ot health care
 

On Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:02:55 +0100, Lazarus Cooke
wrote:

If I were to move back to the US, how much should I budget for to get a
better standard of service?

Somewhere between nothing and a whole bunch...if you moved back today, at your
age, with pre-existing conditions, you might have to sign on the line for the
whole bill...you might not actually have to _pay_ it, all or partial, however.
OTOH, depending on your employer (and you'd not need be even low/mid-management
- hell, you could be Hawking's hub-greaser's second assistant and have full
coverage, or, you could be a senior manager of whatever and have none), it
might cost you nothing AND you'd have disability payments while down, if you
were down. Hell, a _full_ ride for all (even retirees with Medicare and a sup
available), healthcare-wise, is a big part of what put GM where it is...and the
UK where it is...

Let me ask you this - at what point do you feel your obligation to help pay for
the healthcare of others ends? And what obligation do you feel others have to
pay for yours?


HTH,
R

Lazarus

ot health care
 

On Sep 17, 11:50*am, "Fred" wrote:
On 16-Sep-2009, Ken Fortenberry wrote:

the only flames Mr. Cooke's post has generated so far are
the flames coming off your scalp as it scorched over your head
at supersonic speed. It was a joke,

Whoosh - right over my head
I am going to stick my head in a pail of water

Fred

Still there? freddie? freddie?

g.
who could have told him that wasn't a very good idea for someone who
doesn't know which way is up. :(

ot health care
 

On Sep 17, 8:06*pm, David LaCourse wrote:
On 2009-09-17 18:02:55 -0400, Lazarus Cooke
said:

If I were to move back to the US, how much should I budget for to get a
better standard of service?

Nothing!

When I had prostate cancer at the ripe old age of 59, I had the same
Gleason Score as Bill Bixby (from the TV series Hulk). *Bixby died just
before I was diagnosed and I was somewhat familiar with his case,
including his Gleason Score. *Our cases were very similar. *My tumor
was classified as lethally aggressive - i.e, if it wasn't treated very
quickly and aggressivly, I would die. *I mean, TREATMENT NOW, THIS
MINUTE, NOT TOMORROW/NEXTWEEK/NEXTMONTH.

Between the time on that dreadful Friday afternoon when I was told I
had cancer and the following Monday morning, Joanne and I researched
prostate cancer in every book/article in the library/internet we could
get our hands on. *When we met with the doctors on Monday morning, we
were fairly well informed. *We had also searched out the best medical
team in the Boston area dealing with prostate cancer, and even
considered going to Baltimore and John Hopkins which was THE leader in
the entire world on prostate cancer and radical prostatectomy. *We had
at our disposal whomever we selected. * Our team in Concord
Massachusetts was considered one of the best and we went with them.

Long story short, I was cured. *My doctors shrunk the tumor (remember,
"lethally aggresive"), removed it along with the organ itself in a four
hour operation, sewed me up, put in a catheter (removed a couple of
weeks later), and I have been peein' straight and sex is great ever
since. *Total cost: *$10 co-payment the first time I saw my urologist.. *
Nowhere in the world could I have received better treatment. *NOWHERE!

Because I considered myself so very fortunate, I participated in a
prostate cancer survivors newsgroup for some months afterwards. *I read
some horrible experiences of men with similar tumors who were nowhere
near as fortunate as I. *They lived in Canada, UK, Germany, and some in
the States. *My insurance paid all the expenses of that and other close
calls with death since then at a cost of about $1000/year, plus $10
co-pay each visit. *My medications are paid for except for a small
co-payment per subscription.

Now that I am into my 70s and Joanne has retired, I am on medi-care,
which, so far, has treated me well. *I'll take what I have now and what
I had those many years ago before I take anything Canada or GB can
offer me. *I selected my own doctors, my own treatment; *it was done MY
way, not the government's way, and I am alive and fairly healthy all
these many years afterward because of the decisions *I* made.

Hope you are well.

Dave
(and, yes, I am sure there are many success stories out of Canada/GB,
and many not so successful out of the USofA, but I'll keep what I have,
thankyouverymuchmrobama! *Leave my health care the **** alone!!!!!)

Imbecile.

g.

ot health care
 

On Sep 17, 9:44*pm, wrote:
On Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:02:55 +0100, Lazarus Cooke

wrote:
If I were to move back to the US, how much should I budget for to get a
better standard of service?

Somewhere between nothing and a whole bunch...if you moved back today, at your
age, with pre-existing conditions, you might have to sign on the line for the
whole bill...you might not actually have to _pay_ it, all or partial, however.
OTOH, depending on your employer (and you'd not need be even low/mid-management
- hell, you could be Hawking's hub-greaser's second assistant and have full
coverage, or, you could be a senior manager of whatever and have none), it
might cost you nothing AND you'd have disability payments while down, if you
were down.

In other words, you have nothing at all to say about the matter.

Hell, a _full_ ride for all (even retirees with Medicare and a sup
available), healthcare-wise, is a big part of what put GM where it is...and the
UK where it is...

Rank stupidity. Let's see if anyone cares to explain why.

Let me ask you this - at what point do you feel your obligation to help pay for
the healthcare of others ends? *And what obligation do you feel others have to
pay for yours?

Do you have any idea at all of what the word "insurance" means?

g.

ot health care
 

On Sep 17, 8:48*pm, Tim Lysyk wrote:
David LaCourse wrote:
Now that I am into my 70s and Joanne has retired, I am on medi-care,
which, so far, has treated me well. *I'll take what I have now and what
I had those many years ago before I take anything Canada or GB can offer
me. *I selected my own doctors, my own treatment; *it was done MY way,
not the government's way, and I am alive and fairly healthy all these
many years afterward because of the decisions *I* made.

Hope you are well.

Dave
(and, yes, I am sure there are many success stories out of Canada/GB,
and many not so successful out of the USofA, but I'll keep what I have,
thankyouverymuchmrobama! *Leave my health care the **** alone!!!!!)

Do you think people in Canada or Great Britain do not get to select
their own doctors?

Tim Lysyk

See, I just do not understand why you Canadians, English, Germans,
etc. must INSIST that you know more about your respective health care
systems than we do! Why, oh WHY can you not simply accept your
comprehensive inferiority and just LISTEN!!??

g.

ot health care
 

wrote in message
...
at what point do you feel your obligation to help pay for
the healthcare of others ends?


just to jump into this mess before going fishing for a week......
I have, my whole life, been paying for the healthcare of others, through a
group health insurance plan and the subsidies included in same, not to
mention taxes that go to Medicare and Medicaid. My obligation, as a citizen
of the nation?? Yes, IMHO, that is what makes a social compact work. Could
the compact be reworked so that the costs passed on to me be lessened, and
less people suffer? It sure could, once again IMHO.
Tom

ot health care
 

On Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:29:27 GMT, "Tom Littleton" wrote:


wrote in message
.. .
at what point do you feel your obligation to help pay for
the healthcare of others ends?


just to jump into this mess before going fishing for a week......
I have, my whole life, been paying for the healthcare of others,

Geez, dude - I had no idea your dad was such a mean ol' *******...

"Tom, get your lazy ass up outta that crib, change that smelly diaper, and get
to work - you've got some healthcare to pay for, boy! And no Gerber's strained
peas for you until you get in at least half-a-day..."

But, hey, you were probably a big, healthy toddler, so I guess fair's fair, what
with social compacts and all...


through a
group health insurance plan and the subsidies included in same, not to
mention taxes that go to Medicare and Medicaid. My obligation, as a citizen
of the nation?? Yes, IMHO, that is what makes a social compact work. Could
the compact be reworked so that the costs passed on to me be lessened, and
less people suffer? It sure could, once again IMHO.

OK - and to whom should the costs be passed on?

And I'm not disagreeing with the general concept that the "stronger" can and
should help the "weaker" - or, if one prefers, the more able help the less able
- I do take exception to the use of "fortunate" helping the "less-fortunate"
because quite often "the fortunate" are so because of hard work and "the
less-fortunate" are so because of the lack of it. Which is one of my points -
in this "social compact," do you feel any need to help, via your and your
family's hard work, those who simply won't work? What about someone who leaves
a decent-enough job that provides good healthcare to start their own business
(or otherwise leaves out of mere desire)? I know folks who have kept jobs that
they didn't particularly like (but could do without any negative effects
whatsoever) because of healthcare and retirement benefits. For those who made
the choice to give that up, do you feel the need to help them? And what about
people who make poor health choices with no way to pay for the associated costs?
I mean, if Bill Gates chooses to smoke 42 packs of barebutt Luckies dipped in
PCP a day, eating nothing but chocolate fried-in-lard doughnuts washed down with
Red Bull and Everclear, while driving a fully-restored-to-absolute-original Ford
Pinto, which he loves to use to brake-check heavy-equipment haulers while
drafting gasoline trucks, to go bungee jumping inside of asbestos-coated silica
silos, that's one thing, but what if Joe-the-unemployed-plumber does so? What
about Joe-the-doing-quite-well-self-employed-plumber-who-would-rather-spend-his-
money-on-toys-and-other-crap-rather-than-the-heath-insurance-he-could-easily-
afford-if-he-didn't-spend-it-all-and-then-some-on-toys-and-other-crap?

IOW - and perhaps I was unclear - at what point do you feel your obligation to
help pay for the healthcare of others ends?

HTH,
R
....and what about Frank - I mean, if he chooses to, oh, say, stand up and like,
move or something, should you be on the hook for his cavalier recklessness...?

Tom

ot health care
 

On 2009-09-17 21:48:48 -0400, Tim Lysyk said:

Do you think people in Canada or Great Britain do not get to select
their own doctors?

I don't know, but I do know they seem to have to wait longer for
certain procedures. Time was very important in my case. It had to be
done NOW and was. I doubt I would have survived in Canada or GB.

ot health care
 

On Fri, 18 Sep 2009 07:47:40 -0400, David LaCourse wrote:

I doubt I would have survived in Canada or GB.

Oh, come on, now...in at least _some_ parts of both countries, they wouldn't
have beat you _to death_...I mean, if you ordered Drambuie and Vermouth
(...what's it called again - a Chipped Nail? A Bent Pinhead? A Rusty
Trombone?...) they might have slapped you around a bit, but not beat you smooth
to death...

HTH,
R
....OTOH, so maybe if you bitched about the octane of the gas while bragging
about yer expensive rubber britches, even the more reserved would have beat you
pretty badly, but still, I don't think they'd have actually killed you...

ot health care
 

David LaCourse wrote:
I don't know, but I do know they seem to have to wait longer for certain
procedures. Time was very important in my case. It had to be done NOW
and was. I doubt I would have survived in Canada or GB.

You're just making **** up. You have absolutely no way of knowing
your chances of survival in Canada or the UK because you don't
know diddly about health care in Canada or the UK. But you've
never let ignorance stop you from spouting off your fat mouth
before so why should this time be any different.

You're a great Republican, Louie. Keep up the good work and ...

Carry on.

--
Ken Fortenberry