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pezar
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26 Nov 2014, 6:06 pm

chagya wrote:
The Tom Cobern (OK) politician is already ramping up an offensive to deal with what he refers to as wide spread fraud in the SSDI system. There is no proof that there is any wide spread fraud. There are just cases of envious citizen trouble maker who think they are qualified to be Dr.s or Psychiatrists making judgements about people who they know to be on SSDI but feel they should not be on SSDI based on their own unqualified observations.

I think if some citizen believes that my mental impairments are not real and that I should be working instead of collecting SSDI, then maybe that citizen should be required to work within 10 feet of me if I have to go back to work, and see how quickly Mr/Mrs citizen is complaining about my behavior and trying to get me fired.


I actually bought into that whole GOP "if it's invisible, it doesn't exist" idea of disability for a while. I was convinced that I could overcome my problems by sheer willpower. So I tried, and fell flat. Ended up declaring bankruptcy because my businesses failed. Couldn't work at a 9-5 job, either. So yeah, my invisible disabilities are very real. I would like some links to Coburn's proposals.



ruveyn
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26 Nov 2014, 7:56 pm

Social Security is like a legal Ponzi Scheme or chain letter. Eventually it was crash and burn.



LoveNotHate
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26 Nov 2014, 9:01 pm

My parents took my to buy silver in the 80s and we bought much silver at 8 to 9 dollars/ounce. Two years ago, after many trips I sold all the silver for $34/ounce. So, thirty years and the price went up ~4 times.

It looks like it is time to start nibbling on silver again.



chagya
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27 Nov 2014, 7:33 am

ruveyn wrote:
Social Security is like a legal Ponzi Scheme or chain letter. Eventually it was crash and burn.


That is exactly the line Conservatives use to describe Social Security because they want to propagandize it out of existence like they propagandize everything else. The government has been stealing from the fund for decades and now they want to blame its supposed "insolvency" on the people who have paid into it and have been guaranteed by the same government that when we reach retirement age it will be there for us. Every person who has an income should be paying into the fund no matter how rich or poor they are. And the cap should be raised. There is no reason it cannot sustain itself other than the fact that Conservatives are trying to propagandize younger people into a mutiny against the program, and selfish, snot nose people are buying into the propaganda. I never whined all my life paying into the system as I watched senior citizens collect benefits but selfish, unpatriotic whiners are complaining now as my generation collects our benefits. It is all being fueled, like everything else destroying this country, by the top percentile who figure they don't or wont need Social Security so they shouldn't have to pay into it so they are using their money to convince younger generations to rebel for them Your profile says that you are retired, so, are you not drawing Social Security? Not planning to collect what you have paid into all your life? It makes no sense for a retired American to complain about Social Security when you have paid into it all your life and it is time to collect? Or have you been convinced by the propagandists that it is not going to be there for you?



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27 Nov 2014, 8:21 am

trollcatman wrote:

Do you mean the debt ceiling and government shutdown stuff? I thought that was one of the most stupid things ever. Telling the people who are funding a large part of what you do that you are not going to pay them is incredibly stupid. Politicians should treasure the fact they can borrow at 2% or whatever. I saw yesterday that Greece was at 7.8%.


Yeah, and to be fair, it was more the TeaParty than the GOP... but that's the sort of nonsense US politics is plagued with these days. If the TeaParty could, it would cripple our ability to borrow just to 'starve the beast' of government, as they put it--with little thought as to how much suffering and havoc it would cause in the real America.


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GoonSquad
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27 Nov 2014, 8:56 am

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GoonSquad wrote:
The last MRI I had took 45 minutes, involved two people (the MRI tech and my doctor) and cost $5000.00! There's NO WAY to justify that... But stuff like that happens ALL THE TIME in our FREE market. :roll:

the people who support the pre-ACA status quo basically are saying "sink or swim- you're only worthy of life itself if you can make yourself and other people lots of money." money is their sole criteria of human worth, their one benchmark for acceptance among the living. the visible plight of financially struggling people is supposed to be a negative reinforcement to make sure other people keep their nose to the almighty grindstone. at least that is how it was explained to me by a sociologist. in any case it [sink or swim mentality] is a lousy and [ultimately] immoral social Darwinist meme that American capitalism has been keeping on life support for ages now.


Yeah, there's that tired, old social darwinist BS happening here along with that American protestant suspicion that poverty is an outward sign of moral inferiority...

BUT, beyond all that, there's also a completely broken market system.

When my legs stopped working, I DID NOT shop around for 'the best deal in spinal surgery.' Instead, the local neurosurgeon sent me to THE BEST neurosurgery center in the region... (lucky for me).

When I got there, they thought I didn't have insurance (because of a administrative error), but were willing to provide services anyway--that's good, but it's also not so good.

Through some kind of block grant associated with medicaid, the government helps to compensate hospitals for services to the indigent, but they only pay a certain percentage. I'm guessing it's about 1/3, which is why my hospital bills ARE ALWAYS 300% higher than what my insurance company actually pays...

The hospital jacks their prices way up to get the most money they can from the government when they treat people without insurance. This has a HUGE distorting effect on prices--causing prices to rise everywhere.

This is why we need universal insurance and government regulation of prices...

Market forces just won't work here.


PS

The size of that medicaid block grant is also tied to medicaid expansion under the ACA. That's actually a good thing, because it's causing hospitals to lobby for medicaid expansion in many red states. By law, they MUST give treatment to anybody who makes it to the ER, but without that medicaid grant, they won't get any money for treatment rendered to indigents/people without insurance. That means big losses, and higher prices for everyone else.


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chagya
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27 Nov 2014, 11:03 am

ruveyn wrote:
auntblabby wrote:
republicans keep saying gov't doesn't work, then get elected and prove it. sounds like self-fulfilling prophecy to me. they just want things to go back to the way they were in the 19th century [no direct election of senators, no social programs, etc.]

anks
How about six years or Our Elected King Barak Obama? Have things improved all that much? We have yet to see the financial results of Obama Care which has all the worst features of corporate crony insurance and government incompetence. Wait and see how that works out.

And the games that banks play still go on. Six years on, what has Lord King Obama accomplished?

ruveyn


Maybe that is because the right wing gestapo is undermining and sabotaging every syllable or action Obama utters, purely out of spite, with no regard the consequences and damage to our economy and social stability, because they are so easily able to slander and violate the President with vicious attacks which the mindless morons of America eat up as if it is chocolate cream pie, and at the root of it all is nothing more than blind racial hatred.



beneficii
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27 Nov 2014, 9:45 pm

GoonSquad wrote:
Yeah, there's that tired, old social darwinist BS happening here along with that American protestant suspicion that poverty is an outward sign of moral inferiority...


Yup. Good old-fashioned prosperity theology. I dealt with some of that at a local food pantry. God will give you everything you ever wanted, says the nice lady trying to get you to convert.

Quote:
The size of that medicaid block grant is also tied to medicaid expansion under the ACA. That's actually a good thing, because it's causing hospitals to lobby for medicaid expansion in many red states. By law, they MUST give treatment to anybody who makes it to the ER, but without that medicaid grant, they won't get any money for treatment rendered to indigents/people without insurance. That means big losses, and higher prices for everyone else.


Yup. Many red states are killing their hospitals by refusing to expand Medicaid coverage, as the hospitals no longer receive the same level of reimbursement for treating indigent patients as they have in the past (partly because Medicaid was supposed to expanded to close the Medicaid gap).

At most, they would have to pay only 10% of the cost for expanding Medicaid, and that wouldn't be till 2020. Their talk of cost comes across as a laughable excuse and pretext.


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27 Nov 2014, 10:00 pm

So, was there any consensus that this is actually an attack on social security or just a rag stirring up feelings?

(Coming from the perspective that the same thing happened where I live and it's easier now.)



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27 Nov 2014, 10:01 pm

Dillogic wrote:
So, was there any consensus that this is actually an attack on social security or just a rag stirring up feelings?

(Coming from the perspective that the same thing happened where I live and it's easier now.)

if you don't mind, where are you geographically?



Dillogic
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28 Nov 2014, 9:36 am

Australia

Most of the government functions/processes I go through are now online. It's much easier.

Now, if it's just as easy to get onto them with the phone, as the burden is split between online and land line (so the traffic isn't as bad for the latter, so they can save some money by laying off certain positions), then there's no "attack" going on.



beneficii
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28 Nov 2014, 11:22 am

Dillogic wrote:
Australia

Most of the government functions/processes I go through are now online. It's much easier.

Now, if it's just as easy to get onto them with the phone, as the burden is split between online and land line (so the traffic isn't as bad for the latter, so they can save some money by laying off certain positions), then there's no "attack" going on.


I was able to apply for my current Social Security Disability Income online as well (in the USA). Didn't have to walk into the office once to get approved. Had to fill out a bunch of forms mailed to me, though.


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ruveyn
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28 Nov 2014, 12:34 pm

GoonSquad wrote:
auntblabby wrote:
GoonSquad wrote:
The hospital jacks their prices way up to get the most money they can from the government when they treat people without insurance. This has a HUGE distorting effect on prices--causing prices to rise everywhere.

This is why we need universal insurance and government regulation of prices...

Market forces just won't work here.


.


Thomas Jefferson once wrote: "If the government were to decree when we should sow and when we should reap, we would soon all want for bread"

How many of our policy makers have any training in science and modern medicine. Not many, I would bet.

ruveyn



GoonSquad
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28 Nov 2014, 2:17 pm

ruveyn wrote:
GoonSquad wrote:
auntblabby wrote:
GoonSquad wrote:
The hospital jacks their prices way up to get the most money they can from the government when they treat people without insurance. This has a HUGE distorting effect on prices--causing prices to rise everywhere.

This is why we need universal insurance and government regulation of prices...

Market forces just won't work here.


.


Thomas Jefferson once wrote: "If the government were to decree when we should sow and when we should reap, we would soon all want for bread"

How many of our policy makers have any training in science and modern medicine. Not many, I would bet.

ruveyn


Well, that sort of system works pretty well in Japan. If they can do it, so can we.

Adequate training is simply a matter of adequate training. Stupidity and ignorance persist only if we allow it.


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auntblabby
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28 Nov 2014, 4:46 pm

Dillogic wrote:
Australia

Most of the government functions/processes I go through are now online. It's much easier.

Now, if it's just as easy to get onto them with the phone, as the burden is split between online and land line (so the traffic isn't as bad for the latter, so they can save some money by laying off certain positions), then there's no "attack" going on.

I suspect down under is more humane in this respect than what is proposed for USA.



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03 Dec 2014, 3:20 pm

ruveyn wrote:
GoonSquad wrote:
auntblabby wrote:
GoonSquad wrote:
The hospital jacks their prices way up to get the most money they can from the government when they treat people without insurance. This has a HUGE distorting effect on prices--causing prices to rise everywhere.

This is why we need universal insurance and government regulation of prices...

Market forces just won't work here.


.


Thomas Jefferson once wrote: "If the government were to decree when we should sow and when we should reap, we would soon all want for bread"

How many of our policy makers have any training in science and modern medicine. Not many, I would bet.

ruveyn


I believe the next probable Secretary of Defense is a trained physicist.


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