We let them get away with it and it all started with the Smokers!

originally posted by: Nyiah
a reply to: JAGStorm

I think this has a lot to do with the work-offered insurances. I'm starting to sway to the side that it's just not necessary to offer it at all via work, at least not anymore. This is something that is akin to auto insurance, but for the Hairless Monkey Meat Sack. If work does not need to provide an auto insurance option as commonplace as heath insurance for us (or better yet, homeowner/rental), then I'm not sold on them needing to offer health insurance anymore either.

All leaving healthcare in employer hands like this does is turn some of them into total I OWN YOU tyrants. The go-to claim is that employers meddling in private off-clock life choices leads to better health & better employee ROI, but does it? Since when is higher turn-over rates and a hostile workplace for not acquiescing "better"?

Health insurance being tied to the work place was borne out of policies from WWII when there was a freeze on wages as most men were sent to fight.

Almost all the issues with health insurance are caused by government regulation and because there is little to no free market in health care. There are some very simple things we could do that would help free up insurance and bring down cost quite a bit.

First, it needs to be decoupled from work place entirely. Can you imagine what a fustercluck it would be if your car insurance was only tied to where you work? Any tax benefits given to employers needs to be given to the individual employee directly.

Second, insurance needs to be available across state lines and free from state mandates.

Third, insurance needs to be insurance. RIght now, health insurance is more akin to prepaid healthcare. It isn't really insurance. Insurance is supposed to be for catastrophic events, not paying for any and every little sniffle. Because people aren't used to paying for anything, they have no incentive to shop for best pricing for routine services. Can you imagine what car insurance woudl cost if it paid for oil changes and car washes?

a reply to: Edumakated

Third, insurance needs to be insurance. RIght now, health insurance is more akin to prepaid healthcare.

Amen!!
Yes that's exactly what it is, it is not really "insurance".
At this rate people might as well not have insurance and just rick it if they get seriously sick/accident.

there are 8 billion people on the planet
population must be reduced.

you should be thanking
the smokers and the over eaters and the drug users
for taking one for the team and
making the world a better place
with fewer people.

Remember when a child misbehaved, any adult could give them a spanking then took them to their home to get another one? Like in school. Or mouthing off when caught vandalizing something...like throwing rocks through the windows of an abandoned house or building. Or kicking a board off a picnic table.

Then one day they got away with it. And grew up deciding to continue take over other people’s lives because your smoking was “offensive” like that loose board on the picnic table.

Solution is simple...whomp em and take them home to get another whomping. Seat belts? You better be more worried about this belt...

See how that works?

originally posted by: Lucidparadox
a reply to: JAGStorm


Once the baby boomers got older, they began to overrun our healthcare infrastructure, which then needed massive upgrades. Which cost alot of $$. That cost was then passed on to us.

and when you get older, you will cost YOUR kids and grandkids $$$. Unless you are willing to not go to the doctor for anything.

Famous quote.

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Also the boiling frog quote is timely too.

The boiling frog is a fable describing a frog being slowly boiled alive. The premise is that if a frog is put suddenly into boiling water, it will jump out, but if the frog is put in tepid water which is then brought to a boil slowly, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. The story is often used as a metaphor for the inability or unwillingness of people to react to or be aware of sinister threats that arise gradually rather than suddenly.

a reply to: pthena

I saw a vid of a Shaman in the South American jungle toking up on real tobacco-rolled Aztec style. Saying that cities were a place where you got sick and their Doctors charged you to get better. Then the subtle changes and censorship started to the point where one expert said the exact opposite of the next expert. I knew then that the day would come when the mass of the population would believe anything that came out of the mouths of the bobbing heads. I also knew if that was indeed the case that critical thinking had left, then it might be wise to do nothing, but in the event that you are forced to do something then it would have to be the exact opposite of what the bobbing heads were suggesting you do.

originally posted by: sraven
there are 8 billion people on the planet
population must be reduced.

you should be thanking
the smokers and the over eaters and the drug users
for taking one for the team and
making the world a better place
with fewer people.

Is that you Bill?

a reply to: anonentity

Good old Nicotiana rustica. It totally grew wild where I grew up. Mostly dry stream beds.

I would fire cure it. Basically, just keep it over the fire until it's dry enough. Very strong, like take one toke and exhale smoke 3 or 4 times without taking another.

a reply to: pthena

That's, why the peace pipe worked everyone, was so whacked they forgot about warfare.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Yes we did! Amazingly it did not make illnesses go away either. Did you know alcohol causes cancer? Why hasn't alcohol been attacked? Obesity has risen which causes all types of health issues. Mental issues rose, anti-depressants prescribed for everything. Paxil and other drugs that decreases testosterone in men. Alzheimers rose, I've know several people diagnosed with it within a year or two after they stopped smoking. I can go on and on. They started with smoking because they have made so much freaking money off of pharma. My mother died of cancer also, colon cancer from fosomax that they stopped prescribing a few years ago....my father died of Alzheimers that he was diagnosed with after he stopped smoking and I have a really strong feeling that they can cure cancer, I cannot prove it yet!
I hope you are doing okay since your mom passed.

This was the first search result there are several to chose from!


/www.tampabay.com/news/health/study-finds-nicotine-safe-helps-in-alzheimers-parkinsons/2175396/#:~:text=A%2 0study%20of%20Alzheimer's%20patients,of%20age-related%20mental%20decline.

In Calif, car insurance is mandatory.

I live in a motor home in a RV park and my motor home has not moved for 10 years and i don't plan to move it..

But I have to pay $41 a month for basic auto insurance a month for a motor home that likely will never move under its own power ever again.
That means I have had to pay $5000 over 10 years for nothing as the insurance only covers the motor home if it's involved in an accident on the road and since it is never moved it will never be in an accident.
If it's hit by lighting or a tree falls on it, i am not covered.

How does that make sense.

a reply to: ANNED

It makes sense if you are an insurance company.

originally posted by: ANNED
In Calif, car insurance is mandatory.

I live in a motor home in a RV park and my motor home has not moved for 10 years and i don't plan to move it..

But I have to pay $41 a month for basic auto insurance a month for a motor home that likely will never move under its own power ever again.
That means I have had to pay $5000 over 10 years for nothing as the insurance only covers the motor home if it's involved in an accident on the road and since it is never moved it will never be in an accident.
If it's hit by lighting or a tree falls on it, i am not covered.

How does that make sense.

That is pure Horse Dung!!

a reply to: JAGStorm

Absolutely right! Basically, (IMO) it boils down to the ‘Do-Gooders’/Puritans getting away with shaming smokers, creating second-class citizens of them. It’s all about Incrementalism. First it was “Smoking or Non-Smoking?”; then bans against smoking on airplanes (Thanks Air Canada!), then bans against smoking in restaurants, malls, theaters, etc. Any smoker who said they’d never get away with banning smoking in bars, “never gonna happen”, was deeply naive.
Next it was no smoking on the sidewalk within so many feet of the door. When I worked downtown, the only place for smokers to congregate was the loading dock in some smelly, blazing hot/freezing cold alley like a bum. In some places, you can’t even smoke in a public park. Worst yet? In Montgomery County Maryland, a neighbor sued his neighbor because he could smell the cigarette smoke wafting out of that neighbors open window—and WON! BTW, I remember about 12 years ago driving into Montgomery County on a back road and as soon as you cross the county line, there on a big billboard, it said “Montgomery County is a non-smoking County”! Naturally, I tossed my cigarette at it as I passed. Didn’t solve a THING, but I felt better.

And all because of the dreaded second-hand smoke. Is it really that much worse than the smoke from raging forest fires, or helping Grandpa burn the leaves in Fall? Here’s a hint:

Study finds no link between Second-Hand Smoke and Cancer

www.forbes.com...

And by the way, does anyone else remember an ATS member posting about the World Health Organization cancelling its much anticipated press conference announcing the results of a multi year, multinational study on this subject—because they found NO statical evidence that second-hand smoke causes cancer? Or did the Mandela Effect just strike?

originally posted by: Edumakated
originally posted by: Nyiah
a reply to: JAGStorm
There are some very simple things we could do that would help free up insurance and bring down cost quite a bit.

First, it needs to be decoupled from work place entirely. Can you imagine what a fustercluck it would be if your car insurance was only tied to where you work? Any tax benefits given to employers needs to be given to the individual employee directly.

Second, insurance needs to be available across state lines and free from state mandates.

Third, insurance needs to be insurance. RIght now, health insurance is more akin to prepaid healthcare. It isn't really insurance. Insurance is supposed to be for catastrophic events, not paying for any and every little sniffle. Because people aren't used to paying for anything, they have no incentive to shop for best pricing for routine services. Can you imagine what car insurance woudl cost if it paid for oil changes and car washes?

Wholeheartedly agree...

I'd only add two thing...

Claims should never, ever be made by anyone other than the insured. No more complicated garbage that your Doctor has to employ 5 people for just to manage the claims. That should be 100% entirely on you, the insured, and

All prices for all services sho9uld be 100% transparent and publicly available, both on the web, and via printed pamphlet available on request.

You should be able to shop for health care just like you shop for a new bike, or computer, or vacuum cleaner.