In The News Today...

Quote: rxwine

And the only way to cover the cost is to increase women's premiums. Once the idea got well circulated, that idea will be dead. Women outnumber men, and they won't want to pay more. You think Republican women will be in favor of it? Why would they? Got even one good reason?

Who says women have to buy it? If they want it let them pay market price. Why should I have to buy it?

Quote: AZDuffman

Who says women have to buy it? If they want it let them pay market price. Why should I have to buy it?

You think that will fool them huh? Lots of women know they might need it sooner or later, they're not going to give up that option.

Quote: rxwine

You think that will fool them huh? Lots of women know they might need it sooner or later, they're not going to give up that option.

Then quit discriminating against men and making them subsidize it. Fair is fair.

Quote: AZDuffman

Then quit discriminating against men and making them subsidize it. Fair is fair.

Nope you are part of the pool of humans. No reason women shouldn't subsidize erectile dysfunction drugs and related medical procedures

NSFW
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaJCnMJvV60

Quote: rxwine

Nope you are part of the pool of humans. No reason women shouldn't subsidize erectile dysfunction drugs and related medical procedures

Fine by me women don't have to pay for that if they don't want it. Sex-based policies would probably save money. Let me choose if I want ED covered or not as well.

Actually many health plans are 'cafeteria plans' wherein people are given a certain number of "dollars" with which to buy the individual coverage items they select. Females select pregnancy, males don't.

Trouble is that a couple that is having marital difficulties can NOT get counseling but if they actually break up, then the policy kicks in. Very more expensive that way.

I've already posted about the kid who will be a life long 24 hour a day burden to his family and the state because a 0.99991 lab value was reported as Normal since it was less than 2.0. This slavish adherence to guidelines is what costs money. In this one case, millions of dollars.

Often care plans and pathways are only revealed after the insurance has been purchased or a procedure embarked upon, so 'cost' is hard to predict.

A temporary wheel chair might be leased for one-third of its cost for a month... month after month its leased for one third of its cost, so the wheel chair supplier is making a mint. That is why you see so many ads on television for home diabetic supplies and mobility scooters. The patient gets the device real cheap or even for free, but Medicare pays and pays and pays each month far more than the device costs just so the company can service that scooter twice a year or something.

We have patients who smoke but get free care for Emphysema.... once it gets real bad, but there is no free care for deteriorating lung tissue that falls short of a fully defined case of Emphysema. A kid might be strange but he might not, however if the doc checks the autism box, funds become available for aides, home schooling, school assistants, etc. So more and more kids get DX's for autism because that is an answer that is profitable and popular.

Many doctors 'treat' or 'manage' a disease even though its utterly useless and home circumstances make progress impossible anyway.

In nursing homes, comatose patients can be wheeled in for 'group therapy sessions'. In drug homes, 12 step meetins are profitable, particularly since the attendees bring in drugs to be sold to in-patients at high prices. If a patient complains, he is reported for failing his urine test and goes from the home to a jail cell. Judges, prosecutors, shrinks, consultants, home-operators.... they are all on a 'gravy train'.

We CHOOSE these incredible disparities in the system and then complain that 'the system does not work'. One hospital in California had more than five hundred percent of the 'average' by pass operations for a decade... and only then did Medicare auditors get suspicious...meanwhile hundreds of patients now have increased costs and shortened lives due to unnecessary by pass operations.

There is so much paperwork to prescribe one aspiring tablet that its absurd to deal with all these legacy systems. The electronic medical records are just as absurd as the paper ones. Riverside county in CA came up with a ten page form for child molesters wherein the name and social security number had to entered twenty times. The administrator was not fired. He was proud of his form. He held his job for years after that and retired with a fat pension. No one is ever held to minimum competency standards. Once money is 'available' its always spent even if obviously not needed. Have policies like that in one area and of course another area suffers.

Quote: Fleastiff

Trouble is that a couple that is having marital difficulties can NOT get counseling but if they actually break up, then the policy kicks in. Very more expensive that way.

Why would marital counseling be on a health insurance plan?

Quote: AZDuffman

Why would marital counseling be on a health insurance plan?

This was in California... that might explain it to you.

Quote: Fleastiff

This was in California... that might explain it to you.

Ah, OK, nuff said.

I see Dick Gautier (Hymie of Get Smart) passed away
He was one of my favorite characters on the show
Really surprised to learn that he was only in 6 episodes.
I guess those episodes are some of the most funny :-)