aca – Tip The Driver

“While employers pay most of the costs of coverage, according to the survey, workers’ average contribution is now $6,000 for a family plan. That’s just their share of upfront premiums, and doesn’t include co-payments, deductibles and other forms of cost-sharing once they need care.” —That’s if you have an employer. If you’re self-employed you either pick a catastrophic plan, a bronze plan, neither of which cover very much, or pay a LOT more for Silver or Gold. Even then with Silver and Gold most things aren’t covered and you run into that deductible.

Here’s what I don’t get: places like Canada their health care costs are a tenth of what ours are for the same or better care. The US ranks around 20th in the world for quality of health care, so that idea republicans have that we have the best care simply isn’t true. How you “feel” doesn’t reflect reality. Like we all think our education is the best in the world, and that isn’t true, either. Both are very good, but how do countries with much longer life expectancies, with higher qualities of life, and more satisfaction manage to do it? Higher taxes. I don’t know, for me the trade-off is worth it. Americans are so greedy it’s sad. Instead of having the most people in the developed world die who could’ve been saved we choose profit. Instead of rehabilitating people who run afoul of our laws we choose to piss away tax dollars to lock them up. We have the highest incarceration rate in the world and with many prisons being for profit, you can see why. And those people are statistically more likely to hit that revolving door because we’d rather spend tax money to give to for profit prisons because it “feels better” to punish people, than to divert them to programs that are proven to work and end those cycles.

Mr. Medal of Freedom, Rush Limbaugh is a great example of that. He’s a hardliner when it comes to drug abuse. He says we should “put them in jail and throw away the key”. But having means, when he himself became addicted and got busted with illegal prescriptions wanted our compassion and understanding, then bought his way out of trouble. He now has no sympathy for other people without means in the same boat and still thinks we should lock them up and throw away the key. He’s a hypocrite. Especially when we know the programs he benefited from can actually work for other people, too, if they want the help. But, yeah, let’s keep pissing away tax dollars on things that don’t work to avoid spending them on things that do.

And Trump’s latest plan to gut the ACA further than he has, and to dismantle Social Security and Medicare to pay for his tax cuts to the top will only make the situation much worse. Everyone over 65 reading this probably gets one or both of those programs. If they go away completely you’d be fine? If so, why are you using either right now?

Using tax dollars in ways that make sense isn’t Socialism. Not even that Socialism is a dirty word. Republicans love using Venezuela as the ONLY example of what will happen to the United States if we take care of the poor, if we have decent free education, and make sure everyone has food, and medicine when they need it. It’s funny how you never use countries like Norway in your examples. Or New Zealand. Or Canada. Or Japan. Japan has one of the longest life expectancies on Earth, the lowest murder rate in the world, and somehow the people manage to make a decent living, and have pretty decent lives. But, yeah, let’s keep saying the US can only turn out to be like Venezuela. That assumes the majority of Americans are too stupid to go in any other direction. That sounds like a red state problem to me. The life expectancy in the United States is longer in Blue states with Connecticut having the longest life expectancy in America. Blue states also have lower crime rates, lower health problems, lower amounts of suicide, higher test scores, less teen pregnancy, less abortion, more college graduates, higher per capita GDP. We can do it if we all work together.

We just need to eliminate greed, and be willing to compromise and use some common sense,

So, since we last spoke, I did move. I moved to Stamford. Yaaaayyy!!! I’ve been working there for over a year now and driving back and forth from Bridgeport really sucked. Sure, it was only half an hour away, but still. I had to spend like $20 a day on gas to work out there. Why didn’t I get a job closer you ask? I tried. I looked everywhere near me, but the only thing I found were places like McD’s. No thanks. My last apartment was terrible. I hated it, my cats hated it, and living with those two losers was horrible. Worst 2 months of my life. I found a place right on the harbor in a good area less than a minute from work for $1250. It’s kind of pricey, but it’s carpeted, has two little balconies, it’s big inside, and in a really solid building that looks like it could take a direct hit from an EF-5 and still be standing. My cats love it, I love it, and I think my girlfriend loves it. Oh, did I not mention that? I have a sweetie. It’s official: I’m taken 😛
It’s been so long I don’t know what to write. The hours went down a little at this place, I work 12 to 2 then 5 to 10 6 days a week now. Sooooo my pay went down a little, too. I was making like $730 a week those first two weeks, but now I’d say I’m down to about $600 or so. Maybe a little less. It depends. Some nights suck, but it’s new, I’m being patient. A new round of ads is coming out next week or the week after wit a bunch of specials for delivery only, so maybe that’ll help. I’m trying to get the dog-walking thing going during the day again. It didn’t really work out last time, but there’s plenty of places near here to get a few customers. I did a website: http://www.iwalkdogs.net If I get ONE customer a day every day I’ll make like $450 minimum, $750 max a month just from that one dog. It’d depend on the type of walk they selected. Anyway, I’m hopefull, but I need to do more with the site and marketing.
Aaaanddd, I’m still doing college classes. Four of them. I’m way behind. As a matter of fact, that’s what I was doing before I started to write this, so let me get back to it. Oh, yeah, still working on the book. Not really. I need to write it. The easiest part of the process has me stalled. That just figures, right?

The Driver (Adam Smith)

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