Just need to vent...

I have a buddy who lives out in the boonies in Colorado so his only choice for internet was Hughesnet for year. Finally, StarLink upgraded and, now, he's enjoying real high-speeds.

I'm, still, using my Xfinity cable for high-speed but will probably switch to StarLink when I retire as we have a camper and StarLink has plans for campers.....can be WAY out in the Rocky Mountains and have high-speed internet/phone/emails. Elon has been working on a cell phone that will run off his Starlink network and that would be a game-changer for the industry, for sure.

 

What's the deal modernly with so few medical doctors working as general practitioners that you go visit once a year - or if some odd thing comes up. Seems like you're lucky to get a nurse practitioner.
Thank God the health is still holding up at age 70, knock on wood.

 

It’s the lack of doctors due to the lack of medical schools, and the cost of undergrad and then medical school.

 

Yet there are nearly as many chiropractors on every corner as there are pot dispensaries

 

That may be a matter of doc to patient ratio, and or a less costly route to the top.
This has been tossed around for decades, with little action being taken

 

I like to tell people that hurricanes and other widespread disasters accelerate trends that are already underway.
According to the Googles there is a doctor shortage - but that doesn't MEAN that there are fewer doctors.
In fact....In 2026, there are MORE doctors than in the last number of years but the country is simultaneously facing a growing shortage because the increase in supply is not keeping pace with surging patient demand.
The ACA is the man-made disaster that wrecked the medical industry - or more precisely it wrecked the insurance industry.
The combination of these two things is driving more and more docs to specialize, and leaving a vacuum that is being filled by 'not-quite-docs.'

Americans tend to be overfed, badly fed and woefully inactive.
That incentivizes doctor-doctors to be chiropractors instead of GPs.
Frankly, you're much better off going to a NP - they can direct you to the specialists of the day.

I was in a Dollah Sto just yesterday evening and there was a large display of "Little Debbie" snack cakes just inside the front door with a large sign stating that they are SNAP EBT eligible.

Lather.
Rinse.
Repeat.

 

Agreed, I never said there were less doctors.
More specialists due to income levels too

 

I miss the day when in High School if I broke a couple bones (goal tending) in basketball, coming down hard on the right foot - Mom would take off work early & take me to our regular doctor who would not only take X-rays, he'd make the cast himself, and do the follow-up.
LOL - now? ya gotta go the ER route. One stop shop
Modernly ? Got to get the paramedic / ambulance servive involved.
(BTW kind of humorously, the coach made me walk to the nurse's office LOL - & the nurse who seriously asked me, "are you always so white" ?). Go figure, after walking a few hundred yards to the nurse's office. Even so - looking back? Good times.

 

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OK ... Be as stupid as you like. Call the ACA anything you want and blame it for every problem you can come up with. It was the best plan ever offered in the U.S. ... BUT ... the jerk-off greedy, criminal, grifting gop had to strip everything they could from it before it got passed. Now as it is, since forever, the U.S. is the ONLY industrialized nation in the world WITHOUT UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE. Sure ... people against it have their own stupid reasons ... ALL OF WHICH ARE STUPID. The simplest is that they are afraid of paying extra TAX for it. The problem with that is ... because THEY CAN'T DO SIMPLE MATH. Simple in that all it takes is ADDITION and SUBTRACTION.

Can anyone with any argument with what I've said post up ANY HEALTH PLAN OFFERED BY THE gop?!?
Go ahead ... I'm listening.

 

For someone who just burned a lot of keystrokes pre-emptively calling people stupid for not agreeing with you, your understanding of how the ACA passed isn't great. The ACA passed the Senate with all the democrat votes, but in the House no republicans voted for it and opposition was bipartisan. House negotiation revolved around what democrats in the house needed in order to vote for it. Famously, a democrat, Bart Stupak, didn't want coverage for abortions. He relented and with his vote it was able to pass despite dozens of other democrats voting against it.

The significant subsequent problems with the ACA were the ways it violated the constitution. John Roberts threw it a lifeline with the tax/penalty case, but it continued to be challenged in court on other grounds.

We are still an industrialized nation? Good to know.

The ACA wasn't about federalizing healthcare, but federalizing medical insurance. Healthcare by hospitals for anyone who shows up had been a federal mandate since Reagan.

Yes. In 2008, John McCain proposed opening the insurance market to interstate competition and decoupling medical insurance from employment so it could be portable from job to job. He argued for tax free HSAs coupled with high deductible policies that would incentivize patients to behave more like consumers because they would be in control of the resources they spent unless the medical problem was dire.

 

The insurance and pharmaceutical companies are the problem

 

Not their stockholders?

 

Stockholders don’t make the decisions

 

Not directly - but consistently grinding out a profit is what meets shareholder expectations

 

Absolutely. Insurance companies need to be eliminated, and pharmaceutical profits restricted

 

What's supposed to happen to the 100s of billions held by policy holders

 

Medicare

 

It's not just meds. There's life, auto liability, homeowners, umbrella, etc. Let the government in on all that? Wouldn't that make all 50 states potentially as fraudulent as Tim's Minnesota?