Because I authorize payments myself and have a check sent.
You only pay the estate for medical treatment rendered. You don’t pay for treatment that was never received.
If the patient dies because he/she couldn’t pay for medical care out of pocket… do you see where this is going?
*I agree with you, to a point. I do, however, believe that for-profit healthcare is every bit as ridiculous as, say, pay-as-you-go fire rescue.
Or you can work as little as possible, or not all, because you know you’ll still get that pie. On the other hand, the pie is stale, and there’s no incentive for anyone to work harder and make a better pie. In the end, everyone is left with pie that sucks.
That is no way to run an economy, or a country, sorry.
Well, there you go Gukumatz. Better get on the phone with Thor Einvaldsen or whatever your Prime Minister’s name is and let him know it’s time to ditch that socialism nonsense.
I mean, you know it will never work, because some woman in Illinois says so.
Her qualifications? Oh, you don’t need to look into those. She’s probably got a doctorate in political theory and another in economics.
I know, I know, it seems like your economy is working just fine, but she says it doesn’t. Make the necessary changes and move on. Oh, and remember not to eat that pie - it’s stale!
Yep, I guess that explains why nobody works hard in Norway, nobody there is happy with their quality of life except the unemployed, and why Norwegians are immigrating to America in droves.
My apologies. If I had known that you worked in insurance I would not have attempted humor.
The* Lamb *was the first thing I thought of when I saw this thread. I almost used Rael as my logon name when I originally signed up.
Now, I would be *afraid *to be known by that name on this board!
I hate stale pie!!! If all I can get in a handout from the government is some nasty, three week-old, stale pie then you better believe that’s all the incentive I need to work harder and get myself some nice, fresh pie.
Meanwhile, the 1 or 2% of my fellow-countrymen who are of sound mind and body but are just too fucking lazy to work hard for their own fresh pie are just gonna have to make due with crappy pie. But it would be a crime to let them starve–even if that is what the Objectivists would do.
The vast majority of human beings try to work as hard as they can to get the freshest, best pie they can. Ever notice how so many Swede, Dutch, and Danish citizens have really nice fresh pie? Even though they are “forced” to pay taxes which in part go to provide stale pie to able-bodied slackers trying to cheat the system?
Why would the citizens of the more-civilized nations work for pie when they could get it for free from the government?
Why would those citizens agree to pay for pie for the indolent when it provides absolutely no direct benefit to those citizens paying the taxes?
By your reckoning all of Western Europe should one bleak plain of drooling, filthy, human slugs covered in their own waste, crawling through gutters licking up scraps of maggot- encrusted pie while grunting unintelligible sounds. Basically soccer-playing Morlocks.
But the last time I was in Amsterdam I didn’t see any of that! By and large it looked a lot like America except the people were happier and healthier and dressed better.
You know, Der Trihs, I like you. You have that Shrek “fuck what the world thinks of me” air about you. But I’m going to call you out on this one. Do you have a cite or any other evidence to back up this allegation? (The movie *The Rainmaker * doesn’t count.)
<golf clap>
My favorite is the time I got a letter from my health insurance company telling me that I had been “pre-approved” for the event pending May 10. Since I was pregnant at the time and the due date was May 10, I seriously wondered what would happen if I didn’t deliver on that date. I did not have a planned C-secxn; I didn’t have a C-secxn at all. But my husband and I got a good laugh over the insurance company trying to control every single aspect of life per some code some wonk inputs all day.
:rolleyes:
I was hospitalized last June for pneumonia. When I got home, a few weeks later I got a letter from the ins telling me that while they had approved my admittance to the hospital, they had not approved the treatment I got while there. Oh, they did eventually–we just got the last bit paperwork 2 weeks ago and we owe $10. Almost one year to the date that I was admitted. That private sector–you gotta love it. It took that long to process my claim. :rolleyes:
I’m sure it makes you feel better that your problems had a 30% chance of being difficult because your doctor fucked up some over-complicated paper work and a 30% chance that it was due to a shitty computer system. A system that they apparently can’t afford, even though some of the biggest, nicest buildings in many cities are owned by those same companies.
-Joe
Sure, but don’t you feel better knowing that at least it isn’t those evil government bureaucrats who are micromanaging your life and delaying your claims?
Having worked under the hood in the private sector, especially in large, traditional corporations (like banks and insurance companies) the idea that the private sector is a marvel of efficiency compared to the government is just plain wrong. I think that the incompetence of the government is sometimes more visible- and there are certainly things that the government does wrong- but the private sector is mostly inefficient and bloated as well. They are just generally better at presenting a public image that hides that waste.
One of the reasons why I support Obama is that he is committed to operational and financial transparency in government. I think we can all agree, whether we be Communiservative or Liberaltarian, that no matter what our government is doing, we should know a lot more about the details. Daylight prevents waste every time. If we can expose waste, we should be able to deliver the same level of services for less cash.
That could explain a lot. In all our struggles to figure out what is wrong with the dysfunctional American health care industry, we have generally neglected to consider something as simple as poor hiring standards.
You are missing Carol’s point: This Scandinavian model of social democracy, it is all very well in practice, but it will never work in theory.
Sure, it’s just that the corporations can hide it from the outside world while it is harder for the government.
Shit, the popularity of something like “Dilbert” should help slay the lie of ‘corporate efficiency’. It’s not funny in a vacuum, it’s funny because that’s what people have been seeing in ‘big business’ for decades. It’s just that some people have a religious belief in the efficiency of business that they refuse to question.
-Joe
That’s got to be one of the cleverer things you’ve said on this board.
I’m part Norwegian on my mother’s side; I like cold weather; starting to wonder if I could emigrate.
Where do you stand on the lutefisk issue?
You win the thread. I am writing that down.
I’m all for standing on lutefisk. Beats the hell out of eating it.