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Open Thread March 10 2024 Medicare Advantage Care Denials Affect Patients

Angry Bear | March 10, 2024 5:53 pm

Healthcare

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As UnitedHealth Medicare Advantage Care racks up unprecedented profits, the people it insures battle for care.

Open Thread February 29 2024 “The Republican Party is dying as Trump and his supporters take it over . . .” Angry Bear

11 Comments

Ten Bears says:

March 10, 2024 at 7:48 pm

Here at Valhalla we’re dealing with apparently when someone who’s been disabled for 40 years turns 65 they’re no longer disabled, the insurance they’ve had all this time is canceled, and we’re paying bills we haven’t had to pay before … and I’m not sure how long we can
- Bill Haskell says:
  
  March 10, 2024 at 8:15 pm
  
  Ten Bears
  
  Something is in error or wrong with that statement. You can be on Medicare and Medicaid too.
  - Ten Bears says:
    
    March 11, 2024 at 4:39 am
    
    The primary remains the same; the secondary, the state, insurance was canceled. We’re six months into an appeal and the bills are starting to roll in. That’s the reality of it. There may be an error but I don’t see where it’s at my end, we’ve done everything they’ve asked, they don’t even answer the phone
    - Angry Bear says:
      
      March 11, 2024 at 6:57 am
      
      Ten Bears:
      
      Are you talking about OHP? If so, go and visit them face to face. If you are talking about Medicare advantage or the Medicare Supplemental, go to the Oregon Insurance Division. Document stuff in paper and certified mail. Get to the newspapers too. Embarrass the crap out of them. You got to be livid by now. I would be.
Fred C. Dobbs says:

March 10, 2024 at 10:54 pm

Amid Criticism, Britt Seeks to Defend Her Misleading Border Comments

NY Times – March 10

Katie Britt, a Republican senator from Alabama, suggested on Fox News that viewers should have parsed her wording to determine that a sex-trafficking case she referred to wasn’t recent.

Senator Katie Britt of Alabama on Sunday sought to defend comments she made in her response to President Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday, when she described the experience of a woman who was sexually trafficked in Mexico between 2004 and 2008 in a way that falsely implied it had happened in the United States under President Biden. …
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  March 10, 2024 at 10:58 pm
  
  Britt Tells Misleading Border Story in State of the Union Response
  
  NY TRimes – March 9
  
  The Alabama senator used a story about sex trafficking to criticize the Biden administration’s border policies. But the events occurred in Mexico years ago.
  
  The opposition party’s response to the State of the Union address is a golden opportunity for up-and-coming and lesser-known politicians to introduce themselves to the nation and boost their political profile.
  
  Such was the case for Katie Britt, a first-term Republican senator from Alabama who, despite being a newcomer to the national stage, has been mentioned as a possible choice to be Donald J. Trump’s running mate. But her big debut on Thursday night has been marred by intense scrutiny of an anecdote at the center of her speech, which was delivered from her kitchen in Montgomery, Ala.
  
  The story, about a Mexican who was a victim of sex trafficking at the age of 12, came in the context of an attack on President Biden’s border policies. In impassioned tones, Ms. Britt described a girl being raped multiple times a day in dire conditions at the hands of cartels before she was able to escape. …
  
  … The woman referenced by Ms. Britt was, in fact, never trafficked across the border, nor has she sought asylum in this country. And her harrowing experience took place between 2004 and 2008, while a Republican, George W. Bush, was in the White House and President Biden was still a senator. …
Fred C. Dobbs says:

March 12, 2024 at 8:28 am

China’s Exports Are Surging. Get Ready for the Global Backlash

NY Times – bright & early

Increasing overseas sales of manufactured goods are helping China’s economy and creating employment, but countries from Europe to South Asia may lose jobs.

China’s factory exports are powering ahead faster than almost anyone expected, putting jobs around the world in jeopardy and setting off a backlash that is gaining momentum.

From steel and cars to consumer electronics and solar panels, Chinese factories are finding more overseas buyers for goods. The world’s appetite for its goods is welcomed by China, which is enduring a severe downturn in what had been the economy’s biggest driver of growth: building and outfitting apartments. But other countries are increasingly concerned that China’s rise is coming partly at their expense, and are starting to take action.

The European Union announced last week that it was preparing to charge tariffs, which are import taxes, on all electric cars arriving from China. The European Union said that it had found “substantial evidence” that Chinese government agencies have been illegally subsidizing these exports, something China denies. …
Fred C. Dobbs says:

March 13, 2024 at 9:54 am

Putin warns Russia ready to use nuclear weapons if threatened

AP News – just in

(But, not to worry, Joe Biden won’t let that happen.)

President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Russia is ready to use nuclear weapons if its sovereignty or independence is threatened, issuing another blunt warning to the West just days ahead of an election in which he’s all but certain to secure another six-year term.

The Russian leader has repeatedly talked about his readiness to use nuclear weapons since invading Ukraine in February 2022. The most recent such threat came in his state-of-the-nation address last month, when he warned the West that deepening its involvement in the fighting in Ukraine would risk a nuclear war.

Asked in an interview with Russian state television released early Wednesday if he has ever considered using battlefield nuclear weapons in Ukraine, Putin responded that there has been no need for that. He also noted that he doesn’t think that the world is heading for a nuclear war, describing U.S. President Joe Biden as a veteran politician who fully understands possible dangers of escalation. …
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  March 13, 2024 at 10:00 am
  
  ‘Mutual assured destruction’ is still the name of the game.
  
  Mutual assured destruction – Wikipedia
  
  “Under MAD, each side has enough nuclear weaponry to destroy the other side. Either side, if attacked for any reason by the other, would retaliate with equal or greater force. The expected result is an immediate, irreversible escalation of hostilities resulting in both combatants’ mutual, total, and assured destruction.” …
  
  “Although the Cold War ended in the early 1990s, the MAD doctrine continues to be applied.” …
Fred C. Dobbs says:

March 13, 2024 at 4:21 pm

Oil Fields Release Far More Methane Than Thought, Study Finds

NY Times – about 4 hours ago

In parts of New Mexico, more than 9 percent of all natural gas produced goes into the atmosphere, where it acts as a powerful greenhouse gas.

Oil and gas producers in major oil fields across the United States may be emitting three times as much planet-warming methane gas as official estimates, according to new research published Wednesday, the latest study to suggest that emissions from the fossil fuel sector may be grossly undercounted.

In some parts of New Mexico, more than 9 percent of the natural gas produced was escaping into the atmosphere, researchers said in the study, published in the journal, Nature.

Methane is the main component of natural gas, and when released unburned into the atmosphere it acts as an extremely powerful greenhouse gas. It can warm the planet more than 80 times as much as the same amount of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.

The release of methane — often through leaks at well sites or gas processing plants, along pipelines or in other energy facilities — is bad news for global warming, which is already causing higher sea levels, fiercer storms, more intense droughts and a greater loss of biodiversity around the world. …
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  March 13, 2024 at 4:25 pm
  
  US oil and gas system emissions from nearly one million aerial site measurements | Nature