House passes health care bill on 219-212 vote

[Alumiyum]

Originally Posted by Prettyface08

Probably after the Crazy train...but I hear that one never leaves on time... and it seems to flounce a lot too.

You're still here...damn.

[Alumiyum]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

She's been here longer than you have.

Which is completely irrelevant. Seniority on a website doesn't negate bitchiness.

[Prettyface08]

Originally Posted by Alumiyum

You're still here...damn.

Hit ignore...dang.

[Prettyface08]

Originally Posted by Alumiyum

Which is completely irrelevant. Seniority on a website doesn't negate bitchiness.

And apparently isn't a deterrent for crazy. Oh, by the way...Yo' mama

[PM_Mama00]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

Yeah...I'm white as my little white iPhone. My poor skin is so afraid of the sun. When I go to the beach, I put up an umbrella and every inch of my body stays within the shadow cast by the umbrella while by olive skinned husband lays out like a lizard on a rock 20 ft away.

Not all olives can lay out like that

I'm olive, and my skin is see-through. My friends get freaked out by how much of my veins they can see. While my parents and brother can be outside for 5 minutes and be very dark, I have to tan for days before I get a nice color. Not fair.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by Ghostwriter

The real funny thing is that I never mentioned anyone by name. Hmmm. But it's all just good clean fun.

Irony, how's this for irony!

That was

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by PM_Mama00

Not all olives can lay out like that

I'm olive, and my skin is see-through. My friends get freaked out by how much of my veins they can see. While my parents and brother can be outside for 5 minutes and be very dark, I have to tan for days before I get a nice color. Not fair.

Yeah, my husband is half greek and has never had a sunburn in his life. He gets so dark that he actually will wear sunscreen just to keep from getting too dark on his shoulders. He kids me that my parents think he's "suspiciously dark." He actually was refused for a medical study when he was a resident. They told him they were looking for caucasians. He said, "Ummm, I've always considered myself caucsian." She said, "Well...." So he said, "I guess I'm not the right kind of caucasian!"

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

Yeah, my husband is half greek and has never had a sunburn in his life. He gets so dark that he actually will wear sunscreen just to keep from getting too dark on his shoulders. He kids me that my parents think he's "suspiciously dark." He actually was refused for a medical study when he was a resident. They told him they were looking for caucasians. He said, "Ummm, I've always considered myself caucsian." She said, "Well...." So he said, "I guess I'm not the right kind of caucasian!"

Hhehehehe....just one drop!!! LOL

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

Hhehehehe....just one drop!!! LOL

I know! Actually, in Louisiana, you are what your mother is, so even if you are black as black can be, if you mama is white, you are now listed as white on your birth certificate. This is according to my mother and sister who are labor and delivery nurses in Baton Rouge. Times change. So Pres. Obama would be a white man in Louisiana these days...I don't think a lot of my fellow statesmen would like that much if they knew that's how things worked. :O

[Ghostwriter]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

That was

Made you look, though!! I prefer Cheezy.

[DaemonSeid]

Whatever you want to believe.

[HDL66]

The new health care bill is fiscal insanity.

We, as a nation, have a 5 TRILLION dollar unfunded social security liability and a 38 TRILLION DOLLAR unfunded Medicare liablilty. When these programs were enacted, the country was far more fiscally sound and no one could have envisioned the financial train wreck ahead. Instead of addressing these real and urgent matters, we did what? ADDED ANOTHER ENTITLEMENT.

Please, please don't tell me anyone really believes that this will decrease the national deficit. The Democrat party tweaked every variable that they could to get the package under CBO's trillion dollar 10 year projection, including taking in 10 years worth of revenue and only paying out 6 years in benefits. Nice trick, huh? They also included $500 billion in Medicare cuts/savings that haven't been enacted or "found", and double counted the savings.

One of the effects of this law will be to add about half the newly insured (about 15 of the 30 million) to the Medicaid rolls. This insurance is partly funded by the states--of whom 46/50 are running deficits now. My own state was looking to cut medicaid reimbursements to providers by 10%--and that was BEFORE the new federal legislation was passed!!! This is another unfunded mandate handed down from the feds on high to states that can't print their own money or borrow from China to get themselves out of fiscal insolvency.

Physicians are losing money now on Medicaid reimbursement. That is a fact. Many won't accept it as insurance and won't see those patients. Walgreens Inc., shortly before the health care vote, announced that it will no longer accept Medicaid for presciptions. And Medicare reimbursements to physicians under the new legislation will drift downward as well. One ironic effect of the new health care legislation will be this: More and more people will have insurance that pays less and less, so fewer doctors will accept either Medicare or Medicaid. Guess where these people will land? IN THE EMERGENCY ROOMS where hospitals legally can't turn them away. Ironic, don't you think?

I heard today that the first year penalty for not getting insurance is $95, which increases to almost $700 in several years. Of course, now that you can't be excluded for preexisting conditions, that sounds like a pretty good deal. $700 a year until you get cancer, THEN buy insurance. Anybody see a problem here?

Of course, small businesses employing more than 30 people and not covering their employees will be penalized much more heavily than the individual. I'm sure that will have a positive effect on job creation. But wait--I failed to take into account the 15,000 new IRS jobs that will be created to monitor--AND ENDFORCE--that everyone buys insurance!! Sheesh. Just what we needed. 15,000 new IRS agents to improve health care.

The problem in a nutshell is this: We as a country have overpromised and underfunded. We cannot go on spending money and offering goodies to voters. Existing benefits--both social security and medicare--have to be scaled back, and we have to QUIT SPENDING SO MUCH MONEY. Taxing the rich isn't going to do it, folks. The top 1% already pay over 40% of the income taxes; the top 10% pay over 70%. The lower 50% pay--get ready for this--less than 3% of federal income taxes collected. How much more "redistribution" do you want?

Did anyone notice the only bipartisanship in this bill was the bipartisan opposition? The cynical side of me truly believes the Democrats wanted this bill just to create a permanent voting majority for their party. In doing so, the country they have purchased with this legislation is both BROKEN and BROKE.

ETA: Here are the original estimates for Medicare cost projections: "In 1967, the House Ways and Means Committee predicted that the new Medicare program, launched the previous year, would cost about $12 billion in 1990. Actual Medicare spending in 1990 was $110 billion—off by nearly a factor of 10." http://jec.senate.gov/republicans/pu...ly_31_2009.pdf
Still think that the new entitlement will cut the deficit?

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by HDL66

. . . The Democrat party . . .

Always a "tell."

Did anyone notice the only bipartisanship in this bill was the bipartisan opposition?

You mean other than the fact that one of the things the Republicans are screaming about most loudly -- the "mandate" that everyone have coverage or pay a fine -- was actually the Republican proposal in the 1990s?

[Ghostwriter]

Originally Posted by HDL66

The problem in a nutshell is this: We as a country have overpromised and underfunded. We cannot go on spending money and offering goodies to voters. Existing benefits--both social security and medicare--have to be scaled back, and we have to QUIT SPENDING SO MUCH MONEY. Taxing the rich isn't going to do it, folks. The top 1% already pay over 40% of the income taxes; the top 10% pay over 70%. The lower 50% pay--get ready for this--less than 3% of federal income taxes collected. How much more "redistribution" do you want?

ETA: Here are the original estimates for Medicare cost projections: "In 1967, the House Ways and Means Committee predicted that the new Medicare program, launched the previous year, would cost about $12 billion in 1990. Actual Medicare spending in 1990 was $110 billion—off by nearly a factor of 10." http://jec.senate.gov/republicans/pu...ly_31_2009.pdf
Still think that the new entitlement will cut the deficit?

Good points but we have to also remember that the Republicans had 6 years with Congress and the White House in which they could have and should have addressed the countries fiscal problems and they failed. Special interests got in their way and they blew a golden opportunity to keep our budget balanced and revamp Social Security.

Per a news article, 2010 is now the year when Social Security pays out more than it takes in. They originally thought it owuld be 2016 but...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/bu.../25social.html

We are headed for a day of reckoning soon with our fiscal matters and I am afraid it won't be pretty. We are going to have to make some hard choices and the cuts will be deep.

[aggieAXO]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

That consultation fee is for the ability to go to an afterhours style urgent care facility and see a doctor. You pay more for that convenience. The doctor doesn't actually get that money. The physician is an employee of that center and gets paid somewhere between $50 and $75 and hour to staff the center depending on the contract. A business runs the center and will shut down, leaving you with no convenient place to see a doctor for your broken wrist, if they cut back on the fee allowable.

Not to try and compare veterinary medicine to human medicine but this is exactly what I try tell my clients that see me at the ER. Yes we are more expensive but at least we are here at 2 AM to see Fluffy who has been very sick for a week- then I ask "why again didn't you take her to your regular vet?" I love the blank stares I get when I ask that question. I am so sick of people bithcing about the prices we charge when 80% of the things i see are preventable or could have been dealt with for a lower cost by their regular veterinarian.