So you have no experience in what I’m talking about? Ok.

I’m definitely not underestimating the ability of making adequate decisions. As a matter of fact, that is exactly a component of my comment. I’m actually agreeing with you that an adequate solution can be found. Where we disagree, I think, is in the definition of adequate.

And while a choice may be adequate, it likely has unfairly enriched others at your expense. You could have “adequate” coverage at significantly lower cost.

Some health care brokers will provide a mathematical model, which based on your data, will produce an optimal result... for their product only! No chance to cost compare.

As I recall, my experience went like this...

In my case, I built the model myself. It compared 16 plans, three providers and optimized options (in this case, there were sixteen possible options combinations per plan), and used my health history to produce a recommendation...

• number of specialists (7),
• est. number of visits (42),
• est. hospitalization (1),
• total prescriptions (12)
• Prescription classifications (tiers 1-4),
• dental
• vision

There was almost $1k/year savings between the optimal and next plan. Living in retirement on a fixed income, that savings pays for a lot of breakfasts at McDonald’s. Or even pay for a vacation.

All I'm saying is that you are NOT special. If you can do it, most people can too.

 

All I'm saying is that you are NOT special. If you can do it, most people can too.

Good! I’m sorry if I gave the impression that I was special. That was unintended and a mistake on my part.

All I’m saying is that the process is more difficult than it needs and is weighted in favor of providers and increasing medical costs.

 

Buying a new car makes me nervous. I'm always afraid that someone will get a better deal than me, or that the dealer will take advantage of me and unfairly enrich himself.

I wish the gov't would sell cars (better: give one to everyone who needs one!) so it didn't have to be such a difficult, harrowing, experience.

Oh, and don't get me started on big screen TVs. What a racket!

 

Buying a new car makes me nervous. I'm always afraid that someone will get a better deal than me, or that the dealer will take advantage of me and unfairly enrich himself.

I wish the gov't would sell cars (better: give one to everyone who needs one!) so it didn't have to be such a difficult, harrowing, experience.

Oh, and don't get me started on big screen TVs. What a racket!

I don’t want the government selling me anything.

 

I don’t want the government selling me anything.

Why not? You'd only have to pay for it twice...

 

Why not? You'd only have to pay for it twice...

They already do, Pontiac, Chevy, GM. and we pay for them twice.

kv

 

They already do, Pontiac, Chevy, GM. and we pay for them twice.

kv

Huh? All of the money loaned to them was paid back in full. We may have paid, but they paid us back.

 

The one flaw in this process is your last step. The burden placed on the consumer to “shop around” is odious. The product of all possible providers, all possible product, all possible insurers and all possible schedules... quickly becomes difficult, if not impossible, to navigate.

And as a matter of fact, I propose that due to the complexity in making this decisions, that suppliers, distributors, and insurers will exploit loopholes and CONSUMER OUT-OF-POCKET EXPENSES WILL SKYROCKET.

I went through a similar process when I had to select a Medicare plan... I needed professional assistance and still I’m not confident that I have made the best choice.

I am an engineer and mathematician. My IQ is in the genius range. My career was in an analytical field. I can create spreadsheets for analysis in my sleep.

And I am not confident in my decision.

And you want the average health care consumer to perform this type of analysis? I expected better from you.

Pick any decision you want to make -- buying a car, choosing a college, picking an mobile phone plan, choosing a refrigerator, selecting a headache medicine, whatever. The same argument could be made for all of them, yet people seem to be able to navigate the maze and make those decisions instead of the government making it for them and dictating what they can have and what they can't have. Do they always make "the best" choice? Almost certainly not -- but where it is written that the system can only work if everyone somehow manages to always make "the best" choice?

 

You present an argument that can’t be argued.

Since the process WBahn proposed doesn’t exist, there are no metrics with which to judge.

Yet you seem to have had no problem judging; and making an argument that that also can't be judged.

My point is not that such decisions could not be made. It is that the complexity will result more often than not in a non-optimal choice. Plus the complexity begets manipulation that results not only in a non-optimal solution for the consumer but indeed provides an advantage to all participants other than the consumer.

Are you of the age such that you have gone through the Medicare selection process? If so, you must have experienced the existing system and it’s flaws.

Perhaps the existing system is so complex and difficult to navigate precisely because of the overwhelming government involvement in it from top to bottom. Why is it at all reasonable to think that more government involvement is the solution?

 

Huh? All of the money loaned to them was paid back in full. We may have paid, but they paid us back.

Yes, but the bailout was not without chains. They cannot follow business as usually, they also can offer tax incentives for Vehicles that are demanded by the Gov, now we pay for them to buy and drive, Electric Hybrids.

I'm not disagreeing saving jobs, as well as retirement for those who would not collect without incentives from the government. It was money well spent which is why it happened to begin with or so to speak, as long as the New GM follows their guidelines set by the bailout agreement. They still need to clear 11.8 billion to cover the retirement packages. I hope plenty of people wanting vehicles are able to pay to upend them.

kv

 

A truly sad story but the blame is not on the cruise line.
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/par...ruise-line-take-responsibility-170226215.html

The parents of a toddler who died after falling out of a window on a Royal Caribbean Cruise ship are speaking out about the tragedy for the first time since they lost their 18-month-old earlier this month.
...
And while Kimberly and Alan are wrestling with their own pain from the loss, they’re also still searching for answers from the cruise company, which they claim was lacking in safety precautions that could have saved her life.

 

A truly sad story but the blame is not on the cruise line.

In the original story I read, they said the window failed.

This is the same deal as the story of a local boy that fell into the dingo exhibit at the zoo. He fell because the mother lifted the toddler up on the rail to see the dingos. The woman sued and won. The argument being that other people were doing it, the zoo knew about it and did nothing.

So let me get this straight. Because other people were acting like morons, it is ok for you to act that way? Wild dogs or not, what parent in their right mind would lift their child over a 20 foot deep pit?

 

It's not like anybody famous ever did something like that.

 

what parent in their right mind would lift their child over a 20 foot deep pit?

Everyone KNOWS he was far far from being in his right mind.

 

Homeless pirates.
https://www.kptv.com/news/hayden-is...a.html#tncms-source=block-contextual-fallback

The engine was ripped out, along with a canvas cover, the seats and much more. Then the boat was lit on fire. Holes were cut into the sides and it was filled with sand and bricks, as the thief tried unsuccessfully to sink it.

Inside, a drug syringe, a burned magazine and garbage were left behind.

 

Homeless pirates.
https://www.kptv.com/news/hayden-is...a.html#tncms-source=block-contextual-fallback

Is that the community on the river just north of Gersham?

 

Is that the community on the river just north of Gersham?

View attachment 182395

No, your picture is heading out East to where I live past this park.
https://www.oregonmetro.gov/parks/boat-ramps/chinook-landing-marine-park
We don't let the homeless camp out here on land or the river.

It's in Portland at Hayden Island.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/H...d215d97ab7887!8m2!3d45.6223771!4d-122.7017681

 

Not bad for a 13 year old:

https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Wellness...ch-showing-hand-dryers-harm/story?id=64237013

... Nora’s research on the topic has been published in a scientific journal and she is just 13 years old.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/25/americas/canada-murders-manhunt/index.html

The manhunt for two Canadian teenagers suspected of killing three people is focused on a swampy, small town in rural northern Manitoba with just over 1,000 people and an inhospitable environment.
...
If the teens are on foot, they will be dealing with difficult weather and hordes of biting flies, Gillam officials said.
"We have sandflies, black flies, mosquitoes, horseflies," Gillam Deputy Mayor John McDonald said. "Let me say if we were parked on a side street and we were having a conversation outside, and you didn't have any insect repellent on, or any long sleeves -- let's just say that we would cut our conversation short."
"And in the bush," McDonald said. "Magnify that by 10-20 times. Forget it."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/rcmp-manhunt-northern-manitoba-1.5225295
I hope they are captured alive and scratching.

 

The problem IMO with water worlds is the lack of complex molecule building in the presence of normal atmosphere. That water/land boundary can cause great biodiversity and evolution to use diverse energy sources. A water world with a wet/wet energy boundary "sweet spot" is completely possible but the odds for complex life IMO are much greater where UV and other mutation driving forces are present over wide areas.

https://phys.org/news/2019-07-scientists-chemistry-cellular-life.html

Most origins of life research focuses on how the molecules and structures of life were produced by the environment, and then assembled into structures that led to the first cells. However, there were likely many other types of molecules that formed alongside biomolecules on early Earth, and it is possible that life started using very simple chemistry unrelated to modern biomolecules, then evolved through increasingly complex stages to give rise to the structures found in modern cells.

Previous work conducted at ELSI showed that moderate temperature drying of the simple organic compounds known as alpha-hydroxy acids, which are found in meteorites and many simulations of prebiological chemistry, spontaneously polymerizes them into mixtures of long polyesters. Building on this work, Jia and colleagues took the next step and examined these reactions under the microscope, and found that these mixed polyester systems form a gel phase and spontaneously self-assemble when rewetted to form simple cell-like structures.

Life evolved from polyester?! Barbarella was right!