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Thread: OT: Politics

  1. #791
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    Shouldn't really be surprise to anyone who's familiar with cognitive biases.

    http://www.psypost.org/2018/04/study...politics-51062

  2. #792

  3. #793
    Opinions don't matter...cash does...just ask Mick

  4. #794
    Insider Unfated33's Avatar
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    I think I mentioned earlier in the Politics thread my frustration with mental health services in the United States right now. I just wanted to repeat that frustration.

    My family sits somewhere in the bound of upper middle class to upper class - wife and I are both college educated and have engineering/tech jobs. I've sat in a management chair for about five years now; we're both well compensated. We both have insurance through work - mine is honestly pretty crappy policy but my wife's (and covers our children) is a very good plan.

    So far for the 2018 calendar year, we have spent pennies under $60,000 out of pocket costs for mental health of one of our dependents. I have every expectation that this might double or more before the year is out. Our very good insurance covers a surprising lot, but still many services that are required to help our dependent are only modestly covered or not covered at all, and we're required to meet balance of payments. Not only is care expensive, but availability of care in the southeast is almost non-existent. It was actually cheaper and faster to get our dependent care by flying her to California - that sped up the treatment by 4 weeks and cut the out of pocket costs by roughly 60% compared to getting services "nearby". Nearby is relative, because the two closest facilities were still more than five hours away from our home. The most expensive facility we talked to in California was still $14k cheaper than the most expensive facility in Massachusetts. A facility in Wisconsin wouldn't even discuss the high costs with us when they determined that they were out-of-network for our insurance. Another facility would only accept our dependent if they stayed in an intensive inpatient facility (usually set up to hold people for under a week) for 4+ weeks to allow direct discharge from a hospital to treatment center - and on top of those high restrictions, would not discuss pricing.

    I really don't want to get into too much detail, but many of the places we could find on the east coast had worse resources and conditions, higher client-to-staff ratios, and significantly worse review scores. And the local medical staff that we were working with could not help make positive recommendations (plenty of places local that they discouraged and would not recommend) unless we were willing to fly Northeast, Midwest, or West Coast. Which means, on top of all the other costs that are specifically medical, we're absorbing some travel and living expenses for any time we want to support our dependent in person.

    When I'm not living in the middle of this, I just look at it and think this is insane. If we weren't in the financial position we are, I don't know what we would have done to afford care. Plus take time off work and travel repeatedly on short notice. Nor could we really afford to wait 4 weeks without any treatment - when we initially confronted the hospital about this, they suggested we continue to bring the dependent back to the emergency room for care as needed until a treatment spot opened up. Nearly every facility we spoke to on the east coast was the same story - too many kids, too long of lines, unhappy staff, poor quality of care. A common factor is that most of these states have excessively privatized their mental health services. In North Carolina, we repeatedly complained that no person treated our depended as a whole person - one person looked at one narrow issue, another a separate item, and they would not talk even when we signed disclosure forms to allow them to do so. When there was a conflict of care between two specialists - and this happened a lot - both would retreat and ask us what to do next rather than provide medical guidance on what was best for the dependent. You can't get centralized, coordinated care because every care provider is a specialized independent contractor. Not to mention, many of those contractors that work within the hospital systems here won't even talk to parents directly, instead requiring a doctor to provide direct referrals to their independent specialty practice. This includes refusing to answer a basic question like, "Can you tell me what services your practice provides?" I can't even count the number of times these specialty practices would then refer us to other specialty practices saying the treatment our dependent required was not a right fit for their specific service.

    Along the way, we have met a lot of other angry parents. Every parent experiencing this that we met felt like the system is failing them. And I don't see this getting better any time soon. This is hard, crushing, and the mental health industry as it is set up today just makes everything worse. I sincerely hope most people never have to experience this part of the medical system.

  5. #795
    Insider PBSteve's Avatar
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    But why should I have to pay for _________?

    If anyone has a response for this complete abdication of civic responsibility I'd love to hear it.
    Ever so many citizens of this republic think they ought to believe that the Universe is a monarchy, and therefore they are always at odds with the republic. -Alan Watts

    I work for the company building the Paragon

  6. #796
    Insider PBSteve's Avatar
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    Welp, Mr. Trump just set the liberalization of Iran back 10 years.

    Funny how the yeehawd aligns so well with Islamic hardliners.

    https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/09/middl...ntl/index.html
    Ever so many citizens of this republic think they ought to believe that the Universe is a monarchy, and therefore they are always at odds with the republic. -Alan Watts

    I work for the company building the Paragon

  7. #797
    he also shot himself in the foot over north korea
    social conservatism: the mortal fear that someone, somewhere, might be having fun.

  8. #798
    sooo ....

    senate passes net neutrality bill (dead in the house and white house)
    NK pulls out of talks, and threatens to pull out of talks with trump (no shit, trump being played like a fiddle)
    trump admits in his financial disclosure filings to having paid cohen to pay stormy Daniels



    is it funny that i honestly think the information that brings trump down has a realistic chance of actually being uncovered by the stormy daniels case, not the mueller investigation? it would be the greatest irony of the most ironic presidency to have trump brought down by stormy daniels.
    Last edited by cockerpunk; 05-16-2018 at 02:12 PM.
    social conservatism: the mortal fear that someone, somewhere, might be having fun.

  9. #799
    trump is getting played. god he is pathetic. NK has no desire to give up there nukes, the only reason they are talking now is because there testing facility failed. the second they can start testing again they will. in the meantime trump is so desperate for a "win" that he is selling us out in a desperate plea against NK

    https://americanmilitarynews.com/201...-korean-angst/
    social conservatism: the mortal fear that someone, somewhere, might be having fun.

  10. #800
    Insider PBSteve's Avatar
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    "Terrifying new nuclear threat is here".

    That's Fox's headline for adding tactical nuclear capabilities to the F-35.

    http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2018/05/...-here.amp.html

    The original title for the article is "Air Force F-35 Integrates Precision-Guided B61 Mod 12 Nuclear Weapon"

    They've really been stepping up their fear-monger game lately, it would seem Clinton clickbait isn't getting the clicks it used to.
    Ever so many citizens of this republic think they ought to believe that the Universe is a monarchy, and therefore they are always at odds with the republic. -Alan Watts

    I work for the company building the Paragon

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