My 81 year-old hubby is this very morning trying to get health insurance because the one he’s had for 5 years (Premera) sent him a letter dated November 15 advising him they have dropped his Medicare plan. The letter arrived November 29th. (Thanks, Louis DeJoy - should be DeJackal.) The cut off date for signing up is tomorrow, December 7th. He has minimal health charges - doc appointment once a year, and takes just a few pills every day. Please send good wishes to him that he can get coverage.
Hi Cathy, not trying to be intrusive, but if the numbers behind your name is your zip code and you & hubby live in Washington state, here is their website for open enrollment.
It asks to call Medicare directly because their customer service is overwhelmed (makes sense as OE ends tomorrow).
I work in health insurance & I’ve seen crap like this happen so many times with plans dropping their MA products out of a market at the last minute. Good luck!
While no one should celebrate the death of Mr. Thompson, one has to ask what did he do to deserve a ten million dollar plus paycheck? A year? And the Republicans want to take away Medicare we’ve paid into for decades. No wonder people are acting like such ghouls over this murder.
You are correct! Unfortunately, health care affects even more people that are employed by the Space Nazi. It seems as all the oligarchs are completely soulless.
They are. Even more appalling to me is how very violent, hostile, angry and retaliatory our country has become. I Fer we are headed towards a civil war. As a single, disabled, senior, bisexual women I am trying to set my house up to weather the next 4 years. I do not believe in guns, but am considering buying pepper guns and/or bear spray to protect myself. I plan on hibernating in my home, avoid the news and hope that I don't lose my SS and Medicare which will force me into homelessness.
Actually it will not, because I refuse to die in the street due to donny and all his sycophants!
The uber-wealthy America oligarchs are out of control. It is time to do something about this upside-down economy. Our healthcare is messed up, but they keep hoarding the money to fix it.
That's easy. He made a boat load of money for investors by promoting dysfunctional practices. He was valuable to THEM, therefore THEY pay him. They also pay our congressmen for the same reason.
When Bundy was executed, many were glad. When Manson died in prison, ditto. And not a whole lot of people were sad when another killer took the life of Jeffrey Dahmer. And so it goes for the many notorious serial killers in this land.
So why should it be any different for the CEO of the worst of the "insurance" companies? Their denial rate is appalling. And it's not "Yeah, we don't cover elective cosmetic surgery," but "We don't want to pay for the life-saving medication your child needs." I'll keep my ghoulish rejoicing private, but it's there. And I hope they never catch the shooter. This is a terrible thing to say, but he was a terrible person.
Everyone laughed at Bernie Sanders when he pushed healthcare for all. Everyone would get health insurance through the government. Everyone on the same program. None of this crap like the comments show could happen. At the time he said it would save the government something like $35 billion a year. But the insurance companies balked because it would put them all out of business, and the Congress caved to their demands.
Oh, dear and brilliant God, I think that the lack of single payer health care is a direct result of the exceptionalism of the rich. If everyone had equal access to things like health-care , housing, food, education and all other good and essential things, how would the rest of us know who our betters are? After all, optics is everything to those whose need to be seen as the best...the cream of the human crop...the most deserving and beloved by, well, You. It is how they justify all that they do, from showing off their bling to crushing the world underfoot. An added benefit is that their vanity and greed makes them even richer. And your sick kids or mother or yourself? Well, you, they and we are all the sacrifices to Moloch, burned and consumed on the altar of their divinity. And the saddest part of this, in some ways, is that so many of those sacrificed on a daily basis actually admire and wish to be like them. Just look at the maga faces while they gaze adoringly at their Cheezy Puff God-king and swallow his lies, his bile and his hatred.
Ten years ago my then 16-year old son traveled to Costa Rica. I purchased medical insurance to cover him during his trip.
On his second day of a month long stay he fell and was injured. It was bad enough that he was transported by helicopter to the capital San Jose. After one week we prepared to have him flown home in an air ambulance. The travel medical insurance company offered to fly him to Florida as the closest point in the USA from Costa Rica. I told them to keep him in Costa Rica since they were paying the bills 100%. They relented and flew him back to Boston where we live.
Upon arrival to Boston Children’s Hospital I had to pay $2,250 co-pay, despite having a very good Blue Cross Blue Shield medical insurance plan.
Summary of the story is to travel internationally with medical insurance, and then get sick or injured. Cheaper than doing it at home in the USA.
If we were all given the same healthcare plan as congress, the senate and the president get for FREE, we would be a far better and healthier nation. Cuba, the country we have kept BROKE for over sixty years, HAS FREE AND BETTER HEALTHCARE THAN THE RICHEST NATION ON EARTH! WHY??? It seems that politicians love feeding insurance companies billions of other people's monies just so they can skim a bit off the top. HOW ABOUT WE GET FREE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL AND INSURANCE COMPANY PEOPLE FIND REAL JOBS??? Add a 10 cent per gallon tax to ALL fuel and it will pay for itself!
You are my health care today!!!!! Reading what I feel helped me be able to choke down the bile I carry when thinking about the total lack of intelligent curiosity in this country. Bow down to the total immoral clowns that (not who, that is too correct), run the entire country into the muck .
And what is congress concerned about this week - Airline industry fees. Why? Because they all have much better healthcare than most of the rest of us. The only issues they get angry enough to DO something about are the issues that affect themselves and their own families. I think this assassination may wake them up a little, but will it be enough for them to get off of their asses and DO something about it!! I would be surprised if it did. Thank you, God. Amen! Awomen!
Jan, they don't pay a dime for healthcare. They will never do a damn thing about it. They make Bernie out to be some fringe wing of one, but he and Warren are the only ones who have ever made it an issue. You probably know that.
Delta ceo loves trump. Watch Delta slide even farther into the cesspool of lousy service. And no, their employees cannot even get a union because Delta CEO will have them murdered before the employees can organize. There is no such thing as a guarantee for humanity from airlines. They are as big as insurance and all as great at ripping off the public that pays their bills.
Interestingly my child moved to Colombia SA and has wonderful coverage and good care. Everyone is like Colombia is a third world country! Eh, not so much. Excellent care in great facilities. He even had a major surgury. So I think we have been bamboozled.
Do not think for a second that you have not been totally propagandized by big business.
After 36 years of being in the rest of the world for a career, I have experienced fine and total healthcare from several of those countries. What America does best is play pretend. Let’s pretend we’re the best by demeaning everyone else. Boy, how easy is this says the far right while they train their puppets( Reagan, Trump, Bush)……
I'm on Medicare and have opted out of the supplemental insurance I'm supposed to get. I'll stick my money out back in the mayonnaise jar before I pay them to tell me no.
Could you please arrange it so that billionaires don't think being a billionaire is such a good idea? Something like Covid, but only if you have a bank balance of say, ten million? And let it come with big red spots. That itch.
OK we all agree that giant health insurance companies are in the business of earning profits for their shareholders by screwing over their customers.
So what do we do about it?!
We elect the capitalists fat cats who rant that federally managed public programs are for Marxists and commies so their goal is to eventually eliminate Medicare and Medicaid and replace them with more of the corporate health insurance that's screwing us over now.
Seriously, we Americans win First Prize for self sabotage.
Elected officials who don't take healthcare lobby dollars do exist.
Even if yours do, threaten them with not getting your vote. Contact them regardless and tell them what you think. They do keep track of what their constituents want. It's all we have with Congress.
I'm all for single-payer healthcare Universal coverage whatever that is, but not, and I don't mean maybe, if it is implemented under the upcoming regime.
Yet they are the ones who always expand it. Why do we still even have a Dept of Homeland Security? That was for improving security after 9/11 and who knows what it's been doing since. Imagine a Dept of Universal Health Insurance. That would do something.
I work in health insurance (about 30 years). I have so many horror stories about what HI has done to its enrollees AND employees. Unfortunately, I can’t retire yet but I’m tired in my bones of our health insurance shitty system & policies & actions.
After years of observation, our health system is fundamentally broken because we treat human illnesses, sicknesses, diseases, and death as a commodity to be bought & sold. Not as a human right. As long as it is treated as a commodity, it will _never_ get better.
My 81 year-old hubby is this very morning trying to get health insurance because the one he’s had for 5 years (Premera) sent him a letter dated November 15 advising him they have dropped his Medicare plan. The letter arrived November 29th. (Thanks, Louis DeJoy - should be DeJackal.) The cut off date for signing up is tomorrow, December 7th. He has minimal health charges - doc appointment once a year, and takes just a few pills every day. Please send good wishes to him that he can get coverage.
Hi Cathy, not trying to be intrusive, but if the numbers behind your name is your zip code and you & hubby live in Washington state, here is their website for open enrollment.
https://www.insurance.wa.gov/2025-medicare-open-enrollment/
It asks to call Medicare directly because their customer service is overwhelmed (makes sense as OE ends tomorrow).
I work in health insurance & I’ve seen crap like this happen so many times with plans dropping their MA products out of a market at the last minute. Good luck!
Thank you! He got in touch with the SHIBA rep and has now been able to sign up. Whew!
I really appreciate your response. ☺️
So glad to hear it!
While no one should celebrate the death of Mr. Thompson, one has to ask what did he do to deserve a ten million dollar plus paycheck? A year? And the Republicans want to take away Medicare we’ve paid into for decades. No wonder people are acting like such ghouls over this murder.
Nit unlike Musk getting billions in a bonus from Tesla and they covered that by laying off 10,000 employees!
You are correct! Unfortunately, health care affects even more people that are employed by the Space Nazi. It seems as all the oligarchs are completely soulless.
They are. Even more appalling to me is how very violent, hostile, angry and retaliatory our country has become. I Fer we are headed towards a civil war. As a single, disabled, senior, bisexual women I am trying to set my house up to weather the next 4 years. I do not believe in guns, but am considering buying pepper guns and/or bear spray to protect myself. I plan on hibernating in my home, avoid the news and hope that I don't lose my SS and Medicare which will force me into homelessness.
Actually it will not, because I refuse to die in the street due to donny and all his sycophants!
Don't forget the wasp spray. And, all my love for you ❤️❤️❤️
The uber-wealthy America oligarchs are out of control. It is time to do something about this upside-down economy. Our healthcare is messed up, but they keep hoarding the money to fix it.
Every penny of that salary comes as a result of somebody else's cough, cold or cancer.
Could YOU sleep at night with that thought?
Neither emotions nor morality have any effect on their consciences. Their brains are too busy counting money to feel.
That's easy. He made a boat load of money for investors by promoting dysfunctional practices. He was valuable to THEM, therefore THEY pay him. They also pay our congressmen for the same reason.
When Bundy was executed, many were glad. When Manson died in prison, ditto. And not a whole lot of people were sad when another killer took the life of Jeffrey Dahmer. And so it goes for the many notorious serial killers in this land.
So why should it be any different for the CEO of the worst of the "insurance" companies? Their denial rate is appalling. And it's not "Yeah, we don't cover elective cosmetic surgery," but "We don't want to pay for the life-saving medication your child needs." I'll keep my ghoulish rejoicing private, but it's there. And I hope they never catch the shooter. This is a terrible thing to say, but he was a terrible person.
It says a lot that, when you die, the outpouring of emotion for you is categorised with Bundy, Manson et al.
Everyone laughed at Bernie Sanders when he pushed healthcare for all. Everyone would get health insurance through the government. Everyone on the same program. None of this crap like the comments show could happen. At the time he said it would save the government something like $35 billion a year. But the insurance companies balked because it would put them all out of business, and the Congress caved to their demands.
I love Bernie. I may not agree with all of his politics but his heart is in the right place. Most politicians don't have a heart.
Congress never even considered Bernie's plan. Neither did his party, well the one he votes with.
Money (from the insurance company lobbyists) talks.
And it buys a lot of shit for our elected officials.
Oh, dear and brilliant God, I think that the lack of single payer health care is a direct result of the exceptionalism of the rich. If everyone had equal access to things like health-care , housing, food, education and all other good and essential things, how would the rest of us know who our betters are? After all, optics is everything to those whose need to be seen as the best...the cream of the human crop...the most deserving and beloved by, well, You. It is how they justify all that they do, from showing off their bling to crushing the world underfoot. An added benefit is that their vanity and greed makes them even richer. And your sick kids or mother or yourself? Well, you, they and we are all the sacrifices to Moloch, burned and consumed on the altar of their divinity. And the saddest part of this, in some ways, is that so many of those sacrificed on a daily basis actually admire and wish to be like them. Just look at the maga faces while they gaze adoringly at their Cheezy Puff God-king and swallow his lies, his bile and his hatred.
To lord god we pray… Amen
Ten years ago my then 16-year old son traveled to Costa Rica. I purchased medical insurance to cover him during his trip.
On his second day of a month long stay he fell and was injured. It was bad enough that he was transported by helicopter to the capital San Jose. After one week we prepared to have him flown home in an air ambulance. The travel medical insurance company offered to fly him to Florida as the closest point in the USA from Costa Rica. I told them to keep him in Costa Rica since they were paying the bills 100%. They relented and flew him back to Boston where we live.
Upon arrival to Boston Children’s Hospital I had to pay $2,250 co-pay, despite having a very good Blue Cross Blue Shield medical insurance plan.
Summary of the story is to travel internationally with medical insurance, and then get sick or injured. Cheaper than doing it at home in the USA.
If we were all given the same healthcare plan as congress, the senate and the president get for FREE, we would be a far better and healthier nation. Cuba, the country we have kept BROKE for over sixty years, HAS FREE AND BETTER HEALTHCARE THAN THE RICHEST NATION ON EARTH! WHY??? It seems that politicians love feeding insurance companies billions of other people's monies just so they can skim a bit off the top. HOW ABOUT WE GET FREE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL AND INSURANCE COMPANY PEOPLE FIND REAL JOBS??? Add a 10 cent per gallon tax to ALL fuel and it will pay for itself!
You want to try watching Michael Moore's "Sicko!"
Absolutely shocking.
Good documentary
I suggest that we just tax the rich at the same rate as everyone else. Not just their income either. All the wealth they exempt. We would be fine.
Ranger,
You are my health care today!!!!! Reading what I feel helped me be able to choke down the bile I carry when thinking about the total lack of intelligent curiosity in this country. Bow down to the total immoral clowns that (not who, that is too correct), run the entire country into the muck .
And what is congress concerned about this week - Airline industry fees. Why? Because they all have much better healthcare than most of the rest of us. The only issues they get angry enough to DO something about are the issues that affect themselves and their own families. I think this assassination may wake them up a little, but will it be enough for them to get off of their asses and DO something about it!! I would be surprised if it did. Thank you, God. Amen! Awomen!
Jan, they don't pay a dime for healthcare. They will never do a damn thing about it. They make Bernie out to be some fringe wing of one, but he and Warren are the only ones who have ever made it an issue. You probably know that.
Delta ceo loves trump. Watch Delta slide even farther into the cesspool of lousy service. And no, their employees cannot even get a union because Delta CEO will have them murdered before the employees can organize. There is no such thing as a guarantee for humanity from airlines. They are as big as insurance and all as great at ripping off the public that pays their bills.
Armed bodyguards.
Good one 😅
Interestingly my child moved to Colombia SA and has wonderful coverage and good care. Everyone is like Colombia is a third world country! Eh, not so much. Excellent care in great facilities. He even had a major surgury. So I think we have been bamboozled.
"So I think we have been bamboozled."
NOW she tells us. . . !
Do not think for a second that you have not been totally propagandized by big business.
After 36 years of being in the rest of the world for a career, I have experienced fine and total healthcare from several of those countries. What America does best is play pretend. Let’s pretend we’re the best by demeaning everyone else. Boy, how easy is this says the far right while they train their puppets( Reagan, Trump, Bush)……
I'm on Medicare and have opted out of the supplemental insurance I'm supposed to get. I'll stick my money out back in the mayonnaise jar before I pay them to tell me no.
Dear God,
Could you please arrange it so that billionaires don't think being a billionaire is such a good idea? Something like Covid, but only if you have a bank balance of say, ten million? And let it come with big red spots. That itch.
Eternal shingles?
or suppurating piles. . . .
Yep
As Hercules might have said, looking at the Augean Stables - "I think you're going to need a bigger shovel. . . "
That river Tiber isn't going to cut it. :D
OK we all agree that giant health insurance companies are in the business of earning profits for their shareholders by screwing over their customers.
So what do we do about it?!
We elect the capitalists fat cats who rant that federally managed public programs are for Marxists and commies so their goal is to eventually eliminate Medicare and Medicaid and replace them with more of the corporate health insurance that's screwing us over now.
Seriously, we Americans win First Prize for self sabotage.
Elected officials who don't take healthcare lobby dollars do exist.
Even if yours do, threaten them with not getting your vote. Contact them regardless and tell them what you think. They do keep track of what their constituents want. It's all we have with Congress.
My congressional and Senate reps are Democrats and no way am I going to change my vote to repug.
I would never suggest such a thing.
I'm all for single-payer healthcare Universal coverage whatever that is, but not, and I don't mean maybe, if it is implemented under the upcoming regime.
No way the upcoming GOP regime will ever implement single payer healthcare. Their core value is to shrink the Federal gov't, not expand it.
Yet they are the ones who always expand it. Why do we still even have a Dept of Homeland Security? That was for improving security after 9/11 and who knows what it's been doing since. Imagine a Dept of Universal Health Insurance. That would do something.
Don't worry Trump only has Concepts of a Plan.
Good afternoon God.
Thanks for the post.
I just can't.
I work in health insurance (about 30 years). I have so many horror stories about what HI has done to its enrollees AND employees. Unfortunately, I can’t retire yet but I’m tired in my bones of our health insurance shitty system & policies & actions.
After years of observation, our health system is fundamentally broken because we treat human illnesses, sicknesses, diseases, and death as a commodity to be bought & sold. Not as a human right. As long as it is treated as a commodity, it will _never_ get better.