House passes Senate health care bill

[valo403]

Originally Posted by mykalberta

I am just relaying what my Flaming Liberal Oilers fan uncle told us of his experience in Honolulu from January of this year.

Cortizone and morphone shot for $135 at the clinic in Sheraton hotel on Waikiki beach. He wouldnt shut up about it and my Aunt the nurse kept trying to defend the doctors in Edmonton.

It was quite funny.

I seperated my shoulder last night and even with an absolutely top of the line plan I'm looking at $100 just to get into the office with any treatment being on top of that. Although I can afford it I'm not going to bother (not my first time through this injury) based almost solely on cost (and stupid pride).

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by mykalberta

I am just relaying what my Flaming Liberal Oilers fan uncle told us of his experience in Honolulu from January of this year.

Cortizone and morphone shot for $135 at the clinic in Sheraton hotel on Waikiki beach. He wouldnt shut up about it and my Aunt the nurse kept trying to defend the doctors in Edmonton.

It was quite funny.

I'm guessing your uncle paid for traveler's insurance.

I had excellent insurance in Iowa, paid partly by the University. I broke my leg playing hockey, and went to the ER. A non-displaced fracture of the tibia, which is a pretty routine injury by ER standards.

A doctor looked at it, ordered an X-ray, said "yup, that's broken." He gave me a walking boot and a prescription for Vicodin and told me not to put weight on it for six weeks.

Total cost: 750 dollars, including the Vicodin. The crazy part? That was just my co-pay. The amount billed to insurance was over two grand.

There's absolutely no way 135 dollars paid for cortisone injections. 135 dollars doesn't even pay for the hour of his time that the doctor bills out when he sees you for twenty minutes. Your uncle must have had some kind of insurance footing part of the bill.

[sa226]

I'm not part of the canadian health care system but wait times in Canada seem to be dependent on triage. Not just how serious your own symptoms are, but how they compare to the others your competing with to get care.

It doesn't surprise me that in Okotoks, a smaller centre you go to the hospital in severe pain and you are seen right away.

Last year I had the fabled H1N1, after 10 freakin days of unpleasant flu symptoms I went to emerg. There are 2 larger hospitals here in Winterpeg that get all the serious stuff. I thought it would be a better Idea to go to a smaller hospital that was closer to me.

The problem is everybody had the same idea as me. I was competing with seniors and kids with colds.

Of course I had been popping tylenols all day and drinking obscene amounts of water so when I was triaged my fever had broke, and I was well hydrated, so there was no evidence of my 10 day agony, they had to take my word for it.

Needless to say I was in the Hospital for 8 hours before I saw a Doctor.

I didn't have the more serious symtoms of H1N1 (shortness of breath) so that probably contributed to it.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by sa226

I'm not part of the canadian health care system but wait times in Canada seem to be dependent on triage. Not just how serious your own symptoms are, but how they compare to the others your competing with to get care.

Not to be a dick, but that's kind of like saying standings in the NHL seem to be based on how many points a team has.

[the_only_turek_fan]

Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan

But it would be nice if we all stopped pretending that Canadians are taxed to death and Americans aren't.

The difference in taxes in Calgary and the rest of the country is quite significant.

I moved to Toronto in August and I thought the 8% PST soon to be 13% HST would not really be a big deal but it really does add up. There are so many different taxes hidden all over the place.

For example, my finace and I are looking at buying a place and the province here has a $8200 land transfer tax that we are going to get hit with.

Now a candidate for mayor wants to put in a $5 toll to use 2 of the major highways in the city...

I really wonder how people that make 40-50K survive in this market.

[Pastiche]

My take:

It's a step in the right direction. IFF would know that the American state was set up to make passing legislation difficult. The sheer scale of this type of reform was bound to involve considerable amounts of compromise and horse trading. As a result, this is not a piece of legislation to get entirely smitten with. However, that does not preclude this new legislation from getting better. Policy initiatives are never right at the beginning. They are usually always involved and iterative processes which change, adjust, improve the framework over time to account for changing political, social, and economic environments. That will be the case with this bill. At this point criticizing this bill for what it does or doesn't do is perfectly acceptable. But judging this bill based on its initial state is silly. It will change, as have all major policy advancements in western democracies. Understanding that, I am cautiously optimistic.

From a self-interested Canadian perspective I have little concern if the U.S. wants to eat their own with health care coverage. Sure extending it to everyone is essentially a good thing. What I care about however is the other side of the ledger. Rising health care costs are a structural economic issue that will need to be addressed that will have large impacts on Canada. We succeed so long as the U.S. succeeds. At minimum, a sustained currency devaluation due to health care costs is a certainty if the current rate of growth continues.

[Pastiche]

Now a candidate for mayor wants to put in a $5 toll to use 2 of the major highways in the city...

drift...

Either you pay the tax or you'll pay in lost time due to congestion when using that highway. My point is that driving on congested highways is never free if you factor your time cost. The point of the toll is to at least efficiently allocate roadspace to those that are most willing to bear the congestion costs while reducing congestion.

[sa226]

Originally Posted by Bring_Back_Shantz

Not to be a dick, but that's kind of like saying standings in the NHL seem to be based on how many points a team has.

Haha, ya I know captain obvious is being obvious.

I was trying to say that Triage is never the same from hospital to hospital, at one place it could be a matter of minutes at others it could be many hours, and for the most part there is no way to predict it, it is just luck of the draw.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by the_only_turek_fan

The difference in taxes in Calgary and the rest of the country is quite significant.

I moved to Toronto in August and I thought the 8% PST soon to be 13% HST would not really be a big deal but it really does add up. There are so many different taxes hidden all over the place.

For example, my finace and I are looking at buying a place and the province here has a $8200 land transfer tax that we are going to get hit with.

Now a candidate for mayor wants to put in a $5 toll to use 2 of the major highways in the city...

I really wonder how people that make 40-50K survive in this market.

My analysis didn't include sales or title transfer/property taxes, mostly because they're pretty comparable in both countries. The U.S. has sales taxes in most of the country, though 13% is pretty steep relative to the sales tax anywhere that I lived.

Property taxes in the U.S. are outrageous, though. They wanted 5000 dollars a year for a 200,000 dollar house in suburban Philly.

We decided to rent.

[flames_1987]

Rush Limbaugh saying what happened yesterday was worse then 9/11.

I can't even muster up a response

[amorak]

Originally Posted by flames_1987

Rush Limbaugh saying what happened yesterday was worse then 9/11.

I can't even muster up a response

[Locke]

Insurance companies will almost certainly find a way to weasel around this. Its who they are and what they do. They're Weasels. They Weasel.

Weasels.

[Pastiche]

Originally Posted by flames_1987

Rush Limbaugh saying what happened yesterday was worse then 9/11.

I can't even muster up a response

Laugh. Got to love America.

[Flame Of Liberty]

Originally Posted by flames_1987

Rush Limbaugh saying what happened yesterday was worse then 9/11.

I can't even muster up a response

On the 11pm local news last night – NBC News 4 (WRC) here in DC – U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD) smilingly told a reporter that, now that Obamacare has passed, the health-care costs that until now troubled her district in Maryland “will go away.”

http://cafehayek.com/2010/03/poof-problem-solved.html

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Locke

Insurance companies will almost certainly find a way to weasel around this. Its who they are and what they do. They're Weasels. They Weasel.

Weasels.

As long as the insurance companies have lobby groups and are able to financially support candidates and politicians this is probably going to be a long drawn out expensive process.

I'm betting that the insurance companies are going to fight tooth and nail over the pre-existing condition clause of this. They're going to be upset at the concept of Obama care insurance.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Flame Of Liberty

On the 11pm local news last night – NBC News 4 (WRC) here in DC – U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD) smilingly told a reporter that, now that Obamacare has passed, the health-care costs that until now troubled her district in Maryland “will go away.”

http://cafehayek.com/2010/03/poof-problem-solved.html

Isn't MAryland one of the poorer areas in terms of income. If anything its going to drive costs up if they have to subsidize people to get onto health care. And its going to piss people off that now need to buy it and that comes out of their budget.

[Flame Of Liberty]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Isn't MAryland one of the poorer areas in terms of income. If anything its going to drive costs up if they have to subsidize people to get onto health care. And its going to piss people off that now need to buy it and that comes out of their budget.

Yeah. It's one thing when a radio guy says something stupid and when elected US Rep says and DOES something stupid...

[flip]

Originally Posted by Locke

Insurance companies will almost certainly find a way to weasel around this. Its who they are and what they do. They're Weasels. They Weasel.

Weasels.

Homer Simpson:

Marge, don't discourage the boy! Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals... except the weasel.

[North East Goon]

It's a good first step to the inevitable next step which the Republicans will take credit for when they next attain power.

[photon]

Yeah I was watching a video of the "debate" and someone yelled "baby killer" while a democrat was up speaking... an anti-abortion democrat non-the-less.

Or Republicans cheering on protesters disrupting the debate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...T2010032103510
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35965961.../?ocid=twitter

The crazy fringe elements have completely infiltrated the process, they've all jumped the shark.