I find it utterly hilarious and brain-meltingly stupid that Republicans seem to get together in a lab, brainstorm solutions, and their collective genius only ever lands on one answer: lie.
If they had their way, sick people would be left to die from lack of care, denied insurance outright for having the audacity to exist with “pre-existing conditions.”
It’s laughable in the extreme and yet the Cletie of the world (that’s clee-TIE, our modern evolutionary dead-end of Cletus) keep buying it. Unbelievable.
Oh boy, this set me off. ACA was broken day 1, when to get it passed, the penalty for not getting coverage, was stripped out. The economics would be improved if we forced everyone into the insured pool. We force drivers to have auto insurance, why not for health insurance.
Remember. Republicans never wanted the ACA, and did what they could for getting the penalty eliminated, thank you Republican tax cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. This is, has, and always been the Republicans plan, eliminate a Federal health care plan. Pull yourselves up by the bootstraps is their mantra, provided those pulling the bootstraps are wealthy connected people.
Katherine - Republicans can point to flaws in the ACA because they've worked SO hard to put them there! When they realized they couldn't stop it, they've spent years pouring sand in the gears, sugar in the gas tank, whatever expression we choose for "F it up."
I've long maintained that Republicans shriek that government doesn't work, and they beg to get elected so they can prove it to us.
Basic math: insurance works best when all pay in and participate. That's why s-canning the ACA now- at the hight of its functionality- is insanity. But that's where we are, TrumpWorld all over again.
The penalty wasn’t removed until 2017 and didn’t take effect until 2019.
The 5-4 SCOTUS ruling that upheld the ACA was about whether the government can force citizens to buy coverage, and John Robert broke the tie by declaring the penalty to be a tax.
The only reason Obama proposed the Affordable Care Act was because he thought he could get Republican buy in. It was essentially the Republican Mitt Romney free market plan. But because Mitch vowed to stop all things Obama the repubs disowned their own plan. The mistakes Democrats keep making is thinking Republicans ever negotiate in good faith.
You got it, that’s how it went and I have a photo of those dumbass gop jackasses after the 70th loss in court about just this, they lost, morons everyone of them. I wish we could post photos here.
I don’t see what the problem is. Trump had a “terrific healthcare plan” what was it, 9 years ago.
Stefanik ran her first two campaigns on repeal and replace and the cynicism still pisses me off. Republicans would pass legislation to repeal, that would go to Obama for his veto so they never had to worry about the replace part of the slogan. Until 2017 that worked smoothly.
I got on ACA from the start and paid nothing some years. Even years when I paid it was a lot less than COBRA.
You're very lucky. When my husband lost his job in 2018 and we lost his corporate insurance, I about had a heart attack when I tried to sign up for the ACA. The cheapest plan was $2600/month that paid nothing until reaching a $14,000 deductible. A plan with copays was $3600/month, also $14k deductible. Obviously we couldn't afford that. My husband couldn't find another job so i had to close my small business that I loved and go back to working for a big company just to get affordable insurance.
Yeah I'm in Tennessee where politicians would be fine with citizens just dropping dead from no health care. It also gets a LOT more expensive the older you get. At the time I was in my early 50s and my husband was 60. I have a mediocre income too but it was still too much for subsidies back then!
Two weeks after midterms, only if the Republicans win, will we see the new, improved health care bill. It consists of a bottle of aspirin and a box of band-aids. Thank you MAGA voters! /s
For a "reasonable" price, someone from a ministry affiliated with the Heritage Foundation will come to your house and lay hands directly on you for 5 minutes of prayer. Please leave all your drawers containing valuables open and unlocked.
Couple months ago, I had to gently chastise someone on another thread who referred unknowingly to the fascist Stephen Miler as "Steve." Had to remind them that "Steve Miller" has been a well respected musician and songwriter for many decades. Totally unlike "barbaric baldy" on the White House staff.
Oh my gods, the ACA *IS THE CONSERVATIVE PLAN*! It's literally based on Mitt Romney's plan! Republicans just hate that it was passed by a Democrat, have done everything they can to sabotage it. No currently serving Republican has any earthly idea what would even be involved in coming up with a 'replacement', because they have never actually given a shit about the health of the masses.
It's so interesting that Mike Johnson keep saying they're working around the clock to make health care available. He has sent the House home until October 14th so there is no chance for them to work on anything!
Joe has the right answer: Medicare for Y'all. When people say we can't afford it, I like to point out that WE'RE ALREADY PAYING IT. Imagine if the fortunes that now go to CEOs, PBMs, medical coders for 50 different forms, and people in cubicles to deny your care went to providers and were paid for with a tax increase commensurate with your income. No more silly subsidies, no Medicaid, no uncompensated care causing hospitals to close.
Every other country on earth can do it. Are we just too stupid? (Don't answer that.)
And we pay for it through poor access as those without healthcare still must be seen , thankfully. Most medical groups bleed money in their ERs as it is actually a shitty version of Medicare for All.
Let us remember that we hear nothing but lies from Trump and many of his loyalists. Do you remember the big empty book - said to be the new health care plan in 2020? Even yesterday - Trump looked right into the camera and lied that he forgot who Ghislaine Maxwell was .
The corruption and lies continue. Let's see the Epstein files and the pedophiles in government exposed!
I wonder if the Iowa farmers really feel good about the proposed bail out that the Chinese tariffs caused? Wreck things then apply small fixes and claim to be a hero - and demand a prize - like a Nobel peace prize. Give me a break from all the drama and corruption of Trump, Bondi, Noem, Patel, Hegseth, Miller, Vought, Homan, Carr, Graham, Jordan, Lake, and the list goes on.
We had a great country before this administration.
Let me guess, Republicans will rediscover medical savings plans, will allow insurers to offer bare-bones plans that can again exclude preexisting conditions and set annual and lifetime caps on coverage and they will allow sale of insurance across state lines in a race to the bottom to pretend that they reduced the cost of health care. Premiums might appear to go down, but health care as in treatment cost will not and the number of uninsured/under-insured will again skyrocket. That will all be in a world where fewer and fewer MAGAs get vaccinated so infectious disease will also be making a comeback.
I keep waiting for someone -- anyone -- to respond to R comments with a request for specifics and/or evidence. ACA 'doesn't work, never will'? Americans don't like it? Ahem -- EVIDENCE please? No wonder the R's have learned to tell nothing but lies... nobody ever seems to ask them for relevant information.
But when they are asked relevant questions, they don’t answer. They don’t necessarily lie, just stop talking and move away. Then a spokesperson steps in to tell the lie of what the representative/senator meant.
Listen to Bernie. He has had it right for a long time now. Universal health care is the only fair and efficient and charitable way to go. Other prosperous countries do it. Why should we in America think we know better? Oh yeah, that's because big money and lobbyists don't want it. Well too bad. We, the people, do.
The solution is obvious to anyone familiar with how other countries do it: socialized medicine. Socialized medicine is just like the other kind, except it's better and cheaper. But we're "real 'Merikans," we can't have that. That would be so awful life would hardly be worth living.
I knew our health care was broken quite a few years ago, after my daughter lived in Scotland for graduate school. She didn't have to worry about health care while she was there. When she got home, she needed to buy health insurance. She was young and healthy, except for a couple of problems. Sometimes she got migraines. And she sometimes had back pain, because she had once been a dance major in college and overstressed it. When she applied for insurance, she disclosed these conditions. Nobody would insure her. I don't mean she had to pay a little more because of these preexisting conditions. I mean, no company would sell her health insurance, period, at any price.
She was forced to live without it until Obamacare was passed. In the past many years, have these preexisting conditions ever led to some very expensive interventions? No. But no American insurance company was willing to take the chance. Don't forget how bad is was before Obamacare. It's still not as good as in many other countries, but it's better than it was. If American voters were smarter, we could have a health care system as good as maybe 50 other countries around the world, and pay less for it. But I have below-average rocks in my yard that are smarter than the average American voter.
every now and then a blind pig finds an acorn...greene is right, insurance is a scam. The health care system is not based on outcomes, it is based on profits over people...CEO's are raking in millions and providing ZERO healthcare to the insured...there's a good place to start...
My health insurance is a plus one that is $832 a month,,,I'd rather take that money and pay into a universal health care system...this country is the only indidtrialized nation without UHC..why? Because in the US we monitize everything...capitalism has its limits
>>> " I found my social feeds full of sycophantic, uncritical reviews."
Nah! Common, man, sycophantic?
That implies one is sucking up to get an advantage, what is the advantage in liking something that is (*gasp*) popular with others?
As a 'Swifty' by marriage, and recovering stoner rock / nu metal ride or die, the Life of a Show Girl is fantastic. I'm here for her leaning more into funk, R&B, and rock and roll. The Fate of Ophelia, Elizabeth Taylor, Oppilate, Actually Romantic, and Wood all slap. 10/10.
>>> "I’d like to suggest that you should value quality criticism, whether of books, albums, movies, or any other form of cultural production. Good criticism makes art better, and it creates better conversations about the art we already have."
Agree regarding quality criticism... but disagree with your example.
McKinney discloses upfront an outright opposition to Swifts commercialism and then sort of belabors that point repetitiously throughout. But it is not an essential law of music that as sales go up quality goes down. Things that are good sometimes sell well, you know. Swift is a capitalist queen. Sure, fine, McKinney is annoyed by that. What about the music though? McKinney complains about whether or not Taylor is getting Hamlet right. What about the music though?
What makes quality criticism?
First of all, being different does not make you better. And while you mentioned "sycophantic" reviews earlier, there's also "contrarian" reviews that are also bids for clicks by taking the opposite strategy of tacking into the wind. Different in and of itself isn't better. I say that as former (recovered) contrarian edgelord.
Second, what I value in quality criticism is when the critic can ground their criticism in the scene and in the parts of music I do not understand, explain the techniques and how they work (or don't), etc.
-I want a critic to explain how the album fits in the artist's discography (McKinney doesn't really, she mentions her previous two Albums, but mostly as a piece of her overall criticism of Swifts commercialism, which again is not about how the music stands on its own).
-I want a critic to explain how the album fits into the genre; does it cross genre? Is it influenced by contemporary artists (Sabrina Carpenter is all over this album, Max Martin and Shellback are bringing hot fire, in my opinion; but what is McKinney's? She doesn't say!).
-I want the critic to tell me what to listen to next (The only other artist's work she references is Beyonce's Lemonade!! It's sinful malpractice to reach past Cowboy Carter if we're going to Queen B, damn't, Perticone!!).
Fourth, and ultimately, media criticism is all taste making and opinion. People like what they like. I know what I like, and I know which critics have steered me to stuff I like. So, thank you, I now know to ignore McKinney. Conversely, I know that if you look at me and you say, "Man, I do not understand how you can say Chopin is the Slipknot of the 19th century," you probably shouldn't listen to my opinions.
I find it utterly hilarious and brain-meltingly stupid that Republicans seem to get together in a lab, brainstorm solutions, and their collective genius only ever lands on one answer: lie.
If they had their way, sick people would be left to die from lack of care, denied insurance outright for having the audacity to exist with “pre-existing conditions.”
It’s laughable in the extreme and yet the Cletie of the world (that’s clee-TIE, our modern evolutionary dead-end of Cletus) keep buying it. Unbelievable.
That's exactly it. Survival of the fittest and what RFKjr is all about.
Oh boy, this set me off. ACA was broken day 1, when to get it passed, the penalty for not getting coverage, was stripped out. The economics would be improved if we forced everyone into the insured pool. We force drivers to have auto insurance, why not for health insurance.
Remember. Republicans never wanted the ACA, and did what they could for getting the penalty eliminated, thank you Republican tax cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. This is, has, and always been the Republicans plan, eliminate a Federal health care plan. Pull yourselves up by the bootstraps is their mantra, provided those pulling the bootstraps are wealthy connected people.
Katherine - Republicans can point to flaws in the ACA because they've worked SO hard to put them there! When they realized they couldn't stop it, they've spent years pouring sand in the gears, sugar in the gas tank, whatever expression we choose for "F it up."
I've long maintained that Republicans shriek that government doesn't work, and they beg to get elected so they can prove it to us.
Perfect comment.👏❤️
Basic math: insurance works best when all pay in and participate. That's why s-canning the ACA now- at the hight of its functionality- is insanity. But that's where we are, TrumpWorld all over again.
The penalty wasn’t removed until 2017 and didn’t take effect until 2019.
The 5-4 SCOTUS ruling that upheld the ACA was about whether the government can force citizens to buy coverage, and John Robert broke the tie by declaring the penalty to be a tax.
The only reason Obama proposed the Affordable Care Act was because he thought he could get Republican buy in. It was essentially the Republican Mitt Romney free market plan. But because Mitch vowed to stop all things Obama the repubs disowned their own plan. The mistakes Democrats keep making is thinking Republicans ever negotiate in good faith.
the original plan came from the heritage foundation...romney implemented the plan in Mass...with great success
You got it, that’s how it went and I have a photo of those dumbass gop jackasses after the 70th loss in court about just this, they lost, morons everyone of them. I wish we could post photos here.
I think I’m gonna paraphrase Ronald Reagan from the 1980 debate with Jimmy Carter, which I remember very well: “There they go again”.
I don’t see what the problem is. Trump had a “terrific healthcare plan” what was it, 9 years ago.
Stefanik ran her first two campaigns on repeal and replace and the cynicism still pisses me off. Republicans would pass legislation to repeal, that would go to Obama for his veto so they never had to worry about the replace part of the slogan. Until 2017 that worked smoothly.
I got on ACA from the start and paid nothing some years. Even years when I paid it was a lot less than COBRA.
You're very lucky. When my husband lost his job in 2018 and we lost his corporate insurance, I about had a heart attack when I tried to sign up for the ACA. The cheapest plan was $2600/month that paid nothing until reaching a $14,000 deductible. A plan with copays was $3600/month, also $14k deductible. Obviously we couldn't afford that. My husband couldn't find another job so i had to close my small business that I loved and go back to working for a big company just to get affordable insurance.
I’m in NY State. All I can think is that the state made a difference. I hate thinking about or dealing with any kind of insurance.
I’ve also always had a mediocre income. 😀
Yeah I'm in Tennessee where politicians would be fine with citizens just dropping dead from no health care. It also gets a LOT more expensive the older you get. At the time I was in my early 50s and my husband was 60. I have a mediocre income too but it was still too much for subsidies back then!
Two weeks after midterms, only if the Republicans win, will we see the new, improved health care bill. It consists of a bottle of aspirin and a box of band-aids. Thank you MAGA voters! /s
...with a heaping helping of "pray it away" 😉
For a "reasonable" price, someone from a ministry affiliated with the Heritage Foundation will come to your house and lay hands directly on you for 5 minutes of prayer. Please leave all your drawers containing valuables open and unlocked.
You just made me proud to be a Steve!
Somebody has to do it. Why not you and me?
Couple months ago, I had to gently chastise someone on another thread who referred unknowingly to the fascist Stephen Miler as "Steve." Had to remind them that "Steve Miller" has been a well respected musician and songwriter for many decades. Totally unlike "barbaric baldy" on the White House staff.
Conversion therapy is about to be free though! And mandatory.
+1. You left out the baling wire and duct tape. ;-)
That’s the prime package not the regular package.
And no Tylenol allowed!
Oh my gods, the ACA *IS THE CONSERVATIVE PLAN*! It's literally based on Mitt Romney's plan! Republicans just hate that it was passed by a Democrat, have done everything they can to sabotage it. No currently serving Republican has any earthly idea what would even be involved in coming up with a 'replacement', because they have never actually given a shit about the health of the masses.
It's so interesting that Mike Johnson keep saying they're working around the clock to make health care available. He has sent the House home until October 14th so there is no chance for them to work on anything!
Actually it's more frustrating than interesting.
Joe has the right answer: Medicare for Y'all. When people say we can't afford it, I like to point out that WE'RE ALREADY PAYING IT. Imagine if the fortunes that now go to CEOs, PBMs, medical coders for 50 different forms, and people in cubicles to deny your care went to providers and were paid for with a tax increase commensurate with your income. No more silly subsidies, no Medicaid, no uncompensated care causing hospitals to close.
Every other country on earth can do it. Are we just too stupid? (Don't answer that.)
And we pay for it through poor access as those without healthcare still must be seen , thankfully. Most medical groups bleed money in their ERs as it is actually a shitty version of Medicare for All.
"...a shitty version of Medicare for All. "
I love this! It's such a perfect description of EMTALA. I'm stealing it.
Let us remember that we hear nothing but lies from Trump and many of his loyalists. Do you remember the big empty book - said to be the new health care plan in 2020? Even yesterday - Trump looked right into the camera and lied that he forgot who Ghislaine Maxwell was .
The corruption and lies continue. Let's see the Epstein files and the pedophiles in government exposed!
I wonder if the Iowa farmers really feel good about the proposed bail out that the Chinese tariffs caused? Wreck things then apply small fixes and claim to be a hero - and demand a prize - like a Nobel peace prize. Give me a break from all the drama and corruption of Trump, Bondi, Noem, Patel, Hegseth, Miller, Vought, Homan, Carr, Graham, Jordan, Lake, and the list goes on.
We had a great country before this administration.
trump always looks directly into the camera and lies.
Let me guess, Republicans will rediscover medical savings plans, will allow insurers to offer bare-bones plans that can again exclude preexisting conditions and set annual and lifetime caps on coverage and they will allow sale of insurance across state lines in a race to the bottom to pretend that they reduced the cost of health care. Premiums might appear to go down, but health care as in treatment cost will not and the number of uninsured/under-insured will again skyrocket. That will all be in a world where fewer and fewer MAGAs get vaccinated so infectious disease will also be making a comeback.
Are we great again yet?
I keep waiting for someone -- anyone -- to respond to R comments with a request for specifics and/or evidence. ACA 'doesn't work, never will'? Americans don't like it? Ahem -- EVIDENCE please? No wonder the R's have learned to tell nothing but lies... nobody ever seems to ask them for relevant information.
But when they are asked relevant questions, they don’t answer. They don’t necessarily lie, just stop talking and move away. Then a spokesperson steps in to tell the lie of what the representative/senator meant.
Listen to Bernie. He has had it right for a long time now. Universal health care is the only fair and efficient and charitable way to go. Other prosperous countries do it. Why should we in America think we know better? Oh yeah, that's because big money and lobbyists don't want it. Well too bad. We, the people, do.
The solution is obvious to anyone familiar with how other countries do it: socialized medicine. Socialized medicine is just like the other kind, except it's better and cheaper. But we're "real 'Merikans," we can't have that. That would be so awful life would hardly be worth living.
I knew our health care was broken quite a few years ago, after my daughter lived in Scotland for graduate school. She didn't have to worry about health care while she was there. When she got home, she needed to buy health insurance. She was young and healthy, except for a couple of problems. Sometimes she got migraines. And she sometimes had back pain, because she had once been a dance major in college and overstressed it. When she applied for insurance, she disclosed these conditions. Nobody would insure her. I don't mean she had to pay a little more because of these preexisting conditions. I mean, no company would sell her health insurance, period, at any price.
She was forced to live without it until Obamacare was passed. In the past many years, have these preexisting conditions ever led to some very expensive interventions? No. But no American insurance company was willing to take the chance. Don't forget how bad is was before Obamacare. It's still not as good as in many other countries, but it's better than it was. If American voters were smarter, we could have a health care system as good as maybe 50 other countries around the world, and pay less for it. But I have below-average rocks in my yard that are smarter than the average American voter.
every now and then a blind pig finds an acorn...greene is right, insurance is a scam. The health care system is not based on outcomes, it is based on profits over people...CEO's are raking in millions and providing ZERO healthcare to the insured...there's a good place to start...
My health insurance is a plus one that is $832 a month,,,I'd rather take that money and pay into a universal health care system...this country is the only indidtrialized nation without UHC..why? Because in the US we monitize everything...capitalism has its limits
>>> " I found my social feeds full of sycophantic, uncritical reviews."
Nah! Common, man, sycophantic?
That implies one is sucking up to get an advantage, what is the advantage in liking something that is (*gasp*) popular with others?
As a 'Swifty' by marriage, and recovering stoner rock / nu metal ride or die, the Life of a Show Girl is fantastic. I'm here for her leaning more into funk, R&B, and rock and roll. The Fate of Ophelia, Elizabeth Taylor, Oppilate, Actually Romantic, and Wood all slap. 10/10.
>>> "I’d like to suggest that you should value quality criticism, whether of books, albums, movies, or any other form of cultural production. Good criticism makes art better, and it creates better conversations about the art we already have."
Agree regarding quality criticism... but disagree with your example.
McKinney discloses upfront an outright opposition to Swifts commercialism and then sort of belabors that point repetitiously throughout. But it is not an essential law of music that as sales go up quality goes down. Things that are good sometimes sell well, you know. Swift is a capitalist queen. Sure, fine, McKinney is annoyed by that. What about the music though? McKinney complains about whether or not Taylor is getting Hamlet right. What about the music though?
What makes quality criticism?
First of all, being different does not make you better. And while you mentioned "sycophantic" reviews earlier, there's also "contrarian" reviews that are also bids for clicks by taking the opposite strategy of tacking into the wind. Different in and of itself isn't better. I say that as former (recovered) contrarian edgelord.
Second, what I value in quality criticism is when the critic can ground their criticism in the scene and in the parts of music I do not understand, explain the techniques and how they work (or don't), etc.
-I want a critic to explain how the album fits in the artist's discography (McKinney doesn't really, she mentions her previous two Albums, but mostly as a piece of her overall criticism of Swifts commercialism, which again is not about how the music stands on its own).
-I want a critic to explain how the album fits into the genre; does it cross genre? Is it influenced by contemporary artists (Sabrina Carpenter is all over this album, Max Martin and Shellback are bringing hot fire, in my opinion; but what is McKinney's? She doesn't say!).
-I want the critic to tell me what to listen to next (The only other artist's work she references is Beyonce's Lemonade!! It's sinful malpractice to reach past Cowboy Carter if we're going to Queen B, damn't, Perticone!!).
Fourth, and ultimately, media criticism is all taste making and opinion. People like what they like. I know what I like, and I know which critics have steered me to stuff I like. So, thank you, I now know to ignore McKinney. Conversely, I know that if you look at me and you say, "Man, I do not understand how you can say Chopin is the Slipknot of the 19th century," you probably shouldn't listen to my opinions.