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Many people who brag on “the world’s best healthcare system simply have not been subject to the realities of how it works.

I have as much of a problem with people who criticize pharmaceutical companies for paying their executives and top scientists well as I do people who criticize captains of industry who get compensated well too. People take big risks for the chance of big reward. People invest huge amounts of talent, knowledge and effort into work that might generate big reward. Practically all of the significant medical advancements that we have seen in the past century and which greatly improved the quality of life or survivability of humans in previously dire scenarios came as a result of "Big Medical" (not just pharmaceutical companies) who profited greatly from it. I see nothing wrong with this. Yes, we need some healthcare reform in our country but I would really suggest we start with the health insurance companies. You're going to find that most of the greed you're searching for in healthcare resides there and the ripple effect causes all other prices to rise.

My big gripe is the cost of prescription drugs. When you make a pill for $.05 and sell it for $10.00, that's just plain wrong. Yeah, I know all about the cost of research, but many of these medicines have been in common use for many years. They paid for themselves decades ago. So why are they still so expensive? After my little event back in 2019, my Cardiologist put me on Xarelto just as a precaution. Even with good insurance, this is expensive stuff. There is no generic either. Then two things happened. 1. I fell into the medicare "Donut hole". Basically, that means that they had a limit on how much they would spend on this stuff and I hit it. Rather quickly I might add. 2. Due to the high cost of Xarelto, my insurance just decided to drop it all together. The monthly cost of this one pill jumped to $280 for 30 pills. Lucky for me, I had a long talk with my Doctor and he decided I didn't really need it after all. My oldest son is diabetic. He has a good job and makes good money. Yet he struggles due to the high cost of insulin. Dammit! The government gives free meds and needles to junkies. Why the Hell do legitimately sick, but productive citizens have to suffer? The cost of insulin seriously needs some government control. But big pharma OWNS Congress, so don't expect any change. The cost of insulin amounts to a huge racket!

Civilians, military, LEO, or competitors all start with a solid foundation of essential skills which take consideralby more time than what a ECP course requires. I wish someone would tell me just what level of training is necessary when the bad guy picks the time and place. Sure would simplify things, especially when my life or that of a loved one is on the line. Training is a process, not an endpoint.

This. My sister is a nurse and said that at every hospital and medical facility she has worked that nurses are regarded by the brass as just a drag on the bottom line because they don’t generate revenue like say, surgeries do. The nurses’ department is run on a shoestring budget and skeleton crew and many are run off/burn out/disgruntled as a result. However, we all know the hospital would crumble in minutes if all the nurses went and played golf one day.

Further, just because something is "best" (of other competing systems) does not mean that it can't be better, either.

I agree that we do have the best health care. The best doctors, nurses and technicians in the world. The problem is the cost of this care. That cost is controlled by huge corporations that knowingly bloat these costs for huge profits. They don't give a damn about the patients, only maximum and bloated profits.

I found a stack of $2 bills in a drawer the other day while decluttering. I need to go try to spend a few at various places. I could probably film it and put in on YouTube, might go viral and pay me big bucks.

Actually, medical fees are based off of "Usual and Customary" rates of the area that the doctor is in. A couple of decades ago, Aetna Insurance decided that doctors in Williamson County should NOT be paid as much as doctors in Davidson County even though it's a contiguous metro area of Davidson County. They were put on the U & C of Maury County so that they could pay the doctors less and increase profit. This caused most of the doctors in Williamson County to drop Aetna altogether. Having dealt with many insurance companies while I practiced, I have come to the conclusion that health insurance companies are the main cause of skyrocketing premiums and costs of procedures.

Add tort reform right behind them on that list. It seems like you can't go see a doctor without him/her ordering expensive CT, MRI, and blood tests to be sure they didn't misdiagnose fingernail cancer as a simple hangnail and get sued for malpractice.

One thing COVID did was shine a light at how medical care is developed and delivered in this country...and I'm afraid we were found wanting. I could type up a whole soliloquy about how medical research is different than the delivery of care; how the hospitals needing to run at an income level to cover expenses isn't good enough, they need to return value to shareholders in many cases; and how insurance companies are a leach that keep the doctors and patients locked in some form of bureaucratic combat with each other, and with them. All these things keep better care than we could have from getting to patients. I often see folks say the US has "the best care in the world". We may have the best doctors, and the best procedure skills...but let's not pretend access isn't severely lacking for some. As as much as folks hate government intervention in healthcare, I'm convinced the entire industry would collapse in on itself if Medicare wasn't around, to say nothing of how undignified things would get for the elderly who can't afford it. I think every aspect of this industry had a very ugly 2:55am moment in the club (when the lights come on and you see just how dreary it really is) when push came to shove because of COVID. I got a first hand look at this in my job supporting a provider group in the thick of it. Boy oh boy was it an education, and a worry for the future.

Men who eat genuine Mexican food from roadside vendors are infinitely less susceptible to COVID-19 and Tetanus. It's science. (Disclaimer: Not actual medical advice)

2003 Ford Ranger w/96,000 miles and runnin' strong!

Does this mean there’s still a chance for me to get a mask citation?

Not surprising. Those are some of the most educated countries there are.

60 over 454 with a stroked crank. It's also a a 4-7 swap and efi.

I’ve mentioned it before I think, but one of the big factors in me folding my business up and deciding to become somebody else’s employee is insurance. I haven’t had health insurance in 5 years. It was too expensive. For me to provide health insurance for my family last year would have been nearly 30k in premiums and deductibles before the insurance company would have started kicking in a dime. It was too much.

Thanks for the reply, just talked to the guys in Collierville where I purchased the Can and they said they have the tools to do it, headed there in the morning.

I did not read the previous posts , but I cut wood all my life until I got married. We heated our hopuse with a wood stove. When we encountered stuff like that , we sprayed it with diesel and let it die. After around 2 weeks we would go back and cut it. But we'd wear long sleeves and long pants.

I was just commenting on the vine. Get a pro to remove the limb !!!!

It's Virginia Creeper.........trust me Your tree.. Virginia Creeper..

Thanks. he actually made the grip cap; mostly with a file. Not only is he talented, he's frugal as well....and patient.

My Dad has given my boys a bunch of $2 bills. I think he had the bank get $100 worth and used them as gifts and to pay my boys for various chores. We had a hard time explaining to the boys using them to buy candy at Target wasn't the best idea.

What part of "tort reform" sounded like "tort elimination"?

That rifle has first class workmanship. When was the last time you saw a skeleton grip cap?

Oh yeah, heavily by what I've read. It's pretty lake and I had a good time fishing it. We caught a good amount of smallmouth, 2 over 3lbs

Not really, ask what the cash price for a procedure costs.

Of course it's more complicated that that. Isn't everything more complicated than it seems on the surface? Have you ever noticed your insurance statements that show the doctor charged $x and the insurance company paid 80% of $x ? I asked a surgeon about that one day, wondering if he simply wrote-off the difference. It turns out that doctors charge according to how much the highest-paying insurance will compensate them. So if Joe Executive has a super whampodyne insurance plan that will pay $100 for an aspirin, then that's what the doctor will charge. My pedestrian insurance will only pay $50 for that same aspirin, but when the doctor agreed to be a preferred-provide he agreed to take the $50. The upper limits of what a medical professional charges is dictated by the upper-limits of what the best insurance companies will pay.

This is the issue that has to change. There are more than one or two things we need to take back, making our own health care dissensions and being self governed are just a start.

At that time, it was South Africa. A lot has changed since then. The outfitter should tell you anything you need to know. They also like to take you to the diamond market at some point.

I am with the hire it done crowd now. But in my younger/dumber/poorer/cheaper days I would start at the end on the ground and start trimming limbs to lighten up the load at the hinged parts. If I got enough off to where it was hanging free and the hinge still didn't break loose at least you have less hanging out there that could cause a strange twist when it let loose. I would tie off with my tractor and put a little tension on it to be sure it went in the right direction when cut loose. The hope is it would continue to fold to the ground till you had little left to cut off at the hinge. As for the poison ivy no suggestion. I am lucky not to be very allergic but try not to push my luck.

https://agapetactical.com training location Franklin area

This looks like it's going to be a great match.

Aqil Qadir is a Master Rangemaster instructor---top notch www.CitizensSafety.com

I agree. But a lot of people refuse to recognize the burden that illegals alone put on the healthcare system let alone the native trash that work the system. Until someone grows a set of nuts and says NO it's only going to get worse. Conflict of interest is why we aren't getting anywhere. The people deciding the laws are taking a cut. Hard to get them to act on what should be done. Meanwhile you and I and the rest of the working class suffer.

True, but the reasons why that Holiday Inn (hospital) is understaffed deserves a hard look and then something done about it. Healthcare providers who were put on the front lines last year with minimal protection and no vaccine mostly fared well, just like the rest of society. This year they are being forced to take a vaccine that they might object to for a variety of reasons. This goes back to the concept of individual freedom and the sanctity of one's own body. There will be the argument that you shouldn't have unvaccinated caregivers tending to vulnerable patients, but there is so much data supporting the fact that vaccinated people still spread COVID-19 that this should be a moot point. Also, none of these caregivers -- vaccinated or not -- are being allowed to interact with vulnerable patients without PPE anyway. Again, moot. Hospital administrations are doing little to nothing to incentivize the retention of experienced veteran nurses but are showering new hires with tens of thousands of dollars in hiring bonuses. Veteran staff sees this as a slap in the face, and rightfully so, and is leaving because of it. Lets face it: We all might juts LOVE our jobs, but work is the "curse of Adam". We do it because we need or want the money. Hospital administrators have also for years been running the fine line of "just enough staff" to cover the patient census. Nurses have been overworked for a long time. Add to that all of the above, and those who can are cutting bait and finding other careers. All of this is creating a talent vacuum in the healthcare industry. Nurses who know a thing or two because they've seen a thing or two are exiting the workplace. My oldest daughter who has only been a nurse for a few years is now training new nurses who are making more money than her. Read that again: She has just a few years of practical experience and is still very much learning herself. She's being required to train new nurses because there aren't enough seasoned nurses above her to do the job. I'm thrilled for her success but sad about what she's facing in the years ahead. Privatization of healthcare is still the right way to do this and I am staunchly against socialized medicine (because it gets a WHOLE lot worse under those types of programs) but companies in this industry need to get back to their roots and check their core values. If it's profit over care or profit over their people, they're wrong.

An ICU bed may as well be a bed at the Holiday Inn if you don’t also have the trained staff needed to keep you alive.

I'm seeing data that suggests that the reason hospitals are at capacity has less to do with COVID-19 and more to do with staff shortages. Apparently nurses, beginning last year, with enough years under their belts or enough financial stability to do so, have been getting very fed up with the dynamics at play within the healthcare industry and have begun leaving. In significant numbers. What I've begun tracking is data to the effect that there are ample beds in hospitals, right here in Tennessee... right here in Nashville... but not enough nurses to keep all of them open and available.

Good news @gregintennwe found a solution !

That would be awesome. Hope we can work it out sometime.

Honestly, the new Broncos are just too small. Cute in theory but TOO SMALL. If I was dropping $ on a vehicle right now, it would be the Explorer ST. I test drove one at F&L of Cookeville. Took it on I40 and I got up and into the triple digits and it drove amazingly well. Sounded like a damn muscle car too. However, my Expedition has the EcoBoost V6 and even that in the Bronco would be better than current options.

That is not a teachers fault there. That is a parents fault. All children should be able to tell time before ever reaching school age.......JMHO

52 with a 496/4L80E/9"

Rock Islands have years of positive reputation but those SDS Tisas have come on strong. They are generally very well regarded and start under $400 for a basic GI model. They are also stamped Knoxville, TN as SDS is based here, so that’s kinda cool.

Yes, that's what I mean. You may find a different situation wherever you move. I live half an hour from Crossville, and less than an hour from Knoxville, but have found that it's really difficult to find skilled or unskilled labor of any kind. There's a retirement / resort community nearby, and it seems that most of the trades people get enough work there and really don't want to come the extra distance. Again, your mileage may vary.

OK...my pitiful viewpoint. As an old, very much less mobile fat man who has cut down a few trees, and cut up a whole lot more after storms here...GET SOMEONE ELSE TO DO THIS!! I know, seeing me now, that statement is hard to believe; but I've tackled some really large trees. That was 10 years, and 50 pounds ago. On 2 good legs then. Don't risk it Greg. It's not worth it. AND...that poison ivy. A brief touch and I'm in misery with it. Same with poison oak. I can walk near Poison Sumac and get covered with it. Really don't even have to touch it.

When I'm craving a good stomach ache or want to feel like I was in a car wreck a couple hours ago, I always head to McDonalds.