General Politics Discussion (IX) [ARCHIVED] • Page 1236

The diplomacy piece is key to me, and seems like an absolute must whether we like it or not, whether we want to or not, simply based on what is at stake here.

 

Well we just have a good old fashioned disagreement then. If the sanctions work then you’re probably right. I just don’t think they will and I think we don’t have any good evidence they will work. fwiw I hope you’re right, if we’re going to starve people I hope it’s for something tangible.

 

I cannot accept that anyone in our government actually believes that the risk of nuclear war is as low as they are portraying, it's just that there is simply nothing to be done about it for the average person, and they need us to keep doing our thing and spending our money. There aren't enough burn units in the entire country to treat the victims there would be if one nuclear warhead hit one major US city, nevermind a handful or a large number all at basically the same time.

Is it just me, or is 10% uncomfortably high when we're talking about nuclear annihilation???

 

I assume we were living every day with the risk much higher for that for most of the time between the 50s-80s tbh….we’re just the unfortunate generation that this is new for hah

 

Yeah, that's what my dad keeps telling me. I was at their apt asking him all these questions about nukes going off, and I mentioned my contingency plan involving the basement, heading away from the blast zone, showering off the radioactive debris, holing up for a few days in a building with few doors and windows, etc. and he just laughed and told me you're better off just putting a lawn chair up on the roof and watching the show.

 

Interesting thread

 

i can never decide if I’m just getting old or if I really believe kids are def worse/less capable because of mass access to social media. I feel like being exposed to other peoples kids every single day makes me think I can make an honest assessment and take my age component out of it but, who knows. The pandemic makes it even harder to judge now, because I swear the kids I have this year are way worse with basic skills than the ones I had 5 years ago or even before that as a sub, but they just spend a year and a half at home so.

 

So I have my own health and dental insurance now and I went to the dentist last month for a cleaning, and there is no co-pays or anything for that which I thought was great. But now today I got a letter from the insurance company that my claim was denied because it turns out the dentist I use is actually out-of-network. I'm pretty sure I called the dentist and they told me they took that insurance when I was deciding the plan to choose, and they didn't say anything when I gave them my insurance card last month, but I guess it is kinda my fault for not going onto the insurance website and double checking to make sure. Really like this dentist too.

 

You’re all grown up when you learn insurance is a scam heh

 

Yeah the same thing happened to me when I first got dental insurance. Only I got work done not just a cleaning.

 

Fucking sucks that different plans under the same insurance company have doctors who could be in network under one plan but not in another

 

I've been having back issues so I went to a back and spine doctor. He recommend an MRI which he ordered and sent to the insurance company because they have to pre-approve.

Insurance company denied it and it took them two weeks to do so. I get that they don't want people getting unnecessary procedures willy nilly but a back and spine specialist ordered it! The insurance company wanted me to do six weeks of physical therapy first. How can I do physical therapy when no one knows what is wrong?

Anyway, the doctor argued on my behalf and the MRI was approved. But the process took a month and I've been in pain for 3-4 months. Finally got the MRI this past Wednesday but have to wait another two weeks to find out what is wrong.

Love the healthcare industry.

 

Also, fuck medical facilities who use collections agencies

 

I work for a third party healthcare company and insurance fucking sucks. I did authorizations before and now do AR but am hopefully getting a promotion to training coordinator so I don’t have to deal with the fucking insurance companies.

 

I recently went to an urgent care run by a hospital near me, and I was so confused when I got two separate bills for that visit from different agencies. Turns out, even after insurance, I was charged about $150 for the actual doctor, and then a separate bill of $350 for the hospital network. I was fucking floored because another urgent care (ConvenientMD) is super affordable and doesn't have any weird, convoluted billing system like that. This place was in my insurance network, too.

It was just a 5 minute visual exam for shingles lol no actual tests or anything

 

When you have a baby you get like four bills. You get the one and think that's it but then you get like three more from different services in the hospital. Also, they do not bill you timely.

When my son was born four years ago, we probably didn't get billed for six months. We got that bill and paid it with our FSA and I thought wow not too bad. Still had some FSA left over. Come the next year, I got like three more bills for 8k. Couldn't use the current year FSA because they were prior year charges.

 

Fuuck that sucks, I'm glad my HSA rolls over year to year

 

Pay for insurance so that you can pay for your hospital bills after you get care, it’s a great system.

anyway, time to call your insurance and bitch at them

 

I still dread getting the mail for fear of getting another bill from the baby’s birth and it’s been over two years