Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
yeah. day-of-visit the estimate was $500-and-something, it's crept up to double. it's all very lovely.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
This one is a screenshot directly from the insurance company's EOB, logged into their website.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
I don't doubt that in aggregate funds flow from insurers to ERs. Do insurers in some reasonably direct way cover the cost of uninsured indigents? That's not a thing I'd expect. 1/
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
In any case, the question is whether there was some variable cost paid by the insurance company due to my deductible-not-fulfilled visit to the ER. Yes, lots of funds slosh around the HC system in hard to track ways. But they r representing a benefit to me I think is not real, at best misleading. 2/
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
(I had a rough little pneumonia! Two rounds of different antibiotics later I'm on the mend, I hope, but it's been a bit unpleasant. Thanks for asking!) /fin
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
A great rejoinder to the kind of bullshit one often gets, "Oh, you miss New Deal, the era when we were making progress towards social democracy? I see you are nostalgic for Jim Crow then, you moral cretin." infosec.exchange/@david_chisn...
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
So, this is for an emergency room visit. I'm far from having met my deductible. The phrase "insurer covered" suggests my insurance company is paying something, but I think in fact they've just negotiated a less ridiculous price, and the only actual cash flow is coming from me. 1/
Partial screenshot of billing statement: Billed $6,693.82 Insurance Covered - $5,577.14 Your Balance $1,116.68
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
Am I wrong? If I am not, isn't this presentation misleading? Is it legal? Should it be? /fin
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
Here's the EOB presentation of the same visit. Not that the top line numbers don't match, although my cost does. The same ambiguity obtains. Does "plan benefits" represent a negotiated price, or an actual cash flow? cc @bananapantz.bsky.social @paulriz504.bsky.social
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
(the prior presentation was from the providers' statement to me.)
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
This is horrifying.
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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
i’m not saying good outcomes are likely. i’m saying we’re in the maelstrom and the best we can do is pursue them.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
people who do this for a living make a lot of money, while, say, homeless people do not. obviously what is paid is not productivity.
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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
the original drone delivery.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
i can’t believe that they’re hypocrites!
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
i think that’s what we’re in, and all bets are off. this is the Death card in Tarot, meaning not death, but profound change. our role is to do our best as the wheel careens in spin to bias where it lands toward something decent. i wrote this a few yrs ago, holds up www.interfluidity.com/v2/9122.html
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
(he puts his thumb on the scale pretty hard with his use of “real” for his good Elon, but “evil” for the bad Elon. as he says, he has friends in the tech industry eager for Musk’s intercessions. he belongs to a community.)
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
maybe! but we should actually experiment a bit, try to develop means of effective governance at scale, before giving up, because in addition to governance challenges, there are profound benefits of scale that propound to large nation-states capable of governing themselves well.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
i prefer creative construction. a well organized state will still have problems. immigration is hard. still, some states address these problems more capably than others, and maintain greater legitimacy from their publics than others. 1/
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
France’s is not a well-arranged parliamentary system. it was designed to give de Gaulle, and now Macron, too much power as President. Germany, the Nordics, New Zealand are better examples. Far from perfect polities! But relatively more functional, and publics feel relatively more enfranchised. /fin
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
what is the Magdeberg killer talking about when he accuses Germany of “chas[ing] female Saudi asylum seekers all over the world… chas[ing] Saudi girls who have never been to Germany and had no intention to seek asylum in Germany?” x.com/tim_roehn/st...
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
the UK has first-past-the-post, not proportional representation. israel’s system fails to filter tiny parties from parliamentary roles, allowing weird kingmakers. these are pathologies most parliamentary systems avoid. the US system leaves many voters almost entirely unrepresented. “homeless.”
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
(thanks!)
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
(thanks!)
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
(thanks!)