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Get well soon Jihadin. Don't delay to seek medical aid.
Sooo...
Greece: Week 3 of lockdown. The government has decreed a stipend of 800E for employees who work in businesses that have been affected by the quarantine measures. The Businesses themselves can make other claims.
As of today churches will perform rites with closed doors and only the priests inside. The rite will be broadcasted by state TV.
Still up to today 1995 total sick, 86 total dead and 73 new cases today. Lockdown seems to work as the rate of cases has decreased from a median of 100 the week before.
You shouldn't be worried about the one bullet with your name on it, Boldric. You should be worried about the ones labelled "to whom it may concern"-from Blackadder goes Forth!
queen_annes_revenge wrote: What do you mean competitive market? do you mean private healthcare? I think there should be an opt out option for those willing and able to buy private health insurance. I'd happily buy private for my family if it meant a slightly lower tax rate for myself.
What would be the advantage of buying private health insurance in exchange for a lower tax rate? You might get lower taxes, sure, but you'd almost assuredly pay more for your premiums than you would save from reducing your tax rate, let alone your additional out-of-pocket costs..
Quicker service, choice of medical care, better quality care etc.
Private health insurance gives you none of those things.
Besides the wait times being the same or longer, you also have the time you need to check with your insurance before hand. If you get gut shot, and your intestines spill out on the floor, you better check with your insurance that the emergency room is in your network before you get in that very expensive ambulance.
You think you get a better choice with private care? Not if you want to stay financially solvent. You’ll see the (overworked and under compensated) in network doctor(‘s PA) or no one.
Prepare to distrust everything your doctor says because quality of care will take a backseat to what your doctor can and cannot bill you your insurance. You can’t have the test you really need, but you can have four very expensive treatments you don’t need. You’re welcome.
So among all the doom and gloom, I’m sure we all have reasons to be thankful. I’d like to rattle off a few.
Please note, none of these are bragging, just positives out of a great many negatives. Little things I’m now thankful for.
1. This time last year, Mum’s cancer turned terminal. Had this happened then, I wouldn’t have been able to go see her in her last few months.
2. Having lived on my own, hundreds of miles from my family for 15, maybe 16 years, the isolation factor isn’t overly affecting me,
3. No daily commute. Working from home is an absolute boon for me. Yes I miss my colleagues and the camaraderie, but I’ve hours to myself I’ve not had for 8.5 years.
4. Lucky enough that my season ticket ran out 31 March. As we’re looking at another three months minimum (just my workplace) of the current arrangement, that’s nearly £1,000 back in my pocket, which is far from unwelcome.
Now granted, my examples are kind of selfish. But importantly, they don’t have a negative impact on anyone else, just benefits I can enjoy.
Anyone else got Little Grafefuls?
Fed up of Scalpers? But still want your Exclusives? Why not join us?
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: So among all the doom and gloom, I’m sure we all have reasons to be thankful. I’d like to rattle off a few.
Please note, none of these are bragging, just positives out of a great many negatives. Little things I’m now thankful for.
1. This time last year, Mum’s cancer turned terminal. Had this happened then, I wouldn’t have been able to go see her in her last few months.
2. Having lived on my own, hundreds of miles from my family for 15, maybe 16 years, the isolation factor isn’t overly affecting me,
3. No daily commute. Working from home is an absolute boon for me. Yes I miss my colleagues and the camaraderie, but I’ve hours to myself I’ve not had for 8.5 years.
4. Lucky enough that my season ticket ran out 31 March. As we’re looking at another three months minimum (just my workplace) of the current arrangement, that’s nearly £1,000 back in my pocket, which is far from unwelcome.
Now granted, my examples are kind of selfish. But importantly, they don’t have a negative impact on anyone else, just benefits I can enjoy.
Anyone else got Little Grafefuls?
I can add to this. My job involves a lot of travel near the NYC area, and travel time can suck. My wife was concerned I might end up doing something local and miss the birth of my child due to travel. Covid-19 killed rush hour so I was home with no concerns when we had to go in. On top of that, I have paid paternity leave that equals what I would have made while furloughed (roughly 3/5 my normal salary), so I’m getting equal pay for ten weeks to stay home with my new son. I got my tax info in early and already got the federal stuff back in time to completely pay off a credit card before this hit AND got a new one right before hand as well. So financially “safe” and home spending time with my family.
Reality is a nice place to visit, but I'd hate to live there.
Manchu wrote:I'm a Catholic. We eat our God.
Due to work, I can usually only ship any sales or trades out on Saturday morning. Please trade/purchase with this in mind.
queen_annes_revenge wrote: What do you mean competitive market? do you mean private healthcare? I think there should be an opt out option for those willing and able to buy private health insurance. I'd happily buy private for my family if it meant a slightly lower tax rate for myself.
You are aware that nations with various forms of socialized health care generally pay less in taxes than Americans pay in combined taxes AND health care costs - in some cases, a LOT less - right?
I do have private health care, through work. And it’s pretty effing great. Like, top shelf (not like that, dirty boy) cover.
Yet I’m perfectly happy to continue funding the NHS.
Why?
I owe my safe birth, my education, the stitching of my arm after going through a window, my appendix operation and who knows what else? To. The. State. I didn’t pay for them then. Others did. What sort of cretin would I be if I now turned round and said ‘thanks for the stitches, witches, But I’m Alright, Jack’.
Indeed, I’d go so far as to say everyone that can afford a private health plan of any measure should do so. Relieve the NHS of as much burden as you can. Take yourself out the queue, get the treatment, and let people with No Option move up that queue.
Social responsibility, basically.
Fed up of Scalpers? But still want your Exclusives? Why not join us?
It couldn't really have come at a better time for me. I'm working from home anyway as teaching had finished (only had to miss two seminars whilst we got online teaching up and running, and I was still paid for them) and my girlfriend is on maternity leave. Neither of our earnings has been impacted at all. Our son is still young enough that the lack of social interaction with other people isn't the end of the world.
It's still rubbish and I'm still worried for people, obviously. I expect us both to miss our excavating seasons in the summer (we're both archaeologists and both work in the Near East), we lost a holiday, and it'll probably be a long time until we can visit her parents in Turkey, but all in it's probably landed as well as it could.
Possible extra grateful for you? And indeed my God Sprog (who I love dearly)
This is challenging the social norms we grew up with. End of the day, does it really matter if you see folk over video or in the flesh, now it’s readily possible? Or does it simply matter you see and interact with folk?
Fed up of Scalpers? But still want your Exclusives? Why not join us?
Well, thanks to lock-down and the nice weather I have been able to reclaim my garden, waging war on brambles ivy and overgrown trees. Wouldn't have been able to do so much without this time off.
Well, MDG, I would have to say the positives so far (at least a couple of them):
1. Normally for my job I commute to a ferry via car, ferry across the Puget Sound, then walk to my building for a combined total of a 3.5 hour commute per day. Working from home I don't have to do any of that and have no commute and a ton more free time.
2. We got my son (15) a force feedback wheel for his Xbox back at the beginning of March and, having wanted one myself for so long, got me one a couple of weeks ago. We now get to race each other in Project Cars 2 and that has been a blast. I mean, I absolutely destroy him but hes not bad for someone who has never driven before, just needs to get his pedal finesse down.
3. Get to spend a lot more time with the wife since she is working from home as well. I know a lot of people we talk to seem to be unable to spend a lot of time around their spouse without getting into a lot of arguments and such, but we both are home bodies and haven't had any of those issues.
4. It has been absolutely fantastic to see how people are changing and adapting to the new temporary norm across all ages. Seeing family members using various meeting apps and churches going to live broadcasting and NASCAR going to the iRacing sim races (and it being broadcast on national TV!) is really cool. Had this happened even 15 years ago I am sure it would feel much more lonely.
My key thing through all of this is to stay positive and to spread as much positivity as I can. Even to the folks that are constantly negative and being Debbie Downers all the time I try to spread a little cheer
Automatically Appended Next Post: Oh, and I forgot to add, this year I have started a few pepper plants and plan to make hot sauce over the summer. Its the first time I have tried to make hot sauce so it could be awesome or a complete disaster.. Fortunately I already had all the gardening stuff so if its a disaster I am not too deep financially (24$ for seeds)
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/04/09 21:34:48
Mainly things seem to be going ok in Canada - Knock on wood. The curve is actually bending down in BC but there's some concerns about Ontario and you can actually see some fear in Doug Ford's eyes. Main concern now is all the snowbirds flying north of the boarder from the US. They're old and I find old people aren't taking this thing seriously.
queen_annes_revenge wrote: What do you mean competitive market? do you mean private healthcare? I think there should be an opt out option for those willing and able to buy private health insurance. I'd happily buy private for my family if it meant a slightly lower tax rate for myself.
What would be the advantage of buying private health insurance in exchange for a lower tax rate? You might get lower taxes, sure, but you'd almost assuredly pay more for your premiums than you would save from reducing your tax rate, let alone your additional out-of-pocket costs..
Quicker service, choice of medical care, better quality care etc.
How? Insurance doesn't determine the speed or quality of care, thats determined purely by the medical staff/healthcare provider and has nothing to do with your insurance carrier. Nobody has ever once in my life said "oh you have Cigna/Kaiser Permanente/Metlife/etc? Here, cut to the front of the line, would you like a single malt and a cigar while we take your blood pressure?" In fact, its repeatedly slowed down my speed of service, particularly in the last year. I ended up having to push back a surgery to correct a deviated septum not once but on 3 separate occasions, from Feb 2019 to September 2019, precisely because my insurance carrier would not approve the surgery even though I got 3 separate ENTs and a cardiologist to all say that I was more or less at extreme risk of dropping dead in my sleep due to a blocked nasal passageway which was somehow triggering a cardiac arrhythmia. Oh, and when that surgery was finally cleared, I was given the excellent "choice" of not getting it at all or paying $3k out of pocket because my insurer didn't consider it medically necessary. While probably a more egregious example of things, I can't tell you how many times I've had to go without prescription meds for several days (in a few cases several weeks) because insurance carriers needed doctors to prove medical necessity or decided that the prescription was too expensive and that it would be more cost effective for them to proscribe an alternative set of meds instead - in some cases to the obvious detriment of my quality of care as instead of taking a single medication as originally proscribed, I was taking 2 or 3 different ones to achieve similar results.
As for choice - I don't know how the NHS works (i.e. are you restricted to using only certain providers or going to certain hospitals, etc?), but as far as the American healthcare system, I have very little choice - my choice is dictated entirely by my insurance carrier, which is in turn dictated by my employer. For the current year my employer decided to switch carriers for cost savings, in turn I can no longer see the family doctor I've been seeing for the past 10+ years, nor can I continue seeing the ENT specialist I've been working with for the past 2 years to get my sleep apnea issue under control unless I want to pay ~$700 out of pocket per visit. How is that "choice"?
As someone who has private health insurance, you seem to not really understand what it is you're asking for.
CoALabaer wrote: Wargamers hate two things: the state of the game and change.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson "has been moved this evening from intensive care back to the ward, where he will receive close monitoring during the early phase of his recovery," Downing Street said in a statement Thursday.
“He is in extremely good spirits,” the statement added.
Some background: The 55-year-old was taken to London's St. Thomas' Hospital on Sunday because he was displaying "persistent" symptoms 10 days after testing positive for the virus.
Johnson's condition worsened on Monday, and he was taken to the ICU. On Tuesday, Downing Street said he was in a stable condition.
He did not require mechanical or invasive ventilation and did not have pneumonia, according to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is deputizing for the Prime Minister.
...which will only potentially pan out IF, and only IF, this 'good news' and a general flattening of the curve doesn't lead to Social Distancing being lessened and people trying to 'return to normal' too soon!
Alpharius wrote: ...which will only potentially pan out IF, and only IF, this 'good news' and a general flattening of the curve doesn't lead to Social Distancing being lessened and people trying to 'return to normal' too soon!
That does not sound like a particularly American thing to do at all...
As of today churches will perform rites with closed doors and only the priests inside. The rite will be broadcasted by state TV.
Here one priest took initiave and did that one on his own rather than just keep locked down. Poor guy being less tech savvy managed to toggle in twitch filter that automatically put in glasses and beard over his face Sermon turned quite hilarious turn thanks to that ;-)
Actually wasn't that bad look though. He should make that his personal trademark and stand out with that
In other news from Finland pace of infections is dropping and evening between regions so the exceptional reasons for blockade of Uusimaa by police and army looks to be lifted on initially planned date 19.4. Freedom to move inside Finland is protected by constitution(wasn't messed with even during world war 2) that needs exceptionally good justification and as need is going away law requires it to be lifted.
Rest of restrictions were extended to 13.5 for now but as that's also around estimated peak not expecting them to be lifted then either. Current view is gradual loosening up more toward end of may after peak has gone.
There is some talk about mandatory face masks to be worn but just one tiny little practical issue...you can't find those on stores. How you can mandate to wear something you can't get your hands on?
Benefit of putting in restrictions in early. Though Finland was still bit of a slow(those winter sport centers should have been ordered closed down sooner...).
German and Austria are also looking to start lifting restrictions gradually soonish.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: st positives out of a great many negatives. Little things I’m now thankful for.
1. This time last year, Mum’s cancer turned terminal. Had this happened then, I wouldn’t have been able to go see her in her last few months.
2. Having lived on my own, hundreds of miles from my family for 15, maybe 16 years, the isolation factor isn’t overly affecting me,
3. No daily commute. Working from home is an absolute boon for me. Yes I miss my colleagues and the camaraderie, but I’ve hours to myself I’ve not had for 8.5 years.
4. Lucky enough that my season ticket ran out 31 March. As we’re looking at another three months minimum (just my workplace) of the current arrangement, that’s nearly £1,000 back in my pocket, which is far from unwelcome.
Luckily 1 hasn't affected me. Sorry to hear on that.
I live on my own in town with nearly zero friends(my social circle is bit odd. I have basically none where I live, plenty where I work and plenty on where I was born where I was born that I regularly visit...I spend so little time in my home town no time to meet people ) so the isolation is affecting me bit by not being able to meet my relatives. Particularly my nieces I miss dearly(the 2 year old is bugging me already when do I come. Never been this long away from her).
3 is same for me. I get to sleep longer and less time wasted getting home. Yey!
4...I bought ticket for 2.3-9.4 and lost most of it due to that. Good thing I didn't get much higher as even if restrictions are starting to get lifted here late may/early june as is current talks that would still be annoyingly lot to be spent. I rarely buy longer than 2 months because you can't get refund on any condition. Bloody monopoly companies. Only thing is if you have 6+ month pass you can put it for pause once for a month but of course if I use that pause for corona no summer holiday pause...
Grumble grumble. Bloody monopoly companies. No need to be customer friendly.
Boss is also considering that we take summer holiday on may which makes sense. Normally it would be july but likely Finland is busy recovering from Corona so bad time to take holidays so makes sense and likely very few companies do holidays normally this year. Postponing toward fall seems to be popular idea but our boss is thinking may. And as I don't have money to go to Japan this year(plus corona lockdowns) it's actually fine for me. No particular plans for holiday so when it's held is 100% irrelevant for me. I could start it right now and wouldn't bother me.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2020/04/10 07:04:34
queen_annes_revenge wrote: What do you mean competitive market? do you mean private healthcare? I think there should be an opt out option for those willing and able to buy private health insurance. I'd happily buy private for my family if it meant a slightly lower tax rate for myself.
What would be the advantage of buying private health insurance in exchange for a lower tax rate? You might get lower taxes, sure, but you'd almost assuredly pay more for your premiums than you would save from reducing your tax rate, let alone your additional out-of-pocket costs..
Quicker service, choice of medical care, better quality care etc.
How? Insurance doesn't determine the speed or quality of care, thats determined purely by the medical staff/healthcare provider and has nothing to do with your insurance carrier. Nobody has ever once in my life said "oh you have Cigna/Kaiser Permanente/Metlife/etc? Here, cut to the front of the line, would you like a single malt and a cigar while we take your blood pressure?" In fact, its repeatedly slowed down my speed of service, particularly in the last year. I ended up having to push back a surgery to correct a deviated septum not once but on 3 separate occasions, from Feb 2019 to September 2019, precisely because my insurance carrier would not approve the surgery even though I got 3 separate ENTs and a cardiologist to all say that I was more or less at extreme risk of dropping dead in my sleep due to a blocked nasal passageway which was somehow triggering a cardiac arrhythmia. Oh, and when that surgery was finally cleared, I was given the excellent "choice" of not getting it at all or paying $3k out of pocket because my insurer didn't consider it medically necessary. While probably a more egregious example of things, I can't tell you how many times I've had to go without prescription meds for several days (in a few cases several weeks) because insurance carriers needed doctors to prove medical necessity or decided that the prescription was too expensive and that it would be more cost effective for them to proscribe an alternative set of meds instead - in some cases to the obvious detriment of my quality of care as instead of taking a single medication as originally proscribed, I was taking 2 or 3 different ones to achieve similar results.
As for choice - I don't know how the NHS works (i.e. are you restricted to using only certain providers or going to certain hospitals, etc?), but as far as the American healthcare system, I have very little choice - my choice is dictated entirely by my insurance carrier, which is in turn dictated by my employer. For the current year my employer decided to switch carriers for cost savings, in turn I can no longer see the family doctor I've been seeing for the past 10+ years, nor can I continue seeing the ENT specialist I've been working with for the past 2 years to get my sleep apnea issue under control unless I want to pay ~$700 out of pocket per visit. How is that "choice"?
As someone who has private health insurance, you seem to not really understand what it is you're asking for.
I think the UK system is different to that in the US, because it is optional rather than required if you want to be able to access treatment. I don't have much experience with it, but those I know who have it say its much better than potentially having long waits with the NHS
queen_annes_revenge wrote: What do you mean competitive market? do you mean private healthcare? I think there should be an opt out option for those willing and able to buy private health insurance. I'd happily buy private for my family if it meant a slightly lower tax rate for myself.
What would be the advantage of buying private health insurance in exchange for a lower tax rate? You might get lower taxes, sure, but you'd almost assuredly pay more for your premiums than you would save from reducing your tax rate, let alone your additional out-of-pocket costs..
Quicker service, choice of medical care, better quality care etc.
How? Insurance doesn't determine the speed or quality of care, thats determined purely by the medical staff/healthcare provider and has nothing to do with your insurance carrier. Nobody has ever once in my life said "oh you have Cigna/Kaiser Permanente/Metlife/etc? Here, cut to the front of the line, would you like a single malt and a cigar while we take your blood pressure?" In fact, its repeatedly slowed down my speed of service, particularly in the last year. I ended up having to push back a surgery to correct a deviated septum not once but on 3 separate occasions, from Feb 2019 to September 2019, precisely because my insurance carrier would not approve the surgery even though I got 3 separate ENTs and a cardiologist to all say that I was more or less at extreme risk of dropping dead in my sleep due to a blocked nasal passageway which was somehow triggering a cardiac arrhythmia. Oh, and when that surgery was finally cleared, I was given the excellent "choice" of not getting it at all or paying $3k out of pocket because my insurer didn't consider it medically necessary. While probably a more egregious example of things, I can't tell you how many times I've had to go without prescription meds for several days (in a few cases several weeks) because insurance carriers needed doctors to prove medical necessity or decided that the prescription was too expensive and that it would be more cost effective for them to proscribe an alternative set of meds instead - in some cases to the obvious detriment of my quality of care as instead of taking a single medication as originally proscribed, I was taking 2 or 3 different ones to achieve similar results.
As for choice - I don't know how the NHS works (i.e. are you restricted to using only certain providers or going to certain hospitals, etc?), but as far as the American healthcare system, I have very little choice - my choice is dictated entirely by my insurance carrier, which is in turn dictated by my employer. For the current year my employer decided to switch carriers for cost savings, in turn I can no longer see the family doctor I've been seeing for the past 10+ years, nor can I continue seeing the ENT specialist I've been working with for the past 2 years to get my sleep apnea issue under control unless I want to pay ~$700 out of pocket per visit. How is that "choice"?
As someone who has private health insurance, you seem to not really understand what it is you're asking for.
I think the UK system is different to that in the US, because it is optional rather than required if you want to be able to access treatment. I don't have much experience with it, but those I know who have it say its much better than potentially having long waits with the NHS
Worth being sure the people you're talking about are getting healthcare provided by insurers and not just paying privately for specific treatments. The latter is certainly great in the UK but very expensive, the former does suffer most of the problems of US healthcare (and you'd still being going to NHS institutions for emergency care in most circumstances).
I think the trick to making private health insurance work and actually be good is to have an NHS-like service to set the minimum standard. For people to then actually want private insurance it has to actually provide signifcantly better care than the free option.
Or to have the law mandate what an insurer must compensate and what are optional premiums (ie, the Dutch system). But then, our health insurance companies are a strange hybrid of private-but-not-really-for-profit-but-kinda-for-profit-anyway. Yes, it's confusing.
In any case, little sunshines in this:
-I'm still working, and currently in an as-yet relatively corona-free country. And the longer I stay away, the more money I make.
Downside is that I'm away from my wife and the wee 'uns for much longer than I'd like.
And as someone who routinely is away from home for weeks on end, no, seeing people on a screen is no substitue for actual interaction - at least when it comes to kids and the missus. There's a reason long-distance relationships very rarely work.
It's an opt-in app with well publicised functions that will recieve heavy scrutiny. It's really not the stasi.
Still quite iffy imo, still it's opt in. So long there is no force behind it, why not?
It's data might also help, of course if propperly anonymisised general science?
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/766717.page A Mostly Renegades and Heretics blog.
GW:"Space marines got too many options to balance, therefore we decided to legends HH units." Players: "why?!? Now we finally got decent plastic kits and you cut them?" Chaos marines players: "Since when are Daemonengines 30k models and why do i have NO droppods now?" GW" MONEY.... erm i meant TOO MANY OPTIONS (to resell your army to you again by disalowing former units)! Do you want specific tyranid fighiting Primaris? Even a new sabotage lieutnant!" Chaos players: Guess i stop playing or go to HH.
It's an opt-in app with well publicised functions that will recieve heavy scrutiny. It's really not the stasi.
Still quite iffy imo, still it's opt in. So long there is no force behind it, why not?
It's data might also help, of course if propperly anonymisised general science?
Similar systems have been a major part of why control has been so good in South Korea so it seems remiss not to develop one. That said, it's explicitly a coronavirus infected person tracing app. No one is gonna be downloading not knowing that it's going to track their whereabouts. I'm very uncomfortable with apps doing this surreptitiously, but when it's the entire purpose and you can't not know? Who cares?
Gitzbitah wrote: And Sunetra Gupta has no evidence for this optimistic theory.
That would be why the article's title is "A New Study Suggests...".
As of yet they've done no testing. This is a serious issue, and choosing to ignore evidence from reputable bodies, like the WHO, which I believe you've classed as a 'terrorist organization' earlier in this thread while championing theories that 'it's not so bad' which have done no testing is just irresponsible.
Technically, I said IF there are less than 50,000 deaths worldwide, the WHO should be considered a terrorist organization on behalf of the significant amount of economic and social damage to multiple countries done on behalf of them presenting this disease as a pandemic that will kill millions. Obviously, if they are right and the damage does turn out to be that bad, the fact that we'll see a recession with unemployment higher than the Great Depression might be a little more justified.
When deaths blitz past 50k in the next week or two, what's your plan to move these goalposts?
It took 6 days.
Has Sqorgar ever come back in this thread? By tonight it'll have done another 50k in 7 days. WHO still the real villains?
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2020/04/10 08:37:26
Sermon turned quite hilarious turn thanks to that ;-)
Heresy World Eaters/Emperors Children 
