Now granted I don’t like the current bill, but if you removed 400 billion in pork yes favors, and over 200 includeds republican favors whom will never vote for it even if it was free. That would bring the bill to 300 billion yes less than the cost of pork. 9 out of 10 Republican recommendations are in the bill. It DOES NOT cover abortion or illegals I don’t know where you people keep getting this info. Look at the bill you can even search what you want to read its all there. I do not like mandate, but alot of Republicans were for mandates before they were against it. You have to pay for the insurance through an insurance company it’s not free so the people still have the power over it. Those who are poor will get some subsidies to help pay for it which we pay for all of them in full now. If you dont want it dont get it keep your insurance you have. So what is the problem??? seriously is it that you are so self-absorbed that you can think of no one but your self im confused. I lost my insurance with my job. I have a pre-existing condition I am uninsurable if I go into a state pool it is 500 a month I cant afford that. I just fell on the ice and broke my hand and had to go to the ER the doc bill was 425 dollars thats just his bill they told me it was ok, but to follow up with my doc that was another 200 dollars for two visits because my doc x-rayed it and it was broke. So now im stuck with a bill of misdiagnosis..If we dont cut costs we will never fix health care, but I don’t think anyone should be denied good care ANYONE>
Doctors have to deal with medicare all the time that is govt insurance which everyone is required to have at 65…IT IS GOVT INSURANCE…
So the cost is socialist thats your answer now. what about bushes prescription drug plan that was never paid for, or hmmm I dont know Iraq, Afghanistan those were both not paid for so that is not gong to answer it either.

Technorati Tags: 9 out of 10, abortion, afghanistan, alot, bushes, current bill, doc bill, doctors, health care, insurance, insurance company, iraq, mandate, mandates, medicare, misdiagnosis, prescription drug plan, republicans, state pool, subsidies

This is an attempt at reasoned discussion, please don’t answer until you’ve read everything and then please respond point-by-point. Thanks!

==================================

Paying for other people’s care: Insurance rates are based on how many people in the whole plan get sick…if you take care of yourself and never get sick, 100% of your money will go to funding care for strangers who possibly don’t take care of their health. I have also heard the argument that people should just go the emergency room, but the people who do this are generally not concerned with their credit score and are not going to ever pay for the thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in care for a serious illness. ER care is the most expensive form of care available and you are currently bearing this cost through taxes.

Rationed care: Again, if you have private insurance you are already in a pool with other people who are insured by an organization with a fixed amount of money to spend on everyone’s care. There are two important differences, however; a private insurer has a profit motive to find ways to deny coverage while the government does not. In fact the elected officials who are behind the system know that they can always be voted out of office, so they have a motive to make sure people are getting what they need. Do you really think all those other industrialized Western countries with full universal coverage routinely deny care to all elderly people, and everyone just accepts it because they’re wacky foreigners who don’t have any feelings??

Death Panels: This seems to refer to one of two things, either a panel to determine whether someone is worthy of living or a consultation with a doctor to discuss a dying family member’s care. In the first case, see above. In the second case, this is what normal people already do regardless of where the doctor’s money is coming from. In the proposed legislation, such a consultation is OPTIONAL. In any case if you are worried about people dying, then why aren’t you worried about the estimated tens of thousands of people who die every single year due to preventable illness and lack of coverage? http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=1RJ&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&ei=Rs2TS8KNBcGUtgft4KzUCg&sa=X&oi=spellfullpage&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=2&ved=0CAYQvwUoAQ&&q=die+every+year+lack+coverage&spell=1

Adding to the budget: The United States currently spends significantly more on health care as a percentage of GDP than almost any of the industrialized nations with universal health care. http://www.rwjf.org/pr/product.jsp?id=45110. The total cost of implementation is projected to be between 0-0 billion, but this will pay for itself many times over in the long run. Keep in mind the projected total cost of the war against a country that never attacked us, had no ties to al qaeda, and no WMD’s, is THREE TRILLION dollars and we will never get this money back. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=M7d&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=projected+total+cost+iraq+war&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=

Changing the "best system in the world": I have yet to be told what this is based on, other than anecdotes about foreigners coming to the U.S. for surgery. However, quality and access are two completely different things. It’s true that the best doctors in the world come here, but that does little for the people who have no health coverage whatsoever. Yes people can go to the ER, but then we’re back to Point #1. The fact is that the U.S. has a lower life expectancy than the Western industrialized nations with full universal coverage, and although this is not 100% due to the health care systems it certainly damages the argument that universal coverage kills people. Keep in mind that universal coverage is not even being remotely contemplated here. I have heard arguments about "back-door universal coverage" by preventing people from ever getting private insurance again once they go onto the public option, but this is quite confusing considering that a public option is not even in the legislation currently being blocked from even coming to a vote. Maybe someone can explain this too.

Thank you for making it this far, I look forward to intelligent responses.
===================================

"bmovies6"

The government has a motive to be fiscally responsible, not to MAKE A MAXIMUM PROFIT.

Link for your Medicare claim?

And when market forces cause all the private insurers have roughly the same rates of denial, where are you going to go?

===================================
===================================

"Pelosi’s Water Boy"

I didn’t realize Cuba was a Western industrialized nation….

"GoGo Girls"

I actually agree with you on everything about immigration…too bad this question was about health care.

===================================
=====================================

"CaptainO"

It’s been awhile since I’ve heard the "public option will be so cheap and such great service that it will put the private companies out of business" argument. Silly goose, don’t you remember that the public option will be awful because the government can’t run anything right?

MAKE UP YOUR MIND

===================================

Technorati Tags: amount of money, care insurance, consultation, credit score, emergency room, family member, feelings, foreigners, hundreds of thousands, insurance, insurance rates, point thanks, pool, private insurance, private insurer, profit motive, proposed legislation, thousands of dollars, universal coverage, western countries

A few nights ago I was stopped because my plate light was out (dumb, I know).. I was having trouble finding my license in my purse and the officer was shining his flashlight in there to "help me look for it".. I asked him if he could please not do that.. a request that he ignored. I eventually found my ID on my seat and gave it to him along with my info.

He returned with it and asked me to step out of the car. He said that he thought he saw "shake, or marijuana remnants in the corner of my bag" and asked if I had been smoking or drinking.. I said no and he proceeded to give me a field sobriety test, which I passed. He asked if anyone in my car had any drugs and I said no, he asked if he could search my car and I said no. I told him that until yesterday I hadn’t used that purse for several years, but I thought that maybe I knew what he thought he saw… which was crumbs from a teething biscuit my daughter had dropped on the floor at the supermarket the day before. I then was stupid.. and decided to show him what I thought maybe he saw. He said "well lets just look through the whole thing" I said I didn’t want him to.. and he then took the purse from my hands (inside the car).. and started going through it. He said that he found a leaf and brought it back to the car and then returned to tell me that he was going to have the K9 unit come to search my car.
They searched the two people in my car.. and then let the dog into my car while we waited outside. There was nothing at all in my car.. or on my person or on the two people I was with.
He still gave me a ticket for Unlawful Possesion of Marijuana because of the "shake in the purse".

I want to plead not guilty and write to the DA explaining that we were doing nothing wrong at all.. that I haven’t used that purse in years and that if I am found guilty of this It would do more harm than good.. potentially costing me my job as well as the health insurance for me, my daughter, and my husband. I would also be willing to submit to a drug test, and I have a lawyer.

Do you think I would have a chance of having these charges dropped?

Technorati Tags: biscuit, drugs, field sobriety test, flashlight, health insurance, insurance, job, k9 unit, possesion of marijuana, purse, remnants, supermarket

I have a persons name, address, drivers lisence number, car’s VIN # and insurance policy #….how can i find their phone number? I was in a car accident while on vacation, and i got all their info besides the phone number, and i need it. I figured there has to be some sort of online way of finding it. Ive searched all the online whitepages and other listings i could find.

Technorati Tags: address drivers, car accident, insurance, insurance policy, phone number, vin, whitepages

I’ve worked for years in customer service/product support positions and have at least 1/2 an idea how to do the job. Now employed as an insurance adjuster, I’ve rarely had quite so many individual tasks to accomplish in as short a time as possible. Considering I’m bilingual (English/Spanish), have above average typing speed (70 wpm), and I’ve placed my on-line and desktop tools in the optimum configuration for my needs, I’m getting a bit frustrated with the continued (and now recently increased) expectation of a higher number of calls-per-hour.

Basically, I have to receive a call, review notes, examine holds, determine if they next steps require my intervention or if the customer (or other departments) need to complete further steps, search accounts, perform document reviews, use tools for product confirmation, product use in period of loss, perform identity checks, clarify conditions and terms (especially when a customer is enraged about paying a deductible – you’d be amazed how many people think insurance is a magic ‘premium only’ transaction and no matter what the cost of their insured item/service, we as the insurer are ‘wrong’ to expect them to share a partial burden in replacing items or services, even if their premiums would skyrocket), establish deductible payment parameters, shipping expectations, and answer any remaining questions – in the meantime documenting my activities, decisions, and prepping for the next call so I have NO remaining details to address prior to closing out my activity on an individual claim.

At the beginning of my training, my trainer (and supervisor) were satisfied that I was getting as few as 5 calls per hour completed. I was assured this is a normal speed for a beginning adjuster, and that with time my speed would increase to the (then) department expectation of 8 calls per hour.

Sure enough, I’ve passed the 8 calls per hour threshhold – but now, we’ve had an even higher call per hour expectation set: 10 calls per hour.

I’m not tooting my own horn when I say that I’m professional on the phone – I get above average or outstanding quality checks on performance and other metric ratings. I’m not a control freak (I don’t hang up on a customer when they meltdown – I talk them through it and give them enough information (and explanations) to (in at least 80 % of the cases) continue their claims process to deductible payment and replacement. I deal with people from many different cultures, some who have never had insurance on anything else in their entire life, and some who simply are not the sharpest knives in the drawer and bring out the educator in me (because no one should insure something without knowing exactly what their contract allows and how it applies to their claims). So it is really starting to aggravate me that in order to achieve an incentive (which is also, undoubtedly, part of the reason my supervisors and department managers are so gung-ho about it – they must in some way, receive additional compensation if the team or department achieve a certain performance metric) – I have to do ALL of the things described above in about 6 minutes PER CLAIM.

Such a cookie-cutter approach to claims (not to mention customers) is driving me straight up the wall. I’m not saying it isn’t possible (and certainly some in our department appear to be meeting this goal – but only by cutting corners or engaging in practices that ‘trick’ the metric performance measuring tools used by our employer to think more performance is being accomplished than is actually the case – and I’m not blowing smoke here, I’ve been the one catching the claims falling through the cracks in several of those situations) – but it is neither realistic or acceptable (to my mind) to expect such an ideal in dealing with the public involving something so sensitive as an insurance claim. Can you imagine? 6 minutes to do make a decision as to whether insurance coverage will be provided for a claimed product/service – and for some of these customers, it’s one of the most necessary items/services that they use in their daily lives.

I’m losing sleep now over this – even with increased exercise, better diet, and and attempt at relaxation techniques (including meditation). Part of the problem is my perfectionist nature (if I can be perfect in one way in my job, I would like to be perfect in all ways – another unrealistic (and job-fostered) expectation) – but I also realize that this is a common problem facing an American worker today. We are one of the hardest working societies in the world – yet I (like many working individuals I know) have fewer vacation days, less flexibility with my schedule, and more demands on my time at work than ever before in my life. If I miss ONE day or arrive late or leave early (no matter the reason – illness, car accident, inclimate weather, etc…) I’m no longer eligible for the incentive structure – and it takes me a month just to build 5 hours of personal t
time (which is used for both vacation days/sick time/leave time – no exceptions).

Does anyone else feel like they are losing pride/ownership in their job due to increased metric expectations? In my case, it’s getting to a point where I’m thinking about a career shift or changing departments – if such an option is available to me…

Technorati Tags: average typing speed, checks, confirmation, customer service, decisions, desktop tools, document reviews, english spanish, expectation, insurance, insurance adjuster, insurer, optimum configuration, parameters, premiums, search accounts, supervisor, support positions, threshhold, wpm

With the digital age, it’s incredibly easy to find information about people. Employers search the facebook profiles of job candidates, etc. But parents can also check up on their kids… so where do you think parents cross the line?

Let me elaborate. I’m 20 years old, in my 3rd year of college. My mother had not met my boyfriend because she was not home, we don’t usually stop by her house, etc. She made a facebook account, told no one about it, and prowled the internet. My profile is private, not tagged in photos posted by others, etc, but she looked through all of my boyfriend’s things. Then looked up his driving record, his parent’s information, basically conducted an entire background check, knew how much his parents, house cost, the location and square footage of their property, etc.

Where do we draw the line between interested/concerned parent, and stalker?
Haha well I do live at home, but I’m very rarely there, being that I work full-time, school full-time, and just not wanting to be home. Never got into trouble as a kid/teen or any of that.
Part of it, I feel, is that she knows it creeps me out, and finds it funny. But it’s still really freaken weird, and just mean that she does it to make me uncomfortable.
Haha and yes I’m aware, I have minimal info on the internet [once it's there, you can't get it back!] but so much is public… I understand being concerned. But when my boyfriend met her, she would ask him questions that I knew full well she already knew the answers to.
Oh, he had already met my father and brother, so it wasn’t an intentional thing that she hadn’t met him.
We’re 20 and 21, both in school.
I pay for college, hence the full-time job. I live at home, but otherwise pay for everything. Insurance, food, medication, etc, saving up to move out.
No ahah there was nothing bad to find.

Technorati Tags: background check, brother, full time job, full time school, hadn, haha, insurance, insurance food, medication, minimal info, parents, photos, profiles, square footage

My daughter is 23 and works as a waitress so she has no insurance benefits. Until she turned 23 she was on my husband’s policy. She has hypothyroidism and needs to get meds to regulate it. I have tried every search engine I have found and all I keep coming up with are people who want to give quotes on health insurance. I’m sure there must be someone out there who treats patients without insurance at a lower rate. Anyone have any ideas??? She lives west of Chicago if that helps.

Technorati Tags: health insurance, hypothyroidism, insurance, insurance benefits, quotes, search engine, waitress

My friend’s mother died today and 2 months ago their house caught on fire and most of their belongs have been destroyed. Her mother has been real sick and when she went to the hospital she was basically unresponsive, so she was not able to ask her any info on her insurance policy. (company name, up to date, contact person) So I was wondering is that info available anywhere to the public. Do insurance companies have to file something with the state? Thanks in advance for your answers.

Technorati Tags: contact person, insurance, insurance companies, insurance policy, thanks in advance