Rob..i didnt realize that was you...i get mixed up with the spelling of your monicker.....you and connie are always in my thoughts......rj is one of the truly great people in our baseball community.....an amazingly good person ..a heart of gold.....i always wish the very very best for you and connie.

rjj4191.

I am so sorry for your misfortune and your wife's health problem. I hope her comeback far exceeds the prognostication(s).

As to ObamaCare. I really take no issue with your assessment and have a lifelong friend business owner in a similar situation with HIS insurance experience.
The bill was flawed--------no doubt! It was flawed because Obama (IMO) made too many concessions to the private insurance carriers in order to get them on board and get their backing/willingness to allow it. (NOT use their tremendous lobbying power on Congress to stop it!)

The result is that there are still far too many levels of profiteering in the healthcare "system". The "reform" didn't reform the cost side of providing healthcare at ALL! We still have procedures that the un-insured's "retail price" is 5 - 10 times what the insurance corporation's price for that very same procedure is!

Obama made the determination to deal with the devil (insurance companies) to get the issue advanced! I can ONLY assume he also determined that Congress would do IT'S job and fine tune the bill and correct any defects that surfaced. We ALL know that did not happen.

One minor detail as to my personal situation. You referred to "the needy" the ACA helped.
Perhaps, I turned out to have that need you spoke of. BUT I must clarify. I wasn't "needy". I had NO known health issues. I was able to afford insurance.
Nearly purchased a personal Blue Cross plan, or at least tried to. However, the Insurance Corps. used to make all the rules! As I had been (thru self employment and unemployment) OUT of the insurance "marketplace" for over a decade AND as I had been healthy and tended to avoid Doctors (like the plague) they turned down my application (KEEPING my $25.00 application Fee), using the excuse that I had no medical record. They also LIED to me during the process by (in writing) claiming the "process" required no physical examination when they (ultimately) decided that UNTIL I had two different medical examinations OVER 6 months apart they would NOT insure me.

At least the ACA (and yes, I feel it is because Obama CARED enough about the uninsured folks like me) addressed the complete control a few CORPORATIONS had on health insurance in this Country and REQUIRED some basic fairness within the process of underwriting ALL in an ATTEMPT to benefit REAL Americans. Was it perfectly done. No. far from it. Is that Obama's fault. Well, maybe so. But, HE made a start. HE got rid of the scam of picking and choosing to only insure folks unlikely to have claims. Isn't THAT the basic principle insurers have used for decades to make obscene profits?
Profits Yes! Gouging the citizenry for something so vital as health care----NO!
Now, it seems to me that the Insurance Corps have just changed WHO they gouge! Now, it's self insured guys like you and my friend Ray.

The answer seems to be for our so-called elected leaders to stop playing politics and DO THEIR JOB and fix a problem we Americans are facing!
Health insurance for Americans became a political football in this last decade. The blame game (who played "ball" rather than represent Me and You) gets us nowhere, really. The Republicans will very soon have complete control. THIS now becomes their problem. THEY need to fix it. I wish them well.
As I do, You and your family.

We (as Americans) MUST find the ground to start standing together AGAINST all this incompetence and politics and DEMAND (from BOTH parties) True representation, or we must replace them en mass!
Vote hard, Vote Smart (PLEASE GET INFORMED), Vote Often :-)

well said...congress refused to fix it...because its what they do......in the meantime it is now entrenched and inevitably and ultimately it will evolve into the single payer system....it is going to happen eventually....

Oh and Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. Red and Yellow, Black and Blue, Brown and Green. (I hope I didn't leave anybody out!)
Be truly Thankful for what we have.......... and try to notice those among us that have NOT.

THAT is the spirit of True Americans and the attitude expressed by our Founding Ancestors on this day so long ago.
BE like them. Find and summon strength. I expect us to need it in the times ahead.
Pray for your enemy. Such is the direction we've been given.

BUT, when you see the whites of their eyes...................

Posted by laramiebob on 11/24/2016 12:01:00 PM (view original):
rjj4191.

I am so sorry for your misfortune and your wife's health problem. I hope her comeback far exceeds the prognostication(s).

As to ObamaCare. I really take no issue with your assessment and have a lifelong friend business owner in a similar situation with HIS insurance experience.
The bill was flawed--------no doubt! It was flawed because Obama (IMO) made too many concessions to the private insurance carriers in order to get them on board and get their backing/willingness to allow it. (NOT use their tremendous lobbying power on Congress to stop it!)

The result is that there are still far too many levels of profiteering in the healthcare "system". The "reform" didn't reform the cost side of providing healthcare at ALL! We still have procedures that the un-insured's "retail price" is 5 - 10 times what the insurance corporation's price for that very same procedure is!

Obama made the determination to deal with the devil (insurance companies) to get the issue advanced! I can ONLY assume he also determined that Congress would do IT'S job and fine tune the bill and correct any defects that surfaced. We ALL know that did not happen.

One minor detail as to my personal situation. You referred to "the needy" the ACA helped.
Perhaps, I turned out to have that need you spoke of. BUT I must clarify. I wasn't "needy". I had NO known health issues. I was able to afford insurance.
Nearly purchased a personal Blue Cross plan, or at least tried to. However, the Insurance Corps. used to make all the rules! As I had been (thru self employment and unemployment) OUT of the insurance "marketplace" for over a decade AND as I had been healthy and tended to avoid Doctors (like the plague) they turned down my application (KEEPING my $25.00 application Fee), using the excuse that I had no medical record. They also LIED to me during the process by (in writing) claiming the "process" required no physical examination when they (ultimately) decided that UNTIL I had two different medical examinations OVER 6 months apart they would NOT insure me.

At least the ACA (and yes, I feel it is because Obama CARED enough about the uninsured folks like me) addressed the complete control a few CORPORATIONS had on health insurance in this Country and REQUIRED some basic fairness within the process of underwriting ALL in an ATTEMPT to benefit REAL Americans. Was it perfectly done. No. far from it. Is that Obama's fault. Well, maybe so. But, HE made a start. HE got rid of the scam of picking and choosing to only insure folks unlikely to have claims. Isn't THAT the basic principle insurers have used for decades to make obscene profits?
Profits Yes! Gouging the citizenry for something so vital as health care----NO!
Now, it seems to me that the Insurance Corps have just changed WHO they gouge! Now, it's self insured guys like you and my friend Ray.

The answer seems to be for our so-called elected leaders to stop playing politics and DO THEIR JOB and fix a problem we Americans are facing!
Health insurance for Americans became a political football in this last decade. The blame game (who played "ball" rather than represent Me and You) gets us nowhere, really. The Republicans will very soon have complete control. THIS now becomes their problem. THEY need to fix it. I wish them well.
As I do, You and your family.

We (as Americans) MUST find the ground to start standing together AGAINST all this incompetence and politics and DEMAND (from BOTH parties) True representation, or we must replace them en mass!
Vote hard, Vote Smart (PLEASE GET INFORMED), Vote Often :-)

L B you are so right on here i find it funny that in alot of issues of politics we as americans disagree on how to accomplish what we all want but yet we really do all want the same things, the return of the american dream of yesteryear but with the inclusion of all mixes of races and creeds. kind of a tomata tomato thing (how can anybody call it a tomata lol) i think trump's business background will help with these issues (i could be dead wrong and i know that too) but i also think the approach of the new administration will be so opposite of "politics as usual" that i am excited to see what the future holds with caution,kind of a hope for the good BUT!!!!!!

rjj. I hope you turn out to be correct about Trump. Perhaps we can ALL agree to hold his feet to the fire about this idea of governing in a manner "opposite of (the) 'politics of usual' you (and I) are excited to see.

The question then would be......... HOW do we hold his feet to the fire?
You willing to join the folks on the streets along with me if necessary?

And (last question on a Holiday Weekend!)......... Do you agree with me that the opposite of "politics as usual" is decidedly NOT stocking his administration with the same old tired Repub./Psuedo-Conservative Talking Hats that's been trotted out so far?

Will it NOT take true outside the box thinking to govern for REAL Americans like you and I?
Let's see some then.......... and Soon!

Peace and health to your family!
All of you.

Posted by dino27 on 11/25/2016 11:22:00 AM (view original):
im sorry to be a spoil sport but i dont agree that dems are the same as repubs.....6 years of a total wall of obstruction by intent so nothing could get done..one party did that.....

Dino, I tend to agree, but if ever there was a time that we need to get past the bickering and partisanship (I believe) this is it.
The "politics as usual" has been practiced by a long long time to varying degrees by BOTH sides of the aisle. Trump made "I'm not one of them" a HUGE (lol) selling point to a hungry and sympathetic large segment of our Country to get elected.

IF HE turns out to be another "one of them" and politics as usual carries on in the same large fashion.......... I would expect those folks to be very angry.
They (likely) won't March peacefully from some park down to the local Courthouse and wave banners and sing songs or make chants/raps.
SOME of them (hopefully a tiny tiny fraction) aren't into peaceful demonstration at all, they have other preferred means.

IF that breakdown occurs, we're gonna need (all of us) to pull together and that includes sane citizens who might identify as Republicans.
Power will be (and IS) fully entrenched. It won't be easy to bring it down.

trump is going to have to choose between infrastructure or big tax cuts.....he wont be allowed to do both...and he may have to do some cutting but where...he is in for a rude awakening and im very worried that he will crumble by the domestic antagonism he finds while simultaneously having to face foreign policy emergencies that will lobbed his way without having basic understanding and depth. or good advice......there was no politics discussed at dinner last night.