US Senate lights a 'Russian Sanctions' fire cracker for Congress to put under TRump's seat.

Obummer care has just about ruined American working class people. Were it not for the VA ( shitty as it is) I would be dead, or a vegetable. I still got sued, and had my credit destroyed all while every one fought over who would pay for what and how much and sent me the bills totaling over 100 grand. I had to sue to get my credit cleared which took several years! Now I self insure to the tune of almost a grand a month as a self employed person. None of it is affordable! DO not get me started on the VA either!!!

 

@Motomom34 There! See? And, it is not just ObamaCare! But, don't get me wrong, Obamacare did nothing for the person but make a bad situation worse, a lot worse. And, I have a good belly laugh when I think of the bill's title; The Affordable Healthcare Act. Yeah...my affordable backside. I know the system after digging into it for months since I returned stateside but it is crap, made for nothing more than to give the insurance companies more monies. However, if you are poor (based on yearly income) it is really good which doesn't jive because it is only good if your poor but if you make one dollar more - bingo! And, I mean a big BINGO! One would think that your policy would just increase in cost - no. The policy completely changes! This is what I still don't understand but the total cost of the policy is about the same - say $1500 - for example, but what is covered and the deductible is 1000X different. So, on Obamacare as a poor person (income of ~$20,000 or less) one gets a decent medical insurance plan which cost ~$100-200 a month with a deductible of maybe $200 but make say $30,000 and lo and behold! Deductible is $14,000 and cost is $1200-$1500. But, of course this is so absurd that you or no one else will believe but it is true, 100% true. Affordable Healthcare Act my buttocks!

Anyway, screw it. I read that they are trying to NOT persecute any of us non-believers that do not hold medical insurance thanks to the Trump administration requesting all agencies make all allowances within the current law that they possibly can until they can get the law changed. Is that real? Probably not, probably propaganda. So, we are in the same boat as you. Without medical coverage in this country it is like holding a loaded gun to your head for if you get sick you are totally blown away. The costs are so high and what are you going to do? Die? Let your kids, wife or husband die? No? But, let's buy a few more aircraft carriers or a trillion dollars worth of F-35s or give another $70 billion in foreign aid or a $100 million for basket weaving... Yeah, let's keep hoping that the free enterprise will wake up and fix it or Jesus will return because I think we have hell'va better chance of Jesus coming for a visit before anything changes in this country. Single Payer is not perfect but it is something and would give the taxpayer back something and if it doesn't get done while Trump's in office then it will never happen...but I will miss driver that F-35 around town.

 

Ya know chel this and all the other similar "?attack?" post ya recently made...might have gone over better...

except the resent shooting thing with the GOP politicians...

add the violence the left leaning types SEEM to keep callin for

kinda makes these post...

at least for me... fall pretty flat... just sayin... ya know...

 

No worries about thread derailment...I know that healthcare is a sensitive issue among Americans, given that it is so expensive, and those who are uninsured don't have many options. I am sure that it is a powerful recruitment selling point for the military...that and GI Bill education, post discharge.

Australia has a blend of private and public healthcare.

Rather than try to explain how the Australian health care system works, the following link explains it very comprehensively...in less than 200kb. http://www.aihw.gov.au/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=60129547593

I have been at different times been treated as a private and as a public patient. When I accidentally mashed two of my fingers with my lawn mower blades...micro surgery was performed to repair the damage (such that it would be difficult to tell that they had been badly lacerated, was on an IV anti -biotic drip for some 4 days whilst accommodated in a public ward, and received physiotherapy to regain lost functionality in my fingers...which cost me...nothing. When I came back to have the sutures removed, I started having acute kidney pains...they sent me to imaging, and administered pain relief (I was passing a kidney stone at the time)...all costs were borne by medicare...cost to me...nothing.



I was admitted to hospital with vertigo (consequence of a middle ear infection....gave me an MRI and put on an IV antibiotic drip, admitted to a ward overnight and discharged late the following day...all costs were met by Medicare...cost to me...nil.

Had a head on collision with another car....some 5 days in hospital...costs met by medicare (though they recovered costs from the vehicle insurer) cost to me...nil.

As a pedestrian, was hit by a car...fortunately with no fractures, but with considerable soft tissue damage...about 5 days in hospital...in a private room...cost to me...nil

Now, it would seem to some that I appear to be a free rider, but a portion of my income tax contributes to the general revenue from which the State health services cover their operating costs with. I have been paying my income taxes all of my working life. Being a fit and generally healthy person (apart from a series of unfortunate accidents), over the past 45+ years, my reliance on public health services has been quite modest. So, I and other tax payers have been contributing some a portion of income tax, from which public health services in Australia are funded...I never fear being denied medically necessary treatment, nor being personally bankrupted by the cost of that treatment....but one of many reasons I won't be surrendering my Australian citizenship.

 

What can I say....If you want to pursue the Clinton / Ukraine connection....that's fine by me.....start your own thread on that topic....but it has little to do with the recent Congressional vote on Iran/Russian sanctions, or its effect on the present White House's foreign policy with Russia. Talking about the legislative arm of government doing its bit of checking and balancing White House foreign policy wheeling and dealing might have been more relevant....however, if you still wish to indulge in some conspiracy theorising, why not explore Kushner's alleged "back channel with Russia" Kushner’s alleged Russia back-channel attempt would be serious break from protocol again...in a separate thread.

1. Yes, the sanctions are in relation to Russia's de facto annexation of parts of The Ukraine, using largely ethnic Russian proxies...however, the Legislative arm, by sponsoring the omnibus sanctions bill, are flexing their power of checks and balances against the White House's potential exercise of irresponsible executive power in pursuit of its foreign policy agenda. The high degree of bipartisan support for this Bill, is quite unusual, given the recent political climate. Perhaps we shall see more of it, should the El Presidente go rogue.

2. An irrelevant non sequitur, with just a touch of ad hominem thrown in for good measure...but if it helps relieve your distress, that's fine by me...

I'm not sure that there was much, if any moratorium, on belittling and disparaging Democrats / 'liberals' / left wing - socialists when some nutter decided to 'brass up' Gabrielle Giffords and others in Tucson (2011)...resulting in 6 deaths and some dozen or so other casualties. 2011 Tucson shooting - Wikipedia I'm not sure why you seem to feel that Donald Trump should be cut some slack on the weird things that he does...simply because someone somewhere, decides to terminate with extreme prejudice, some baseball playing Republican legislators?

I'm doubtful that you would find much, if any favour with most anything, I post...I don't make any special effort to curry favour with you or pretty much anyone else when it comes to it...just to fit in as a compliant, conforming, normative monkey. I do however endeavour not to contravene the site's CoC. If you find that my posts leave you flat...that's hardly my problem...I can live with that.

 

You can thank Dumbo and Ms. "We have to pass it before we know what's in it" for that. All of this is their policies coming home to roost. Before Dumbocare EVERYONE had access to medical aid. It was a federal law that no one could be turned away by a hospital. But they had to cram this shit up our asses and out our throats nonetheless. I never had a problem with medical insurance prices before. Now it costs out the ass and my wife is in the medical profession. Our big saving grace is that our doctor friends will call in scripts or take care of any issues not requiring a hospital stay by just stopping by the house. Prices would be affordable and would stabilize if the AHCA were shit canned and the insurance companies set maximum prices they would pay for procedures just like Medicare does. A HMO says that a Cat Scan costs $2,500.00. Medicare tells them they can only charge $800.00 or they won't pay. The HMO will back down every time because they don't want to lose the Medicare money. I know this to be true first hand. Also, for you folks on medicare ONLY, start looking at those bills from your healthcare provider. They will in many cases try and pass that extra on to your bill, but legally cannot. The wife's uncle has some serious medical issues right now. Every time he goes into the doctor and pays his copay he calls the medicare hotline after. 9 TIMES OUT OF 10 the provider has him pay more than medicare will allow. Medicare then calls said provider and demands they issue a refund. He does this every time and they have to issue a refund. Problem is most folks don't know about this so they just pay what they are told they owe..

 

To get us back on topic, how about this:
The Ukraine is not our business and WE should put a stop to being the entire world's unpaid police force.