Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

It's weird, Tom, I've had Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield forever.
This year my premium went down from $631 per month to $595 per month, I have no idea why.
Right after that was when I had my heart issues, and the coverage has been great. Knock on wood.

The premiums went up after ACA but this year they went down.

I think the jury is still out on the ACA. I support government expansion of health coverage, and the ACA hasn't been the disaster than most congressional opponents swore it would be, but I would hardly call its record to date inspirational. I wonder about the subsidies to low income members? These seem to be key, because it's mostly low income people that the ACA is helping get coverage and if the subsidies are sufficient, then the high sticker prices of policies from the ACA are somewhat of a mirage. But I don't hear this aspect addressed specifically. Or are the low income folks primarily covered through the expansion of Medicaid? Still, like most liberals, I think a single payer system would have worked better-- most seniors like their Medicare and that would be have been more efficient than the ACA approach, but Obama got what he could get.

I will give Obama credit for character and for accomplishing anything in this toxic environment. I guess he suffers in my mind from excessively high expectations going in. There's a good chance I will rate him higher with the perspective of more time.

Your insurance did very well by you Jim. But I bet it isn't an exchange (ACA) Bronze or Silver plan, which have extremely high deductibles and are often all that the previously-uninsured can afford. Tom is right about the number of carriers and affordability. Also the number of participants. The idea of "making" everyone sign up to broaden the pool and spread the costs is a good one, but it's not effective as currently configured. When young and low-income people look at the $12,000 deductibles in the plans with the most affordable premiums, they quickly determine that it is cheaper to pay the few hundred dollar tax penalty than to sign up. So the pool is filled with older, sicker, more-costly-to-the-carrier patients. And when government subsidies to the carriers for the exchange plans phased out in 2014, the carriers raised premiums, deductibles and other out of pocket costs for all of their non-ACA lines of business. My costs for insuring my employees skyrocketed, as did the employees' costs. That and the oppressive increase in Medicare regulations and penalties is what drove me to sell my practice to Hopkins this year.

According to this article (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... l-abramson), much ado about nothing (but we knew that):
"Thursday’s hearing was helpful on some of the actual facts of the case. Comey revealed that there were a grand total of three emails that were marked classified at the point they passed through Clinton’s server. And, as Democrats pursued the issue yesterday, Comey revealed that these emails had no headers at the top, the usual way secret classification is marked – just the letter “C” in parentheses in the body of the messages. He said it was “reasonable” if Clinton did not notice these small “C”s. Furthermore, through “human error”, the three messages were misclassified as secret by the state department in the first place. (One dealt with a phone call the secretary was to make to the newly inaugurated president of Malawi".

Blanquito, it is irrelevant whether they were marked other than for public perception. The statute specifically clarifies that point, since it covers verbal information as well. Everyone with security clearance is supposed to know what is classified - especially the Secretary of State. Remember this same administration using the same statute prosecuted a sailor for taking a selfie aboard a nuclear sub and an officer for sending an email about Taliban over gmail instead of the secure server. Those were obviously not marked either. Among the other emails are her own instructions to staff to be sure to remove the classified header on some of the documents. Among the emails are satellite photos of N. Korean nuclear facilities and some of the real names of agents and informants working in the Middle East.

It is simply factually incorrect to say it was much ado about nothing or a partisan witch hunt. The actual facts of the case - as laid out in Comey's original statement and his testimony - are anything but exculpatory.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/opini ... inion&_r=0

Hillary's hubby is the guy who, when Gennifer Flowers came forward, went down to Arkansas to personally supervise the execution of a mentally disabled man with a lobotomy who, when the executioners came to get him, didn't have any idea why they were there. The prison chaplain resigned shortly thereafter.

This is the same joker who bombed a bunch of civilians to death in a pharmacy on the day Monica Lewinsky was testifying before the grand jury.

If Dubya had done stuff like that (or even 1% of Bill's sexual harassment/assaultive behavior) the liberals would be screaming out for war crimes prosecutions.

Dubya was actually guilty of treason WRT Valerie Plame in my opinion, but I doubt that the evidence was substantial enough to support a successful prosecution. And if you want to talk about innocent people whose lives were lost, Clinton pales in comparison to W.

I really don't care what Bill Clinton did with his penis as long as it didn't compromise national security. Anyway, Bill's not running. Hillary is.

If the Pilllory Hillary crowd thinks that a uniform standard based on the most severe interpretation of the law is appropriate for and going to be applied to everyone, or is likely to be applied to someone with substantial resources and no criminal intent, and no evidence that is likely to be admissible in court, they are going to be disappointed.

On the healthcare topic, more boring no doubt, Obama published an editorial in JAMA today:
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.asp ... id=2533698
He's a bit biased and overly impressed with how much progress has been made to date. But I do like that he put reduction of prescription drug costs right up front in the abstract.

And if you want to talk about innocent people whose lives were lost, Clinton pales in comparison to W.

I really don't care what Bill Clinton did with his penis as long as it didn't compromise national security.

Not exactly spectacular endorsements for Team Clinton, DavidG. My, how far we have sunk. Yes, I will grant you, Bill did not unjustly kill as many innocents as Dubya. I'll give you that one. <rolls eyes>

Donald Trump is going to be the next president, isn't he:

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc-news/watch/n ... 4387907595

Don't you get the feeling that things are unraveling -- the great American experiment, after two centuries, is crumbling.

Jesus, Trump is beating Hillary in Florida and Pennsylvania.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trum ... MSF0951a18

What a catastrophe this is going to be.
The Democrats made an epic mistake nominating this tired old damaged goods.

Remind me Jim who was the third dem? O'Malley? Anyway the nominees are both weak but had irresistible strength: Trump had all the media and Clinton all the money/chits.

One thing that really kills me… The headlines all say, Trump leads Clinton. And then, as an afterthought, Trump lead widens when adding in the third party candidates.
Um, hello, the third party candidates ARE in the race. In other words, it's even WORSE than it seems.

So…

Friday is the big day.

Who is Donald gonna pick?

I still say it's gonna be Gingrich….

I just wanted to mark this moment, as I watch Donald J. Trump presenting his wife at the Republican convention…

Milania doing a very lovely job, charming the crowd. A touching moment as she recognizes Bob Dole, still standing strong at 92.
A much stronger first night at the Republican convention than the last two GOP conventions….

Milania nailing her speech!

Guilliani was crazy! Offering up red meat to the base. Followed by Milania. Great legitimacy for the Trump campaign.
The hour of the campaign that the man with the yellow hair gained legitimacy?

Milania and Donald have a touching and timeless love story, how she was irresistibly attracted to his "billions" and a weak prenuptial agreement while he found the numerous photos of her posing in a thong sweet and endearing.

JimHow wrote:Milania nailing her speech!

Because it was lifted from a Michelle Obama speech given in 2008!

Giuliani was really hopped up. And scary. W on steroids. No doubt just what the audience in the convention hall needed. But how did it play in front of TVs across America? Do people really want more "Bring it on!" coming out of the mouths of trigger-happy leaders who can name the enemy but lack any understanding of how to stop it? My fear is that many do. It sure didn't make me feel safer to contemplate a Trump Presidency.

Maybe it was English as a second language or performance anxiety in front of a huge crowd, but I got no warmth out of Melania's delivery. No personal anecdotes either. Seemed like an animatronic delivery of a speech someone else wrote for her with no input on her part. Probably why Donald was able to stick to the short and sweet intro. He knew that she would stay exactly on script. I hear he kept the box she came in so he could return her when she turns 50.

DavidG wrote: I really don't care what Bill Clinton did with his penis as long as it didn't compromise national security. Anyway, Bill's not running. Hillary is.

On the healthcare topic, more boring no doubt, Obama published an editorial in JAMA today:
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.asp ... id=2533698
He's a bit biased and overly impressed with how much progress has been made to date. But I do like that he put reduction of prescription drug costs right up front in the abstract.

We beat this issue to death during the last cycle, but I continue to be amazed at the pass Clinton supporters are willing to give Bill. No one is denying the Lewinsky thing was consensual, and while unseemly, I agree, who cares? What is significant about it is its context in front of a Grand Jury in an assault case. There are as many as a dozen women who claim to have been assaulted by Bill. Are you also saying that Cosby should be left to pursue his sexual interests? Are you suggesting that the GOP pol had a point when he famously said when a woman is being raped should should lie back and enjoy it? I don't care whom Bill consensually engages with, but that is not now and never was the issue. And yes, Hillary is running - not Bill, but she did at least as much to try to silence the women bringing the charges.

Regarding prescription drug costs, I don't know what you're seeing where you are, but I can hardly get medication to patients any more - even generics. Over the past two years costs have gone crazy and coverage has almost disappeared. One woman had two ten dollar generic prescriptions go to $750 and $1,200. More patients have "insurance" but the insurance covers nearly nothing. Enormous deductibles (some $10,000) and holes everywhere (arbitrary carve outs for random conditions and situations where neither I nor the patient know what we're permitted to treat). At least where I am, 90% of patients say they are worse off since the inception of the plan. It is going to be one of Hillary's hurdles, fair or no.

DavidG wrote: I hear he kept the box she came in so he could return her when she turns 50.

LOL!

JScott wrote:Regarding prescription drug costs, I don't know what you're seeing where you are, but I can hardly get medication to patients any more - even generics. Over the past two years costs have gone crazy and coverage has almost disappeared. One woman had two ten dollar generic prescriptions go to $750 and $1,200. More patients have "insurance" but the insurance covers nearly nothing. Enormous deductibles (some $10,000) and holes everywhere (arbitrary carve outs for random conditions and situations where neither I nor the patient know what we're permitted to treat). At least where I am, 90% of patients say they are worse off since the inception of the plan. It is going to be one of Hillary's hurdles, fair or no.

It's terrible here too. I put together a PPT this spring for one of the staffers on Senator Collins' and McCaskill's Senate Special Committee on Aging detailing generic price hikes and the sharp practices drug companies use to eliminate competition. Couldn't make a case for fraud, at least not with the facts I had, but it got his attention and he asked me to email him a copy.

A lot of this is ACA costs coming home to roost. Phase-out of the government subsidy to insurers and the numbers of young healthy people opting to pay the tax penalty rather than buy a plan with deductibles so high as to make it useless. Some is also the prohibition on the Feds negotiating with pharma for lower drug prices that was part of the Medicare Part D legislation. It's a pretty sweet deal for drug companies that their biggest customer is prohibited from negotiating lower prices.

JScott wrote:We beat this issue to death during the last cycle, but I continue to be amazed at the pass Clinton supporters are willing to give Bill. No one is denying the Lewinsky thing was consensual, and while unseemly, I agree, who cares? What is significant about it is its context in front of a Grand Jury in an assault case. There are as many as a dozen women who claim to have been assaulted by Bill. Are you also saying that Cosby should be left to pursue his sexual interests? Are you suggesting that the GOP pol had a point when he famously said when a woman is being raped should should lie back and enjoy it? I don't care whom Bill consensually engages with, but that is not now and never was the issue. And yes, Hillary is running - not Bill, but she did at least as much to try to silence the women bringing the charges.

I'm not saying anything remotely akin to the bolded sentences. If Bill Clinton raped women, he should be brought to trial. But no, I don't blame Hillary. I guess I'm just that amazing...

Isn't democracy about choosing the best available person? Hillary may be damaged goods, but the real question is who would do more damage once he/she becomes president. Since Hillary is in public life, we know a great deal about her. We already know a great deal about Donald in this election cycle, and probably more will come to light. As a responsible citizen, one should sit for just half an hour with unbiased mind and tally the positives and negatives and vote. The rest is just noise...

You think this is a democracy, huh?
Hmmm….

Who will be Clinton's VP pick? Tim Kaine seems to be the favorite today.

Zzzzzzzz.

JimHow wrote:Zzzzzzzz.

+1 X 2. Both sides playing the cards they were dealt. Most unwatchable VP debates in the history of mankind coming.....

And I think this Milania controversy is much ado about nothing.

JimHow wrote:And I think this Milania controversy is much ado about nothing.

Of course it is, but it's also a reflection on the kind of shoddy work that Trump and his entourage do. Good nuff for government work seems to be the only established motto Trump is willing to follow

JimHow wrote:And I think this Milania controversy is much ado about nothing.

Of course it is. Melania is much ado about nothing so sort of by definition what she does is ado about nothing. She will make a wonderful first lady she will bring style and pizzazz to the White House she will read to children. She will not author Trump's replacement of the Affordable Care Act. Well, since Trump also won't do that maybe she will. We'll just have to see.

Actually I may have prejudged. It's possible she will be a contributor to the TCA (Trump Care Act). She has plenty of material to crib from in the ACA.

Those Trump kids are an asset.

With Newt's ridiculously wonky speech, the campaign must be glad they haven't picked him.

A bold statement:
(Actually, I think I've said this before.)

Paul Ryan is a lightweight.

Watching Newt and Pence side by side, Trump clearly made the better choice in going with Pence.

At least Trump will get on great with B Boris Johnson.... Who will they emulate when they have a conference together? Great icons of our Western values!...

This sums up my feelings about the state of affairs in US politics since at least 1995:
"the Democratic Party, for all its politically correct smugness and silliness, has never surrendered its soul to the extremists lurking on its left. The Republican Party, by contrast, has become a national embarrassment." - Joe Klein