Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[wombat]

What do you need health insurance for if hospitals are funded by the government? Are you saying it's just hospitals and not other doctors?

[littlefallsmets]

Well, it seems like there's thousands less Americans with health insurance through their jobs... like... every hour. So, seriously. I know that in some cases the Canadian and European and Aussie systems are crap?

But... I had a back problem that felt like a heart attack and it nearly drove me into bankruptcy.

Your systems are ten-million-times better than this clusterfuck, warts and all.

EDIT: womb@, I think they have side insurance for like... faster help on non-life-threatening stuff and things that the government health system deems elective and so on. This is as I understand it.

[jay-ell]

Just to clarify, 100% company paid is a real rarity, hen's teeth category. Really good plans will run a family $125 a month for medical and dental. Poor can get into $300 a month easily.

I'm quoting private sector California rates, of course.

I'm still interested in your question, but it's more of a "how much will you pay for what additional benefit" thing as I see it.

Pedro's last job: Private-sector small company family plan: $600/mo.  AFTER the employer's share of the premium. 

BUT!  I refuse to let this thread wander into an international debate about health care.  I will split with a vengeance. 

I don't care if you guys want to bicker about this, but don't do it here. 

[theinevitable]

today I had class and office hours. I learned part of a John Fahey song on my guitar! It was so exciting.
I said to my roommate "goddamn, how do you play this fingerstyle stuff!" and he took it as a literal request for an explanation of the concept. "you know, like, you use a different finger for each string, except sometimes you have to move one..."

I really need to do laundry, but I really don't want to. If you were my friend's really really painfully cute roommate and you met me, and I was wearing a dirty t-shirt or old socks, would it influence how you thought of me that much?
This is a question which I guess has answered itself. Damn.
Edit: today I lost the battery to my cellphone in one of my classes, apparently.

[Doc]

Wow, that is crazy amounts. I don't have private cover but I just got a quick quote and for me and my lady a good level of private cover (hospital, dental, physio etc. included) would run to about 200 a month and most places have very flexible options about covering alternative therapies etc. (Not really my cup of tea but something I am generally impressed by).
One argument I've heard against american health insurers is that since people need healthcare they don't operate by strictly capitalistic principles since if they all band together and basically pick a really high number people will pay it regardless because not having healthcare is not an option. I bring this up because it just occurred to me that having a certain level of government supplied healthcare might act as a balance to this since people don't 100% need private cover the insurance companies actually have to offer competitive alternatives to get your business.

JL: Split at will, though I think I might basically be done on this topic.

[jaydub]

JL, all keeping Linnea's original vision pure...

[AugustWest]

...Go to Uncle Bud's funeral.

Aunt Dorothy in March.
Gramma in July.
Uncle Bud Tuesday.

I hope these things run in threes 'cause this shit's ridiculous. I have to carry another casket and I'm tired of the weight on my hands.

Fortunately, I guess, unlike Spouse's parents a couple years back we haven't had to carry the full burden of care.

I would have liked to finish the year not using up my bereavement leave, though.

Hell of Condolences, dude.

[V-Adore]

My sympathies. Even the concept of using up one's bereavement leave is kind of tragic.

[pmcd9]

My sympathies. Even the concept of using up one's bereavement leave is kind of tragic.

Unless you are using it to go to the beach or something.

[Doc]

Definite condolences for Ash-Dogg.

Some news I got today that requires back-story: My Nana's sister Shirley came over from new zealand last weekend (first time she's ever left her country due to her husband not liking travel and being kind of controlling) and she basically came over because she wanted to tell my nana in person that she had months to live. We all secretly knew this anyway because her side of the family was keeping us informed, she's had liver cancer for a while now and it's just spread all over the place to the point that she broke her hip a couple of weeks ago and when they opened her up to have a look at it they just saw hell of tumours.
Anyway I found out today that just before the flight back her daughter, who was travelling with her, got an sms that Shirley's husband (the daughter's father, just to keep things clear) had a fall, turns out he had a stroke and died a couple of days after she got back.
I didn't know the husband at all but I was worried about what Shirley dying would do to my Nana and now I'm worried about what the husband dying is going to do to Shirley.
Seriously though, first time she ever left the country and her husband didn't want her to and the fucker up and dies on her. What's up with that?

[jaydub]

Sorry to hear about your relatives, Doc.  Everyone from that generation in my family has already passed away, but the lessons in frailty they left were always difficult for me to come to grips with.

I've been trying to work out something about this being a good example of why Kiwis should stay on their side of the Tasman Strait, but it keeps coming out insensitive.

[pmcd9]

People dying is a bummer.  Sorry friends that you are suffering from your losses.

[Doc]

I've been trying to work out something about this being a good example of why Kiwis should stay on their side of the Tasman Strait, but it keeps coming out insensitive.

Cann'd because I'm going to use something like this on my family now.

[linnea]

Yeah, I was about to say, is that even kosher? I always assumed that, once financing came through and you actually, you know, drove the car away, the matter was pretty much settled. Can banks actually just be like "ha ha, psych!!"?

Great news. Another bank came through with the full amount and exact APR that I was quoted. Crisis averted. Sweet. I guess that the dealership works with 30 different banks, but they only have to run your credit once so your credit score doesn't get hammered with all these random inquiries.

[linnea]

Also, I avoided temptation today and decided to use a tiny fraction of that money to join a gym, which I have been budgeting for. I could not brook spending $460 on a purse, despite how fuck*ng badly I want that one. Sigh. They don't make that style anymore (10331), and when I went to the Coach boutique today the girl told me that they only had fifteen of those bags (in whiskey brown leather) left in the entire company. I got to hold the one that they had. I'm smitten, which is ridiculous, but I love it.

Anyway, enough freaking out over luggage. I'm very happy because I'm now committed to working out every weekday at 5:30AM, which is as soon as the gym opens. Since I hate waiting to use equipment, it will be a huge motivating factor for me to get there as soon as they open each morning. I'm so excited!!! I feel a thousand percent better when I've been working out.