No women at a meeting on healthcare which will make decisions on which women's health issues will be covered under the bill.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/201 ... white-guys

And we mock Saudi Arabia for having panels for women's programs run by men.

I'll be asking my doctor...

What really gets me going about American health insurance is the business that you can't take it across state lines. Well that's what it sounds like to me anyway. Surely if you buy health insurance, you should be able to claim against it, anywhere in the world, let alone in your own country? I don't know but that just wrong that you can't carry it across borders within your own country.

A good article on legal challenges to Trumps short-sighted, dangerous, inhumane, and generally brain dead proposal to rollback environmental protections. Including the possibility that his own words might bite him on the ass yet again.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... lbacks-too

Today is not a good day.
I'm right down in the dumps.
I paid at the toilet to drop a Donald.
But all I did was Trump.

the Guardian concurs

Poetry Point of view
Why poetry is the perfect weapon to fight Donald Trump
Poems are an expression of the truth: they are the ideal antidote to a demagogue’s hoarse imperatives

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/ ... of-the-new

Nothing wrong with a little doggerel for the dumpf

Agrippina wrote:What really gets me going about American health insurance is the business that you can't take it across state lines. Well that's what it sounds like to me anyway. Surely if you buy health insurance, you should be able to claim against it, anywhere in the world, let alone in your own country? I don't know but that just wrong that you can't carry it across borders within your own country.

You can take it wherever you want (in theory at least). It's just that you can't buy it out of state.

purplerat wrote:

Agrippina wrote:What really gets me going about American health insurance is the business that you can't take it across state lines. Well that's what it sounds like to me anyway. Surely if you buy health insurance, you should be able to claim against it, anywhere in the world, let alone in your own country? I don't know but that just wrong that you can't carry it across borders within your own country.

You can take it wherever you want (in theory at least). It's just that you can't buy it out of state.

If I understand it correctly, it might be better to say the companies have to sell policies that are state specific, because they are still regulated by state law, the federal law sits atop the states' laws, mandated minimum coverages and other restrictions and requirements,. The companies cannot sell a plan to anyone that isn't a resident of the state. If you are traveling, you are still covered, but could likely face difficulties if you don't get all kinds of shit preapproved. Like, if you're not unconscious, get approval before you get in an ambulance, if having a heart attack, get approval before you so to a hospital. It'll be even worse if you out of country. I don't know about moving to another state, not sure how that would work.

crank wrote:

purplerat wrote:

Agrippina wrote:What really gets me going about American health insurance is the business that you can't take it across state lines. Well that's what it sounds like to me anyway. Surely if you buy health insurance, you should be able to claim against it, anywhere in the world, let alone in your own country? I don't know but that just wrong that you can't carry it across borders within your own country.

You can take it wherever you want (in theory at least). It's just that you can't buy it out of state.

If I understand it correctly, it might be better to say the companies have to sell policies that are state specific, because they are still regulated by state law, the federal law sits atop the states' laws, mandated minimum coverages and other restrictions and requirements,. The companies cannot sell a plan to anyone that isn't a resident of the state. If you are traveling, you are still covered, but could likely face difficulties if you don't get all kinds of shit preapproved. Like, if you're not unconscious, get approval before you get in an ambulance, if having a heart attack, get approval before you so to a hospital. It'll be even worse if you out of country. I don't know about moving to another state, not sure how that would work.

Yes that is how I understand it.

The getting approval part though, for many you have to do that no matter where you are. It's not like having insurance in X state means you can just go to any doctor in that state. At least that's not the way it works for many.

***ETA***
That's one one of the arguments for not allowing insurance to be sold across state lines; that doing so would exasperate that situation whereby it would be harder for people to get approval even within their own state as they would be dealing with an out of state agency to find local access.

The Guardian had an opinion piece with an interesting analysis of understanding Trump-speak, or maybe it's more a description of reality as Trump sees it, based on the interview in Time, Donald Trump's dizzying Time magazine interview was 'Trumpspeak' on display

Donald Trump’s elastic connection to reality was richly on display in his interview with Time magazine, published Thursday. Much of what the president said was unsurprising – that is, to those who have spent the past two months radically recalibrating their standards of what counts as presidential speech.

...

5. “The country believes me.”

In Trumpspeak, belief is a signal of truth. If his supporters believe him, then what Trump is saying must be true. Conversely, if his detractors disbelieve him, this too is evidence that what he is saying must be true. In Trumpspeak, detractors claim Trump is a liar because they are his detractors; and in calling Trump a liar, they in fact are lying.

6. “I’m president, and you’re not.”

Finally, Trumpspeak is transactional. It places no independent value on truth. The value of speech is to be measured exclusively in terms of its effects. If a statement gets me closer to my goal, then it is valuable; if it does not, it is worthless.

Valuable statements, then, are true by virtue of the fact that they advance my interests. Statements that fail to do so are worthless and thus false. I was elected president, so that means that every statement that got me here has validity.

I think "elastic connection to reality" is a bit generous, unless you allow for an elastic stretched beyond breaking as often as not.

purplerat wrote:

crank wrote:

purplerat wrote:

Agrippina wrote:What really gets me going about American health insurance is the business that you can't take it across state lines. Well that's what it sounds like to me anyway. Surely if you buy health insurance, you should be able to claim against it, anywhere in the world, let alone in your own country? I don't know but that just wrong that you can't carry it across borders within your own country.

You can take it wherever you want (in theory at least). It's just that you can't buy it out of state.

If I understand it correctly, it might be better to say the companies have to sell policies that are state specific, because they are still regulated by state law, the federal law sits atop the states' laws, mandated minimum coverages and other restrictions and requirements,. The companies cannot sell a plan to anyone that isn't a resident of the state. If you are traveling, you are still covered, but could likely face difficulties if you don't get all kinds of shit preapproved. Like, if you're not unconscious, get approval before you get in an ambulance, if having a heart attack, get approval before you so to a hospital. It'll be even worse if you out of country. I don't know about moving to another state, not sure how that would work.

Yes that is how I understand it.

The getting approval part though, for many you have to do that no matter where you are. It's not like having insurance in X state means you can just go to any doctor in that state. At least that's not the way it works for many.

***ETA***
That's one one of the arguments for not allowing insurance to be sold across state lines; that doing so would exasperate that situation whereby it would be harder for people to get approval even within their own state as they would be dealing with an out of state agency to find local access.

Yes, I've personally bumped into some of what you've described. And there's two separate issues, there is going to doctors and facilities that are 'in-network' for your particular policy. This can be a set of doctors that differ by cities, and if you go to a doctor in-network for that company in plan A for city X but live in City Y with the same Plan A, differing only in having the city in the plan name, e.g., SAn Antonio Aetna Plan A vs Austin Aetna Plan A, you won't get in-network coverage. That example isn't a random pair of cities, I live an hour from either city and had to choose.

Supposedly, you didn't have to get pre-approval for things if you went to an -in-network doctor, but you'd still most likely have troubles in emergency situations.

Aetna was doing something really fishy, never could figure out. I chose a plan because I needed my knee replaced and wanted a specific doctor. When I tried to set up an appointment, I was told they didn't accept my plan, but they were on the approved list. When I called Aetna, the exchanges that followed were seriously suspicious. They told me if there was an error, it would be corrected, it never was. The whole clinic in question, one that touts how they are 'The doctors to the Spurs' [San Antonio's basketball team], did not accept any plan that was offered by the state market place, in other words, if you got a subsidy tax credit to help pay for the insurance.

That was last year, before the start of this year, Aetna bailed out of Texas and some other states, they claimed it was because the ACA wouldn't allow them good enough profits, but the reality of it, as was revealed in some good reporting, refs on request, was they were trying to coerce the feds into approving their merger with another huge company, forgot which one, maybe Kaiser??? The feds didn't approve and Aetna bailed, so at the moment I still have a lame knee and I'm too afraid to see how crappy my new insurance plan really is.

Under the dumpf plan a 64 year old earning $16k a year can get health insurance...
with a deductable of $20k .....

•••••

Crank you ever considered medical tourism?

http://www.themedicaltouristcompany.com ... ent-abroad

http://www.patientsbeyondborders.com/reviews

My stepdaughter got massive savings in a mouthful of problem teeth by flying to Bali despite Australia's coverage. ( for certain procedures she will use Austalia's program to cover the rest.

I find it ironic that I can buy a full year of healthcare for travel outside of Canada for $480 Cdn per year -covering me for 90 days in Australia and 30 days or less on as many subsequent trips in the year ......since I ride motorcycle in the US frequently that coverage is hugely important as at 69 I only get 2 days of free coverage from my credit cards and I often spend more time than that riding there. If I need another 90 days in Australia it is $240 or so more ....despite the fact I have had cancer tho I'm considered cured some 8 years on.

The US healthcare business is an anathema. Predation on the weakest writ large.

That isn't something I've thought about, will have to check out, appreciate the headsup.

Oopsy.

Breaking: Donald Trump's US healthcare bill vote withdrawn

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39387550

What a pathetic bunch of putzes, pulled the bill because they screwed themselves so badly. Trump threatened the house members directly, and still couldn't get the vote. That will hurt him down the road, probably seriously, his impotence on display for all to see and snicker at.

Trump's approach to this interesting. 'Obamacare will explode' and 'I' as your president am now happy to do nothing and let that happen!

It will remain to be seen in the fall what insurance companies will do. They have to decide before Nov what states to offer ACA plans. They do not badly need the customers as right now the same companies get enough through corporate plans to keep in business.

Pebble wrote:Trump's approach to this interesting. 'Obamacare will explode' and 'I' as your president am now happy to do nothing and let that happen!

Exactly! He, as president, can choose instead to make it work better. He's not just an onlooker, but he's definitely a twat.

crank wrote:What a pathetic bunch of putzes, pulled the bill because they screwed themselves so badly. Trump threatened the house members directly, and still couldn't get the vote. That will hurt him down the road, probably seriously, his impotence on display for all to see and snicker at.

Anyone who has to use threats to get their policies passed through 'the house' is a danger to said establishment. The point is that policies should pass or fail on their own merits. If that's what Trump is doing (is he?) then he should be kicked in the balls and told to fuck off. Now. Impeach the cnut and get rid.