spaghettiwestern

You are right, Medicare does suck compared to single payer coverage other countries have, but it is far better than anything else in the U.S. I've done more than my share of reading and researching for friends and relatives. Maybe too much info follows...

What you've heard isn't really accurate. There are 3 flavors of Medicare, 2 of them decent and 1 that can be OK or an absolute nightmare.

Standard Medicare - you owe about $260/month + 20% of allowable charges for everything, but that's a smaller amount that it appears. A $550 specialist visit might only have Medicare allowable charges of $150, and the 20% deductible is $30, NOT 20% of $550. You and your doctor make the care decisions and there is no insurance company denying coverage. Standard Medicare denial rates are very low. Almost every medical provider accepts this and if you want to fly to Mayo Clinic for care you just get on a plane.
Medicare + Medigap - An additional policy that pays most all of that 20% deductible. It runs around $200 per month in many locations, but can vary quite a bit. Like standard Medicare, there is no insurance company making decisions about care. No matter what care is needed, costs out of pocket are predictable. Almost every provider accepts both of these too.
Medicare Advantage - This is NOT Medicare at all and it's what you hear the horror stories about. Medicare Advantage is the same horrible insurance UHC, Cigna, Aetna, etc. offer but is paid for by the government. THIS is the one with the 17% denial rates and the people dying from lack of care. What's worse, Medicare Advantage and those denial rates are such money makers for the insurance industry that the companies trick people into signing up by charging very low or zero dollar premiums per month. Medicare insurance salesmen are also paid far more to sell MA plans so they push it and lie about how great it is. Providers must be in network AND within a geographical area for coverage with limited exceptions. No Mayo Clinic for you!

The worst part is that the Medigap rules make it damn near impossible to move to Medicare + Medigap once on Medicare Advantage. I've spoken to people with dying parents that can't get care from local cancer centers because of they can't get off Medicare Advantage.

Of course it's far more complicated than this, Medicare A & B for instance, but everyone I know that's gone from standard insurance to Medicare + Medigap love it, and a few that are on MA with coverage at decent local medical center have good experiences too.

Discovering what Medicare really means is depressing as fuck.

Why?

Or the middle man that Republicans inserted into the equation in 1973 could be eliminated and instead everyone could pay way less for universal health coverage. The downside is that there would be fewer billionaires in the world, but I could live with that.

It wasn't just one big thing (although there were plenty of those), it was death by 1000 cuts. In the end it was something relatively small. I asked her to remove me from her regular right-wing email blasts and she refused to do so. What kind of asshole refuses to do something so small for a complete stranger, much less a family member? A malignant narcissist asshole.

If you haven't read up on narcissistic family systems there's a lot of good content out there. Here's a short article.

Conservatives are all about freedom until there's profit involved.

There should be no compromising our right to privacy and these cameras need to go. Fuck Flock and their cash grab.

Don't forget raping children.

There's a difference now. People can't afford property or kids and they're pissed.

Yes, but their lack of participation (~50% for Gen Z and ~60% for Millennials) gives the 70-75% of Gen X and Boomers who do vote control. IMO the people who voted for the child rapist did so because they were stupid enough to believe his campaign promises and ignore the dumpster fire of his first term. As absurd as it was, they expected him to make their daily lives better because he said only he can do it.

Things have gotten significantly worse for people since then and they're reminded of his bullshit every time they pay their rent, buy groceries, pay for their health insurance, and fill their tank, not to mention look at the news. I think even the most oblivious have noticed by now. One can hope, anyway.

There's no preparation because people believe it will not be necessary.

We could then have an armed uprising, since openly subverting what's left of this democracy would require widespread treason. I think a great deal of the population is holding their breath until the midterms.

More likely Gen Z and Millennials will believe Musk's $200 million propaganda push and fail to turn out in the numbers required to overcome the roadblocks the GOP have put in place, or the highly questionable results that our closed-source voting machines generate.

Gen Z + Millennial eligible voters total more than 100 million, Boomer voters total maybe 60 million and only 50% of that group voted for Trump.

If Gen Z & Millennials started voting en mass they'd completely overwhelm MAGA and conservative voters and their priorities would become national priorities. Hopefully they're sick enough of the Trump Show to actually head to the polls in great numbers come November.

I use AI for the CLI stuff I down have memorized. Linux is still frustrating

I had the same experience when I switched and it's funny how things change. Now I think people are forced to use Windows 11 in the ninth level of hell.

Thanks for that great write-up and link!

They were quite successful pushing me - directly to ebay. I'd rather spend more than to ever deal with AliExpress and their BS again.

And some, like the majority of SCOTUS judges will literally make stuff up so they can legislate from the bench as they've been ~~paid~~ bribed to do.

Not an exception. Minors cannot get married if they're under 18 in any state unless they get their parent's (or a court's) written approval. A minor cannot enter into a marriage contract by themselves.

Yet another reason to avoid AliExpress, as if we need more.

Their website makes it damn near impossible to make a purchase (buy 3 more for this deal!!!), changes prices when you put something in the cart, charges multiple times for shipping and then provides inaccurate tracking info once something finally ships. Last time I had a month's delay because everything sat for more than a week in the U.S. after clearing customs.

Never again.

I dealt with the same thing many times and it really helped me to understand what a malignant narcissist is: https://mindpsychiatrist.com/how-to-deal-with-a-malignant-narcissist-at-work/

Malignant narcissists see other human beings as nothing more than puppets. If a puppet isn't doing what they want (usually after some emotional abuse) they'll toss it aside and just get another puppet that will. These people are usually incapable of feeling empathy for others.

Sounds like your VP is a prime example.