Kindness Deficit

[piqaboo]

my coworker has insurance on her engagement ring. a provision of that is that she must bring it in every 6 mo for examination (loose prongs etc). She was a week late and was within 24 hours of losing her coverage yesterday.

i expect that health insurance could keep costs down by making annual physicals & certain screening procedures a requirement of maintaining coverage.

[Shapley]

I expect that health insurance could keep costs down by making annual physicals & certain screening procedures a requirement of maintaining coverage.

I believe that was part of the original concept of HMO's, steering people to preventative care in lieu of the more-expensive reperative care. They proposed to this the only way in their power: by making preventative care cheaper, or even at no cost to the HMO member, while raising the costs of reperative care. People complain, still, about the infringements this imposes upon them.

We had an HMO-style policy for a short while, until the premiums skyrocketed. Most health screenings were free, with low co-pays for services rendered in a doctors office. Some co-pays were waived, depending on the nature of the services. Deductibles were very high, although the first half was waived for emergency care recieved with 24 or 48 hours (I don't remember which) of an accident. The main drawback to the policy was that the provider network was very small, and kept losing member-providers. Then, as I noted, the premiums skyrocketed, probably because the remaining providers had to raise the agreed-upon fees.

Our current policy is similar, but with a broader network. The primary concept is to steer people away from the emergency rooms for non-emergency services. If you go the ER, and for reasons other than an accident, you pay a hefty deductible. In fact, you will probably pay the full cost of the visit (which can run into a couple of thousand dollars for a single visit) before the deductible is met. It's much cheaper to visit a doctor's office. The first half of the deductible is waived for accidents.

We carry AFLAC accident and hospitalization insurance, to help cover the out-of-pocket expenses that our insurance leaves us with. Of course, this does not pay anything if we make a non-emergency emergency-room visit.The idea is to punish folly.

[OperaTenor]

Selma, I just want you to know I'm giving you a big virtual hug right now.

When you said you denied care by your insurance company, did they actual say you couldn't receive the treatment, or did they say they would't pay for it?

Do you really want to die on this hill?

[Shapley]

Do you really want to die on this hill?

Hill? What hill? I think we've trampled this down to flat earth, if not a rut. And still you refuse to recognize the difference between 'coverage' and 'care'.

[Shapley]

Expanding Care Versus Expanding Coverage: How To Improve Access To Care

Expanding coverage does not address the problem of a lack of care. I've said as much. We used to address the lack of health care by building free and sliding-fee clinics in underserved areas. There was no need to improve access to care in fully-served areas. These clinics are still around in many areas. In addition, most States passed laws prohibiting any hospital, physician, dentist or other provider of professional health care that accepts public funds from refusing to provide needed emergency treatment to any person whose life would be threatened in the absence of such treatment, because of that person's inability to pay, or because of the source of any payment promised. Many began to percieve that they have a 'right' to health care.

Over time, the free clinics began to lose favour, and 'free health care' became associated with 'poor health care', as in 'poor quality health care' as opposed to 'health care for the poor'.
Somewhere, the idea shifted from providing health care to providing greater insurance coverage to pay for available care. Presumably, the idea was that, with insurance, everyone could and would access the same quality health care. "Making health care affordable for all" replaced "Making health care available to all" as the mantra. There were two methods of doing this: the first was to provide incentives to employers to provide coverage to their employees. The second was to create Medicare and Medicaid coverage to the old, the indigent, and the incapable. With this shift, came a shift in the perception of the 'right' to health care to a 'right' to health care coverage. The distinction between the two faded.

I find this problematic. Providing 'coverage for all' or 'universal coverage' does nothing about addressing the costs or availability of care. It shifts the costs to others, to be sure, but it does not build new facilities, add doctors, or otherwise do a thing to improve 'care'. It just creates another entitlement in a nation being crushed' under the weight of entitlements. That is why I'm so nitpicky over the difference between coverage and care.

If I have to die on that well-worn piece of earth, so be it.

[Shapley]

I was reading through the 'Universal Health Coverage" thread, because I thought I had made most of the comments posted here before (I had). In early 2007, many were predicting that GM would go bankrupt due to health care legislation proposed, and its impact on their tax structure.

I'm getting old, so I forgot much of that discussion had taken place. I only realized that some of my typing seemed familiar, so I searched key phrases to find out where. I then began reading the discussion of 'universal health care' from the beginning. Interesting reading, it adds to my statement that the ground being tread is well worn. Unless someone comes up with something new to add, I think I'll be content that it has been said before.

Two years ago the same people were blasting insurance companies and hospital billing practices. Now, we have a new Congress, a new President, and the same complaints. The Congress has been 'fixing it' since 2007, when the Democrats took it over. Is it fixed?

Have a nice weekend.

[analog]

What to do for the long term in Haiti?

Seems to me this guy has an idea worth considering, enable the people to regain self sufficiency through low tech...


http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig11/gupta-v1.1.1.html

Haiti is not Minneapolis, where a massive centralized infrastructure is required for sheer survival lest one freeze to death in winter. Rather, it is a hot, damp, potentially fertile land, substantially suitable for life. Just getting people fed and provided with drinking water should not be too expensive to do, if it is made a direct and explicit goal rather than a side-effect of a less focused and more conventional reconstruction effort.

he has an interesting concept for shelter, his "hexayurt" , basically a somewhat more permanent yurt tent... survivalists will love it.
http://hexayurt.com/



a.

[BigJon]

There are hundreds of these concepts floating around the internet if you care to look. And yet they never seem to make it to the starting line. Something about the bleeding hearts not wanting to rob the refugees of their dignity . . . Keep the brown man down so he is always subservient.

[dai bread]

The hexayurt would need to be very well insulated, or it would be roasting hot in a tropical place and ice-cold in a place like Minneapolis. Plywood isn't good enough. A polystyrene panel sandwiched between sheets of aluminium might do the trick.

[jamiebk]

A polystyrene panel sandwiched between sheets of aluminium might do the trick.

I think that is what is shown. That looks to be rigid panel insulation (foam core). Lightweight but not too strong unfortunately. Perhaps a thin plywood backer would help.

[analog]

It may be ideal for a variety of disaster relief situations.

Here are the key points.

* Hexayurts can be built in plywood/OSB for less than $100 for a 166 square foot (15 sq meter) building. See the Plywood hexayurt how-to video.
* Hexayurts can be made in a variety of sizes using simple tools from industry standard 4'x8' (1.2x2.4m) sheets with zero waste and can be made successfully from many different materials, like plywood, OSB, coroplast, composites, hexacomb cardboard or other honeycombs and polyiso insulation boards.
* Hexayurts are public domain with no copyright or patent, meaning anybody can build as many as they like for free.


Depending on your choice of materials, a Hexayurt can last for years or even decades. In some long stay applications this could cut the cost of providing shelter to 10% of the cost of using standard relief tents.

To me significance is it enables the folks right there to do for themselves. Our traditional response is to send in heavy machinery and do everything by diesel power. Anybody feels helpless watching that.
Recall the Katina Kid in New Orleans who hotwired the school bus and hauled a load of folks to Texas - what a jubilant surprise!

we need to encourage such thinking.

a.

[Haggis@wk]

Recall the Katina Kid in New Orleans who hotwired the school bus and hauled a load of folks to Texas - what a jubilant surprise!

we need to encourage such thinking.

a.

I recommend "An Army of Davids"