“Personally I believe that individuals need to be held more accountable for their lifestyle choices (including food, exercise and smoking)and we could eliminate billions of dollars in healthcare costs.”
There are those who do not exercise and smoke and remain healthy like my mother. There are others like my niece who had leukemia at age 12 and passed away after a tough fight a year later. Who is it that we hold “accountable” again?
I think the new rules will allow rescissions in cases of fraud—where you deliberately falsify your application.
But I actually filled out an application for an individual policy recently. It was full of open-ended questions that couldn't possibly be answered completely and accurately.
And I mean that literally: I could take my current medical records and my childhood medical records (which I have) and hire a doctor and a secretary to sit down with me and go through my records and spend a few days on the application, and I still couldn't have provided a complete and accurate application. My memory of my health over the past 50 years is incomplete. I don't have all my records (I don't have any records from when I was in college or from first few years after I got out of college). Sometimes my doctors may have told me one thing and written something slightly (or significantly) different in the records.
But there are plenty of companies out there that will do just that—hire a doctor and a secretary to go through someone's application and compare it to their medical records, looking for any place where they don't match. And when they find a difference (and I guarantee that they will be able to), don't expect them to cut you any slack when you say, "Despite what's written down there, I clearly remember the doctor telling me something different."
*******RENT APPLICATION FORM *******
(Private & Confidential)
Also,Pls let me get this answer.
1)Your Full Name
2)Present Full Address(where you reside now) & Phone Number to Reach You
3)Age
4)Are you married?
5)How many people will be living in the house?
6)Do you have a pet?
7)Do you have a car?
8)Occupation?
9) Citizen of which Country?
10) When are you ready to Move In ?
11) When are u planning to leave the flat ?
12) How many months rent can you deposit upfront (plus security deposit(300GBP which will be given back to you after the contract)??
“Health is not a right. It is a personal responsibility. Health care is not a right. It is a commodity. Health insurance is not a right. It is a financial risk management tool. ObamaCare is going to bankrupt our nation.”
Yes, according to your worldview, healthcare, education, police & fire protection are not a right. BTW/our nation has already been bankrupted by all the wars and military & welfare we give to other countries.
In your post you mentioned, "companies can no longer rescind policies just because you made some mistake on your application." Some people would call those mistakes lies to which I say: In an insurance system that exploits and damages people, do not blame people who lie on the app to avoid being exploited and damaged. I just had to get that off my chest after stumbling onto your site. Nice post. :-)
Taxes are a necessary evil if we are to live in a civilized society. Would you prefer to live in a place where there is no tax system in place to provide for the commons? I believe there are several such countries in Africa and South America. xes
"A stronger focus needs to be placed on preventative medicine and something needs to be done about the excessive lawsuits doctors are forced to face."
Malpractice is less then 1% of health care costs in the US. Are you suggesting that medical providers sell their service without any liability for medical errors? If we are to treat healthcare as a consumer product (as opposed to a human right) then there should be consumer protections built into the product.
How in the world can insurance companies keep premiums low if they have to cover everyone including those with pre-existing conditions?
Have you heard of Medicare Part C? My father pays $48 per month for a Blue Cross supplemental plan in addition to $110 each month for Medicare. He had pre-existing conditions, by the way. How he receives full coverage for less then $160 each month is that Medicare Part C is run as a not for profit entity unlike the for profit insurance plans younger people purchase. As to Medicaid going bankrupt, it is all about earmarking enough funds to pay for it and cutting less valuable earmarks from the budget. Likewise, Medicare and SS taxes are capped at as set amount which hasn’t kept up with inflation. If you went decades without your earnings being adjusted upward for inflation you would be facing bankruptcy too.
Excellent article, thank you! I am thrilled this bill passed. It's not perfect, but it's most definitely a step in the right direction. My husband and I have both worked very hard all of our adult lives to provide for ourselves and our children. If he were to be laid off, it would only be a matter of months before we could no longer afford health coverage. I don't think most people realize they are potentially just a few months away from possible financial devastation.
We will happily pay more in taxes or more in premiums if it means that the family next door doesn't suffer that fate. I would hope they'd feel the same way about us.
Many Girl Scout troops do not have parents that can afford materials, supplies, excursions and activities for their girls. These troops completely depend upon those cookie sales. So, if you want to make their cookies throughout the year, great. But, don't STOP supporting this amazing organization and the millions of girls it helps.
I need to find a place that reclcyes aluminum cans and glass bottles. In the Branson Mo. area. So far i haven't found any in my area that i can get money back for recyling. Can anyone help me out?
Whoa folks, a lot of constructive criticism for the Girl Scouts in the comments over the past day or so. I like Double My Net Worth's suggestion of changing the business model. The Girl Scouts do need to be more creative and why should their signature fundraiser be only about selling cookies? Its time for change and creativity. Also, if the do stay with the cookies, its time to make them better and more gourmet (and how about brownies-yummy). I think many only buy them to help the kids (and not for the taste), but they would sell more if they tasted better.
As a few writers noted previously, these cookie sales help the Girl Scouts raise money. Let's not forget that the Girl Scouts reach a lot of girls, improve their self esteem, provide them role models, and leadership skills.
It's true that it's not about health care. By and large, people who are really sick get the care they need. If they can't pay the bill, the health care provider has to eat the cost (sometimes passing part of it on to the government), but the care is provided.
What it's about is insurance. Up to now, in the United States, it's been impossible to get health insurance. (All you could get was something called health insurance, but that was actually more like pre-paid health care services: You paid them a good bit more than what health care for an average healthy person cost, and then they paid for your health care. If you got seriously ill, they'd pay for the cost of treating that illness, but after that you got shuffled off into the category for people who couldn't get insurance at all. The upshot was that the so-called insurance didn't do what insurance is supposed to do: keep a medical catastrophe from turning into a financial catastrophe.)
That wasn't always true.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield, for example, used to provide real insurance. They offered health insurance to everybody—including people with pre-existing conditions—and they charged everybody the same price. (They created large groups and the cost of the insurance for each group was just the cost of providing care to everybody divided by the size of the group.)
Once the for-profit insurance companies got into the game, though, they changed the rules. By refusing to insure sick people, they could offer insurance that was cheaper (and more profitable). Over time, healthy people moved away from Blue Cross and Blue Shield, going for the cheaper insurance.
At first it wasn't clear that they were betting their whole future on a risky gamble that they'd only get seriously ill one time. After all, they figured, if the price of their insurance went up, they could switch back to Blue Cross. But once enough of the healthy people left, the Blue Cross scheme quit working. Blue Cross and Blue Shield still exist, but they don't do what they used to do (and they're no longer non-profits).
So, now, there's no such thing as health insurance. But soon, there will be again.
Sounds to me like you're from another airline. I have flown Spirit lots without an issue. Spirit is slowly becoming a huge threat to the big airlines so they throw posts like this up on site all the time.
Yes, bigger government is coming thanks to obama. When government gets bigger and more powerful and puts more rules on businesses, the businesses suffer and go bye bye. Obamas war on prosperity continues..
The private sector is dying but the public sector is exploding! Where do you think your paychecks ultimately come from? There was a woman in my area who won the lottery some years ago. She thought it was limitless but found out the hard way that it wasn't.
Eventually sanity will have to be restored to Washington if this country is to survive. The public sector must be dramatically scaled back and the private sector unshackled. Having one's "soul sucked out" isn't the best long term plan for the transition.
The premise of each post I read is that the Healthcare Reform bill is actually about healthcare! If you've actually followed its passage and listened to the critics and why they're so opposed to it, you'll discover that they are very concerned about government control over our lives! Freedom! Does the 16,000 new IRS agents in the bill mean anything to anybody? Are we so disengaged from our fellow citizens that we don't care what happens to their financial stability as long as we get what we want? If you've ever read the concerns of the critics of Social Security when it was being debated you will discover they were dead right! This country is doomed as long as people believe they are entitled to something for nothing and are willing to exchange their freedom for security.
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Benjamin Franklin Or as someone else has said, "Those who exchange freedom for security will lose both."
I never really enjoyed their cookies and simply stopped buying them after the hubbub a few years ago about their "nutritional value".
I suppose you could indeed make your own at home. Just about any cookie can be made at home but does it mean we have to make a donation because we like the cookies?
If anything, they should learn to become creative and bring something new to the marketplace so they can encourage the general public to purchase (therefore increasing their contributions) something.
I'm the Guest from post #2, and I just have to respond to this latest complaint against Federal employees. We hear all the time that we're lazy and incompetent and sure, I'm sure there are lazy, incompetent feds out there. I can't say that's the norm in my agency. I would love to make my own hours and take 3 hour lunches. But I can't. I work 8 hour days, plus I get a 30 minute unpaid lunch (on the days that I can actually get away from my desk). By law, like every other full time employee, I get 2 15 minute breaks, but I can't tell you the last time I got to take them. If I want to get supplies (say, a new notebook or a pad of paper for taking notes in a meeting), I have to get two signatures and explain why I need this paper. Most of the time, I buy my own. I'm not complaining - that's just how it is. But my experience is the norm for my coworkers as well, and living in DC, I know people in other agencies who deal with the same thing. We're continually reminded not to waste time and money because it belongs to the taxpayer. I'm definitely held accountable for doing a good job and for getting my work done, no matter how much time it takes me (overtime pay - nope, none of that here, which is fine, but non-feds automatically think if I do overtime, my paycheck must be awesome). Sure, it's harder for them to fire a federal employee, but they have their ways. Now sure, you're going to hear stories of agencies wasting money. But it's not the norm. There are more than 15% of us who are working hard and who would like to actually make a difference. It's insulting and offensive when so many people believe we're stupid and lazy. I will confirm the hiring fiasco that goes on though. It's ridiculous. It's too easy to get strung along. Apparently, the politicals in government want to change that, but we're not seeing any sort of change. I was lucky in a way. I got hired into a job, got a start date, started, and found out hey, my job was eliminated. So the agency stuck me elsewhere, in a job that made me want to claw my brain out. But I got paid, and I had work to do, even if it was totally mindnumbing. Even if the process goes as it should, it still takes forever. I just got word that my application is still in review for a job that I applied for in mid-November. And this isn't even unusual.
Aside from a background check you should interview and evaluate several financial planners to find the one that’s right for you. You will want to select a competent, qualified professional with whom you feel comfortable, one whose business style suits your financial planning needs.
Jeez. It's a freakin fundraiser. You buy the cookies to help the scouts.
If they can't sell cookies, what are going to sell that people want? Marijuana?
“Personally I believe that individuals need to be held more accountable for their lifestyle choices (including food, exercise and smoking)and we could eliminate billions of dollars in healthcare costs.”
There are those who do not exercise and smoke and remain healthy like my mother. There are others like my niece who had leukemia at age 12 and passed away after a tough fight a year later. Who is it that we hold “accountable” again?
@ Guest:
I think the new rules will allow rescissions in cases of fraud—where you deliberately falsify your application.
But I actually filled out an application for an individual policy recently. It was full of open-ended questions that couldn't possibly be answered completely and accurately.
And I mean that literally: I could take my current medical records and my childhood medical records (which I have) and hire a doctor and a secretary to sit down with me and go through my records and spend a few days on the application, and I still couldn't have provided a complete and accurate application. My memory of my health over the past 50 years is incomplete. I don't have all my records (I don't have any records from when I was in college or from first few years after I got out of college). Sometimes my doctors may have told me one thing and written something slightly (or significantly) different in the records.
But there are plenty of companies out there that will do just that—hire a doctor and a secretary to go through someone's application and compare it to their medical records, looking for any place where they don't match. And when they find a difference (and I guarantee that they will be able to), don't expect them to cut you any slack when you say, "Despite what's written down there, I clearly remember the doctor telling me something different."
*******RENT APPLICATION FORM *******
(Private & Confidential)
Also,Pls let me get this answer.
1)Your Full Name
2)Present Full Address(where you reside now) & Phone Number to Reach You
3)Age
4)Are you married?
5)How many people will be living in the house?
6)Do you have a pet?
7)Do you have a car?
8)Occupation?
9) Citizen of which Country?
10) When are you ready to Move In ?
11) When are u planning to leave the flat ?
12) How many months rent can you deposit upfront (plus security deposit(300GBP which will be given back to you after the contract)??
“Health is not a right. It is a personal responsibility. Health care is not a right. It is a commodity. Health insurance is not a right. It is a financial risk management tool. ObamaCare is going to bankrupt our nation.”
Yes, according to your worldview, healthcare, education, police & fire protection are not a right. BTW/our nation has already been bankrupted by all the wars and military & welfare we give to other countries.
In your post you mentioned, "companies can no longer rescind policies just because you made some mistake on your application." Some people would call those mistakes lies to which I say: In an insurance system that exploits and damages people, do not blame people who lie on the app to avoid being exploited and damaged. I just had to get that off my chest after stumbling onto your site. Nice post. :-)
Taxes are a necessary evil if we are to live in a civilized society. Would you prefer to live in a place where there is no tax system in place to provide for the commons? I believe there are several such countries in Africa and South America. xes
"A stronger focus needs to be placed on preventative medicine and something needs to be done about the excessive lawsuits doctors are forced to face."
Malpractice is less then 1% of health care costs in the US. Are you suggesting that medical providers sell their service without any liability for medical errors? If we are to treat healthcare as a consumer product (as opposed to a human right) then there should be consumer protections built into the product.
How in the world can insurance companies keep premiums low if they have to cover everyone including those with pre-existing conditions?
Have you heard of Medicare Part C? My father pays $48 per month for a Blue Cross supplemental plan in addition to $110 each month for Medicare. He had pre-existing conditions, by the way. How he receives full coverage for less then $160 each month is that Medicare Part C is run as a not for profit entity unlike the for profit insurance plans younger people purchase. As to Medicaid going bankrupt, it is all about earmarking enough funds to pay for it and cutting less valuable earmarks from the budget. Likewise, Medicare and SS taxes are capped at as set amount which hasn’t kept up with inflation. If you went decades without your earnings being adjusted upward for inflation you would be facing bankruptcy too.
Are you suggesting that the private sector was doing even a decent job at providing a good product in terms of insurance?
Excellent article, thank you! I am thrilled this bill passed. It's not perfect, but it's most definitely a step in the right direction. My husband and I have both worked very hard all of our adult lives to provide for ourselves and our children. If he were to be laid off, it would only be a matter of months before we could no longer afford health coverage. I don't think most people realize they are potentially just a few months away from possible financial devastation.
We will happily pay more in taxes or more in premiums if it means that the family next door doesn't suffer that fate. I would hope they'd feel the same way about us.
So, while millions of people work in thankless jobs, they are supposed to pay for your health care so you can have a a so-called job writing.
Many Girl Scout troops do not have parents that can afford materials, supplies, excursions and activities for their girls. These troops completely depend upon those cookie sales. So, if you want to make their cookies throughout the year, great. But, don't STOP supporting this amazing organization and the millions of girls it helps.
I need to find a place that reclcyes aluminum cans and glass bottles. In the Branson Mo. area. So far i haven't found any in my area that i can get money back for recyling. Can anyone help me out?
Whoa folks, a lot of constructive criticism for the Girl Scouts in the comments over the past day or so. I like Double My Net Worth's suggestion of changing the business model. The Girl Scouts do need to be more creative and why should their signature fundraiser be only about selling cookies? Its time for change and creativity. Also, if the do stay with the cookies, its time to make them better and more gourmet (and how about brownies-yummy). I think many only buy them to help the kids (and not for the taste), but they would sell more if they tasted better.
As a few writers noted previously, these cookie sales help the Girl Scouts raise money. Let's not forget that the Girl Scouts reach a lot of girls, improve their self esteem, provide them role models, and leadership skills.
-ConsumerMiser
I was thinking about giving up my job as a pornographer to work for the Federal Government but am too worried about what my family will think.
It's true that it's not about health care. By and large, people who are really sick get the care they need. If they can't pay the bill, the health care provider has to eat the cost (sometimes passing part of it on to the government), but the care is provided.
What it's about is insurance. Up to now, in the United States, it's been impossible to get health insurance. (All you could get was something called health insurance, but that was actually more like pre-paid health care services: You paid them a good bit more than what health care for an average healthy person cost, and then they paid for your health care. If you got seriously ill, they'd pay for the cost of treating that illness, but after that you got shuffled off into the category for people who couldn't get insurance at all. The upshot was that the so-called insurance didn't do what insurance is supposed to do: keep a medical catastrophe from turning into a financial catastrophe.)
That wasn't always true.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield, for example, used to provide real insurance. They offered health insurance to everybody—including people with pre-existing conditions—and they charged everybody the same price. (They created large groups and the cost of the insurance for each group was just the cost of providing care to everybody divided by the size of the group.)
Once the for-profit insurance companies got into the game, though, they changed the rules. By refusing to insure sick people, they could offer insurance that was cheaper (and more profitable). Over time, healthy people moved away from Blue Cross and Blue Shield, going for the cheaper insurance.
At first it wasn't clear that they were betting their whole future on a risky gamble that they'd only get seriously ill one time. After all, they figured, if the price of their insurance went up, they could switch back to Blue Cross. But once enough of the healthy people left, the Blue Cross scheme quit working. Blue Cross and Blue Shield still exist, but they don't do what they used to do (and they're no longer non-profits).
So, now, there's no such thing as health insurance. But soon, there will be again.
Sounds to me like you're from another airline. I have flown Spirit lots without an issue. Spirit is slowly becoming a huge threat to the big airlines so they throw posts like this up on site all the time.
Yes, bigger government is coming thanks to obama. When government gets bigger and more powerful and puts more rules on businesses, the businesses suffer and go bye bye. Obamas war on prosperity continues..
The private sector is dying but the public sector is exploding! Where do you think your paychecks ultimately come from? There was a woman in my area who won the lottery some years ago. She thought it was limitless but found out the hard way that it wasn't.
Eventually sanity will have to be restored to Washington if this country is to survive. The public sector must be dramatically scaled back and the private sector unshackled. Having one's "soul sucked out" isn't the best long term plan for the transition.
The premise of each post I read is that the Healthcare Reform bill is actually about healthcare! If you've actually followed its passage and listened to the critics and why they're so opposed to it, you'll discover that they are very concerned about government control over our lives! Freedom! Does the 16,000 new IRS agents in the bill mean anything to anybody? Are we so disengaged from our fellow citizens that we don't care what happens to their financial stability as long as we get what we want? If you've ever read the concerns of the critics of Social Security when it was being debated you will discover they were dead right! This country is doomed as long as people believe they are entitled to something for nothing and are willing to exchange their freedom for security.
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Benjamin Franklin Or as someone else has said, "Those who exchange freedom for security will lose both."
I never really enjoyed their cookies and simply stopped buying them after the hubbub a few years ago about their "nutritional value".
I suppose you could indeed make your own at home. Just about any cookie can be made at home but does it mean we have to make a donation because we like the cookies?
If anything, they should learn to become creative and bring something new to the marketplace so they can encourage the general public to purchase (therefore increasing their contributions) something.
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I'm the Guest from post #2, and I just have to respond to this latest complaint against Federal employees. We hear all the time that we're lazy and incompetent and sure, I'm sure there are lazy, incompetent feds out there. I can't say that's the norm in my agency. I would love to make my own hours and take 3 hour lunches. But I can't. I work 8 hour days, plus I get a 30 minute unpaid lunch (on the days that I can actually get away from my desk). By law, like every other full time employee, I get 2 15 minute breaks, but I can't tell you the last time I got to take them. If I want to get supplies (say, a new notebook or a pad of paper for taking notes in a meeting), I have to get two signatures and explain why I need this paper. Most of the time, I buy my own. I'm not complaining - that's just how it is. But my experience is the norm for my coworkers as well, and living in DC, I know people in other agencies who deal with the same thing. We're continually reminded not to waste time and money because it belongs to the taxpayer. I'm definitely held accountable for doing a good job and for getting my work done, no matter how much time it takes me (overtime pay - nope, none of that here, which is fine, but non-feds automatically think if I do overtime, my paycheck must be awesome). Sure, it's harder for them to fire a federal employee, but they have their ways. Now sure, you're going to hear stories of agencies wasting money. But it's not the norm. There are more than 15% of us who are working hard and who would like to actually make a difference. It's insulting and offensive when so many people believe we're stupid and lazy. I will confirm the hiring fiasco that goes on though. It's ridiculous. It's too easy to get strung along. Apparently, the politicals in government want to change that, but we're not seeing any sort of change. I was lucky in a way. I got hired into a job, got a start date, started, and found out hey, my job was eliminated. So the agency stuck me elsewhere, in a job that made me want to claw my brain out. But I got paid, and I had work to do, even if it was totally mindnumbing. Even if the process goes as it should, it still takes forever. I just got word that my application is still in review for a job that I applied for in mid-November. And this isn't even unusual.
Aside from a background check you should interview and evaluate several financial planners to find the one that’s right for you. You will want to select a competent, qualified professional with whom you feel comfortable, one whose business style suits your financial planning needs.