nobody can predict exactly how many mail pieces of each given class will be mailed in a year - but it has certainly paid for itself since it was reconfigured as a business in 1970. ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/405 "2010-01-14T15:22:30Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > I don’t know where you get the idea I couldn’t get private insurance, but what I would do should my husband die or become unemployed depends on circumstances. Such as, if he is merely unemployed, we will pay for COBRA again. I was under the impression that you are disabled. You have heard that it’s nearly impossible to get private insurance in the US if you have any sort of pre-existing condition haven’t you? Does that not apply to you? > [@](#): > > You aren’t making sense. You first talk about people without insurance, then you say your son was on COBRA. Also, I’m not sure why it is that he would be without insurance while waiting for a security clearance - he couldn’t work during that time? Where did the COBRA come from? He wasn’t on COBRA, he couldn’t afford it. He didn’t have a job that provided insurance in the interim between his temporary job in academia until his security clearance came thru. _I wanted to thump him on the head when I found out. We would have helped pay for his COBRA if we had known, idiot._ > [@](#): > > “Lower class” is the economic designation that someone came up with long before my use here. As for those who are working at “menial” jobs without insurance, I’ve I said before I feel it is completely irresponsible for anyone to assume they can have anything like a normal adult life working at McDs. Jobs like that are for teenagers, retired folks supplementing their pensions, or someone with a spouse who is working a “real” job, with benefits. Yet, because of the same people who want a government funded insurance plan for all have also kept demanding that the minimum wage go up for these jobs because “families have to eat”, we have people trying to make a living at these jobs. Encouraging each generation to think that they _can_ raise kids working at those sorts of jobs. How many more generations would you like to raise whose only motivation is to get a job in a gas station after high school? Of course, if you all would start to get real about the affect of the size of our population on things like this, we might be able to go back to the days when heads of households didn’t work at WalMart. Wow, that is all, just wow. > [@](#): > > You obviously had some advantage that I didn’t. I was working, sometimes two jobs, to stay alive. I imagine that even if your parents didn’t think you should go to college they were still concerned with whether or not you had food and shelter. Mine weren’t. Um, no. I “ran away” to college at the age of 17. I worked multiple jobs, borrowed money to pay living expenses, got scholarships, took overloads, studied my ass off and got a BS in engineering in 3 years. I started working 2 days after graduation. My loving parents wouldn’t even co-sign a loan so I could buy a car so I could get to work. Heh. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/406 "2010-01-14T15:56:06Z")
> [@sinjin](#): > > I was under the impression that you are disabled. You have heard that it’s nearly impossible to get private insurance in the US if you have any sort of pre-existing condition haven’t you? Does that not apply to you? It’s nearly impossible to get _individual_ private insurance. It’s fairly easy to enroll in an employer-provided group policy, since they generally do not deny _coverage_ based on pre-existing conditions. The tricky part is that they very frequently deny individual claims based on pre-existing conditions. So if you’ve got a bulging disk, you can still get health insurance through your employer. You just probably won’t be able to get your bulging disk taken care of if it turns into a full-blown herniation. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/407 "2010-01-14T16:34:14Z")
> [@CanvasShoes](#): > > 😕 > > Why would they do this? I don’t know about other cities, but there are huge facilities at the airport for both UPS and FedEX. The UPS and FedEX planes taxi to their specific facility, the trucks load up from there, and then the deliveries begin. It wouldn’t make any sense whatsoever for them to take a package from the plane, to a Post Office with a FedEx truck. Or worse to have a USPS truck come and pick it up from the Airport facility), only to have a UPS or FedEX truck go to the facility, pick up the package they just received and THEN deliver it. > > And which “normal carrier” do you mean, a delivery company carrier, or a USPS carrier? > > And it still doesn’t speak to the fact that the USPS is losing money and is operating at a loss. The delivery companies aren’t. It also doesn’t address the overall ineptitude of government “services”. It gets delivered by the USPS mail carrier. Apparently, it saves UPS/FedEx a bit of money to hand off the last segment to the USPS- the rates for this service are less expensive than for the regular UPS/FedEx service. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/408 "2010-01-14T17:33:43Z")
> [@CanvasShoes](#): > > It wouldn’t make any sense whatsoever for them to take a package from the plane, to a Post Office with a FedEx truck. Or worse to have a USPS truck come and pick it up from the Airport facility), only to have a UPS or FedEX truck go to the facility, pick up the package they just received and THEN deliver it. Here is the delivery tracking for a purchase from Newegg I made three days ago, that is still in progress. ```auto 1/13/2010 7:35 AM EST Walpole, MA, US TENDERED TO USPS 1/13/2010 5:13 AM EST Walpole, MA, US ARRIVAL DESTINATION DHL GLOBAL MAIL FACILITY 1/12/2010 9:50 AM EST Rutherford, NJ, US DEPARTURE ORIGIN DHL GLOBAL MAIL FACILITY 1/11/2010 10:24 PM EST Rutherford, NJ, US PROCESSED 1/11/2010 7:39 PM EST Rutherford, NJ, US ARRIVAL ORIGIN DHL GLOBAL MAIL FACILITY 1/11/2010 6:20 PM EST Edison, NJ, US PICK UP ``` Are you still in denial over this? Whether it makes sense to you is immaterial; the major private delivery services depend on the USPS for some of their deliveries. ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/409 "2010-01-14T17:34:00Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > It’s nearly impossible to get _individual_ private insurance. It’s fairly easy to enroll in an employer-provided group policy, since they generally do not deny _coverage_ based on pre-existing conditions. > > The tricky part is that they very frequently deny individual claims based on pre-existing conditions. > > So if you’ve got a bulging disk, you can still get health insurance through your employer. You just probably won’t be able to get your bulging disk taken care of if it turns into a full-blown herniation. I am aware of all this. Curlcoat, who is disabled, has employer-provided insurance thru her husband. I asked her what she planned to do if she lost that coverage in the event that her husband lost his job or died. She replied that they would get COBRA again if he was unemployed and indicated that she was eligible for private insurance in any case. I find it rather hard to believe that a person with a disabling condition would be able to find private insurance in the US. ---
**Author:** ![Doughbag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Doughbag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doughbag)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/410 "2010-01-14T17:46:32Z")
> [@sinjin](#): > > I am aware of all this. Curlcoat, who is disabled, has employer-provided insurance thru her husband. I asked her what she planned to do if she lost that coverage in the event that her husband lost his job or died. She replied that they would get COBRA again if he was unemployed and indicated that she was eligible for private insurance in any case. I find it rather hard to believe that a person with a disabling condition would be able to find private insurance in the US. Her hubby gets fired? Really? Loosing his health care benefits? Really…? You are making things up, something like this NEVER happens.:smack: Sure, the privat health insurance they can afford then is the same as they got now, right? There will be no revision on it or the insurance company may decline her application, NO way can something like that happen. Not in the US of A. Thing like that only happens to stupid people. It’s not like her husbands employer has him by the balls or anything, but since they are not stupid they will be fine. Every employer in the US takes good care of their employees. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/411 "2010-01-14T19:59:31Z")
I said I was done, but the stupid, it begs, seriously begs, for response. > [@curlcoat](#): > > “Lower class” is the economic designation that someone came up with long before my use here. As for those who are working at “menial” jobs without insurance, I’ve I said before I feel it is completely irresponsible for anyone to assume they can have anything like a normal adult life working at McDs. Jobs like that are for teenagers, retired folks supplementing their pensions, or someone with a spouse who is working a “real” job, with benefits. Do you understand that more than **15 million** people are unemployed right now, that we have a \*\*10% \*\*unemployment rate? Do you not understand that many people, having lost their career employment have had no choice but to take “menial” jobs in retail and food service which do not offer insurance coverage nor sufficient pay to maintain COBRA coverage, especially for a family? Do you not understand that in some states the number of **adults** who have full-time employment but are still uninsured is more than 1 in 5? (27% in Texas.) Even putting that aside, simply saying “people shouldn’t expect to live on that kind of work” ignores the fact that there are people doing that kind of work, that it’s necessary to have people doing that kind of work, not all of them are going to be in the categories that you’ve deemed acceptable **and those people need to have access to medical care that they can afford, just like you have**. Medical care is not a luxury item. Medical care is not the same as a nice car or flat screen TV or a beach vacation. > [@](#): > > Yet, because of the same people who want a government funded insurance plan for all have also kept demanding that the minimum wage go up for these jobs because “families have to eat”, we have people trying to make a living at these jobs. No, people are trying to “make a living” at those jobs because **they are the only jobs available**. Have you looked at the want ads lately? Certain sectors are simply _not hiring at all_. I work in one myself. And in the years it takes to get qualified in a new line of work or wait for their career sector to recover and begin hiring again, people still have to earn money, and keep a roof over their heads and the lights on. > [@](#): > > Encouraging each generation to think that they _can_ raise kids working at those sorts of jobs. You keep claiming that this is a generational issue but you can’t back that up with a single cite. This is just your opinion, just like your stupidity of presuming that a Doper who said that half the year (when his amount of work declines seasonally) he cannot afford health insurance premiums was a profligate who was out partying every weekend and that was why he couldn’t pay premiums of several hundred dollars. By the way you view the world, it’s clear that you believe that you are the only virtuous person in the world who has ever worked two jobs and struggled to pay the bills and lived frugally in all of history. Guess what sweetheart? You’re not. Not by a fucking longshot. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/412 "2010-01-14T20:20:10Z")
> [@tumbleddown](#): > > Do you understand that more than **15 million** people are unemployed right now, \<\\> - does this personally affect the Curlinator? \<\\> does not \<\\> Curlinator does not care. > [@tumbleddown](#): > > that we have a \*\*10% \*\*unemployment rate? \<\\> - does this personally affect the Curlinator? \<\\> does not \<\\> Curlinator does not care. > [@tumbleddown](#): > > Do you not understand that many people, having lost their career employment have had no choice but to take “menial” jobs in retail and food service which do not offer insurance coverage nor sufficient pay to maintain COBRA coverage, especially for a family? \<\\> - does this personally affect the Curlinator? \<\\> does not \<\\> Curlinator does not care. > [@tumbleddown](#): > > Do you not understand that in some states the number of **adults** who have full-time employment but are still uninsured is more than 1 in 5? (27% in Texas.) \<\\> - does this personally affect the Curlinator? \<\\> does not \<\\> Curlinator does not care. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/413 "2010-01-14T20:29:46Z")
Curlinator is a troll. The only way to respond is to remind yourself as your fingers hover over your keyboard: “You are not real. You are not real. All your words are lies. Responding to you only _feeds_ you and makes you more powerful. You are not real. You are not real.” If you respond to her, you only have yourself to blame. Be strong, people. I still want to run the experiment of lock out. No responses from anyone. I would love to see what she does. Curlinator\* lies\*, people. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/414 "2010-01-14T22:55:59Z")
> [@niblet\_head](#): > > Curlinator is a troll. . [QFT](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=532973) ---
**Author:** ![Meyer6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@Meyer6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meyer6)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/415 "2010-01-15T03:10:05Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > See, this is an example of your disconnect with reality. Really poor people don’t have money to go to college, unless they get a scholarship which weren’t available to me. And even with a scholarship, I’d still have had to work full time to pay living expenses. It sounds like you lived with your parents while you went to school - I had to leave mine the day I turned 18 due to abuse. > > Not that it really matters now. By the time I was 25 I’d learned a trade and had a job that would support me and provided benefits. Apparently, you are still in school? Nice try. I left home at 18 also and made it work, and scholarships are available to anyone who is smart enough to apply themselves and get good grades. I am still in school but my fellowship supports me and provides benefits. Any other assumtions you would like to make? > [@](#): > > And yet, you couldn’t defend your belief that that all animals are driven by the reproductive instinct, nor that you think that 2.1 kids is a replacement rate. And you said you have a published thesis in animal population structures? I said all species are driven by reprodution, not all individuals, and I did say that under certain circumstances may cause decreased reproduction, but modern American humans do not fall into these circumstances. Replacement is commonly stated as 2.1 in most literature\*, and has nothing to do with multiple generations living concurrently, your braindead arguements to the contrary notwithstanding. Yes, I have published some of my research, and if you knew a single thing about anything you would realize how aggressively deranged you seem when you argue about biology, statistics, health care, medicine, taxes, finances, sociology, and politics with people who are highly educated and experienced in these matters. > [@](#): > > You are hyper-defensive towards someone you don’t know and who has no influence over the government. Why is that? Ha, ha, ha! If this isn’t the pot calling the kettle black I just don’t know what is. \*Cite - “The replacement fertility rate is roughly 2.1 births per woman for most industrialized countries” [Total fertility rate - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_fertility_rate) - yes, I know this is Wikipedia but actual peer-reviewed papers are usually restricted access. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_Stimulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Digital\_Stimulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_Stimulus)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/416 "2010-01-15T03:30:39Z")
> [@CanvasShoes](#): > > It wouldn’t make any sense whatsoever for them to take a package from the plane, to a Post Office with a FedEx truck. Or worse to have a USPS truck come and pick it up from the Airport facility), only to have a UPS or FedEX truck go to the facility, pick up the package they just received and THEN deliver it. You might want to read the current thread: [why can’t Fedex/UPS cut a deal with USPS to use regular mailmen for last mile delivery?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=547689), which I think will answer (or at least provide links to) a lot of your questions. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/417 "2010-01-15T04:56:31Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Here is the delivery tracking for a purchase from Newegg I made three days ago, that is still in progress. > > ```auto > > 1/13/2010 7:35 AM EST Walpole, MA, US TENDERED TO USPS > 1/13/2010 5:13 AM EST Walpole, MA, US ARRIVAL DESTINATION DHL GLOBAL MAIL FACILITY > 1/12/2010 9:50 AM EST Rutherford, NJ, US DEPARTURE ORIGIN DHL GLOBAL MAIL FACILITY > 1/11/2010 10:24 PM EST Rutherford, NJ, US PROCESSED > 1/11/2010 7:39 PM EST Rutherford, NJ, US ARRIVAL ORIGIN DHL GLOBAL MAIL FACILITY > 1/11/2010 6:20 PM EST Edison, NJ, US PICK UP > > ``` > > Are you still in denial over this? Whether it makes sense to you is immaterial; the major private delivery services depend on the USPS for some of their deliveries. No. I’m perplexed regarding the reason, as my post clearly showed. Lastly, whether or not delivery companies use USPS they’re still operating at a loss, which was my original point. They’re just one of several gov’t entities that operate very poorly. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/418 "2010-01-15T05:00:00Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > It gets delivered by the USPS mail carrier. Apparently, it saves UPS/FedEx a bit of money to hand off the last segment to the USPS- the rates for this service are less expensive than for the regular UPS/FedEx service. AHA! Sorry I missed your post. Thank you for actually answering the question regarding why they do this. It also shows (at least part of) why the post office is losing money. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/419 "2010-01-15T05:00:12Z")
> [@CanvasShoes](#): > > Lastly, whether or not delivery companies use USPS they’re still operating at a loss, which was my original point. Did any private companies operate at a loss last year? ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/420 "2010-01-15T05:10:23Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > The USPS has been operating at a loss for a couple of years. Prior to 2007, it had turned a profit in something like 26 consecutive years. > > The USPS also has to serve every single address in the US, no matter how unprofitable, for the same cost as profitable routes- just like utility companies. FedEx and UPS do not, which is a pretty fucking huge advantage. > > In any case, the USPS is not supposed to turn a profit; it’s supposed to be revenue-neutral, meaning it neither makes a profit or a loss. Obviously, that’s impossible - nobody can predict exactly how many mail pieces of each given class will be mailed in a year - but it has certainly paid for itself since it was reconfigured as a business in 1970. GAaaah, sorry I missed yours as well. Well, that also makes sense, but it also makes me think about what you say above “..the post office has to serve every address in the US…” That is exactly what the healthcare bill proposes. That is, to serve every American. If an agency that’s been operating for as long as the post office can’t do it how can a new, badly designed healthcare plan do it? The math and logic just don’t add up. There is no possible way that this government can provide healthcare to every American without raising taxes and reducing the quality and availability of healthcare services. Supposedly it will all be paid for by fixing the problems in Medicare and Medicaid. Okay, so start doing that now then. Why does the bill have to pass before the fraud and abuse can be addressed? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612.md?page=20) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612.md?page=22)