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The rest of the industrialized world has universal health care

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Yup, it's sad, I know. But the downfall started in the late seventies when the then government failed to act on the demographic forecasts, and it got even worse under the incredibly inactive government of the 1980s and 90s that managed to finally move to reform the social system the year before it was kicked out of office in 1998. Prime example of chances lost and a country moved into universal depression.

I'm sure absorbing the third world country formerly known as the GDR didn't help matters either. :unsure:

No that didn't help, but the problem was that the GDR was treated as a third-world country rather than an eastern-bloc industrial power-house. Hence the infrastructure was dismantled, leaving millions of people unemployed. It's a sad, sad case...

Which infrastructure?

:wacko:

What there was was old, out of date, falling apart, held together by the Eastern equivalent of duct tape - whatever it was, infrastructure it was not. As to the millions unemployed - as officially there was no unemployment in the GDR, people had workplaces to go to, but no work to do, at least not productive work as it is commonly understood. Try producing something when there is no raw material, as an example.

Let's not put a golden glow over things just because they happened 15 years ago.

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Filed: Country: United Kingdom
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Some day, the United States will have universal health care. And when it happens,

it will be done right, unlike the UK NHS, Canadian, French, German etc systems.

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Filed: Citizen (pnd) Country: Canada
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Some day, the United States will have universal health care. And when it happens,

it will be done right, unlike the UK NHS, Canadian, French, German etc systems.

ROTFLOL.. I'll beleive that when I see it.

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Filed: Other Country: Germany
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Yup, it's sad, I know. But the downfall started in the late seventies when the then government failed to act on the demographic forecasts, and it got even worse under the incredibly inactive government of the 1980s and 90s that managed to finally move to reform the social system the year before it was kicked out of office in 1998. Prime example of chances lost and a country moved into universal depression.

I'm sure absorbing the third world country formerly known as the GDR didn't help matters either. :unsure:

No that didn't help, but the problem was that the GDR was treated as a third-world country rather than an eastern-bloc industrial power-house. Hence the infrastructure was dismantled, leaving millions of people unemployed. It's a sad, sad case...

Which infrastructure?

:wacko:

What there was was old, out of date, falling apart, held together by the Eastern equivalent of duct tape - whatever it was, infrastructure it was not. As to the millions unemployed - as officially there was no unemployment in the GDR, people had workplaces to go to, but no work to do, at least not productive work as it is commonly understood. Try producing something when there is no raw material, as an example.

Let's not put a golden glow over things just because they happened 15 years ago.

I'm not glorifying anything, but the GDR had an industrial infrastructure which could partially have been rescued by the West German government. For one thing, it was exporting goods to other Eastern bloc countries, primarily the USSR which paid not in money but in raw materials. After reunification, the German government had the option to honor East Germany's export contracts and to receive oil, gas, and the like in exchange. Instead, they decided to not go for raw materials and request Western cash which of course in one fell swoop terminated any export contracts and thus left the East German industry without any customers and East Germany without any industry but hordes of unhappy, unemployed people, many if not all of whom could have been kept in employment while the infrastructure was being overhauled. This would have also reduced the blow to West Germany's economy which has unarguably suffered through the short-sightedness of the West German government.

As to raw materials missing, in what way is that any different than in West Germany which has even less raw materials within its borders??

Permanent Green Card Holder since 2006, considering citizenship application in the future.

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this afternoon I had to attend "New Employee Orientation" where the HR Manager goes over our choices for health care benefits. She did her dog and pony spew, and said "is anyone confused?" I said "yeah, but I'm Canadian, so just go on ahead without me" :wacko:

I sure don't understand all this #######, and to top it off, I have to make a decision and sign up for my benefits by tomorrow afternoon. There's 3 plans to choose from, each cost different, and offer different benefits. My husband is not home tonight until about 1am when I'll be long in bed and asleep. If this ####### doesn't give me nightmares of course :P

Can someone explain to me why the hell we need co-pays AND deductibles? Greedy bastards :P If I want my choice of doctors I have to pay extra premiums, if I go to one of their choices, I pay less premiums and less co-pay and less deductibles...blah blah blah...

...my head is going to explode. I think I'll have another glass of wine :P

divorced - April 2010 moved back to Ontario May 2010 and surrendered green card

PLEASE DO NOT PRIVATE MESSAGE ME OR EMAIL ME. I HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT CURRENT US IMMIGRATION PROCEDURES!!!!!

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Filed: Other Country: United Kingdom
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this afternoon I had to attend "New Employee Orientation" where the HR Manager goes over our choices for health care benefits. She did her dog and pony spew, and said "is anyone confused?" I said "yeah, but I'm Canadian, so just go on ahead without me" :wacko:

I sure don't understand all this #######, and to top it off, I have to make a decision and sign up for my benefits by tomorrow afternoon. There's 3 plans to choose from, each cost different, and offer different benefits. My husband is not home tonight until about 1am when I'll be long in bed and asleep. If this ####### doesn't give me nightmares of course :P

Can someone explain to me why the hell we need co-pays AND deductibles? Greedy bastards :P If I want my choice of doctors I have to pay extra premiums, if I go to one of their choices, I pay less premiums and less co-pay and less deductibles...blah blah blah...

...my head is going to explode. I think I'll have another glass of wine :P

I'm trying to figure that out myself. Even the "customer guidebook" makes no sense...

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Filed: Citizen (pnd) Country: Canada
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You have 3 plans right?

1: An ALL In Network plan meaning they cover nothing outside of the network of doctors that your insurance company has pre-negotiated with.

2: An all do what you want plan. Go to any doctor at any time type of deal.

3: A hybrid between the two.

Number one is the least expensive to you up front. This is partially because of the prenegotiations and partially because of the extra billing scam that noone talks about.

Number 2 is the most expensive

Number 3 is in the middle.

Most people go for number one.

Hey that Watkins website loses your associate ID after you click around a bit. I would complain.

IR1

April 14, 2004 I-130 NOA1

April 25, 2005 IR1 Received

April 26, 2005 POE Dorval Airport

May 13, 2005 Welcome to America Letters Received

May 21, 2005 PR Card in Mail

May 26, 2005 Applied for SSN at local office

June 06, 2005 SSN Received

June 11, 2005 Driver Licence Issued!

June 20, 2005 Deb gets a Check Card! Just like Donald Trump's!

Citizenship

Jan 30, 2008 N400 Mailed off to the VSC!

Feb 2, 2008 N400 Received at VSC

Feb 6, 2008 Check Cashed!

Feb 13, 2008 NOA1 Received

Feb 15, 2008 Fingerprint letter received. (Feb 26th scheduled)

Feb 18, 2008 Mailed out the old Please Reschedule us for Biometics <sigh>...

Feb 27, 2008 Received the new scheduled biometrics.

Mar 15, 2008 Biometrics Rescheduled.

Sep 18, 2008 Interview Letter Recieved.

Nov 11, 2008 Interview Passed :-).

Nov 14, 2008 Oath Cerimony.

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Filed: Country: Vietnam
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Can someone explain to me why the hell we need co-pays AND deductibles?

By making you pay $10 out of your pocket to see a doctor they make it just irritating enough for you to make sure the visit is necassary rather than just a "what the heck, let's see if this lump on my toe is really something". It cuts down on the costs per visit your insurance company has to pay. The deductables follow the same sort of logic but on a bigger scale.

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Filed: Country: Philippines
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this afternoon I had to attend "New Employee Orientation" where the HR Manager goes over our choices for health care benefits. She did her dog and pony spew, and said "is anyone confused?" I said "yeah, but I'm Canadian, so just go on ahead without me" :wacko:

I sure don't understand all this #######, and to top it off, I have to make a decision and sign up for my benefits by tomorrow afternoon. There's 3 plans to choose from, each cost different, and offer different benefits. My husband is not home tonight until about 1am when I'll be long in bed and asleep. If this ####### doesn't give me nightmares of course :P

Can someone explain to me why the hell we need co-pays AND deductibles? Greedy bastards :P If I want my choice of doctors I have to pay extra premiums, if I go to one of their choices, I pay less premiums and less co-pay and less deductibles...blah blah blah...

...my head is going to explode. I think I'll have another glass of wine :P

Reba, I'd recommend the HMO plan where there are no out-of-pockets costs beyond your monthly premiums and co-pay. What insurance company is it being offered through?

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Filed: K-1 Visa Country: Philippines
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The rest of the industrialized world is somewhat civilized.

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Yup, it's sad, I know. But the downfall started in the late seventies when the then government failed to act on the demographic forecasts, and it got even worse under the incredibly inactive government of the 1980s and 90s that managed to finally move to reform the social system the year before it was kicked out of office in 1998. Prime example of chances lost and a country moved into universal depression.

I'm sure absorbing the third world country formerly known as the GDR didn't help matters either. :unsure:

No that didn't help, but the problem was that the GDR was treated as a third-world country rather than an eastern-bloc industrial power-house. Hence the infrastructure was dismantled, leaving millions of people unemployed. It's a sad, sad case...

Which infrastructure?

:wacko:

What there was was old, out of date, falling apart, held together by the Eastern equivalent of duct tape - whatever it was, infrastructure it was not. As to the millions unemployed - as officially there was no unemployment in the GDR, people had workplaces to go to, but no work to do, at least not productive work as it is commonly understood. Try producing something when there is no raw material, as an example.

Let's not put a golden glow over things just because they happened 15 years ago.

I'm not glorifying anything, but the GDR had an industrial infrastructure which could partially have been rescued by the West German government. For one thing, it was exporting goods to other Eastern bloc countries, primarily the USSR which paid not in money but in raw materials. After reunification, the German government had the option to honor East Germany's export contracts and to receive oil, gas, and the like in exchange. Instead, they decided to not go for raw materials and request Western cash which of course in one fell swoop terminated any export contracts and thus left the East German industry without any customers and East Germany without any industry but hordes of unhappy, unemployed people, many if not all of whom could have been kept in employment while the infrastructure was being overhauled. This would have also reduced the blow to West Germany's economy which has unarguably suffered through the short-sightedness of the West German government.

As to raw materials missing, in what way is that any different than in West Germany which has even less raw materials within its borders??

Oh, excuse me - for want of better arguments we are splitting hairs now? :whistle:

Let's end the debate here - I am afraid that you do not want to engage in anything which comes even near the truth. And for others it might just be boring.

No hard feelings - let's just end the discussion about this particular topic.

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Filed: Other Country: Germany
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Yup, it's sad, I know. But the downfall started in the late seventies when the then government failed to act on the demographic forecasts, and it got even worse under the incredibly inactive government of the 1980s and 90s that managed to finally move to reform the social system the year before it was kicked out of office in 1998. Prime example of chances lost and a country moved into universal depression.

I'm sure absorbing the third world country formerly known as the GDR didn't help matters either. :unsure:

No that didn't help, but the problem was that the GDR was treated as a third-world country rather than an eastern-bloc industrial power-house. Hence the infrastructure was dismantled, leaving millions of people unemployed. It's a sad, sad case...

Which infrastructure?

:wacko:

What there was was old, out of date, falling apart, held together by the Eastern equivalent of duct tape - whatever it was, infrastructure it was not. As to the millions unemployed - as officially there was no unemployment in the GDR, people had workplaces to go to, but no work to do, at least not productive work as it is commonly understood. Try producing something when there is no raw material, as an example.

Let's not put a golden glow over things just because they happened 15 years ago.

I'm not glorifying anything, but the GDR had an industrial infrastructure which could partially have been rescued by the West German government. For one thing, it was exporting goods to other Eastern bloc countries, primarily the USSR which paid not in money but in raw materials. After reunification, the German government had the option to honor East Germany's export contracts and to receive oil, gas, and the like in exchange. Instead, they decided to not go for raw materials and request Western cash which of course in one fell swoop terminated any export contracts and thus left the East German industry without any customers and East Germany without any industry but hordes of unhappy, unemployed people, many if not all of whom could have been kept in employment while the infrastructure was being overhauled. This would have also reduced the blow to West Germany's economy which has unarguably suffered through the short-sightedness of the West German government.

As to raw materials missing, in what way is that any different than in West Germany which has even less raw materials within its borders??

Oh, excuse me - for want of better arguments we are splitting hairs now? :whistle:

Let's end the debate here - I am afraid that you do not want to engage in anything which comes even near the truth. And for others it might just be boring.

No hard feelings - let's just end the discussion about this particular topic.

I have no problem agreeing with you if I only knew why you are disagreeing with me or why you fail to address the claims I make in the paragraph above the one you bolded (which was in response to an obscure claim you made). If you want to convince me I'm wrong ridicule is not going to work. :whistle:

Permanent Green Card Holder since 2006, considering citizenship application in the future.

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Filed: Other Timeline
Hey that Watkins website loses your associate ID after you click around a bit. I would complain.

I'll mention it. Thanks. Where'd you lose the number btw? Just curious.

Reba, I'd recommend the HMO plan where there are no out-of-pockets costs beyond your monthly premiums and co-pay. What insurance company is it being offered through?

Its Cigna for the health care, something else for dental, and something else for vision care. And we need all of it cuz my husband's teeth are falling out of his head (years of chemo and radiation treatments) and we both need glasses. Plus he goes once a month for check-ups and treatment updates for rhumatoid arthritis, with about $200 worth of meds every month, which are currently covered by his Blue Cross plan, but he wants to quit that job, and he won't have that coverage anymore.

Plus, I have to choose a PCP myself, and I don't know any in town other than my husband's and I really really really don't like him. He's an ### and very inconsiderate. But he gives away pain killers like candy, so most people in town like him, despite the 8 hour wait in his office to see him, even with set appointments. I get paid by the hour, I can't afford a day off to sit in a doctor's office if I ever need to see one.

So, we need something that'll cover James' monthly visits, plus monthly meds, and won't cost us a fortune in premiums and co-pays and deductibles. Apparently, our plan doesn't ask about pre-existing conditions. Which is good, otherwise we'd be s-o-l.

divorced - April 2010 moved back to Ontario May 2010 and surrendered green card

PLEASE DO NOT PRIVATE MESSAGE ME OR EMAIL ME. I HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT CURRENT US IMMIGRATION PROCEDURES!!!!!

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Filed: Country: Philippines
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Hey that Watkins website loses your associate ID after you click around a bit. I would complain.

I'll mention it. Thanks. Where'd you lose the number btw? Just curious.

Reba, I'd recommend the HMO plan where there are no out-of-pockets costs beyond your monthly premiums and co-pay. What insurance company is it being offered through?

Its Cigna for the health care, something else for dental, and something else for vision care. And we need all of it cuz my husband's teeth are falling out of his head (years of chemo and radiation treatments) and we both need glasses. Plus he goes once a month for check-ups and treatment updates for rhumatoid arthritis, with about $200 worth of meds every month, which are currently covered by his Blue Cross plan, but he wants to quit that job, and he won't have that coverage anymore.

Plus, I have to choose a PCP myself, and I don't know any in town other than my husband's and I really really really don't like him. He's an ### and very inconsiderate. But he gives away pain killers like candy, so most people in town like him, despite the 8 hour wait in his office to see him, even with set appointments. I get paid by the hour, I can't afford a day off to sit in a doctor's office if I ever need to see one.

So, we need something that'll cover James' monthly visits, plus monthly meds, and won't cost us a fortune in premiums and co-pays and deductibles. Apparently, our plan doesn't ask about pre-existing conditions. Which is good, otherwise we'd be s-o-l.

Oh my gosh...I'm really sorry. I'm with Blue Cross' HMO of California, which has really been great in the 4 years I've been on it. I had pneumonia back in May and took myself to the emergency room when I could barely breathe. Normally under my plan, it would have been $100 co-pay for emergency room visit, but because they admitted me into the hospital, my entire stay was fully covered. I was even shocked while being in the hospital this woman came by with a restaurant style menu asking me to pick out my meals for the next couple of days. I ended up only staying for about 2 days, but I saw the total charges came out to over $5,000 (Blue Cross sent me a statement), but under the plan they only paid a fraction to the hospital and of course I didn't owe the hospital anything beyond that.

Kaiser Permanente is another HMO that I had prior and the quality of care was also adequate.

I hope that Cigna will offer a wider choice for doctors so you can avoid that quack.

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Filed: Other Timeline

well, my plan ends up costing me $214 per month for premiums, plus whatever it'll be for co-pays and whatnot.

I asked around work and the a few said to try the PCPs at this one clinic, so I'll try them and see how it goes. The wait there is averaging about 2 hours. Still long, but much better than the 8 hours at my husband's doctor!

AFAIK, the hospital stay co-pay is $200 er summat. Which I guess is not bad, considering what the hospital would charge if you don't have insurance :P

divorced - April 2010 moved back to Ontario May 2010 and surrendered green card

PLEASE DO NOT PRIVATE MESSAGE ME OR EMAIL ME. I HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT CURRENT US IMMIGRATION PROCEDURES!!!!!

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