We Don’t Need No Steenking Details — Part II

5 years to develop Exchange website and 2 years of testing?

Say what?

“They had the architecture. They had the pieces,” software engineering manager Liz Arden said. “With any kind of competent team, this is a one-year project with the testing integrated in the development.”

“The White House said that it would fix the insurance marketplace by Nov. 30, raising the question of how people whose current policies do not comply with the law will get new coverage in time,” the Wall Street Journal reported.

Uh huh.

That’s the same White House that said, “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.” That’s the same White House that, with rose [garden] colored glasses just days before HealthCare.gov went live, pitched how much we would love it,

The bad news? The Administration will eventually bow to pressure to extend the deadline leaving all of us *with* private insurance out in the cold. See, the policy I have (and the policy you have) is no longer available December 31.

I am one of the millions with individual or small group policies who lose our insurance on December 31. That would be the insurance policy Mr. Obama promised we could keep.

What am I supposed to do when the law says I have to buy a policy and there is no policy to buy because the federal government (we’re here to help) pulled a FEMA on us.

Oh.

FEMA.

Now I understand.

Never mind.

I'm from the Government
 

Keeping Our Promises

“Dear Valued Customer:

“Your health care coverage with Blue Cross/Blue Shield ends December 31, 2013. Please make other arrangements.”

The new Blue Cross BlueOptions Everyday Health 1431 plan has about twice the deductible, out of pocket max, and copays as the plan I have now. My current Blue Cross plan costs $431/month. ACA forced Blue Cross to drop that plan in favor of one that will cost at least $1,039.87/month.

Yep. Keeping our promises to the American people.

Or not.


Update: Brian Williams had this to say about that on NBC Nightly News.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The New Godwin

Wikipedia tells us:

Godwin’s law (also known as Godwin’s Rule of Nazi Analogies or Godwin’s Law of Nazi Analogies is an assertion made by Mike Godwin in 1990 that has become an Internet adage. It states: “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.” In other words, Godwin said that, given enough time, in any online discussion — regardless of topic or scope — someone inevitably makes a comparison to Hitler or the Nazis.

Although in one of its early forms Godwin’s law referred specifically to Usenet newsgroup discussions, the law is now often applied to any threaded online discussion, such as forums, chat rooms and blog comment threads, and has been invoked for the inappropriate use of Nazi analogies in articles or speeches. The law is sometimes invoked, as a rule, to mark the end of a discussion when a Nazi analogy is made, with the writer who made the analogy being considered to have lost the argument.

In 2012, “Godwin’s Law” became an entry in the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.

So there I was, dreaming about moving to Copenhagen with a hot chick, when someone interrupted my fantasy to talk about ObamaCare. As an expert on the subject, I weighed in with a carefully thought out and crafted argument.

“ObamaCare sucks,” I wrote. I backed that up with facts and figures drawn from the NYTimes, the Washington Post, and Reuters as well as my own calculations.

“Oh, no it doesn’t,” my opponents responded. They backed up their rejoinder with arguments about Bush, regurgitated Senate press releases, hype, and personal attacks.

I fear I called them on the inconsistency.

“I don’t understand why the Republicans hate it,” Ashley Proctor wondered. She’s a social engineer in Madison, Wisconsin.

“It’s simple,” Jon Friar said. He has a PhD in Economics and works in a think tank. “They hate it because a BLACK DEMOCRATIC LIBERAL got it passed.

“It’s true,” he continued. “Google “N*gger President” and see how many hits you get.”

About half of all Americans hate it because a BLACK DEMOCRATIC LIBERAL got it passed?

Horse puckey.

I took Mr. Friar up on his suggestion. Darned few hits. There were about 30,700 results in 0.36 seconds for his phrase, a few less or about 26,400 results in 0.29 seconds for the phrase with the “i” in it. I figured that wasn’t enough, so I removed the quotes. At least that turned up about 3,070,000 results in 0.31 seconds for both words no matter where they appear in the piece. Three million. Not too shabby, right Mr. Friar?

Two observations are worth noting:
1. Many of those searches turned up posters blaming conservatives (and teens) for using the N word, not posts calling Mr. Obama one; and
2. A search on just President Obama got about 1,730,000,000 results. One point seven billion.

It seems the Googlers looking for straight news about Mr. Obama outnumber the racists at least 500:1.

With a hat tip to Mike Godwin, As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of blaming opposition to Obama on his race approaches 1.

I have casually observed that the race card is never played before three strong, data-driven arguments refute a liberal position and that it rarely takes more than seven.

The race card is as offensive as the Hitler card. In fact, I see the race card as the new Hitler card, played by the “yeah, well, he said” side about they time they realize they’re losing the data-driven discussions of current Administration policies.

Doesn’t anyone else find it disquieting that the very same people who demand we rename the Washington Redskins for the “obvious racial bias” in the team name keep reminding us that Mr. Obama is a black democratic liberal?


Democrats then: “the cost of insurance will go down by $2,500 per family per year.”
Democrats now: “It’s OK if premiums double for average people.”

And

Democrats now: “Americans are behind us!”
A Quinnipiac poll released October 1 showed that voters oppose Obamacare 47-45%. [Worth noting in the poll is that, while almost half of American voters oppose Obamacare, a lot more are opposed Congress’ antics cutting off funding for it or shutting down government. This is a debacle no one can win, least of all the American public.]

 

T-Day

I’m of the age that I get a tube stuck up my butt every few years. Tomorrow is T-Day.

Colonoscopy ImageI saw the tube doc last week for the standard pre-procedure visit, got my instructions. They asked how I was going to pay.

“With Blue Cross, of course,” I said.

“Your last colonoscopy was November 3, 2003,” the doc’s insurance clerk said. “You haven’t passed 10 years so I don’t think they’ll cover it.”

<sigh>

“Please call BC/BS right away to get the authorization then. I won’t fill this prescription for Reglan™ unless we’re go for launch.”

Remember Fleet™? The FDA has become aware of reports of acute phosphate nephropathy, a type of acute kidney injury, associated with the use of oral sodium phosphate products for bowel cleansing prior to colonoscopy or other procedures. Not only that, the explosive results were … uncomfortable. Docs use Reglan™ followed by magnesium citrate plus half a gallon of clear liquid now so we patients slosh ever so briefly as we run.

The doc’s office promised they would call back the next day. That was a week ago.

I called them this morning. “What’s the verdict?” I asked.

“She hasn’t had a chance to call your insurer,” the receptionist told me after a brief 10-minute wait, “but it’s OK because you’re just coming in for the checkup.”

Say what? I’m due on the table at noon tomorrow. She did promise then to call me right back and she did. “Blue Cross says you should be covered.”

Should be? SHOULD BE?

I did what I should have done in the first place. I called Blue Cross direct. Their advisor, Matt, thanked me for my call and told me I was covered 100%. Including the Reglan™. He saw that the doc’s office had called not long before and got the same answer.

It’s lunchtime here in North Puffin. I’m on clear liquids for the day, now, and grouchy. And I haven’t even gotten to sign up for Obamacare yet.


Later today, in a small and echoey room, I shall express my real opinion of all this.