Luna Bliss

This looks promising for you...lowering the Medicare age down to 60 years of age (or even 55 as is being discussed as well). https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/04/11/832025550/bidens-health-play-in-a-covid-19-economy-lower-medicares-eligibility-age-to-60 More funds are allocated to the so-called 'deserving' people who are eligible for Medicare. This means your medication would more likely be covered with Medicare vs the Medicaid you currently have. With a larger pool of people (a bigger market) we have greater bargaining power in terms of lowering drug costs too. This is why drug costs in all parts of the world are being discussed -- not that you need to move but if we model our system more like other places with lower drug prices we can lower our drug costs too.

No worries...you are doing better than a great many people in the US itself who have no idea what's on the line in this election regarding our health care, or even what a democracy actually is and how Mango Mussolini is an authoritarian.

Well they are still counting the votes, Manoji, but according to a few news channels I'm switching between atm it looks like Biden has greater chances presently.

I agree with what you've said, but, we need a government that responds better to the needs of the people via controlling the corrupt insurance companies. We need them to put limits on wealthy corporations. Only the people who make the rules have the power to limit corporations, for the most part, and we need to find a way to elect representatives who reflect our needs.

You're right, I don't know the specificities in your state -- how the ACA interacts with Medicaid there. But this reflects a big part of the problem with health care in America -- we have all this confusing patchwork health care eating up funds via all the bureaucracies -- funds that should be going toward actual care of people. My agenda is political in nature? Who gets what and how? Yes I do have an agenda with that -- we need to take care of the poor and marginalized in society and afford them the same rights as the wealthy, as much as possible.

You mention Medicaid, but Medicaid is not ACA insurance. I have heard that Medicaid is more strict with this modern and expensive Hep C treatment (often over 100,000 usd!). Keep pushing for it, and you should get it. They are realizing that paying 100k or so is cheaper than a liver transplant, and so you have good leverage. I don't have a political agenda, I have a SOCIAL WORK AGENDA, and that means I believe in fighting against the powers that oppress others which keep them from having a fulfilling life. In the service of this mission we have to cooperate with and influence those who have the power in society and make the rules -- we have to change the policies of the parties. * btw, it's very political regarding the determination of who even gets to receive Medicaid. Many states have Republican governance that would not allow Medicaid expansion to cover more of the needy -- the working poor primarily.

Even though you appear to hate me with a vengeance, I'm sorry you can't get treatment and have to suffer. I've never heard of someone with ACA insurance not being able to get treatment -- is it because of this type of insurance or is there another reason? True, there is no absolute certainty on any kind of insurance as you still have to deal with agents whose priority is to make money for the company. However, if we have a public option with the Biden plan nobody would have to deal with those cr*ppy insurance companies with their profit motive -- health care would be much more secure, on par with other developed nations. How can you say medical care is not politics -- 'politics' is defined as "who gets what, and how". Never is this more true in the case of who is allowed to receive medical treatment. They make the rules. What would you do without any access to the ACA at all if it's eliminated? That is what Trumpie is pushing for. You could have other health issues that needed treatment before the one you say is slowly killing you, and unless you had $ there would be no way to get needed care.

I guess you imagine your health care is secure and you don't have to worry about the possibility of a party coming into power that would leave you without care in the middle of this Covid crisis? Sometimes the issues are a little deeper than it seems on the surface... Nothing is more central to this Covid crisis than appropriate medical care so people can recover or even survive.

When deciding if the US has moved more to the 'right' or 'left' we'd need to include more variables than this study provides. Also, we'd need to go further back in time to determine which direction the US has moved as a short period doesn't incorporate the complexity needed to make this determination -- to the time of the New Deal when the wealthy paid 91% in taxes, and even before when Socialism, unions, and even Communism had a strong presence in the US. Rather than defining what is 'left' or right' though I'm mainly concerned about who is attempting to circumvent democracy. Nothing is more central to Democracy than the right of each individual to vote, yet the Republicans are working hard to disqualify votes as we speak. Fortunately, for the most part the judicial system is blocking these attempts...but what does it say when one party does not believe in upholding the most fundamental tenant of a democracy? Hello, authoritarianism -- they are trying to attempt a one-party rule and force society to be how they want (hence the packing of courts with evangelical judges). Trump even complained that if everyone could vote then a Republican would never be elected again. I'll say it again....I'm so concerned about health care in the middle of this Covid crisis, but perhaps we should start a separate thread about authoritarianism if you're interested?

Evidence? I read a lot of books and watch presentations by various scholars. Authoritarianism is being discussed a lot lately. While it's good to get a sense of it, a firm background, by reading people such as Hannah Arendt from decades ago, authoritarianism has a different flavor in modern times, but the fundamentals are the same. "Authoritarianism is a form of government characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of a strong central power to preserve the political status quo, and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic voting.[1] Political scientists have created many typologies describing variations of authoritarian forms of government.[1] Authoritarian regimes may be either autocratic or oligarchic in nature and may be based upon the rule of a party or the military". A severe reduction in freedoms is the result. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authoritarianism A good modern scholar to check out is Anne Applebaum, a Pulitzer-prize winning historian who writes about authoritarianism in various countries: "Anne's newest book The Twilight of Democracy:The Seductive Lure Of Authoritarianism explains, with electrifying clarity, why some of her contemporaries have abandoned liberal democratic ideals in favor of strongman cults, nationalist movements, or one-party states. Across the world today, from the U.S. to Europe and beyond, liberal democracy is under siege while different forms of authoritarianism are on the rise. In Twilight of Democracy, prize-winning historian Anne Applebaum argues that we should not be surprised by this change: There is an inherent appeal to political systems with radically simple beliefs, especially when they benefit the loyal to the exclusion of everyone else. People are not just ideological, she contends in this captivating extended essay; they are also practical, pragmatic, opportunist. The authoritarian and nationalist parties that have arisen within modern democracies offer new paths to wealth or power for their adherents. Describing politicians, journalists, intellectuals, and others who have abandoned democratic ideals in the UK, U.S., Spain, Poland, and Hungary, Applebaum reveals the patterns that link the new advocates of illiberalism and charts how they use conspiracy theory, political polarization, social media, and nostalgia to change their societies". https://www.anneapplebaum.com/ In short, we don't want a political party in power that has a cruel philosophy with excessive, concentrated power which protects the rich and has little to offer 'the little guy', the people without health care in this Covid crisis. * Noam Chomsky, Chris Hedges -- also good sources, lots of books and presentations on YouTube. Panel discussions with them and other scholars of authoritarianism on YouTube as well.

Well it's an old saying so apropos here, Maryanne -- the personal is political. The political parties determine who gets health care in the US, and this is central to the Covid crisis where much treatment will be needed. Personally, I'd be dead without the push by the Democrats to enact the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) that allowed 20 million more people in the US to obtain health insurance -- I needed expensive medication I could not afford unless covered by health insurance. But the Republicans want to end Obamacare, leaving millions of Americans without health coverage in the middle of a pandemic. Various social service programs are also affected by how much money is allotted for them, especially needed in this Covid crisis -- disabled kids, hungry kids, homeless families...and more...are affected by political parties that decide who gets coverage. We have a major hunger crisis in America atm due to Covid, not to mention the coming homelessness when rents come due.

Many in the US don't understand how much better other so-called '1st world countries' have it. How other countries managed to achieve this while the US fell behind is a long story but this chart shows the differences:

The Republican party has moved so far to the right that it's not recognizable anymore. You can't compromise with bat*****crazy. I suggest reading about autocracy and how far the Republican party has moved us in that direction. We're in severe danger of not having a democracy anymore. If you don't think they are a bogeyman you don't understand how abnormal and destructive they have become. Beginning in the 1980s, American conservatism has morphed into a type of religious politics in which fact and reason have been subsumed by faith. This manifests in many ways -- anti-intellectualism and anti-rationality, racism and white supremacy, hostile sexism and misogyny, a worship of ignorance and greed, right-wing Christian fundamentalism, a disregard for truth and empirical reality, and contempt for expert knowledge. If today's American conservatism is a type of religious politics you could say Trumpism is one of its most dangerous sects -- a cult. In the age of Trump, refusing the mask is a form of sacrament, a political-religious symbol that signifies loyalty to Donald Trump and his movement. Trump has discouraged mask-wearing so many times it's not funny. One example comes to mind when he made fun of Biden wearing a mask. If a national mask mandate had been instituted across the United States in March, many thousands of lives would have been spared, and the country's economy might not now be in ruins. Likewise, a more severe lockdown in early stages would have helped -- we opened up way too soon. The 'right' continues to minimize the dangers of Covid and even lies about fatalities -- Trump Jr. recently claimed hardly anyone is dying when in fact 1000 people per day on average are dying from it. I think we're going to vote Mango Mussolini out tomorrow though, and then we need to get busy making the 'left' what they could be, and have been during the New Deal -- tending to the needs of 'little guy' in society and funneling less to the wealthy.

So does this mean I can't talk about my friend's sex life in her camper if she ever gets it decorated?

80-Year-Old Is Killed After Asking Bar Patron to Wear Mask https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/nyregion/face-mask-criminally-negligent-homicide.html#:~:text=80-Year-Old Is Killed After Asking Bar Patron to,dispute at a bar in New York State. There are lots of these cases...people getting killed or harmed by right-wingers who are asked to wear a mask.

Apparently the West did something very wrong...

Can we get back to the present and why we should vote Mango Mussolini & his minions out?

These Trumpies don't trust Science anymore, Qie. They're more likely to trust some right-wing blog. It's crazyland around here...well at least for almost half the population and those they manage to infect. Will you marry me cause I need to get out of here...

Well I stopped by S's camper again and she hasn't done a thing except change the model! She wants me to help but I'm not going to do a thing...I'm on the left there, facing in, and I have white privilege!

M in the snow...

Where was Pearl being an exhibitionist...can someone post links so I can check all this out? I'm kind of bored, too tired to read heavy stuff, and MSNBC is obsessed with voting atm...

This is my friend getting ready to decorate her camper:

Ahhh someone after my own heart -- the beauty of terrain at a distance, the shape of the land. I've created small continents and the design apparent in the view from afar is as important as the view up close. I can see this is your own precious art project for yourself, so don't let anyone deter you from what inspires you and is beyond their comprehension. Most things I create with others in mind to sell, and so optimize for others. But sometimes I create something for myself only, just for the art of it. There are many such experimenters in SL. I know that setting is somewhere, or used to be, as I've been able to see at great distances in SL. The long-distance view is considered and optimized in some other games I've played, but unfortunately we have so many limitations here. Hopefully you have an extraordinary computer if that's what you want to play with here.

We need a starter avatar like this, and with an AO to match. There's just something in the way he moves...