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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
CT scans that Medicare prices at 800 USD becomes +6500 USD.
Keep in mind that this is a particularly extreme example. Some hospitals charge 10x the normal price, but it's not like every hospital does. The real problem is that a few hospitals are getting away with charging like crazy due to the dysfunctional healthcare system. Also, people without insurance get gouged.
For what it's worth, I recently went to the ER and got a CT scan, and it was billed at $557, of which I'll have to pay $100.44 out of pocket. Of course, it's an in-network hospital, so if they tried to overcharge, the insurance company would just tell them to stuff it anyway.
edited 27th Nov '15 8:10:58 PM by storyyeller
Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's PlayI do hope someone throws this in Ted Cruz's face.
In better news, Donald Trump is finally dropping significantly in the polls
. Is it wrong that I kinda want him to win the nomination anyway? If someone semi-respectable like, say, Marco Rubio wins the game, they might actually have a shot at winning the presidency.
At the moment, we don't know what motivated the shooter. It's not hard to guess, but for all we know he had an ex that worked there or was a disgruntled former employee.
That said, I really feel bad for the people in Colorado Springs because this is the second shooting in a fucking month. The last guy that went on a spree did it on Halloween, killing 3 people including two women that were sitting on the porch of the rehab clinic they were staying in.
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"The left needs to make sure this was directly related to PP and abortion before they start talking, otherwise they look no better than Republicans who call every incident a ISIS/AQ style attack before anything is known and then (no matter what the cause) say it would have been fine had the bystanders been armed.
I'm just waiting for one of the GOP candidates to fumble this incident.
On the issue of Trump falling, I think it was CNN who posted an Op-Ed doubting Trump's ability to survive the Paris attack. He'd go full fascist, get a bit of short term support and then his relatively moderate supports move on (the less racist ones who are mostly behind him to fight the establishment).
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
A Reuters poll did show Trump dropping about 12 points from his highest approval mark so far
Take both that and the polls in general with a big grain of salt though, because political polling has been getting pretty terrible in recent times.
So far I've not seen anyone besides news hounds pointing out that this attack is likely by anti-choice groups and if so, should absolutely be considered a domestic terrorist attack instead of "a lone wolf nut job". It's also worth remembering that in September the FBI noted that attacks on abortion facilities or any sort of women's health/reproductive care facilities were going up and expected them to increase further
, and it's also generally helpful to keep in mind that abortion and reproductive health facilities get attacked, usually by arson, at least a few times every year.
So it's not like violent extremist groups haven't been making these attacks before. If this latest one was due to that, then it'll just be a ramping up of those efforts.
edited 28th Nov '15 7:33:31 AM by TheWanderer
| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |Why the Economic Fates of America’s Cities Diverged
Places like St. Louis and New York City were once similarly prosperous. Then, 30 years ago, the United States turned its back on the policies that had been encouraging parity.
That might make a difference if the population was split 20/80, but it's closer to 50/50. That means there's to many people who are emotionally invested in the antiabortionists not being the bad guys. Any attack will give them an escape by letting them instead blame the pro-choice side for "politicizing the tragedy".
In this case, though, they've got the guy alive - so the motives that drove him can be made abundantly clear, whether it be disgruntled former employee or anti-choice nutter.
And yes, with someone that takes the view so far as to take lives, it is anti-choice instead of pro-life.
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"@Jack: thanks for posting the article from The Atlantic. I've been reading through it over the course of the last half hour or so and it's an extremely informative read about economic disparities that have grown and it's really shocking to see some of the numbers that article lays out.
A few examples of what I'm talking about:
Yet the decline in regional equality wasn’t just about the rise of the “New South.” It also reflected the rising standard of living across the Midwest and Mountain West—or the vast territory now known dismissively in some quarters as “flyover states.” In 1966, the average per-capita income of greater Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was only $87 less than that of New York City and its suburbs. Ranked among the country’s top 25 richest metro areas in the mid-1960s were Rockford, Illinois; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Des Moines, Iowa; and Cleveland, Ohio.
During this period, to be sure, many specific metro areas saw increases in local inequality, as many working- and middle-class families, as well as businesses, fled inner-city neighborhoods for fast-expanding suburbs. Yet in their standards of living, metro regions as a whole, along with states as a whole, were growing much more similar. According to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, in 1940, Missourians earned only 62 percent as much as Californians; by 1980 they earned 80 percent as much. In 1969, per capita income in the St. Louis metro area was 83 percent as high as in the New York metro area; it would rise to 90 percent by the end of the 1970s.
...
The Atlanta metro area is a notable example of a “thriving” place where per capita income has nonetheless fallen farther and farther behind that of cities like Washington, New York, and San Francisco. So is metro Houston. Per-capita income in metro Houston was 1 percent above metro New York’s in 1980. But despite the so-called “Texas miracle,” Houston’s per-capita income fell to 15 percent below New York’s by 2011 and even at the height of the oil boom in 2013 remained at 12 percent below. It’s largely the same story in the Mountain West, including in some of its most “booming” cities. Metro Salt Lake City, for example, has seen its per capita income fall well behind that of New York since 2001.
I've known for a while that the deregulation and the small government movement starting in the 80s screwed the hell out of the country, but I've never seen it laid out in black and white like that.
| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |@Rationalinsanity: You say that like there hasn't been a very clear pattern of people attacking PP and abortion clinics specifically for that purpose. There's been a disturbingly clear pattern for years and years of attacking such places for specifically that purpose. So I'm calling bullshit on this "no better than" commentary.
Frankly, the fact that the FBI expects such attacks to increase is deeply troubling, and should be talked about.
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Oh, its BS but the commentary will still happen. But if this incident turns out not to be ideologically motivated (unlikely) anyone who says it was beforehand is opening themselves and the pro-choice movement to political backlash.
Talking about securing PP clinics is obviously a good idea, and frankly should be going on already. As are policy discussions about the violent wing of the anti-choice movement. But using this specific incident is risky until we know its not a mundane crime due to mental illness or personal factors rather than the anti-choice terror attack it appears to be.
edited 28th Nov '15 12:29:29 PM by Rationalinsanity
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.I fail to see why one invalidates the other. a domestic terrorist attack can be done by a "lone wolf nutter".
Because regardless of his motivations, that's what he is. I don't know any pro-life groups, even those where it's really "Pro-life", who encourage violence, much less murder. Though I'm from the Catholic side of things so I can't speak for the evangelical groups who cry pro-life for the unborn but are a bit more flexible once they're out.
edited 28th Nov '15 12:45:10 PM by Joesolo
I'm baaaaaaack

But he's not a terrorist Because Christians can't be terrorists
Trump delenda est