I've spent a year (thus far) researching some of the problems in education...I now know more about TEKS, and TAKS, than any individual human should have a right to know...What do you know?Bureaucracies have causes our government to become grossly inefficient. Hundreds of millions of dollars that are spent on a project are allocated to paperwork, employees, and so forth of that bureaucracy. A good example is the Department of Education. Go look up the hierarchy of a bureaucracy some time. Thousands of positions and fancy names for various things. The American taxpayer can put $100 million into the Department of Education but the vast majority isn't on the kids, it's on paperwork.
There is a bureaucratic nightmare at the Federal level, but guess what? All these people who just sit back and screaming about 'a lack of accountability' or 'why our kids aren't learning' are the biggest part of the problem.....they are the reason why this bureaucratic nightmare exists...
Keep studying your economics...somewhere along the line you must have stopped or you would know that the U.S. consistently ranks among the least socialist countries in the world...Anyone who has studied basic economics knows why the government is how it is. The United States is NOT central planned, yet people keep adding more departments, wanting more things. Why not just make it completely socialist and betray what we stand for more?
What about the 32 other countries that consistently rank better in health care that the U.S......as Carlos would say....tee eeeee....
Um...I happen to work too, I just work from home.
But thank you for keeping track of my lifestyle.
He's Bitter, He's NBA Dan.
Should hook him and Ploto up imo.
I don't understand that either Ruff. i am about to order advair and allegra from an online Canadian pharmacy. A 3 months supply of Allegra D costs $70 compared to a one month supply in the US costing almost the same amount. A one month supply of Advair cost $145 here in the US and $70 in Canada.
I simply MUST fire my housekeeper! She missed a spot while cleaning my tin foil hat. It's made out of Reynolds and not that HEB brand. Only the best for me and my gal pals that live in mansions here in the Dominion!
Flea--that sucks. Is that what you're paying with insurance? My insurance company originally denied paying for my son's Nexium, but I fought them and now they do...still $50 a pop though. It's crazy.
Flea--that sucks. Is that what you're paying with insurance? My insurance company originally denied paying for my son's Nexium, but I fought them and now they do...still $50 a pop though. It's crazy.
We don't have insurance at the moment and if we did it probably would not cover prescriptions, unless we chose to go without groceries.
Such typical bull I've grown to expect from you. You know whats honorable is the fact that I forgo the things that matter to me or my wife such as marriage because I want to give my family every single opportunity or advantage no matter if it affects me or not. What an unbelievably stupid and ignorant statement to make. Always so incapable of looking at whats really there in lieu of some idiotic idiology you think you should have about me. Honor??? No room to complain??? Absolutely I can complain...I have to scrap my wants and values to gain even the slightest advantage for my family, I'll complain as loudly as I want as long as I have to sacrifice my so called honor for the betterment of my family. Way to understand the whole picture asshole.
That stinks...
Have you tried Humana? My husband is on my insurance, but we have Humana for his employee as they were the only that would cover one person. Her preimium isn't too pricey...however, I'm not sure if her kids are her policy or not. I can find out more info for you if you like.
Then the America we once knew is dead and we should force out the pretenders in power now.
let me get this straight.
You make 50K a year.
You won't marry your significant other so you can game the system and also collect welfare and get your lonestar card.
You come in here and whine that you have been "forced" by the system to "sacrifice your honor".
Would it surprise you if I said that I am having a hard time feeling sorry for you?
Last edited by CosmicCowboy; 02-29-2008 at 11:16 AM.
That would be great S y! You have my e-mail right? With my husband being self-employed I could deduct everything possible and probably qualify the kids for medicaid but it just doesnt seem right. Like I said, I don't mind paying for insurance but everything I have looked at is over $500 and with a huge deductible. I don't mind a big deductible but I don't want to pay over $6k a year on insurance AND pay for everything else as well.
Flea--I will find out for you. I know he had a hard time finding someone to insure just one person and Humana was one of the few that did. I still have your email.
flea, I just renewed my small group insurance with Humana POS (they call it "point of service" and we affectionately call it"piece of ") and got pricing at several levels of deductible. At $1500 deductible individual coverage was $334.85 a month and family coverage was $1071.51 a month. At $3000 deductible it dropped a little to $286.48 for individuals and $916.56 for family. You might get a better rate because of your age and Humana tends to come in low the first year and then hammers you on renewal.
What makes insurance expensive isn't the "everything" you are referring to. Cancer, Diabetes, Organ Transplants, etc... are why your premium of, even with a high deductibe, is $500. But if you look at the potential risk, and cost associated with that risk X the number of people in your family, you can see why the premium is as high as it is. Comparable to your homeowners insurance, probably - and THAT only pays in case of catastrophe, right? Also, you don't expect your car insurance to pay for oil-changes and door dings.
There have been GREAT advances in healthcare over the past 20 years; we can keep people alive and healthy that had no business being so just a couple of decades ago. Those advancements, unfortunately, have a big price tag.
Also, if you look at individual, as opposed to group, insurance policies (if you are healthy, at least), you will usually find less expensive premiums. The group market is more heavily regulated - and cannot select for health, and usually can't impose restrictions for pre-existing conditions. The individual policies can; which is bad if you are sick, but makes the coverage less expensive if you and your family are healthy.
No it wouldn't suprise me. Just because I have a solid income doesn't mean I should be less fortunate than some hack fat slob who's to lazy to work. Do you see how ing much milk costs? Over 4 bucks but if you decide to not work or wanna fake an injury its free. We'll make provisions, give money, hand out free education, protect the wealthy all at my middle class expense. So if my hard work is only going to pay off for someone else and my honor is only going to cost me more then its pretty plain and simple to conclude the system is ed.
Its like taking advantage of an employee who works hard and complains less, you give that guy more work because its the path of least resistance. I'm that path for America. I show up everyday, never call in sick and work my ass off so the less fortunate can get an education, get milk and cheese and live in free or discounted housing because for some reason they're too lazy to figure it out for themselves.
Even though there is no law that says I have to hand over 25% or so of my pay I'm forced to do it, even though its uncons utional to give it up I have to or I go to jail. I'm forced to pay for the retirement of others who are fully capable of working but chose not to because they can sit at home and collect a fixed income, a fixed income that I'll never see. So now I have to give up some of my "honor" to gain an edge in life. I don't expect most to understand that but I'm selling my family short of finance and opportunity if I don't cheat back the system for what should already be cons utionally mine. I'm mearly attempting to break it even if that. As if 50k really goes that far these days what with the cost of simple auto and home insurance not to mention a total lack of affordable healthcare. Outrageous gas and pretty much every single basic living expense at our disposal.
I wasn't really trying to whine either sorry if it sounded that way. Just trying to lay out my train of thought.
Phillosophically we agree that a lot of things are ed up. Government is too big. Government is too expensive. Politicians will continue to pander to every possible voter spectrum to buy votes with our money by promising what THEY will do for that voter.
Government will continue to working people because thats where the money is that they dsperately need to pay for all the new programs they want. Thats just the way it is. Here are some great quotes on democracy.
Democracy means government by the uneducated" G. K. Chesterton
"Democracy is election by the incompetent many" |George Bernard Shaw
"Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people." oscar Wilde
"The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter." Winston Churchill
"In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them"
"A democracy is a government in the hands of men of low birth, no property, and vulgar employment" Aristotle
"A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine." Thomas Jefferson
"Democracy is nothing more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner" James Bovard
"Democracy is the road to socialism." Karl Marx
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." Thomas Jefferson
"Democracy encourages the majority to decide things about which the majority is ignorant." John Simon
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury." Alexander Tytler
To be clear, the word "vulgar" as used in Aristotle's time is a different meaning than we use today.
Vulgar, in those times, literally meant "common".
Tomato....Tomata
I would go for a universal health-care system with very-well controlled costs; otherwise, faster-than inflation health costs will bankrupt us. This would never happen, but I would like to see:
1. All medical costs made public. No special rates for insurance, etc. When you make an appointment or have any treatment, you are provided the costs in advance on a single statement rather than these crazy insurance statements from 5 different actors after the fact.
2. Public medical information and forums on the effectiveness of all doctors and hospitals. 1 and 2 would mean consumers would actually have the information to make choices. Yes, there would be a lot of crap out there, but we are managing for every other product out there.
3. High deductibles. Insurance shouldn't be paying for the small stuff. By high, I am thinking 10% of your income. If you had to bear the full cost, with 1 and 2 above, consumers would run to some combination of low cost and high effectiveness. You want whatever stupid drugs they are trying to sell through misleading ads on TV, and you can convince your doctor, then you can pay for it. Maybe then you might want it less.
4. Single-payer system for the high-cost stuff, but only for the specific treatments approved for specified medical problems. Doctors and patients who want to do high-cost experimental stuff should obtain grants. Yes, part of the system should be grants to do some of this for when the guidelines don't fit, but the treatment does for a particular patient.
5. I would definitely pick out the best from other countries' health care systems. Why not use what works?
The federal government gave us this mess and the solution is to give the feds even greater control over the health care industry?
Pass.
We are the Federal Government....we keep electing our Reps so that they get more powerful committee appointments = bringing home the bacon to their respective districts....when was the last time you voted for someone who turned down a ear-mark that would bring jobs to the district because it wouldn't be the financial prudent thing to do?
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