Saturday, August 28, 2010

misc.consumers.frugal-living - 7 new messages in 4 topics - digest

misc.consumers.frugal-living
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.consumers.frugal-living?hl=en

misc.consumers.frugal-living@googlegroups.com

Today's topics:

* Friday the 13th encounter with Big Brother - 1 messages, 1 author
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.consumers.frugal-living/t/36c81e58c2d118c9?hl=en
* Health Insurance Misery - 4 messages, 1 author
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.consumers.frugal-living/t/dcac292a395fe233?hl=en
* ONLINE jobs work at home IN FREE TIME.....MONEY IN $'s... - 1 messages, 1
author
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.consumers.frugal-living/t/7f459b2fc922c949?hl=en
* Online Data Entry Job via Interne - 1 messages, 1 author
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.consumers.frugal-living/t/75e71c2e8675dfce?hl=en

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TOPIC: Friday the 13th encounter with Big Brother
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.consumers.frugal-living/t/36c81e58c2d118c9?hl=en
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== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Fri, Aug 27 2010 9:12 pm
From: don@manx.misty.com (Don Klipstein)


In article <i59eg1$pvk$1@news.eternal-september.org>, The Henchman wrote:
>
>
>Try that with a traffic camera, when its sole purpose
>> is to generate extra tax revenue.
>
>I agree pretty much with everything you say except this last statement
>about the automatic extra tax revenue generation.
>
>sometimes traffic cameras are put into place at busy intersections because
>children and the elderly are killed by reckless driving. Some streets have
>higher numbers of school aged pedestrians or homes for the aged and traffic
>needs to be slowed to posted limits for good reason. There are benefits to
>having cameras introduced to some areas.
>
>Make sure the street your wife was speeding on does not have schools, or
>public transit or busy pedestrian crossings before arguing in front of a
>judge. I know it's really easy to blame tax authorities but that isn't
>always the case.

I used to favor red light cameras in an area that I still think badly
needs them (Philadelphia).

However, I saw what hapened within months after Philly's intersection of
58th and Walnut (school there) got red light camera enforcement: The
yellow light duration was shortened at least half a second from that
area's usual 3 seconds to no more than 2.5 seconds.

Whoever was responsible (or more like irresponsible) for that is giving
camera enforcement a bad name, and detracting from support for such things
where they are badly needed. (Such as where cops stopping unlawful drivers
cause traffic tie-ups in the process.)
The irresponsible persons shortening yellow light durations at
intersections with red light cameras need severe punishment, such as maybe
public gonad removal surgery in a painful manner. OK, I would settle for
public shaving of all hair on every square inch of their bodies, or else
showing how every square inch of their bodies was already hairless. And
publish their vehicles' make/model/year/tag#, so that they are forced to
drive 35 rather than 45 in roads posted 35 but suitable for 50 and driven
at 40-45 by many cops when they are off-duty and out of uniform and in
their personal cars.
--
- Don Klipstein (don@misty.com)

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TOPIC: Health Insurance Misery
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.consumers.frugal-living/t/dcac292a395fe233?hl=en
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== 1 of 4 ==
Date: Fri, Aug 27 2010 9:31 pm
From: don@manx.misty.com (Don Klipstein)


In article <i585v7$qlk$1@news.eternal-september.org>, Clams wrote:

<SNIP stuff already quoted>

>The advantage of health care insurance is not so much that they pay a
>portion of what's owed, but more importantly, they negotiate lower
>prices with doctors, hospitals, etc. If you walk in the door with no
>insurance, expect to be billed and extra 50%.

Or 200-400% more in hospitals, compared to what they get from health
insurance companies. (Your savings by having health insurance will be
less, due to their payroll costs, overhead and profits.)

>Of course, there is much evidence to question if health insurance is
>really needed for most under 50. The Obama plan (like Hilliary's
>approach) works by forcing the younger to subsidize the elders.

Like what is done in every prosperous/industrialized democracy more
prosperous than South Africa, though to lesser extent in USA.

(USA's gubmint Medicare has incomplete coverage largely restricted to
those 65-plus in age, and Medicaid covers only poverty people and at least
generally does not cover going to a primary care physicial with a cold
or flu - but does cover going to the ER for that, even the ER of a
teaching hospital associated with an Ivy League medical school - and AMA
likes that situation according to what I have heard.)
--
- Don Klipstein (don@misty.com)


== 2 of 4 ==
Date: Fri, Aug 27 2010 10:09 pm
From: don@manx.misty.com (Don Klipstein)


In article <563g7698gq4i24480soomhql1amimvh108@4ax.com>, me@privacy.net wrote:
>Clams <"Clams"@drunkenclam.com> wrote:
>
>>The advantage of health care insurance is not so much that they pay a
>>portion of what's owed, but more importantly, they negotiate lower
>>prices with doctors, hospitals, etc. If you walk in the door with no
>>insurance, expect to be billed and extra 50%.
>
>ABSOLUTELY FALSE!
>
>They charge LESS for out of pocket costs

I know one doctor that gives me a very favorable "self-pay" rate
around 30% of my responsibility according to my high-deductible insurance.
I thank him greatly for doing so.

Going to that one is not even my idea - I go there for a bit of cosmetic
dermatology treatment that I don't even want but my SO wants. And he pays
every dollar and cent for what is his desire and not mine.

Then, there was a time when I went to an ER shortly after a bike crash
caused me to need stitches in a bit of a gash. (Philadelphia driver
barged into a bike lane to make a right turn, and started the right turn
signal after rather than before such lane change - awfully common in
Philadelphia.)
At that time, I was "self pay". The hospital initially billed me a bit
over $1,000 for wound cleaning and a few stitches. But I somehow
managed to get them to knock the bill down by around 75% after telling
them my income. They said that this much lower figure was what they would
get from insurance companies. I was profuse with thanks and I was quick
to cough up about 1/4 of the money that I was initially billed for!

For that matter, my primary care physician's group billed about twice
as much for a physical when I declared insurance as when I declared "self
pay".

Now, I am paying $4,000 per year with a $5,000 annual deductible for
what - in case I survive a crash scene that I depart from in an ambulance,
either my fault or at fault of an uninsured driver, or in case I am the
first in my family to get diagnosed with cancer? Even though my day job
pays me to be fit and trim and burn cholesterol, and my "good cholesterol"
was about 50% more than my "bad" with total in the 160's as of my latest
testing there last year?
--
- Don Klipstein (don@misty.com)


== 3 of 4 ==
Date: Fri, Aug 27 2010 10:26 pm
From: don@manx.misty.com (Don Klipstein)


In article <i59dpc$q8u$1@speranza.aioe.org>, h wrote:
>
>"Artys" <lajolie@GMI.net> wrote in message
>news:d5cd18f2-4340-4978-b8ec-c37462394053@i31g2000yqm.googlegroups.com...
>On Aug 27, 2:07 pm, m...@privacy.net wrote:
>> Clams <"Clams"@drunkenclam.com> wrote:
>> >The advantage of health care insurance is not so much that they pay a
>> >portion of what's owed, but more importantly, they negotiate lower
>> >prices with doctors, hospitals, etc. If you walk in the door with no
>> >insurance, expect to be billed and extra 50%.
>>
>> ABSOLUTELY FALSE!
>>
>> They charge LESS for out of pocket costs
>
>>>>I am so scared of being shown the door by doctors and insurers, that I
>>>>feel trapped. The area that I live in, does that to people.
>
>Just do what I do...never need medical care. Eat right, work out, don't ever
>have kids. I'm well into my 50s and don't expect to see a doctor ever again.
>Why have insurance if you don't need healthcare?

What if you have a day job paying you to work out?

As in delivery biker? In a city having many uninsured drivers and
many thugs with handguns? (~70% of Philly's handgun assault victims get
to hospitals and exit such hospitals alive after handgun bullet wound
treatment, if I remember correctly statistics occaisionally mentioned in
Philly newspapers - even though in recent years IIRC around 250-300
Philadelphians are murdered annually by illegal use of handguns.)

And what about such a job having a volatile schedule that sometimes
interferes with myself self-applying sunblock lotion? And sunblock
lotion is slightly short of 100% protection? I am aware of 5 types of
malignant melanoma that originate in the skin, at least 3 maybe 4 of which
correlate well with sunlight exposure. Along with 2 other slower-growing
(and accordingly less deadly if treated) skin cancers that correlate well
with sun exposure. Furthermore, in addition there is malignant melanoma
originating in the eye. (I have UV-block eyeglasses with 1980's-style big
lenses, but that may be 98% rather than 100% protection in that area.)

--
- Don Klipstein (don@misty.com)


== 4 of 4 ==
Date: Fri, Aug 27 2010 10:38 pm
From: don@manx.misty.com (Don Klipstein)


In article
<7b79bbb6-748f-444a-ada9-341df04a2bac@f42g2000yqn.googlegroups.com>,
tmclone wrote in small part:

>(insane, since average "crappy" interest rates were well over 15% for
>YEARS) I'd walk away happy and never ask the gubmint for a dime.

S&P 500 stock index plus reinvestment of dividends from the 1932 low
to the 1999-2000 high achieved less than that. The Willshire 5000 stock
index (includes midcap and most listed smallcap stocks) slightly exceeds
S&P 500 in 30-year-class time span, but is more like 12% than 15%.

These stock indixes for 30-year-or-more time scale have good history of
exceeding bonds, gold, and real estate.

The majority of managed stock mutual funds fare worse than broad market
stock index mutual funds after their expenses.
--
- Don Klipstein (don@misty.com)

==============================================================================
TOPIC: ONLINE jobs work at home IN FREE TIME.....MONEY IN $'s...
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.consumers.frugal-living/t/7f459b2fc922c949?hl=en
==============================================================================

== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Fri, Aug 27 2010 9:58 pm
From: jobs part <10minutjobs@gmail.com>


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==============================================================================
TOPIC: Online Data Entry Job via Interne
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.consumers.frugal-living/t/75e71c2e8675dfce?hl=en
==============================================================================

== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Fri, Aug 27 2010 11:02 pm
From: putu witana


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