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Viruses / Vaccines

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  • mrussel1mrussel1 Posts: 30,875
    why should his life get altered when kids from another country are told to stay home?
    I believe it was sarcasm...
  • HughFreakingDillonHughFreakingDillon Winnipeg Posts: 39,445
    man, my sarcasm meter must be on the fritz. 
    Hugh Freaking Dillon is currently out of the office, returning sometime in the fall




  • mrussel1mrussel1 Posts: 30,875
    My premiums went up anywhere from say between 6% and 12% year over year prior to Obamacare. Once that went into effect, premiums went up closer to the rate of inflation, 2% to 4%, again with some years staying flat and no loss of benefits and even minor improvements. The only thing that really changed was the number of plans available went from 5 to 3, with one of those a PPC? that has crazy deductibles but if you're healthy and don't go to the doctor, is good, I guess? When I was a state employee 30 years ago, we had a choice of 5 or 6 plans. Now I believe its 2.

    It seems to me that states that have embraced the concept of Obamacare via their exchanges and actively work to make them better, have done so and that that has been an overall improvement than the status quo or having millions uninsured, which we still do. That all said, I would't assume that my personal experience equates to "all employers plans are worse."

    Clearly the larger the organization, the better negotiating power which makes one think governments would encourage enrollment and use in their plans on the exchanges rather than actively do things to undermine it, like what many repub states have done. I'm still waiting for that repub plan that is better, cheaper and more beautiful than Obamacare. Is Obamacare perfect? No. But it was a place to start, to be improved upon over time via legislation and real world inputs and outcomes. But one party still doesn't want to participate and would just rather scream SOCIALISM.

    So I guess, in closing, if you, mrussel and mace want better health insurance, find an employer who provides better health care benefits? Its not like you don't have choices and there's a lot of jobs open right now. And before you all get up in arms, I'm kidding. But its a shame, isn't it?
    I said from teh beginning that I think premium increases have slowed teh past few years.  The rise was much more dramatic in the aughts.  I also don't think Obamacare has a single thing to do with it.  
  • man, my sarcasm meter must be on the fritz. 
    Yep, time to go Hugh...

    This too was sarcasm =)
  • mrussel1mrussel1 Posts: 30,875
    man, my sarcasm meter must be on the fritz. 
    double sarcasm is like a double negative.  We don't know which way to go. 
  • HughFreakingDillonHughFreakingDillon Winnipeg Posts: 39,445
    I think I am just able to detect it from some and not from others....for various biased reasons.....
    Hugh Freaking Dillon is currently out of the office, returning sometime in the fall




  • mrussel1 said:
    I said from teh beginning that I think premium increases have slowed teh past few years.  The rise was much more dramatic in the aughts.  I also don't think Obamacare has a single thing to do with it.  
    What do you think had to do with it? Corporate healthcare benevolence? Seriously, I've had health insurance since 1989. It regularly got squashed, less benefits, more cost and less options. Until around 2014. Then it mellowed. Something changed. Dramatically.
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  • gimmesometruth27gimmesometruth27 St. Fuckin Louis Posts: 23,983
    mrussel1 said:
    double sarcasm is like a double negative.  We don't know which way to go. 
    doesn't double sarcasm cancel out the original sarcasm? like in math where 2 negatives make it positive?
    "You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry."  - Lincoln

    "Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
  • mrussel1mrussel1 Posts: 30,875
    doesn't double sarcasm cancel out the original sarcasm? like in math where 2 negatives make it positive?
    In that case,  you cut it in half then double it. 
  • mrussel1mrussel1 Posts: 30,875
    What do you think had to do with it? Corporate healthcare benevolence? Seriously, I've had health insurance since 1989. It regularly got squashed, less benefits, more cost and less options. Until around 2014. Then it mellowed. Something changed. Dramatically.
    Honestly don't know.  Insurance premiums are a mystery to me.  I'm very fortunate because health care is part of my contract so the increases don't affect me directly,  but the out of pocket stuff is still rising.  It's "co- insurance" now where each family member has a 2k deductible or 3k for the family. 
  • HughFreakingDillonHughFreakingDillon Winnipeg Posts: 39,445
    mrussel1 said:
    In that case,  you cut it in half then double it. 
    sounds like the rules to "new sarcasm" they're teaching the kids these days. 
    Hugh Freaking Dillon is currently out of the office, returning sometime in the fall




  • OnWis97OnWis97 St. Paul, MN Posts: 5,605
    one week remote only. wow. I'm surprised. 
    So is it a "post-holiday grace period" or something? I think that makes sense.
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  • mrussel1 said:
    Honestly don't know.  Insurance premiums are a mystery to me.  I'm very fortunate because health care is part of my contract so the increases don't affect me directly,  but the out of pocket stuff is still rising.  It's "co- insurance" now where each family member has a 2k deductible or 3k for the family. 
    If you honestly don't know, how can you flatly dismiss Obamacare as potentially having something to do with it? Aren't the costs of insurance premiums partly driven by losses, i.e. the more uninsured, when using healthcare = losses, there are, the more the insured pay? So, it reasons that the more folks that have insurance, the less uninsured and the less the already insured have to pay?
    09/15/1998 & 09/16/1998, Mansfield, MA; 08/29/00 08/30/00, Mansfield, MA; 07/02/03, 07/03/03, Mansfield, MA; 09/28/04, 09/29/04, Boston, MA; 09/22/05, Halifax, NS; 05/24/06, 05/25/06, Boston, MA; 07/22/06, 07/23/06, Gorge, WA; 06/27/2008, Hartford; 06/28/08, 06/30/08, Mansfield; 08/18/2009, O2, London, UK; 10/30/09, 10/31/09, Philadelphia, PA; 05/15/10, Hartford, CT; 05/17/10, Boston, MA; 05/20/10, 05/21/10, NY, NY; 06/22/10, Dublin, IRE; 06/23/10, Northern Ireland; 09/03/11, 09/04/11, Alpine Valley, WI; 09/11/11, 09/12/11, Toronto, Ont; 09/14/11, Ottawa, Ont; 09/15/11, Hamilton, Ont; 07/02/2012, Prague, Czech Republic; 07/04/2012 & 07/05/2012, Berlin, Germany; 07/07/2012, Stockholm, Sweden; 09/30/2012, Missoula, MT; 07/16/2013, London, Ont; 07/19/2013, Chicago, IL; 10/15/2013 & 10/16/2013, Worcester, MA; 10/21/2013 & 10/22/2013, Philadelphia, PA; 10/25/2013, Hartford, CT; 11/29/2013, Portland, OR; 11/30/2013, Spokane, WA; 12/04/2013, Vancouver, BC; 12/06/2013, Seattle, WA; 10/03/2014, St. Louis. MO; 10/22/2014, Denver, CO; 10/26/2015, New York, NY; 04/23/2016, New Orleans, LA; 04/28/2016 & 04/29/2016, Philadelphia, PA; 05/01/2016 & 05/02/2016, New York, NY; 05/08/2016, Ottawa, Ont.; 05/10/2016 & 05/12/2016, Toronto, Ont.; 08/05/2016 & 08/07/2016, Boston, MA; 08/20/2016 & 08/22/2016, Chicago, IL; 07/01/2018, Prague, Czech Republic; 07/03/2018, Krakow, Poland; 07/05/2018, Berlin, Germany; 09/02/2018 & 09/04/2018, Boston, MA; 09/08/2022, Toronto, Ont; 09/11/2022, New York, NY; 09/14/2022, Camden, NJ; 09/02/2023, St. Paul, MN; 05/04/2024 & 05/06/2024, Vancouver, BC; 05/10/2024, Portland, OR;

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  • SpunkieSpunkie i come from downtown. Posts: 7,095
    edited January 2022
    Today's message from the BC Health Officer was to have all business and schools prepare for 1/3 of staff being absent due to illness. Then, she emphaszied the prioritizing of keeping schools, grocery stores, and hospitals open. 
    I was swimming in the Great Barrier Reef 
    Animals were hiding behind the Coral 
    Except for little Turtle
    I could swear he's trying to talk to me 
    Gurgle Gurgle
  • mrussel1mrussel1 Posts: 30,875
    edited January 2022
    If you honestly don't know, how can you flatly dismiss Obamacare as potentially having something to do with it? Aren't the costs of insurance premiums partly driven by losses, i.e. the more uninsured, when using healthcare = losses, there are, the more the insured pay? So, it reasons that the more folks that have insurance, the less uninsured and the less the already insured have to pay?
    Losses are relegated to the pool of people.  For example, when I worked for a major bank, we were self insured.  So what affected our premiums was the usage of our employees.  What happened with Obamacare care pools was not relevant to our pricing.  Now we were so big, it was hard to see a big movement.  However, now I work for a company with a fraction of the employee base.  And I'm close to expenses, so when we have several people who have expensive issues, you can see how your usage from teh previous year affects this year's premiums.  

    BTW - it is very common for large corps to be self insured.  They just hire Aetna and the others to administer the plan.  

  • HughFreakingDillonHughFreakingDillon Winnipeg Posts: 39,445
    OnWis97 said:
    So is it a "post-holiday grace period" or something? I think that makes sense.
    they explained it more as a way to get the supplies needed into the hands of the schools; N95 masks, particularly, but I'm sure there's also the stop-gap angle to it for sure. 
    Hugh Freaking Dillon is currently out of the office, returning sometime in the fall




  • mrussel1 said:
    Losses are relegated to the pool of people.  For example, when I worked for a major bank, we were self insured.  So what affected our premiums was the usage of our employees.  What happened with Obamacare care pools was not relevant to our pricing.  Now we were so big, it was hard to see a big movement.  However, now I work for a company with a fraction of the employee base.  And I'm close to expenses, so when we have several people who have expensive issues, you can see how your usage from teh previous year affects this year's premiums.  

    BTW - it is very common for large corps to be self insured.  They just hire Aetna and the others to administer the plan.  

    But couldn't Obamacare pools have been relevant if your firm's insurance company was part of Obamacare and expanded its pool? Isn't that the point of almost all insurance companies, to spread the risk/losses among the most payees/insured as possible to increase profit (minimize losses while maximizing paying customers at whatever demographic cost)? Whether, auto, home, life, healthcare? Just different methodologies to spread the risk (ages of drivers, home locations, etc.)?
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  • mrussel1mrussel1 Posts: 30,875
    But couldn't Obamacare pools have been relevant if your firm's insurance company was part of Obamacare and expanded its pool? Isn't that the point of almost all insurance companies, to spread the risk/losses among the most payees/insured as possible to increase profit (minimize losses while maximizing paying customers at whatever demographic cost)? Whether, auto, home, life, healthcare? Just different methodologies to spread the risk (ages of drivers, home locations, etc.)?
    No, I don't believe you can do that when it comes to self insured organizations.  We literally paid Aetna a service cost.  Now maybe you could argue that prices went up because doctors were overwhelmed with all the new people in the healthcare system thereby driving up overall costs that get passed down to consumers.  But I've never seen any data supporting that and again, to the point I thought you made earlier, since Obamacare the pace of your increases have slowed, not accelerated.  
  • Dammit Brandon! You suck, you should do more! Its all on you!

    Prices are creeping up for popular over-the-counter coronavirus test kits, just as the omicron variant fuels a surge of infections.

    The White House has touted frequent testing as a pillar of its pandemic strategy. But tests have become tough to come by in large swaths of the country, and a White House plan to deliver free kits to Americans has yet to come to fruition. A deal with the White House to sell at-home test kits at cost expired in December, and retailers such as Walmart and Kroger are raising prices on BinaxNOW at-home rapid test kits, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

    Coronavirus live updates and omicron variant news - The Washington Post

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  • mrussel1 said:
    No, I don't believe you can do that when it comes to self insured organizations.  We literally paid Aetna a service cost.  Now maybe you could argue that prices went up because doctors were overwhelmed with all the new people in the healthcare system thereby driving up overall costs that get passed down to consumers.  But I've never seen any data supporting that and again, to the point I thought you made earlier, since Obamacare the pace of your increases have slowed, not accelerated.  
    True, since Obamacare the pace of increase in cost for my premiums/co-pays have slowed or been flat. I mean, I expect inflation but not the 12%-16% increase in cost gouging and reduction in services that regularly occurred prior to 2014. Can you drop your employer's plan and go on the portal plan(s) or is that not allowed? And if you can, how do costs/coverage compare?
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  • mrussel1mrussel1 Posts: 30,875
    True, since Obamacare the pace of increase in cost for my premiums/co-pays have slowed or been flat. I mean, I expect inflation but not the 12%-16% increase in cost gouging and reduction in services that regularly occurred prior to 2014. Can you drop your employer's plan and go on the portal plan(s) or is that not allowed? And if you can, how do costs/coverage compare?
    I would never do that personally, but I also don't believe you can if your employer offers it.  But I'm sure someone else here knows for sure.  I've been an advocate for the gov't to create a medicare for people under 65 so you could buy into gov't administered healthcare.  Let the market decide whether private or medicare is a better option. 
  • PoncierPoncier Posts: 17,861
    doesn't double sarcasm cancel out the original sarcasm? like in math where 2 negatives make it positive?
    Only for those on double secret probation.
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  • gimmesometruth27gimmesometruth27 St. Fuckin Louis Posts: 23,983
    sounds like the rules to "new sarcasm" they're teaching the kids these days. 
    all i have to say is "is our children learning?"
    "You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry."  - Lincoln

    "Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
  • gimmesometruth27gimmesometruth27 St. Fuckin Louis Posts: 23,983
    Poncier said:
    Only for those on double secret probation.
    we were on double secret probation once. it sucked. we couldn't do anything remotely fun or we would get kicked off of campus.
    "You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry."  - Lincoln

    "Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
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  • mace1229mace1229 Posts: 9,821
    mrussel1 said:
    Honestly don't know.  Insurance premiums are a mystery to me.  I'm very fortunate because health care is part of my contract so the increases don't affect me directly,  but the out of pocket stuff is still rising.  It's "co- insurance" now where each family member has a 2k deductible or 3k for the family. 
    I’d say they still affect you directly. When premiums go up and your employer pays the in lease, less money for raises for the employees.
  • mace1229mace1229 Posts: 9,821
    True, since Obamacare the pace of increase in cost for my premiums/co-pays have slowed or been flat. I mean, I expect inflation but not the 12%-16% increase in cost gouging and reduction in services that regularly occurred prior to 2014. Can you drop your employer's plan and go on the portal plan(s) or is that not allowed? And if you can, how do costs/coverage compare?
    We looked into that several years ago since some plans that looked comparable to our coverage were significantly less. And I mean less by comparing our half that we pay and not counting what our employer contributes, it was still less.  But we didn’t qualify since our employer offered coverage. 
    I blame the insurance companies. They know they can charge whatever they want and we essentially have to pay it. We have to use them because we don’t qualify for the state exchange and by law we have to have coverage. So why not charge $2200 for a plan I’m forced into that is crap, legally have to buy, and is double what I could probably get on my own.
  • bootlegger10bootlegger10 Posts: 16,250
    I think that would be a very difficult number to provide accurately; I mean, so many people have a co morbidity; do you report people who are 100% otherwise healthy with covid only? because people who died as a result of covid who also had, say, cancer, may have actually survived the cancer, but being so vulnerable from the disease made them succumb to covid. does that get reported as a covid death, or cancer death? I'd say covid. 

    I absolutely do agree with you, though, that more accurate, trustworthy reporting should be out there. I recall for months and months that Manitoba Health was only reporting the number of people in ICU. Which was alarming to me, since it was nearing capacity. But then when they actually broke it out as Covid ICU and "regular" ICU, the number was cut 4-fold. That makes a difference to me. 
    Tough call for sure in some cases. I would say you could categorize into a few buckets:

    - Died from Covid (no significant underlying issues)
    - Died with Covid (clear that cause of death was not related to Covid)
    - Died from Covid complications (already in a vulnerable state)

    At the beginning of the pandemic I was saying to trust the science and the doctors as I am not an expert.  It just seems like every few weeks the leaders or main health leaders do something to reduce the amount of trust or confidence I have. 

    I just can’t see how this far into the pandemic we are making decisions with grossly incorrect or misleading information.

  • brianluxbrianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,637
    1.08 MILLION new cases in the U.S. today.  Very discouraging news.
    Stay safe, all.

    US reports global record of more than 1m daily Covid cases

    Total of 1.08 million people test positive across country, a figure largely driven by Omicron variant

    As the highly transmissible Omicron variant wreaks havoc in the US, more than 1.08 million people across the country tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday – a global daily record, data from Johns Hopkins University revealed.

    The deluge of infections is forcing government officials, employers and citizens to weigh their risk tolerance as Americans enter year three of a devastating pandemic that has upended lives and livelihoods.

    Although evidence suggests Omicron is generally more mild and less lethal than other strains, the volume of new cases has been followed by an increase in hospitalizations, threatening to once again overwhelm beleaguered hospitals.

    Medical experts are sounding the alarm that the Omicron wave could be particularly harmful to children, as pediatric admissions of patients with Covid-19 reach record highs.



    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni











  • What i can't understand is.
    My whole family except my mum and us 4 in this house have had covid over Christmas.  Now my brother and his wife are alcoholics  and smoke a pack a day.  High b.p.Double vaccinated  with different  vaccines. AZ and pfizer.
    Not one symptom. 
    The others very  mild . One unvaccinated  had it twice. Worse 2nd time and ill 10 days.
    Reading  above about children  worrys me. But how can the ones with poor health  have no symptoms. 
    brixton 93
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    this song is meant to be called i got shit,itshould be called i got shit tickets-hartford 06 -
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