too busy dieing right now to to finish it up in time.

Because it only took Viking-Sensei three years (and the approaching end of Errant Story) to come up with a better name for "General Discussions"
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Boss Out of Town
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Re: too busy dieing right now to to finish it up in time.

Post by Boss Out of Town »

Graybeard wrote:
SkArcher wrote:Another part of your problem (outsiders view here), is that your healthcare system is biased towards the (very profitable) process of curing illness when it has occured, instead of the (less profitable, but more cost effective) notion of preventitive medicine.

This isn't helped by the fact that the insurance for medicine setup you have encourages people *not* to see doctors early, but instead to wait and only see a doctor if they are genuinely ill.
That isn't my experience at all. The group plan that I'm in makes all the preventative stuff almost cost-free to me. It's the things that involve actual medical procedures, but are not life and death, that they don't handle well (I will stop short of saying "fairly").
Similar to my new one. Some standard preventive measures are free, and there is a basic "account," a money allocation, large enough to cover standard check-ups for a year. Above that, it goes to an 80-20 ratio.
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Re: too busy dieing right now to to finish it up in time.

Post by DarkIntruder »

Not to interrupt, (as Slamlander said this is a well deserved gripe session, ;) ), but perhaps we could attempt to move the thread in a more positive direction. Namely, brainstorming ideas to help out Impy and Poe.

I realize that this may be a very private matter, but I also believe that many of us have a considerable emotional investment in the wellbeing of the comic and all people associated with it.

Unfortunately, since I live in another country, and have since birth, my knowledge of the American medical and insurance institutions is somewhat lacking. And as much as I would enjoy Impy and Poe living in the same country as me, I really don't think that that would be the best option.

At any rate, let the brainstorming begin! (with Impy or Poe's consent of course. ;) )
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Re: too busy dieing right now to to finish it up in time.

Post by BloodHenge »

Slamlander wrote:Yes, you do
Sorry about that. When I said I don't know anyone in person, I meant face-to-face. Intellectually, I still categorize face-to-face relationships differently from online relationships.
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Re: too busy dieing right now to to finish it up in time.

Post by Imp-Chan »

If you folks want to brainstorm ways of us getting insured, go for it. Here are our ideal-life requirements:

1) Whatever insurance you wind up hypothetically getting us has to cover us (with actual, useful coverage, not pretend coverage) for less than what all our meds and regular doctor's visits cost now (that's about $3000 a year at the moment). Or at least it has to cover us for something approximating the same amount, not counting copays.

2) It would be really cool if it covered Poe's doctor visits to get his prescriptions, or my doctor's visits for my prescriptions, or even just either of our existing prescriptions. Since these pre-existing conditions are known to be costing us thousands of dollars a year out of pocket, not covering them doesn't do us a whole hell of a lot of good.

3) Dental coverage would be excellent. Poe hasn't seen a dentist in years and years, because he hasn't been covered and has a tiny little phobia about them (claims he'll need to be unconscious to go, but I'm willing to arrange that).

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Re: too busy dieing right now to to finish it up in time.

Post by mindstalk »

I just remembered that one of the appealing things about Howard Dean for me was that he'd instituted near-universal coverage in *Vermont*, while delivering a balanced budget. I don't know any practical details, though. Vermont, Mass, Arnold might let California join in...

Edit: oh, less universal than I thought, it seems. "96% of children covered, 1/3 of Medicare recipients getting help with drugs"

Seems that Hawaii and Maine guarantee a right to be insured, though it's not clear they're working well on affordability.
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Re: too busy dieing right now to to finish it up in time.

Post by Shadowydreamer »

I'm a Canuck as well, but I just wanted to comment on disability.

I have nerve damage in my lower back which leads into my left leg, so I have problems with all sorts of things. I do work from home and manage to make enough to live off some months, other months not so much, so its nice of the Canadian Government to give me something to fall back on in hard times. They pay for my extended health care, basic prescriptions (pain killers, anti-depressents, birth control, etc), basic dental and some of my medical related bills. I also get a discount on my car insurance, my house insurance and I get all my provincial taxes back on gas. There's other things I could probably take advantage of, but I feel I don't need them.

Impy, you DO need the help. You're NOT taking it from someone else by getting disability. At the least you need medical care and your prescriptions. You shouldn't have to choose between rent and proper care. If you can get it, DO. If Poe can't get medical assistance even with limited income (and he IS trying to support himself!!) and you can, you could take the money you were spending and spend it on him.

I honestly don't really understand how the free clinics, etc work, but if Poe is STILL sick and coughing harshly, I'd consider going to a county ER. Better several hours coughing and playing DS (or cell phone games, or whatever!) and antibiotics and sent home than serious injury or illness due to lack of care.

There's a serious difference between a hand up and a hand out. If you were sitting on your butt, "woe is me"ing and not trying to do anything on your own.. well, you wouldn't deserve help in my books. But you two ARE trying and not quite making ends meet, so you DO deserve help and should apply for it. When Poe is a world famous artist making millions I'm sure you won't begrudge helping others by paying the taxes. (Of course, when you take over the world and turn it into a Sanrio store, you'll have to remember to enslave some doctors and pharmacists for your own personal use :))

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Re: too busy dieing right now to to finish it up in time.

Post by Viking-Sensei »

My father was diagnosed with brain cancer a few years ago... from diagnosis to death, he incurred almost $2,000,000 in medical bills. Even with two different health insurances and medicare and medi-something-else-cade-maybe, we still wound up with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt transferred over to us after he died. Not only that, but my father in his infinite asshattery wisdom, had cashed in his life insurance years before hand to buy a sailboat (which he sailed for one summer and then sank).

The cost of health insurance isn't the only thing crazy in this country... the cost of health services themselves has gone nuts. It costs significantly more for non-insured folks to get anything done than it does insured folks because the insurance companies have all brokered deals with the their 'in-network' healthcare providers to cut costs. This extra money isn't even going to the doctors... doctors are becoming like teachers in the US... unless you're in a highly specialized field or the top of the crop (prestigious heart surgeons, plastic surgeons, etc) the average doctor is making less now than ever before.



Also... while this discussion is awesome and I don't want to do anything to stop it, I'm thinking we ought to migrate it to Current Events and Debate at some point. Any strong objections?
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Re: too busy dieing right now to to finish it up in time.

Post by Slamlander »

Shadowydreamer wrote:Impy, you DO need the help. You're NOT taking it from someone else by getting disability. At the least you need medical care and your prescriptions. You shouldn't have to choose between rent and proper care. If you can get it, DO. If Poe can't get medical assistance even with limited income (and he IS trying to support himself!!) and you can, you could take the money you were spending and spend it on him.
That's the problem, they are self-employed. That makes it even harder than usual. They are evil, greedy, self-employed buggers that don't deserve ANY help because they have millions, of hidden illicit tax gains, stashed in hidden Swiss accounts anyway! Yes, the left-wingers are that bad! Yes, I've been too long a target of that thinking (Berkley, CA, F-O).

As a result, there is no Unemployment, Medicare, Student assistance, or any of it! From having looked, there isn't ANY decent healthcare package available from ANY of the providers because they employ less than 35 people. The group packages just aren't available at any price.

{Caveat: I left the US in 04Jul2003, my info is dated but not by much. However, things could have improved a smidge since then.)
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Re: too busy dieing right now to to finish it up in time.

Post by BloodHenge »

Viking-Sensei wrote:Not only that, but my father in his infinite asshattery wisdom, had cashed in his life insurance years before hand to buy a sailboat (which he sailed for one summer and then sank).
Did he at least insure the boat?
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Re: too busy dieing right now to to finish it up in time.

Post by Slamlander »

Graybeard wrote:
SkArcher wrote:Another part of your problem (outsiders view here), is that your healthcare system is biased towards the (very profitable) process of curing illness when it has occured, instead of the (less profitable, but more cost effective) notion of preventitive medicine.

This isn't helped by the fact that the insurance for medicine setup you have encourages people *not* to see doctors early, but instead to wait and only see a doctor if they are genuinely ill.
That isn't my experience at all. The group plan that I'm in makes all the preventative stuff almost cost-free to me. It's the things that involve actual medical procedures, but are not life and death, that they don't handle well (I will stop short of saying "fairly").
I both agree with you and not. Your group plan is only available to self-insured companies. if you change companies then you will lose that plan unless you go to another company with the same insurance administrator. That plan isn available outside of an employer relationship. Self-employeds do not have any such option.

BTW, COBRA only forces your employer to keep insuring you for an other six months but you have to pay for it at double the normal rate.
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