Blessed Are Those Who...
28/10/17 08:27
Can someone please explain to me why the price tag for our family health insurance plan in 2018 is $32k? Am I in the middle of some terrible dream and I just have to wake up to make it all go away? Thank the baby Jesus that I don't have to pay that much for reasons that I can't go into here but it is a travesty nonetheless. I have to imagine that most people cannot afford premiums this high and will go without insurance before they pony up the dough for an annual policy. I don't know that people coming off the insurance rolls left and right due to the exorbitant pricing helps the overall pool in any substantive way. It only serves to increase the premiums for those people remaining in the pool like you and me. So what happens to all those people without insurance? There are a lot of families who make a reasonable income but who cannot otherwise afford premiums this high and who would not otherwise qualify for subsidies of any kind due to their income levels. What do they do? Are those of us able to pay picking up the tab for the less fortunate in our society?
It's an unjust redistribution scheme if true and likely to go down in flames when picking up the tab becomes untenable for the average family in our great nation. I guess we have to blame the politicians, the insurance companies, and to some extent the medical industry for conspiring and colluding against we the American people when it comes to providing something as personal and necessary as health insurance. A comeuppance of sorts is in the offing and that may have started with Obama's drive for government run health insurance more commonly referred to as single payer. It is one step beyond the Obamacare nightmare that we are now mired in but thanks to Trump we will likely not go down the road to government run health care and that is a good thing. There is something to be said for operating in the free marketplace and insurance companies should be subject to the same forces just like every other business. If they charge unaffordable and unsustainable prices, then they deserve to go out of business. Let the marketplace determine prices and get government out of the mix and that should do the trick. It's a start anyway.
I'm feeling pretty good about this whole computer thing. I made a decision back in 2008 or so to pay a little more to get a higher end computer and here we are all these years later and she is still purring away not much differently than the day she first came into our lives. That said, she is getting a little long in the tooth. She no longer accepts software updates and the day will no doubt arrive when I want a piece of software that is not supported by earlier versions of my operating software. Operating software updates used to be something to look forward to, anticipate, and even salivate over from time to time and now they come and go and I watch wistfully as a non-participant in the process.
It is clearly something I would not and cannot tolerate given the complexities of the computing environment in which we live so planning is underway to update my system in the near future. I have been and will always be a big Mac guy so I don't expect that I'll be going over to the other side after all these years. It's not a learning thing but rather a preference thing and unless something changes sometime soon the replacement will be a Mac as well. It's fun to think about and all I'm waiting for now is to see Apple come out with an update to the model that I am interested in. Given that the last update was some three years ago it is overdue and I like to think imminent. I can only hope that the issues I'm now seeing with my computer ebb and flow without the need for any expensive resusitation measures by outside entities. My video card is on its last leg and I have issues with disappearing drives from time to time so they need to hang in there until I get my new machine. It won't be long now!
We'll be paying a visit to Mrs G later today. I was hoping that Nancys taking her mom here and there throughout the week might take the place of our weekly visit but Nancy was having none of it. So we'll carve out some time for the visit later in the day and do all the things we normally do on a Saturday between now and then. It will be a tight fit. I'd like to mow the lawn before the rain starts tomorrow as the rain is expected to go over into the Monday morning rush hour. We have things to bring to the local recycling center so that we don't otherwise leave them in the garage until Tuesday when the center opens again after a long weekend. And what is up with the estimates we requested of both the flooring center and the contractor who is still finishing up our bathroom renovation? It's perplexing to say the least. Do they not want the business? Do they not want our business? I know we're tough as nails when it comes to holding their feet to the fire but hey.
It's an unjust redistribution scheme if true and likely to go down in flames when picking up the tab becomes untenable for the average family in our great nation. I guess we have to blame the politicians, the insurance companies, and to some extent the medical industry for conspiring and colluding against we the American people when it comes to providing something as personal and necessary as health insurance. A comeuppance of sorts is in the offing and that may have started with Obama's drive for government run health insurance more commonly referred to as single payer. It is one step beyond the Obamacare nightmare that we are now mired in but thanks to Trump we will likely not go down the road to government run health care and that is a good thing. There is something to be said for operating in the free marketplace and insurance companies should be subject to the same forces just like every other business. If they charge unaffordable and unsustainable prices, then they deserve to go out of business. Let the marketplace determine prices and get government out of the mix and that should do the trick. It's a start anyway.
I'm feeling pretty good about this whole computer thing. I made a decision back in 2008 or so to pay a little more to get a higher end computer and here we are all these years later and she is still purring away not much differently than the day she first came into our lives. That said, she is getting a little long in the tooth. She no longer accepts software updates and the day will no doubt arrive when I want a piece of software that is not supported by earlier versions of my operating software. Operating software updates used to be something to look forward to, anticipate, and even salivate over from time to time and now they come and go and I watch wistfully as a non-participant in the process.
It is clearly something I would not and cannot tolerate given the complexities of the computing environment in which we live so planning is underway to update my system in the near future. I have been and will always be a big Mac guy so I don't expect that I'll be going over to the other side after all these years. It's not a learning thing but rather a preference thing and unless something changes sometime soon the replacement will be a Mac as well. It's fun to think about and all I'm waiting for now is to see Apple come out with an update to the model that I am interested in. Given that the last update was some three years ago it is overdue and I like to think imminent. I can only hope that the issues I'm now seeing with my computer ebb and flow without the need for any expensive resusitation measures by outside entities. My video card is on its last leg and I have issues with disappearing drives from time to time so they need to hang in there until I get my new machine. It won't be long now!
We'll be paying a visit to Mrs G later today. I was hoping that Nancys taking her mom here and there throughout the week might take the place of our weekly visit but Nancy was having none of it. So we'll carve out some time for the visit later in the day and do all the things we normally do on a Saturday between now and then. It will be a tight fit. I'd like to mow the lawn before the rain starts tomorrow as the rain is expected to go over into the Monday morning rush hour. We have things to bring to the local recycling center so that we don't otherwise leave them in the garage until Tuesday when the center opens again after a long weekend. And what is up with the estimates we requested of both the flooring center and the contractor who is still finishing up our bathroom renovation? It's perplexing to say the least. Do they not want the business? Do they not want our business? I know we're tough as nails when it comes to holding their feet to the fire but hey.