Keeping "kids" on your insurance until they are 26!?! WTF

Discussion in 'The Red Room' started by Dayton Kitchens, Mar 30, 2010.

  1. Volpone

    Volpone Zombie Hunter

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    In response to the bit I bolded, if you create laws to compensate for pains caused by a temporary crisis, all you really accomplish is crippling things so that the temporary crisis becomes the status quo. You create a cycle of diminishing returns.
  2. Lanzman

    Lanzman Vast, Cool and Unsympathetic Formerly Important

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    Well, if medical records were properly formatted and digitized, that whole "mountains of paperwork" issue would go away. You'd have one set of medical records, centrally stored someplace, that any duly authorized medical provider would be able to access. Not separate paper copies in each individual doctor's byzantine file system.
    • Agree Agree x 1
  3. mburtonk

    mburtonk mburtonkulous

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    Sorry, the quote you pulled made me realize I contradicted myself in my last post. I absolutely agree that education is its own reward--but that's a difficult motivation unless you have a bunch of money and feel free to do such a thing. I went to college partly because it was expected of me (and I wanted to go) and partly because it was the best way to get into what I wanted to do. I'm in grad school not the least because the area I am interested in generally requires a PhD to even start. So although I enjoy learning as its own reward, we all have to live in the real world. I think we agree that treating a degree as something you walk into the store and buy is a disservice to yourself--but if that's what a person chooses to treat school as, it makes little sense to me that they waste their time and money retaking classes for six years when they could be out "doing what they really want to do" in four. If you don't value your education enough that you think it can pay for itself in wages after your graduation, why are you in school rather than out finding a job right now?
    • Agree Agree x 2
  4. garamet

    garamet "The whole world is watching."

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    Absolutely. But several things have gotten in the way of that. One, many MDs are Luddites. They don't understand computer files and don't want to. They leave that to "the girls in the back office" who, more likely than not, are underpaid, overworked, and have limited skills.

    Two, speaking of Byzantine...health insurance coding, and the fact that every insurer has its own arcane forms and procedures, all of which could be streamlined and made uniform.
  5. Nautica

    Nautica Probably a Dual

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    Hyperbole does not become you
    ^^^ This!

    And I'm repeating it since so many of us often ignore what garamet says. But even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now & then!

    It can be, but doesn't necessarily need to be. Given the vast increases in tuition in the past couple decades, though, it makes little financial sense to pay such if "knowledge for the sake of knowledge" is your only goal. So, yes...it makes sense to have a degree as part of that "find a better job" checklist.

    And no one is requiring anyone to do so now, nor under the new healthcare laws. There is, however, an option to do so, should consequences call for it. Given that the goal of most all of this HC Reform was to increase the availability of coverage, I don't see all the fuss.

    I see it as more of a covering gaps in coverage accessibility issue.
    • Agree Agree x 1
  6. Ramen

    Ramen Banned

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    Exactly. Why would either the kid or the parents have insurance in any case? Simply wait until you're ill, then let insurance take care of it all while you stick them with the bill, then cancel the insurance as soon as you're healthy again.
  7. Tamar Garish

    Tamar Garish Wanna Snuggle? Deceased Member

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    The added benefit of something like this, is that as the parents become elderly, they could remain on the family plan supported by the children.

    Frankly, I am surprised something like this hasn't already been done.
    • Agree Agree x 3
  8. Zombie

    Zombie dead and loving it

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    Damn you Lanzman!!!

    Everyone could'a been rich had you been faster with the idea!!!!

    ;)
  9. oldfella1962

    oldfella1962 the only real finish line

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    In the military we call that "eating a line of shit."
    Let me explain:

    eating a line of shit means "punching your ticket" for accomplishing some totally useless or undesirable task, just to get the reward at the end.
    The line of shit generally serves no practical purpose, other than "I ate the line of shit. So now you have to eat the line of shit, so you can have the bragging rights, and can make others eat the line of shit."

    For instance no sane NCO wants to be a recruiter. Long hours, high stress, and if you mess up your career goes down the toilet.
    The recruiter suicide rate is through the roof. Any NCO would literally dodge bullets in lieu of recruiter duty. But they do it so it looks good on their record, increasing (maybe) their chances of getting promoted. This is the line of shit.

    But if every NCO pulls a stint in recruiting, the Army needs a new line of shit to separate those who really excell. So then it's a college degree, Drill Sergeant Duty, or whatever until The Army switches gears again. :hyper:

    Sorry, I'm rambling. As for edecation being it's own reward, I fully agree.
    That's why I have cable and can watch Discovery, History Channel, etc.
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  10. Tamar Garish

    Tamar Garish Wanna Snuggle? Deceased Member

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    :yes:

    Not to mention the internet. You can learn about almost anything from various points of view without someone trying to guide your worldview toward a specific agenda.

    BBS' like this one are very informative when we dig into a discussion and toss ideas around.
  11. Asyncritus

    Asyncritus Expert on everything

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    That is the biggest reason I hang around here. If everyone on WF thought like me, I wouldn't find it useful to be here. But the mix of left, right, libertarian, and so on never fails to give insights into aspects of problems and current events which I had not considered.

    As long as you ignore the handful of extremist party drones at each end of the scale, there is more to be learned from those with whom you disagree than from those with whom you agree.

    Believe it or not, I used to think that global warming was pretty much settled science, for example. I'm not kidding. I could give other examples, too, of areas where various posters who know their stuff have brought up things I hadn't thought about, including posters with whom I disagree almost entirely.

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  12. Talkahuano

    Talkahuano Second Flame Lieutenant

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    No you misunderstand. I will get PAID 17k/year for GRADUATE SCHOOL, not for the job itself. The job itself will be upwards of 45k/year (I hope :lol: ), I just have to pass grad school and doctorate work to get there. While I'm getting to the job of my dreams, I'll need help. My parents are more than willing to help, so... yeah.
  13. Talkahuano

    Talkahuano Second Flame Lieutenant

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    Um, good for you? Too bad I want to be a professor, be an expert in the field and carry out research that interests ME. Here I have the chance to do EXACTLY what I want with my life. If it takes 10 years of school to get it, fine, so be it. I want what's going to make me HAPPY. If that means depending on my parents longer, well, that's fine too. I'll help them out when they get old. (Edit: adding to what mburtonk said, my field also requires a PhD to do anything in it. There's just so much to learn, the best way to go is all the way).
    • Agree Agree x 2
  14. Robotech Master

    Robotech Master '

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    I was in school until the age of 27.

    I didn't ask my parents for anything while in dental school. I just took out student loans and used that to cover my expenses, including health insurance.

    Paying off the loans now does suck hard... but in 7-8 years I'll have paid it all off, I'll be 35-36 years old, and I'll be making at least 150k dollars a year.

    Then I'll easily be able to take care of my parents when THEY need it.

    So yeah it's a trade off, but sometimes it can be a smart move.
  15. Lanzman

    Lanzman Vast, Cool and Unsympathetic Formerly Important

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    Yeah Robo, but you entered a field with definite prospects. A lot of kids go to college and wind up with an English Lit degree or something similar, with very narrow opportunities afterwards. Not all degrees are a doorway into a highly-paid career.
  16. garamet

    garamet "The whole world is watching."

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    ^It also sucks to have that burden of debt hanging over you for your entire youth, especially when there are nations that value their professionals and are willing to subsidize tertiary education...
  17. Prufrock

    Prufrock Disturbing the Universe

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    Seems like every year I have a birthday come up and they move the goalposts as to what year counts as an 'adult' and I'm always short of it.

    I'm gonna be a kid forever! Wahoo!

    But these past few years I've been off my parents' insurance and paying for my own and don't plan to change things.
  18. Tuttle

    Tuttle Listen kid, we're all in it together.

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    Instead of pissing about what's so great about other countries and rotten about ours, why not appreciate that in America a gal like TKO or guy like Robo or me can start in debt, borrow some more money, complete a college and post graduate education, and make ourselves into something (with thanks to parents, some loans, and lots of hard work).

    God you disgust me you excremental scumsucking little bit of bother.
    :vomitongaramet:
    • Agree Agree x 1
  19. garamet

    garamet "The whole world is watching."

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    Do you have a macro for that, or do you retype it every time?
  20. FrijolMalo

    FrijolMalo A huddled mass

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    So people can't do that in other countries?
  21. Tuttle

    Tuttle Listen kid, we're all in it together.

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    ^"especially when there are nations that value their professionals "

    Garamet clearly has a problem with America, it's just that she's a coward and doesn't like to say so directly. She will always find a way to look on the dark side or make a disparaging crack when the topic relates to the US. There could be 100 positive attributes and one negative aspect on a given topic and this miserable cunt will talk only about the negative.

    This case is a perfect example. America treats its professionals (particularly those with grad degrees or multiple grad degrees) in the best way possible- we get to eat more of what we kill. Meanwhile this bag of puss is busy saying how much cooler other countries are because they may subsidize higher education, while remaining completely silent about that fact that America has among the most generous potential for scholarships on the planet.


    I read your stuff a few times a month, and reply about one time in ten.

    It's all from the heart, I only reply when you say something particularly contemptible or revealing.

    As for the insults, well, if "the shoe fits" you miserable fat pile of putrescent puke (see, it types itself when you come to mind).
  22. garamet

    garamet "The whole world is watching."

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    Ah, I see the problem. Either you've mistaken me for someone else, or you've forgotten that fiction belongs in the Workshop.

    And clearly you have nothing to say to the topic.

    Out of curiosity, do you have kids?
  23. The Exception

    The Exception The One Who Will Be Administrator Super Moderator

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    There are many who work in college, of course, by doing so it limits when you can take classes, and it makes it take longer to graduate. I'll be 25 by the time I graduate myself because I had to pay my own way through college.

    This pull yourself up by your bootstraps mentality that your generation had doesn't work when the cost of living and going to college has far exceeded changes to the federal minimum wage (which is what we usually end up making in this age group because employers know we're desperate).

    When I started college my mom asked me why I had to take out loans and why I wanted her help to pay for it, her reasoning was that she was able to pay for it herself when she went to school. When she went to college it was $600 a semester, I pay close to $4000 a semester to go to the same school, and since I started college the price of tuition has gone from $2500 a semester to $4000.

    That being said, these kids that take 8 years to graduate and aren't working and aren't in a masters or comparable program are just slackers.
  24. Azure

    Azure I could kick your ass

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    Gee whiz, maybe those kids ought to think a bit longer as to whether its worth it or not.

    Whats the fucking point of a English Lit degree if you're not going to be able to make money with it afterwards?
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  25. Nautica

    Nautica Probably a Dual

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    Nick, you damn slacker! Dayton was able to get through college in 3 years, with only a scholarship and side job(s) to get him by! He also walked 5 miles to class everyday, in a snowstorm, uphill both ways!

    You'd better get it together, son, or you'll end up in some unstable job, complaining about it constantly, counting down the days until you are free from it...unlike Dayton, who has prospered so well since his college days!

    :diablo:
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  26. Megatron

    Megatron Banned

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    People who work during college are either

    - depressed beyond belief
    - get drunk on the weekends
    - too tired to properly study
    - have no proper guidance
    - have emotional problems throughout
    - can't keep a job down later in life.

    It's the reason why you see majority of American-born students can't get a job or are addicted to soothing drugs but Asian students literally breeze through their courses and get respectable jobs right out of college. Why? Because Asian parents don't kick their children out at the age of 18 to make a living AND study, but rather make sure their children get proper education in a calm and serene manner.
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  27. frontline

    frontline Hedonistic Glutton Staff Member Moderator

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    I agree, kinda. You're right about the luddite (or arrogant) doctors. As for the back office staff, its not so much that they are underpaid, overworked, and have limited skills. Its more that they are paid commensurate with the work they are willing to do and the limits to their skill sets are of their own creation. I mean come on, how fucking hard is it to use a mouse and a keyboard? I've seen these rocket scientists in action. My 65 year old mother (who should be barred from using a computer for the welfare of society in general) could run circles around a super majority of the nit whits in the back offices. Most of em are lazy, doing the bare minimum needed to get the job done. The ones that do bust their asses wind up getting promoted. As for the insurance coding, that is all on the shoulders of Medicare and the infamous OASIS and ICD-9 codes.

    However this is changing. More and more I see GP offices going paperless. The doctors work off of tablets or laptops in the patient exam rooms. I mainly see it in the offices of younger docs, but some older docs are jumping on board. Now where do I see the electronic adoption taking off the fastest? Dentists and cosmetic doctors.


    Possibly $45K after having your masters degree? :wtf: Are you majoring in underwater basket weaving? Why the hell get a masters degree to make $45k? Fuck become an electricians apprentice and make more money.

    See that's the way you do it. You want the brass ring, then bust your ass for it. The wife is considering getting her MD or PhD. Its gonna mean ass loads of loans for us, but we see the long term benefits. So it will be worth it.
  28. Megatron

    Megatron Banned

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    Because most 'normal' kids in the West are from selfish families who kick them out at age 18. Much good it does them too, given they start their young adult lives with a serious debt that they take their entire life to pay off.
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  29. frontline

    frontline Hedonistic Glutton Staff Member Moderator

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    Worked my way through college, also used GI Bill, graduated with a 3.9 gpa, first college graduate in my family.
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  30. Azure

    Azure I could kick your ass

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    Or they just loving relying on their parents tit.