OP ED-"Little Timmy Wants to Know Why Nobody Likes Airplanes Anymore?

[carusoam]

Deflation is terribly uncomfortable. Houses get harder to pay for the longer you own it... The economy suffers by people buying less to protect their wallets.

Inflation allows for simple false economics. Used planes sell for more than they did when they were new... People respond by buying more than they can technically handle.

Moderate growth with moderate inflation seems to be today's ideal economy.

Pay as you go.

Relying on SS is not the best flight plan, especially if it evaporates before you get there.

It's a great safety line, a great plan B.

Should it be your plan A?

The popularity of 401ks, 503bs and the like brings up the next question...

Is the stock market a pyramid scheme?

Does gold have intrinsic value?

Best regards,

-a-

[AndyFromCB]

 

 

 

I'm sure you've heard of national practitioner data bank. Basically, all settlements and awards, even confidential ones have to be reported within 30 days so that data can be aggregated and  be available to industry. I hate to break it to you, but looking at the data summaries, it does not support your point of view. At most, total overall cost of malpractice in the worst years is 1.5 percent of overall healthcare spending. And I have yet, in my entire career in insurance, see a malpractice awards exceed the insurance liability carried by a doctor or hospital. It just doesn't happen. Show me one single case. You won't find it. 

 

2012 Average Premium Paid, 7 years of now declining premiums. If your buddy is really paying 1/6 of his salary in medical malpractice, there is probably a reason for it. Works the same with gear ups...

 

• Obstetrics/gynecology: $43,400
• Surgery: $30,000
• Plastic surgery: $27,700
• Urology: $23,500
• Gastroenterology: $20,000
• Cardiology: $19,400
• Neurology/neurosurgery: $17,500
• Emergency/acute care: $15,000
• Hospitalists: $15,000
• Ophthalmology: $12,300
• Dermatology: $10,300
• Pediatrics: $10,300
• Psychiatry: $4,700

[John Pleisse]

Yeah.....aggregated to include Wyoming, Idaho and New Mexico. A neurosurgeon or an orthopedist spinal surgeon in NY State pays just a teeensie bit more. OK Azel-whatever!!!! Your saying that 99% of all medical costs have nothing to do with medical liability. I'll let that one stand on it's own. /:-)

[AndyFromCB]

OK Azel-whatever!!!! Your saying that 99% of all medical costs have nothing to do with medical liability. I'll let that one stand on it's own. /:-)

 

Yes, that it precisely what I am saying. You throw your bullshit around, but I backup my numbers. Once again, all you guys do is demonstrate typical Pavlovian response when presented with facts: you ignore so that your view of "reality" remains unaffected. For once, admit you are wrong. As simple as that. Is there anything that could change your mind? Show me your numbers, not what you hear on Fox News. And let's be precise, I didn't say 99%, I said between 97.5% and 99%, depending on a year. During an average year, industry wide, there is only about 1000 (exact number is 1021 for last six years) "catastrophic" payouts, catastrophic meaning $1 million or more. 37% percent of these payouts belong to physicians who already had previous catastrophic claims. That alone should tell you something. Largest payout ever recorded for a single action was $31 million. Last six years saw 77,621 total paid claims, so on average 12,936 per year. So even if each and everyone of them was an even $1 million, the total would have been 12,936,833,333.33, so about only 12 billion out of 3.8 trillion industry. How is that for numbers. Refute them.

 

Insurance industry is not a non for profit. We don't lose money year after year. We work on facts ;-) If your numbers were anywhere close to correct, we could balance the budget on the taxes paid by your invented attorneys and their profits alone. Math is hard, I get it. Prove my numbers wrong...

 

Oh, and I checked, your neighbor is full of shit too, the highest premium paid in US of A ever for a single physician was $331,296.

[flyboy0681]

Maybe the solution is the system we have down here in FLA. Physicians are required to carry only minimal malpractice insurance of $100k, and $250k if they have hospital privileges. I don't recall ever going to a doctors office down here and not seeing the little sign by the sliding glass window (which I hate by the way) which clearly spells out that the practice only carries the minimal amount required by law. All of these physician's have their assets protected so that a judgement couldn't get to them.

 

My view of it is that 1) malpractice is a fairly uncommon event, and, 2) is very difficult to prove unless egregious.

[AndyFromCB]

Yeah.....aggregated to include Wyoming, Idaho and New Mexico. A Neurosurgeon or an Orthopedist Spinal Surgeon in NY State pays just a teeensie bit more. OK Azel-whatever!!!! Your saying that 99% of all medical costs have nothing to do with medical liability. I'll let that one stand on it's own. /:-)

 

Now since I'm kind of in the mood, let me explain how your friend makes $3 million a year, a practice quite common and quite annoying among surgeons:

 

-Let's call him Dick, he belongs to one insurance network in town

-His buddy, Harry, belongs to another insurance network in town

 

Harry has a in network procedure scheduled, let's say a knee replacement, listed at $150,000, negotiated in network price that the insurance company will pay is $20,000. Harry calls Dick right before surgery, Dick comes over to "assist". He is not in network. He bills $90K for his services. Yes, the insurance company will pay. Next time around Dick calls Harry.

 

On Sunday, Dick and Harry go golfing and laugh all the way to the bank. Want to bring costs down? Very simple. Let's copy the Japanese pricing schedule and force it on all US providers. An MRI in Japan is $160. Do you think they pay less for the machine? Do you think they pay their technicians or nurses less? Same MRI in US of A, about $2000.

[flyboy0681]

Now since I'm kind of in the mood, let me explain how your friend makes $3 million a year, a practice quite common and quite annoying among surgeons:

 

-Let's call him Dick, he belongs to one insurance network in town

-His buddy, Harry, belongs to another insurance network in town

 

Harry has a in network procedure scheduled, let's say a knee replacement, listed at $150,000, negotiated in network price that the insurance company will pay is $20,000. Harry calls Dick right before surgery, Dick comes over to "assist". He is not in network. He bills $90K for his services. Yes, the insurance company will pay. Next time around Dick calls Harry.

 

On Sunday, Dick and Harry go golfing and laugh all the way to the bank. Want to bring costs down? Very simple. Let's copy the Japanese pricing schedule and force it on all US providers. An MRI in Japan is $160. Do you think they pay less for the machine? Do you think they pay their technicians or nurses less? 

 

The man speaks the truth. I read a story just a few weeks ago about a woman who fell pray to this practice. While her insurer paid for her surgery, she received an unexplained bill in the mail weeks later from the "assistant" for some $120k. Naturally she handed the bill over to her insurer who refused to pay it because the guy was out-of-network. In the end the physician sued her and he won. I believe they settled for a lesser dollar amount, but it was still way more than she could afford.

[flyboy0681]

The man speaks the truth. I read a story just a few weeks ago about a woman who fell pray to this practice. While her insurer paid for her surgery, she received an unexplained bill in the mail weeks later from the "assistant" for some $120k. Naturally she handed the bill over to her insurer who refused to pay it because the guy was out-of-network. In the end the physician sued her and he won. I believe they settled for a lesser dollar amount, but it was still way more than she could afford.

 

Here are similar horror stories (caution, it's from the ultra-left New York Times, not to be trusted).

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/us/drive-by-doctoring-surprise-medical-bills.html?_r=0

[AndyFromCB]

Here are similar horror stories (caution, it's from the ultra-left New York Times, not to be trusted).

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/us/drive-by-doctoring-surprise-medical-bills.html?_r=0

 

I love the numbers in the article, I love how they pull them out of their ass too. Official price for spinal fusion $115,625. Actual average price paid $5,893 dollars. Actual profit on the $5,893 is about 15% for the hospital. Hospital performs 130 of them in a year for a profit of $115,625 dollars. Then, they perform one on an uninsured patient, call it charity care and subtract $115,625 in profits for the year claiming that they are barely breaking even. You do realize that's how list prices are set.

 

I love how Dr. Mu's time is worth $117,000 an hour, too, even if under Medicare it would have only been $800. 

[flyboy0681]

I love the numbers in the article, I love how they pull them out of their ass too. Official price for spinal fusion $115,625. Actual average price paid $5,893 dollars. Actual profit on the $5,893 is about 15% for the hospital. Hospital performs 130 of them in a year for a profit of $115,625 dollars. Then, they perform one on an uninsured patient, call it charity care and subtract $115,625 in profits for the year claiming that they are barely breaking even. You do realize that's how list prices are set.

 

Can't happen in those far off socialist countries which force their people into sub-standard universal coverage schemes  

[John Pleisse]

We already had a balanced budget and surplus. It was way overrated.

 

We did for a very short time. Bill Clinton was President. We were tripping over dot com millionaires thanks to the advent of the internet and the microprocessor. Mr. Clinton and Dems revel in these great times of a balanced budget, smugly taking credit for it. It was Bill Gates, not Bill Clinton who should have full credit. Clinton almost screwed it up with regulation and hostile anti-trust litigation. Funny, American business, ingenuity and success rarely get credit. It was overrated in a political sense. It was embraced for what it was.......... massive revenues under the largest American expansion since the 1880's and Clinton almost fu%$ked it up.

[flyboy0681]

We did for a very short time. Bill Clinton was President. We were tripping over dot com millionaires thanks to the advent of the internet and the microprocessor. Mr. Clinton and Dems revel in these great times of a balanced budget, smugly taking credit for it. It was Bill Gates, not Bill Clinton who should have full credit. Clinton almost screwed it up with regulation and hostile anti-trust litigation. Funny, American business, ingenuity and success rarely get credit. It was overrated in a political sense. It was embraced for what it was.......... massive revenues under the largest American expansion since the 1880's and Clinton almost fu%$ked it up.

 

Bill Gates was not responsible for the explosion of the Internets. As a matter of fact, Microsoft was very late to the party. Very late. 

[AndyFromCB]

We did for a very short time. Bill Clinton was President. We were tripping over dot com millionaires thanks to the advent of the internet and the microprocessor. Mr. Clinton and Dems revel in these great times of a balanced budget, smugly taking credit for it. It was Bill Gates, not Bill Clinton who should have full credit. Clinton almost screwed it up with regulation and hostile anti-trust litigation. Funny, American business, ingenuity and success rarely get credit. It was overrated in a political sense. It was embraced for what it was.......... massive revenues under the largest American expansion since the 1880's and Clinton almost fu%$ked it up.

 

Almost, but no cigar, well, actually there was one ;-) Really, the anti-trust litigation spawned many, many companies much more innovative than Microsoft that would not be around if the browser monopoly held.

 

As to somebody who then really fucked it up, the award has to go to GWB. I can only imagine the senile gentleman from Arizona and his IQ of 50 sidekick from Alaska trying to understand the intricacies of world's banking and insurance system. Read Henry Paulson's book to try to understand what it was like for him talking to Republicans. He, a lifelong Republican, could not understand how some members of Congress, including even Paul Ryan, could be so utterly uneducated and just simply stupid. Paulson and Geithner saved the economy from would have been a total meltdown of the banking and insurance systems worldwide. I understand his pain after spending some time on this board. Facts don't matter. Only ideology does.

 

Paulson calls Barney Frank as "scary-smart, ready with a quip, and usually a pleasure to work with," praises Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and notes that then-Sen. Barack Obama was "always well informed, well briefed, and self-confident.". House Minority Leader John Boehner was ineffectual. John McCain comes off worst of all: impulsive, ill-informed and counterproductive.

 

​As to the balanced budget, what rarely gets the credit was elder Bush's and Clinton's tax increases. That's how you balance a budget.

[flyboy0681]

Almost, but no cigar, well, actually there was one ;-) Really, the anti-trust litigation spawned many, many companies much more innovative than Microsoft that would not be around if the browser monopoly held.

 

As to somebody who then really fucked it up, the award has to go to GWB. I can only imagine the senile gentleman from Arizona and his IQ of 50 sidekick from Alaska trying to understand the intricacies of world's banking and insurance system. Read Henry Paulson's book to try to understand what it was like for him talking to Republicans. He, a lifelong Republican, could not understand how some members of Congress, including even Paul Ryan, could be so utterly uneducated and just simply stupid. Paulson and Geithner saved the economy from would have been a total meltdown of the banking and insurance systems worldwide. I understand his pain after spending some time on this board. Facts don't matter. Only ideology does.

 

Well, almost. The surplus went down the crapper when Bush signed the tax cut into law. This is what he had to say on the subject "The surplus is not the government’s money. The surplus is the people’s money. Now is the time to reform the tax code and share some of the surplus with the people who pay the bills."

 

Is sharing the surplus the same as sharing the wealth?

[flyboy0681]

These posts are just hilarious. Raise taxes...That's the answer

Lower taxes...That's a major problem....

What a joke you two are...The fact that you really believe this stuff is so special to see. You gleam when you expouse your liberal love.

I might urinate on Hank's book. Read it and take away being what a "savior he is/was"?

NOPE.

You two continue with your commie love-in. I really do enjoy laughing at your stuff and this is classic.

 

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2014/nov/18/kansas-budget-gaps-have-lawmakers-mulling-taxes/

[flyboy0681]

The surplus is not the government’s money. The surplus is the people’s money. Now is the time to reform the tax code and share some of the surplus with the people who pay the bills."

 

AWESOME! THAT is my kind of LEADER...

 

He would be.

[flyboy0681]

I am hanging on the edge of my seat waiting for Der Leader's awesome executive action tomorrow night. Going to be swell. What a proud constitutional moment it shall be.

Can't wait...

 

I suggest you skip directly to the part which contains the names Reagan, Bush, Nixon and Eisenhower, to name a few.

 

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/opinion/2014/11/19/opinion-like-it-or-not-obama-immigration-action-stands-on-solid-legal-footing/

[alex]

OMG! What a load of crap....Paulson praising democrats, that's a big surprise. That's like Arlen Specter praising Pelosi HAHAHA!   This is almost as funny as Jon Stewart without his 30 joke writers, which reminds me I have to go watch the comedy channel to get the real news.

[alex]

"I'm not an emperor, I can't do that.... muwahahaha, bow before me mere "stupid" americans!"    

[flyboy0681]

"I'm not an emperor, I can't do that.... muwahahaha, bow before me mere "stupid" americans!"    

 

Tim Tebow?

 

Who is that?

[flyboy0681]

OMG! What a load of crap....Paulson praising democrats, that's a big surprise. That's like Arlen Specter praising Pelosi HAHAHA!   This is almost as funny as Jon Stewart without his 30 joke writers, which reminds me I have to go watch the comedy channel to get the real news.

 

 

Here's the page from the book. Who knew that Hank wrote a non-fiction novel?

 

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=2YUBAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT40&dq=paulson+first+up+where+Barney+Frank&hl=en&sa=X&ei=SUBtVO3JCrDQiALsroGgDQ&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=paulson%20first%20up%20where%20Barney%20Frank&f=false

[alex]

Daver328, I think I have a man crush on you.

[AndyFromCB]

Insurance companies have these little smart guys called actuaries. They assess risk, exposure and calculate formulas to determine cost and coverages based ON NUMBERS. As David Ramsey so eloquently pointed-out. No one is immune from math. President Obama is not exempt from math. As said ever again, the numbers don't lie. You don't even have any real numbers due to your deceit and unwillingness to admit ... You really need to do some serious number-crunching. No one in this Administration is going to do it -that's FOR SURE!

5) so if you are going to FORCE those evil insurance companies to accept pre-existing conditions, what is it going to cost? Who is going to pay for it. No one knows! What if I have no auto insurance and a hail storm severely damages my truck. Should insurance companies be FORCED to write me coverage and immediately fix my truck at a huge loss? Then can I just cancel my insurance afterward? Wouldn't all the insurance companies go broke? What then?

 

 

What do propose then? That someone who has had cancer in their 20's then should become uninsurable for the rest of their lives and then when they have another health problem, they should they eat shit and die? No, seriously, what is your proposal here. What about kids born with cystic fibrosis? Kill them at birth? I mean, can't abort them until then but what do you do with them afterwards? No sane insurance company would ever cover them. I sure as shit would not given a choice if that was my business.

 

Do you have an answer other than status quo and/or tough luck, eat shit and die.

 

We know exactly what it will cost: 3.8 trillion a year, same exact number as it costs today because everyone says "well, eat shit and die" but no one is actually willing to pull the trigger.

 

Maybe health insurance is a flawed concept?

[Mooneymite]

 

Maybe health insurance is a flawed concept?

Gentlemen, we have a winner!

[flyboy0681]

I prefer Ben Carson's plan. It is not cradle to grave. The plan goes beyond the grave as you make your health care decisions. You decide, based on what "funds" you have accumulated through your life if you wish to: "Eat $%^t and die" or cash in YOUR account on end of life efforts to extend your life. The beauty of it is that YOU DECIDE. You are empowered to decide if you want the procedure or not...and YOUR benefits that YOU earn can be passed on to relatives...just like your estate...when YOU die....Because they are YOURS. YOU OWN IT.

The end of life (70-Death) spending in this country is OUT OF CONTROL. It is not society telling you "Eat $%^t and die" It is you through your lifelong decisions on health management and how YOU elect to manage YOUR life.

Freedom, empowerment, ownership, it is a beautiful thing.

Or we can have this debacle.

REPEAL IT. I vote for Ben

 

Carson is an interesting fellow to listen to but I haven't heard of his plan. If I'm interpreting what you said correctly (I may not be), a person is given an account with X amount of dollars at the beginning which is to be used for healthcare? Who funds it?