Roy’s back of a napkin math doesn’t really hold up, especially since he makes an elementary error on his biggest number (exchange size based on the March 2016 projection) and his third is just “well I’m pretty sure that won’t happen.”

I also disagree with the CBO’s sanguine view of the exchanges, but you have to do more than handwave their analysis away. They clearly lay out their methodology, and if you think that the coverage losses won’t be as big as they expect, then you also have to accept that costs will dramatically rise. Ultimately the…

Absolutely, but that brings up the question all the policy wonks were asking once this bill was released to the public: what problem is it intended to solve? The AHCA ultimately doesn’t address any of the ACA’s failings; it just modifies the law to drive down costs by pushing out older/poorer participants in order to…

That is a good correction; I used AMA inartfully when really it’s “groups that control the supply of new doctors.” And even that, as you point out, is a big oversimplification.

For political reasons. The short answer is that people are extremely risk averse when it comes to healthcare. You can’t really afford to change things for people who are content with their existing insurance, there isn’t much political support for single payer (yet), and so if you have to work within the existing…

Those are good points, but remember that the economic relationship of California to the rest of the US is like that of the UK with the EU. Same big kinds of economic harm that would result from secession, but cranky voters can look past that.

Beat me to it with the “are we sure any of that made it to the players?”

I would tell them to contact their senators and representative and make clear that they want cost controlling reforms instead of political grandstanding that will make that burden on them even greater. They have every reason to be upset about the AHCA.

That’s your opinion; most people disagree. Lots of us think that a good society is one that protects the health of its members. Seeing as how the economy didn’t tank when the ACA was implemented, that’s not much of a risk. Same for Medicare.

I honestly can’t tell if this guy is serious or trolling.

I think that’s the point; ditch deadweight op-ed writers to help preserve the value of the NYT name. Many, many people fail to draw much of a line between reporting and op-ed, so it’s important op-ed at least not drag down the rest.

Still better than 3 year financing terms on a dog, though.

No one, not Pareene or anyone else here, is criticizing her. A large portion of the criticism of Trump is that he disrespected her by trying to score points from her loss. The embedded tweet from Yttrium above contrasting the responses between the press and veterans is a good example.

And same for the Cavs in the East. Good time to be a team looking for “upper middle class” supporting players. Still surprised that there weren’t really any clear overpays.

A take: this year’s trade’s were really good for teams trying to get good players and not so good for teams trying to dump players. Cousins was a steal, Noel and Ibaka were had on the cheap, Williams/Gibson/Bojan were all very reasonably priced additions.

Got burned by that exact situation. After realizing that the nudity wasn’t going away, sadly had to switch to another movie. It was just too weird, especially on an aisle seat.

Just to add on, if you’re worried about resource usage then density is an absolutely critical piece of the solution. As you say, people have to live somewhere, and the use of water and energy in dense areas is much less per capita than out in the exurbs.

Actually the tech folks (Google and Facebook especially) have been pushing hard for Silicon Valley towns to allow more housing. The problem is old guard residents who would gladly sacrifice the livelihood and jobs of others to keep their little kingdom. Housing is the #1 factor holding back a greater tech-based jobs…

Not only that, but I don’t even particularly want dolts to be in my general vicinity when I’m having a beer. Don’t need to be surrounded by PhDs, but loud, obnoxious, pushy, gropey, bullshitting dolts tend to bring down whatever room they’re in. 

For sure, but with Turner you still end up with a logjam. Agree that it would be an upgrade, though, since Turner’s range can play in any lineup. A Simmons/Embiid/Turner rotation at the 2 big spots would be scary.