The HMO plans are really popular and are definitely not single payer, that’s what I mean, even the existing public insurance plans are largely being channeled through private companies and are already more complicated than being purely single payer. And when we talk about single payer, are we talking about a single…

Even traditional Medicare leaves 20% of the bill to be paid by someone else, often a private insurance company. That’s not a single payer system.

It’s good that you didn’t watch it, it’s been 16 years and it’s past time to allow 9/11 to fade from our collective memory. Not forget, of course, but we can’t heal if we are constantly tearing open the wound. Too many bad decisions have their roots in that day.

We need to get our collective vocabulary straight to have a comprehensive discussion on this.

I was sure that the early aughts wouldn’t come back in fashion, it was just so, so incredibly bad, but here I am, proven wrong again.

Standard do as I say, not as I do parenting.

Seriously, my first reaction was, ‘What do these rich people do rattling around in a place like that? Literally why? People already know you’re rich tho.’

Oooo, if she were me that bloke better be sleepin’ with one eye open.

Truth.

Overall, my dad is pretty good about this stuff, his mother was Southern, so it may have been from her.

Isn’t he from Maine? Still, you’d think he would have come across at least one non-white person in his travels, being a gazillionaire and all. ;)

Same! I don’t remember much about it aside from this scene and the fact that a clown featured heavily. And I have definitely not gotten the creep factor from his other work, either. I wonder why he wrote it... I mean, blood oath works.

Her eyes look exactly the same.

I think you’re responding to someone else re. Medicare rates and cash patients, in fact, I think I responded to that same person correcting them in precisely the same way you’ve just “corrected” me, which is pretty funny. Anyway, I worked in medical billing and set our fees, so I know all about Medicare’s rates, where…

Yes, of course there are details to consider. Fortunately, when the Democrats do healthcare, they take a bit longer and hold hearings and call experts. We’re obviously in the early stages of this debate. It’s also a pretty common negotiating technique to over ask. I predict something more like Medicare-for-all and…

This is why I think Medicare-for-all is a more likely solution than Medicaid-for-all; Medicare pays 80% while Medicaid pays 100%. We would obviously still have Medicaid for those who currently qualify, while expanding coverage to everyone, while leaving a piece of the pie for the private market (which we all know will…

This isn’t true. Not the part about Medicare, anyway. Medicare’s rates are flat and contracted and available online. Providers often bill out a much higher rate than they expect to actually be paid in order to safely encompass every rate from every insurance company. Sometimes there are randomly high rates on random…

I worked for smart doctors (oncologists) and they supported single payer. Bunch of Democrats, they were. I bet a lot of doctors support it. They may have lower reimbursement levels, but there will be a larger insured patient base. Also, the emergence of telemedicine will allow doctors to treat some patients some of…

People are still paying premiums for their insurance, though, even those with employer-provided insurance. That would certainly offset most, if not all, of the tax increase. (I’m not disagreeing with you, to ward off any misunderstandings. I’m sure I’m not saying anything you don’t know. ;) I don’t understand why…

My dad used to pull the “ladylike” crap on me. Telling him that I learned how to curse, etc, from him never worked, it was only after I sharply retorted, “Since I am a lady, my behavior is, by its very nature, ladylike,” coupled with the death stare that I inherited from his mother, that he finally stopped.