Navigating senior years.

KARNUT · December 13, 2025

3 minutes ago, customboss said:

BS l, most of American citizens don’t want to

pay later at emergency rooms for instance coverage now under ACA. Way more expensive later.

Here’s the deal. People for some reason think healthcare should be free. I don’t. I want the best. I want the best doctors to be able to advance and be rewarded monetarily. I want the opportunity to choose those doctors. Here that’s possible. When we started our business in the early eighties. We decided to take a smaller salary and have health insurance. Easy decision. Over the years it paid off. We had a living wage and healthcare. We also had Workmen’s Comp and liability insurance. We didn’t expect it for free. My wife had to drive a used car a little longer. Maybe we didn’t go to Red Lobster as often. I don’t expect hand outs. People for some reason think insurance should be free. It shouldn’t be. Only for the poverty level people. It’s way past that.

KARNUT · December 13, 2025

14 minutes ago, customboss said:

Face it MAGA voters you are a dirty little

minority of cry babies that didn’t ever have a voice and Trump figured out how to use electoral system to get you one. Majority has had it in US. Midterms can’t come fast enough.

My goodness while I’m typing my response you get nasty. You’re a nasty person. No more soup for you. Stick a fork in it nasty person.

Donstar · December 13, 2025

Navigating through our senior years is a journey many Canadiens and Americans face. Healthcare is often a political topic but please not here. "Second opinions" prompted some discussion and I appreciate this could be a cost consideration. This is worth noting and may impact whether getting a second opinion is practical. This is not the venue to debate the how and why of who pays what and when.

KARNUT · December 13, 2025

Just now, Donstar said:

Navigating through our senior years is a journey many Canadiens and Americans face. Healthcare is often a political topic but please not here. "Second opinions" prompted some discussion and I appreciate this could be a cost consideration. This is worth noting and may impact whether getting a second opinion is practical. This is not the venue to debate the how and why of who pays what and when.

I’ve learned finally not to debate some hateful individuals. Lesson learned. I apologize.

customboss · December 13, 2025

2 hours ago, KARNUT said:

Here’s the deal. People for some reason think healthcare should be free. I don’t. I want the best. I want the best doctors to be able to advance and be rewarded monetarily. I want the opportunity to choose those doctors. Here that’s possible. When we started our business in the early eighties. We decided to take a smaller salary and have health insurance. Easy decision. Over the years it paid off. We had a living wage and healthcare. We also had Workmen’s Comp and liability insurance. We didn’t expect it for free. My wife had to drive a used car a little longer. Maybe we didn’t go to Red Lobster as often. I don’t expect hand outs. People for some reason think insurance should be free. It shouldn’t be. Only for the poverty level people. It’s way past that.

No one thinks anything should be free.

Dumbest statement you’ve ever made.
Your idea of profit driving QUALITY is total

BS related to healthcare. Rich don’t give a ****** about or care about you or me.

Here’s some cuts you’ll be happy about.

2 hours ago, KARNUT said:

My goodness while I’m typing my response you get nasty. You’re a nasty person. No more soup for you. Stick a fork in it nasty person.

Soup Nazi. Funny.

customboss · December 13, 2025

2 hours ago, Donstar said:

Navigating through our senior years is a journey many Canadiens and Americans face. Healthcare is often a political topic but please not here. "Second opinions" prompted some discussion and I appreciate this could be a cost consideration. This is worth noting and may impact whether getting a second opinion is practical. This is not the venue to debate the how and why of who pays what and when.

Head in sand there Teach? Politics is now daily life since MAGA and right wing world wide engaged identity politics. Maybe us boomers don’t realize it but the political realities shoved in our face affect us. Whether we want to discuss it or not.

customboss · December 13, 2025

3 hours ago, KARNUT said:

3 hours ago, Donstar said:

I’ve learned finally not to debate some hateful individuals. Lesson learned. I apologize.

You don’t debate you repeat the same worn out disproven BS over and over again. You aren’t target audience just a useful idiot.

customboss · December 13, 2025

3 hours ago, KARNUT said:

My goodness while I’m typing my response you get nasty. You’re a nasty person. No more soup for you. Stick a fork in it nasty person.

Nasty like Trump and Epstein? No I just tell the truth.

Donstar · December 13, 2025

38 minutes ago, customboss said:

Head in sand there Teach? Politics is now daily life since MAGA and right wing world wide engaged identity politics. Maybe us boomers don’t realize it but the political realities shoved in our face affect us. Whether we want to discuss it or not.

I don't see how the "Head in sand" comment applies here. A discussion on the benefits of a second opinion on a medical issue can be had without sharing our political views.

KARNUT · December 13, 2025

46 minutes ago, Donstar said:

I don't see how the "Head in sand" comment applies here. A discussion on the benefits of a second opinion on a medical issue can be had without sharing our political views.

He likes to burn any decent conversation. His latest running buddy is Atlas. One little disagreement he’ll burn that down too. You’re above that. Just let it go. I’m hard headed, but I’ve had enough of the nastiness.

customboss · December 13, 2025

Canadians have healthcare coverage through socialized medicine. I’m sure you aren’t worried about the politics Donstar. You grandkids might be later on.

As far as Stan and his ilk this is where we’re at in US.

Where things stand for patients
If Congress lets the enhanced ACA subsidies expire at the end of 2025, many people on the exchanges are looking at premiums that could be 70–100% higher for 2026, with millions projected to drop coverage. Trump has sent mixed signals—publicly attacking Obamacare while also flirting with a short-term subsidy extension—so near-term outcomes will depend heavily on what deal, if any, he and Congress strike in the coming months.

I care about my fellow citizens. Not just self. Politics is what got Canadians a British style healthcare system. GREED and NASTY SELFISH minority here in USA got us our bankruptcy system of going broke trying to stay alive.

Atlas · December 14, 2025

Nobody here said healthcare should be free. But it probably should be accessible to all regardless of ability to pay, and funded through taxes paid by all.

There isn't a whole lot of money in medicine for the people who actually provide the care. Your nurses, CNA's and other care staff make virtually nothing. General practitioners really don't make much in the grand scheme. You have to get into specialties and highly specialized surgery in order to start ascending the pay scale. Even then... let's just throw a round number out and say a top neurosurgeon makes $1.2M. They're making a lot of that through normal salary, and as such, pay into the highest tax brackets, so that whittles down fairly quickly.

I'm not here to say that isn't good money, but I'm here to put that into perspective. A hospital CEO might make a few million annually, and he doesn't have to do brain surgery or hold/pay the kind of liability insurance those folks do. He's also likely to have a tax advantage. But even that pales to the business of healthcare and what those guys make. Your health insurance CEO's and top earners are multiple millions per year++. United Healthcare's CEO is currently making $26M annually.

That's where all of this is lost, and why healthcare is so broken. The business of healthcare isn't paying its providers like it should. It's paying people who have built a profitable model of gambling on the health of you and I.

There isn't a perfect system on which the US can model its own system. But the very least we can do is make sure our providers are compensated for the life saving care they give, and also not require people to go bankrupt when they require a lot of care.

Any model that gets approved through the current congress will be absolute crap. So will the next model. Until the dirty hands are removed, we will continue to let people fall through the cracks, and people who bet on us will abscond with our hard-earned money.

KARNUT · December 14, 2025

2 minutes ago, Atlas said:

Nobody here said healthcare should be free. But it probably should be accessible to all regardless of ability to pay, and funded through taxes paid by all.

There isn't a whole lot of money in medicine for the people who actually provide the care. Your nurses, CNA's and other care staff make virtually nothing. General practitioners really don't make much in the grand scheme. You have to get into specialties and highly specialized surgery in order to start ascending the pay scale. Even then... let's just throw a round number out and say a top neurosurgeon makes $1.2M. They're making a lot of that through normal salary, and as such, pay into the highest tax brackets, so that whittles down fairly quickly.

I'm not here to say that isn't good money, but I'm here to put that into perspective. A hospital CEO might make a few million annually, and he doesn't have to do brain surgery or hold/pay the kind of liability insurance those folks do. He's also likely to have a tax advantage. But even that pales to the business of healthcare and what those guys make. Your health insurance CEO's and top earners are multiple millions per year++. United Healthcare's CEO is currently making $26M annually.

That's where all of this is lost, and why healthcare is so broken. The business of healthcare isn't paying its providers like it should. It's paying people who have built a profitable model of gambling on the health of you and I.

There isn't a perfect system on which the US can model its own system. But the very least we can do is make sure our providers are compensated for the life saving care they give, and also not require people to go bankrupt when they require a lot of care.

Any model that gets approved through the current congress will be absolute crap. So will the next model. Until the dirty hands are removed, we will continue to let people fall through the cracks, and people who bet on us will abscond with our hard-earned money.

That is exactly what the current administration is trying to resolve. The latest is some version of a health savings account. The people who seem to be screaming the most are getting lobbied by the insurance industry. They want to leave it the way it is because of the lobbying. It would be easier for the current administration to say let’s just extend it. But trying to fix it leads to the blowback we’re seeing. I get at least 3 phone calls a week for some kind of free service from my Medicare rider. I don’t want or need it. They are being paid for by some other entity other than me. I already get the service I need by my GP. A wasteful expenditure. Those types of waste are being looked at. The lobbyists are instructing their loyalists to fight this so the insurance companies can continue to make their millions.