Countdown to the 5-4 decision announcement

[katmai]

What incentive do I have to fight your battes?

[Siege]

The Supreme Court have backstabbed America.

[Valmy]

The Supreme Court have backstabbed America.

2D6 extra damage!

[Admiral Yi]

 

Guller, do you still have my personal info or do you need it again?

[Brazen]

American peeps, under your current health care arrangements, is an ambulance service one of the emergency services you can choose when you call 911, like it is when we dial 999 here? Do you then have to prove you're insured before they pick you up? Do different companies come depending on who you're insured with?

[merithyn]

American peeps, under your current health care arrangements, is an ambulance service one of the emergency services you can choose when you call 911, like it is when we dial 999 here? Do you then have to prove you're insured before they pick you up? Do different companies come depending on who you're insured with?

If you call 911, depending on what's wrong, an ambulance can and will be sent. It is usually insured, though there may be a deductible if you don't end up staying in the hospital. (Usually $50-$100.) You do NOT have to prove that you have insurance to be picked up, but you WILL be billed if you don't have it. Ambulance services around here are contracted with the city, so it doesn't matter who your insurance is with, you will get picked up by the one with the contract. Your insurance generally doesn't require that you go with a particular service, due to that.

[Sheilbh]

Heh well to be fair it was monstrously expensive, with constantly skyrocketing costs, anyway.  This whole thing strikes me as debating furiously over the arrangement of deck chairs on the titanic.

Healthcare inflation in the US is a huge problem.  I think I read that you'll soon be spending 20% of GDP on healthcare, 10% of that public money and still won't have universal provision

Except that you said one step closer which implies that you'd like us to continue morphing into a Euro-style healthcare system.

There is no Euro-style system, there are many different systems.  Of all of them the UK one is probably the most idiosyncratic and least exportable.

I've always thought both our countries healthcare debates are hurt by the familiarity for each other.  You say insurance to a Brit and he thinks of America, you say universal healthcare to an American and he thinks of the NHS.  So we're sort of trapped.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

If you call 911, depending on what's wrong, an ambulance can and will be sent. It is usually insured, though there may be a deductible if you don't end up staying in the hospital. (Usually $50-$100.) You do NOT have to prove that you have insurance to be picked up, but you WILL be billed if you don't have it. Ambulance services around here are contracted with the city, so it doesn't matter who your insurance is with, you will get picked up by the one with the contract. Your insurance generally doesn't require that you go with a particular service, due to that.

Ground-based EMS services in the two metro areas I have lived in (South Florida and DFW) have always been provided by the appropriate fire department.  Air-based EMS for the entire Metroplex is provided a separate non-profit (CareFlite).

[garbon]

What incentive do I have to fight your battes?

No you actually have to use your words.

[alfred russel]

Is this like a Marbury moment for Roberts?  Did he concede this one case to his opponents to win the legal precedent he needed?  I am just a layman so forgive the perhaps clumsy legal analogy.

Stop being such a pessimist. Maybe this lays some theoretical groundwork to restrict the federal government's ability to deliver welfare checks within 100 feet of a public school or something, but we now are going to have universal healthcare. Republicans won't be able to repeal it--the same process that made it almost impossible to pass makes it almost impossible to repeal. 

[Faeelin]

Stop being such a pessimist. Maybe this lays some theoretical groundwork to restrict the federal government's ability to deliver welfare checks within 100 feet of a public school or something, but we now are going to have universal healthcare. Republicans won't be able to repeal it--the same process that made it almost impossible to pass makes it almost impossible to repeal.

Senate can repeal it via reconciliation, or Romney can refuse to enforce the mandate's penalties. Boom, done.

[Sheilbh]

To be even more optimistic it's now clear that the Republicans should have used the White House's desperation for Republican votes to wring some policy concessions for them.  They chose the 'kill the bill' this is 'Obama's Waterloo' approach instead and that's failed. 

[CountDeMoney]

American peeps, under your current health care arrangements, is an ambulance service one of the emergency services you can choose when you call 911, like it is when we dial 999 here? Do you then have to prove you're insured before they pick you up? Do different companies come depending on who you're insured with?

Volunteer and municipal EMS and Fire Departments are supported by local taxes and public funds.  No proof of insurance necessary.
Emergency care does not require proof of insurance.  Never has.  If you don't have insurance, you get billed.  You don't pay, the rest of us wind up paying it for you in higher premiums.  YOU SEE OBAMA IS ACTUALLY ON TO SOMETHING

Now, if you're being transported by a private provider for other reasons, that falls under your insurance plan.

[DGuller]

 

Guller, do you still have my personal info or do you need it again?

I need it again.  The balance is now $50, right?

[alfred russel]

Healthcare inflation in the US is a huge problem.  I think I read that you'll soon be spending 20% of GDP on healthcare, 10% of that public money and still won't have universal provision

I don't understand why there is such an assumption that we spend too much on healthcare. I'd much rather have luxurious healthcare spending than BMWs for everyone. I'd think my doctor should generally be better paid than my lawyer or financial advisor.

That isn't to say the spending shouldn't be effective and the system should be more efficient.