georgerussia

I'd prefer B cup over any larger! * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Well, if the business does not want to do the right thing for the consumers, the government may/should force them to do so. Pretty much the same as when phone number porting was introduced (which was a major break against vendor lock-in) - did you read all the claims by various cell phone companies how it would hurt their business? But the companies are still there, and the consumers got better choice as competition increased. If you follow recent FCC decisions on net neutrality and AT&T's reaction on it, you'll get even better example of some modern business practices - "we don't care about consumers as long as this is good for business". This is especially the case if the government is planning to force citizens to buy services from a specific business. I have no idea what SOX is, and how it was regulated. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Big savings start in small steps. If you're looking to lower your monthly budget, but ignore anything which will give you less than 10% savings, you'll probably never lower it, while if you cut here and there, you can lower it 20% or even more. There are no other incentives for those "firms" to optimize themselves. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

I should checked the original phrase; it said "90% of married people disapprove of extramarital relationships". Somehow I can't understand how can you disapprove what you do yourself (and apparently is comfortable with). * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

I don't care either, but are you trying to say that those 90% respondents don't care too? * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

I was actually trying to address Amazon's quote that 90% of respondents sais "cheating is wrong", while 40% have done it themselves. WTF? * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Maybe you can explain me how a health insurer can have profit margin? 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 one apple in a year, you do not have any profit while your margin is still 100%), but health insurer? Which is good. The government wants people to pay money for medical services, and if the government makes it mandatory, it would be a good idea to ensure the money actually go to pay for medical services. By optimizing their business. For example, by not paying CEO a 4M salary? * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

As a matter of discussion, it would probably be the first year in history then when insurance premiums actually went down. Personally we would definitely use extra $510 a year; if you don't need yours, I would gladly collect it too. And I don't really understand your objections. Are you saying that unless the bill immediately provides something like 50% of savings comparing to today's costs, it's useless and shall not pass? I don't believe there is a single item which you can fix and get immediate 20% savings. However I believe there may be ten items, and each of them might give 3-5% of savings. Implementing all of them would give approximately 40% of saving. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

I'm used to it. My two year old son often needs the same thing to be repeated more than a dozen times until he finally understands it. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Of course they do not. The price is subject of negotiation, like it is with any your other customer. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Probably no more than we're paying right now. Those 45mil uninsured are receiving the service, they just do not pay for it. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

The question is, how many of denied claims were valid? I have two friends who're on Medicare, and they never have any claims denied. I, however, have personally had one claim denied by my insurer, which they only paid after I sent them a threatening letter. Proof? You guys are probably crying loud that your Social Security retirement is managed by a corrupt denying inefficient government, and not a nice profitable private company like Madoff, right? * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Of course not, as they will be out of business * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Would you be still out of business if the government also required people to use your services or pay fine, bringing you more customers? * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Savings of 51B? Yeah, that would be significant. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Yeah, they just pocketing 51 billion a year for just getting and receiving money, after all expenses are paid. Doesn't the idea of government doing the same and saving us 51B a year look attractive? Neither I nor health insurers are resellers, so there is no profit margin (and no gouging in traditional terms either). It can explain whether the insurers are poor and operating just above their expenses. 3.4% looks like a small number until you see the real amount behind it. So how would you fix it, and make sure the insurers would lower malpractice premiums, instead of just packing more profit (which is exactly what seem to happen in Georgia)? But you have USPS which is a "government option", and which works very well. From the other side, you have Enron, AIG, GM and a bunch of other superior private companies, which are not. Something like ten year perspective, at least. Like contributing to your 401(k) - if you're looking on intermediate effects only, you're losing money, right? Please quote the line from CBO report where it says the cost for all consumers will increase? I'm asking this because I went through the report, and it was quite hard to understand it, so please the exact page/line. The bill addresses most of the issues insurance companies claim which led to doubling the costs. This is supported by the fact that neither increase in my premiums gave my doctor more money for the services performed. But you're still concerned about increase. Lol. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

It's larger than equator. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

If their profit is 3.4% of all collected premium, then assuming 200M people paying for insurance (Republicans tell us 80% of Americans have private insurance, but let's be more conservative), and average 2009 yearly premium is $7.5K, we have total premium of 1.5e12, and 3,4% of this amount is 51B. This is split mostly by ten or so large companies, giving us conservatively 4B per large insurance company. Not exactly a small amount. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Because it's the amount which matters, not percentage. As I said, my income went up 45%, so does it mean I'm making ten times more than the insurance company? Of course not. We need to compare real profits, not abstract percentages. I do not see how tort reform would fix the cases when people go to ER and do not pay. I do not see how it fixes people with pre-existing conditions which cannot get insurance (so they instead go to ER and do not pay). Also we discussed it recently, and there were a few examples showing that tort reforms do not work for reducing costs - insurance companies do not lower premiums, they just packet more profits, so this did not lower the costs in Georgia. But you're looking only on immediate effects. Did you also take in account the health insurance premiums which doubled in last ten years? And how much would _your_ costs increase? I mean, extra $1 a year is technically "cost increase" but it's not something I'd fight till death. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

This is kind of solution which creates a bunch of other issues instead. How funny would be to have AIG go bankrupt? How many more Madoff-style investment funds would we have? Note that Ponzi schemes do not pay off by definition, no matter whether you have Fed interference or not. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

But you will also pay if there is no healthcare reform, because those who cannot pay will still get services for free, and you ARE paying for them, right now. No matter what you WILL pay for it anyway. Why don't you try to calculate which way you'd pay LESS? * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

It would be nice to know what number this 3.4% corresponds to. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

It depends. Cheating means different thing for different people; for example in this thread you can read some women who consider cheating if their husband watches porn. For right-wing Christians cheating should include even thinking about having sex with someone else. I know a few husbands who do not consider cheating if their wife sleeps with a women, but would definitely be screaming alarm if she slept with a man. When you see this kind of statistics, it's hard to understand what exactly people were talking about. And regarding the poll, to me it looks like a lot of people here in US seem to like to talk a lot about how things should be done, and loudly disapprove those things which they still do themselves. This still confuses me, and probably would till death. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Nope, I just do not like that either. Especially when they try to throw their faith by passing laws, or by spending public money. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

We all see where the problems are, and it was pretty clear that you do not like the TARP. Your post just continues identifying more issues. But the question was what YOU would do, besides just identifying the problem? And the reason for it, of course, is that there is no perfect solution, and whatever you offer would introduce similar - or different - but still problems. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *