No, that's you stating your opinion over and over again. I GAVE you an example to follow up on, but you refused to consider it. So, I'll be more blatant-- I and my insurance company paid $3200 for a series of MRAs with contrast dye at the local metropolitan hospital that treats everyone that comes in for anything by law. Even drug dealers and gang bangers with gunshot wounds.

Trouble is, the metropolitan hospital botched the tests, and my neurosurgeon demanded that I have the tests done at Johns Hopkins, who DOES NOT treat people without referrals and insurance. In fact, I had to have the $75 co-pay in hand WHEN I CHECKED IN as an outpatient.

How much did the SAME series cost at Johns Hopkins? $750. And it was done _correctly_.

It only makes sense that the metropolitan hospitals have to do something to make up for the people without insurance or those who declare bankruptcy when they get the bills.

And that accounts for the difference. Better care, cheaper rates because EVERYONE that gets treatment there HAS TO HAVE insurance or is on Medicare/Medicaid. By having everyone kick at least something into the pot under this law, the risks are spread over more patients. And the insurance companies know they're going to have to compete more efficiently to become approved providers for the bigger networks that will result from EVERYONE being part of SOME network.

Easy as ABC.


-Kerry O.

Is there anything more sadly pathetic than a Luddite dying of a curable disease because they were stubborn until it was too late?

At least with Luddites, they were consistent to the end instead of flip-flopping when they were dealt the joker.

-Kerry O.

Well let me put it this way-- if you're in the ER getting a blood transfusion, the transfusion won't cure you.

But without it, you'd die.

The system shows a lot of signs that it's heading towards a pretty bad breakdown. Maybe it would be smart to at least put some bandaids on it now before it bleeds out?

-Kerry O.

Or maybe women are just more indoctrinated to defer to what men want, and today's religions are largely patriarchal.

I guess I see female atheists/agnostics as being strong, dangerous women who refuse to be defer to that which benefits their well-being the least.

-Kerry O.

I hardly know which mistaken premise to tackle first!

It's obvious by the way you say you'll 'just pay the bill' that you have never been through getting tens of thousands of dollars in bills from numerous providers in the mail and having your insurance company duck lots of them.

The insurance lobby fought this bill tooth and nail and only accepted this in exchange for not getting TRUE, single-payer government-sponsored health insurance, which would have put them out of business.

If the Republicans get their way, it will be back to Business As Usual for the insurance companies-- using pre-existing conditions to cherry pick the groups they insure and recissions to back date coverage so they won't have to pay anything, They'll will also use ObamaCare as an excuse to gouge the public.

But really, the Republicans are only playing you for fools to gain power-- they'll still have THEIR government, single-payer, paid-for-by-the-taxpayer health care.

And you'll be left holding the bag over a bankruptcy (which the Republicans ALSO made harder to declare during the Bush years).

But don't take my word for it-- price out some operations and care at places like Johns Hopkins, which requires proof of insurance before treatment against that of a metropolitan hospital which, by law, has to treat all who come into the ER. I think you'll be flabbergasted by the difference. I know I was.



-Kerry O.

Read it again. And quote next time before you go off half-cocked by reading into what _wasn't_ said.

BTW, do you think unpaid-for healthcare is a Constitutional right or not? And if so, where in the Constitution does it guarantee that? Because if you know you don't have insurance because you refused to buy it when you had the chance, you ARE taking something for nothing when you show up in the ER and expect to be treated just as the rightwingers who push this cause caterwaul about endlessly when people on welfare do the same thing.

I've ALWAYS had health insurance, even during the bad times. It saved my life.



-Kerry O.

It seems to me that those people who yell the loudest about this issue think they have a Constitutional right to unpaid-for health care. How is this any different from mooching off the government dole? Their 'freedoms' are being carried on the backs of those who are responsible enough to work and sacrifice TO have health insurance.

Where in the Constitution does it say *I* have to pay for THEIR healthcare when they won't?


-Kerry O.

That would be an interesting and welcome occurrence, as it would challenge the all-too-frequent partriarchal territorialism present in so many of today's religions.

I noticed recently that a more recent translation of the Tao Te Ching refers to The Master as She/Her. I found that interesting, too.

-Kerry O.

I too was thinking about the Mormons in pondering this question. The Mormons claim they are the fastest growing religious congregation in the world and seem to have the figures to back it up.

Mostly what Mormonism is is a fork off the old beaten paths brought about by an alleged relevation from God to its founder, Joseph Smith. And it's been nothing short of innovative at answering the tough questions that have dogged Christianity. For example, the Mormons interest in family trees stems from an answer to the doctrine that people born before Joseph Smith's revelation receive their salavation by being 'prayed into heaven' by the Mormon faithful from lists derived by their geniology group.

One can imagine this doesn't set too well with the Jews, but the Mormons continue blithely on with this activity.

Who will be the next Joseph Smith? History shows us that sooner rather than later a new Martin Luther will arise from some discontent or new, revealed ecclesiastical principle(s).


-Kerry O.

It wasn't last time. And the Birther movement has amply demonstrated that they are NOT reasonable people who will give up when proven wrong.

Don Quixote never gave up tilting at windmills, either.


-Kerry O.

Bachman narrowly avoided making really silly gaffe. Apparently, an advance copy of her remarks was released, and in it, she calls for Obama to 'sign a Constitutional Amendment mandating balanced federal budgets.'

I suppose someone finally pointed out to her that the President of the United States has no role whatsoever in the process required to amend the Constitution.

Apparently, reading the Constitution into the Congressional record as the first order of business of the new GOP-controlled Congress found Bachman asleep at the switch?


-Kerry O.

Eric Cantor doesn't think so. Nor do a lot of other high profile conservatives.

Maybe it's a case of his knowing that if extremists insist on making ***** of themselves, the smart money ALWAYS stays out of their way and lets them. It costs him nothing to NOT cave to their demands, which everyone knows would do no good anyway-- they'd just dream up more BS they can't prove. He has everything to gain my just doing what he's doing.

-Kerry O.

Why? Trump's infamous for hiding behind the bankruptcy laws. A lot of his companies have filed for protection from creditors at one time or another, some more than once.

Maybe he hates the Chinese because he knows they see right through his act?

-Kerry O.

Ah, it was in the New York Post, one of Rupert Murdoch's tabloids.

What's REALLY interesting about this is that usually Murdoch's rags soft-pedal news about Communist China. Why, you might ask? Because 'ole Rupert is heavily invested in Chinese satellite TV and probably doesn't want to risk losing his broadcast privileges there by throwing darts.

What's most likely Really Going On Here is that this article is window dressing for Murdoch's media, putting on appearances as if it grew a pair, when in reality it's a toothless tiger gumming the hand that feeds it.


-Kerry O.

I didn't know Rush Limbaugh was trying to back into TV again. :)


-Kerry O.

I suspect that NBC-Universal is trying to re-invent itself as Fox Noise Lite to survive.

Myself, I find ALL the Talking Heads annoy me too much so I stopped watching Tee Vee altogether a few years ago. It's easier to get hard news off the Internet without all the schtick and spin.

And it's ALWAYS better to think for yourself rather than being a partisan droid.

-Kerry O.

The O.T. Fundy god was nothing if not extremely unreasonable in his alleged dealings with his non-Isrealite creations. He allegedly wiped out entire nations for far less. But according to this theory, he'd turn a blind eye to immorality out of expediency?

I'm not buying it. This sounds like an all-too-human rationalization masquerading as an excuse to be able to do as they pleased while setting double standards for everyone else.

A far more plausible theory is that fundamentalist religion, as usual, is an old war horse that was rode hard and put away wet.


-Kerry O.

Apparently even the fact that Moses' wife was a Midianite couldn't deter God and Moses trumped up justification for killing innocent children.

So, let me get this straight-- "Look at what you made ME do!" is grounds for justifiable homicide/genocide?"

"It takes two to tango."


-Kerry O.

I don't care how you justify the slaughter of unarmed, helpless captives, were it done today it would be considered a war crime.

And it was done on the most trumped-up justifications. The Israelites themselves were whoring it up with some Moabite women, so allegedly, God sends a plague upon them. When God spots an Israelite spearing to death a fellow Isrealite and his Midianite g/f, suddenly God stops the plague and tells Moses to exterminate the Midianites instead. Supposedly, they were in cahoots with the Moabites, but who knows?

And it's just UNBELIEVABLE that said victims of said war crime would find life as unwilling slaves tolerable to the very people who slaughtered their kinfolk and fellow countrypersons. ESPECIALLY for a 'crime' committed by ANOTHER tribe!


-Kerry O.

I see. So, when God told Moses to wipe out the Midianites except for the virgins whom he told Moses to enslave, he was doing nothing different than what the Dept. of Health and Human Services does under Democratic presidents every day? Just a little 'government regulation'?

Who knew.


"... but I'm not an alien." -Tom Servo as Exeter in MST3K: The Movie.


-Kerry O.