georgerussia

So where exactly it says that "all the obese people are republicans"? * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

So where exactly did I said (not quote the opponent) that? Don't be shy, point to a particular post. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Yet another proof he's weak. He should have dropped her a month ago. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

It would be quite stupid statement, and that's why I didn't say that. You might want to check the quoted post before replying. Even in Mississippi (which apparently has the largest number of blacks) it's only 37% versus 63% whites, so it indeed matters. But we're now down from "all" to "majority", so you're making progress. Keep good work! * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Wow, I probably need to make a note to myself that Mississippi is full of obese black/hispanic democrats. You just opened my eyes! And what about how much of the overall population are those obese blacks? * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

I don't. I didn't. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

If you are saying that all obese are noncompliant with medical advice, it looks like those are mostly Republicans who do not follow it. How come? But neither of your links proves that noncompliance with medical advice is higher in the USA. As I said before, "eat less, exercise more" is not medical advice, this is kind of "advice" one can get from a friend, a relative or even Joe the plumber - and everyone know it already anyway so they didn't hear anything new. Such advice would be pretty much as useless as a simple "you should quit smoking" advice, and expecting everyone to quit smoking immediately. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

My understanding is that you can - as long as you're not using any public money, and not speaking as the member of government (not necessary federal). There is no Jesus so I'm not. I'm taking New Year though. PS. Happy Hanukkah! * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Wow! And I thought why do they all oppose government involvement in healthcare??? Now I got it: it is "Don't you dare touch my syphilis! I am a free person, and I will decide myself whether to treat it, or share it with other people - and no fucking government should decide for me!" * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

There are more similar cases - for example a doctor prescribed a drug which had bad side effects on a patient. The patient goes to the doctor next day, and tells him about that. The doctor prescribes another drug, and forgets to tell the patient that the first drug should be abandoned. Patient assumes that the second drug is prescribed to reduce the effect of the first drug (this indeed happens in medicine), takes both, experiences much worse side effects, and then flushes the drugs down the toilet. Assuming that the third drug would be even worse, he doesn't go to the doctor anymore. I've heard about the case in Russia when a doctor prescribed a combination of drugs, which all must be taken regularly at very specific intervals to avoid some crappy side effects, to a patient who was receiving treatment for memory lapses. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

I wonder why are you angry. Wasn't that you who constantly complained how stupid and ineffective our government is? Then you should be happy they finally decided to hire really skilled and smart people. You know, some of them went through superior private schools and universities, and now got some nice loans to pay off, and therefore they tend to have higher salary expectations than Joe the Redneck with a high school diploma. But if you read below the head line, you'll see the following: • Pay hikes. Then-president Bush recommended — and Congress approved — across-the-board raises of 3% in January 2008 and 3.9% in January 2009. President Obama has recommended 2% pay raises in January 2010, the smallest since 1975. Most federal workers also get longevity pay hikes — called steps — that average 1.5% per year. • New pay system. Congress created a new National Security Personnel System for the Defense Department to reward merit, in addition to the across-the-board increases. The merit raises, which started in January 2008, were larger than expected and rewarded high-ranking employees. In October, Congress voted to end the new pay scale by 2012. So if you still disapprove this raise, you should now know where to send your hate mail. Some ranch in Texas, which doesn't miss its ass anymore, would be just fine. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Even in USSR you didn't have to, unless you had an STD or TB. Mandatory treatment for those was required by law, and non-compliance led to hospical anyway, but in jail. I believe treatment for things like syphilis is still mandatory in Russia, and people work it around by getting anonymous STD tests. But for everything else treatment was not required. Indeed you might have had to sign a paper telling you that your doctor prescribed hospitalization, you refused and you accepted all responsibility for that, and you were free to go. Sorry for side-track :) * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Nope, you'd be criticized for "not having values". Actually, everyone has values, it's just some people might have different values than you. I have little respect to those trying to shove their moral values down our throats, and even less for those who do not follow even their publically announced values. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Some can be - for example, the doctor might prescript procedures or drugs which are difficult to perform (like injections) or too expensive for a patient, the patient informed the doctor about difficulties, and other treatment options with similar effectiveness were available but the doctor somehow ignored them. As for lifestyle choices, telling a fat ass that he or she should exercise more and eat less crappy foods sounds quite naive too, as every of them knows, or at least should have known that. This is kind of advice you don't need a doctor to tell you. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Who are those "they"? Fox news? * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

No, it showed exactly the opposite. You just interpreted it in a kinda funny way. I wonder what kind of treatment would you use to promote "healthy lifestyle"? LOL. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

I would say this is at least honest from my side to admit it. And the reason for that is that a lot of Republicans bring so many various stupid reasons why this bill would fail that I really want to see the moment when they acknowledge that it works, and they were wrong. Also we had a discussion around the bill issues, and my position was pretty obvious for quite a while. I think it would work and I believe it would do at least better to the country citizens than Iraq war did. Why I believe such way is a different matter, and I do not see any way how would it affect our discussions about bill provisions and insurance profits. Even if my reasons were that I would receive personal permanent free healthcase after the bill passes, it would still not affect the discussions we had. As well as other things. At least this one is more worthy to fund comparing to some other things which some of us do not support, but nevertheless have to fund - like wars * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Okey, I agree you're smart and knowledgeable. Now could you be so kind and would you please share your infinite wisdom and tell me what relationship this has with the discussed topic? "churn rate" is a better term. I wish you used it from the beginning, as it has much more accurate translation. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Yeah, that's a typical Republican excuse when they have nothing else to argue. But rest in peace, you're not the first. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

I bet there are a lot of things I never heard about (and you probably too). So what is your point? None of "churn" translations in my dictionary explains what I said (loss of profit for the company). I do not drink coffee. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

No, the smaller YOUR boobs are, the larger MY penis look! * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

No need to surgery, you can just get fat :) The larger your belly is, the smaller your boobs look. Same thing for penises. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Never heard about him, but anyway. My working world is indeed commercially oriented though. I even run a business myself. Nope. They fought it because it would make it easier for consumer to break the vendor lock-in, i.e. switch between providers as soon as some other provider got a better deal. Before portability the potential costs of switching were quite high for many consumers, which gave much more leeway to the cell phone operators by reducing competition between them. Pretty much every large business is low margin business. It is the size which affects percentage, not industry. A small store can have a 100% margin and make $1000 a month. But if you look on a Safeway, I'd be surprised if they have more than 10% (mostly because of capital gain taxes). * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

I do not have any problems with that. I'm just saying that those "just 3.4%" you were talking about mean approximately 4B per a large insurer. This is definitely not a small profit especially if you consider what they do - they do not develop new drugs or even sponsor it, they do not build new hospitals or provide health care themselves (except Kaiser). They just take and give money, leaving some for themselves. So you're saying that all non-profits are wasting money, or less effective than their private industry counterparts? I don't understand it. So what is the difference from just profit? Does "profit margin" and "profit" mean the same thing? And the bold quote is good too, I'd also add "by similar size". Of course! If I make 20K a year, and have 5K in expenses (including taxes), this would mean I have a whopping 400% profit margin, and likely to be on the top of this list, right? Would this make the list meaningless? You forgot that the government also imposes a lot of conditions on them, like delivering mail everywhere (including remote areas) for the same price. They might do pretty well if they followed health insurers, and doubled their charges for everything during last ten years, as well as refused sending mail to overseas APOs for 41 cent (wonder how much a letter sent by UPS to Afganistan would cost). Let's compare the numbers then. What are current costs? But it will not add up either - those costs are not something we're not paying now and will start paying with a new bill. Completely? How would we avoid scam insurance companies then? So for how long should we delay it? I bet if you ask any politician they all would say they read it, so the criteria must be more specific. But one of the reasons I want it pushed because it would piss off a lot of Republicans, and it gonna be fun! * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Of course not! Seems like you missed the original post where it was made clear that this 51B is pure profit - after all expenses (including everyone's salary, bonus, 401k, insurance, and CEO helicopters) are paid. So it definitely wouldn't put anyone out of work - in fact they may not see any changes at all. If you're claiming there is a profit margin, please explain how it works. As I said in another post, I understand how a grocery store can have it (get apple for $10, sell it for $20, your profit margin is 100%, but if you only sell a single apple in a year, you do not have any profit while your profit margin is still 100%). I do not understand what you consider "profit margin" for health insurer. They are not "evil", they're just follow a typical modern business model - get as much money today as possible, and don't give shit about tomorrow as at that time you'd be retired in Costa Rica. And they do not have 50% profit because they cannot. A company making thousands can easily grow 400% a year. For a company making hundreds of billions 1% a year may be very good growth when you find that 1% of 100B is 1B. Who doesn't now? A lot of delivery/retail/transportation businesses would end their 2009 with negative balance. We're still in recession. I'd say AIG is a great example. That's good, but if you want to save money right now, the reasonable way to do so would be stopping contributing to any retirement account. You'd get immediate benefits, right? I would like to see the number of consumers which would see the increase. Maybe I'm naive, but for me a bill which provides insurance for those who cannot afford it, and doesn't cost you anything is positive, so for those whose cost will stay the same it's beneficial. But as I said, most cost savings are in future. Like people, who cannot afford insurance, then go to ER and do not pay (and then ER charges more paying customers - insurance company). Like people who can afford insurance but decide not to. Then when they got hurt, they go to ER and do not pay. Like providing a single basis for all health plans, which would make it easier to sell them in other states (this one is not clear yet though). Of course I know what my insurance company pays my doctor - it is in the statement I receive from them. My point was that you do not know what the bill gonna be - and I wonder whether you read the current 2,000 pages one - but you still wanna delay it, just in case. Right? * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *