It’s just a bit, for laughs.

Presumably the guy was trying to buy a gun while dressed as the joker, but the shopkeep turned him down.

Which would actually save money!

It’s almost like a healthcare system that creates an arms race between health insurance companies denying care vs healthcare providers overcharging leaves us paying huge amounts of $$ while not receiving adequate coverage.

Yeah, they’re kind of right that “unnecessary care” happens, but they’re conveniently ignoring that they are a large contributor to the problem. Without insurance companies leaving hospitals and patients on the hook for thousands at a time, you might not see $20 bandaids, $2000 ambulance rides, and expensive tests that didn’t really need to be done.

Ooh, that is pricey, but I bet it’s amazing. I don’t often treat myself to the good stuff.

Sounds like good advice, thanks.

Although I probably DO need tea that’s tolerant of poor brewing. I have small children (and ADHD) and am very bad about forgetting that I have tea brewing…

I love Irish breakfast tea, but I don’t think I’ve ever had Darjeeling. Will have to pick some up soon to compare.

You’re entitled to that belief, but I’ve seen the first one work in my field firsthand, as I said. We’ve also seen universal work in multiple countries, and I’m optimistic we’ll see ultimately see it in the US too.

The point was to throw out some ways that one can push for change without murdering people and hoping for the best, not to solve healthcare reform in a Lemmy comment section.

I don’t presume to have the answers, but there are plenty of alternatives if we’re comparing them to murder in the street.

I replied to another comment about one specific way to introduce licensure risk to insurance company doctors as a way to get them to change their policies. It happens all the time, and the more people that know about it, the better. (They rely on people being unfamiliar with how they operate)

Long term, I think our best bet is to keep pushing for universal healthcare that will effectively make health insurance obsolete. It’s a winning message (something like 60% of America already supports it), and we’ve come close at least twice in recent history.

Yup, I think we’re totally on the same page here.

The problem I see, though, is all the most morally defensible and procedural fixes require the healthy functioning of institutions that have been weakened, dismantled and / or perverted and turned against us. And a frightening number of us see that now and feel that normal channels for change are closed. I’m not at quite that point myself, but I know how bad it is for so many and I don’t blame anyone who reads our current situation that way.

Relevantly, I think this also makes a good argument that “how we solve things” as a society is as important the problems we’re solving. When our institutions are weakened or bypassed (through corruption, lobbying, or vigilantism), it’s destabilizing and leads to bigger issues. I hate how much power insurance companies have over care too, and I get it, I just want to urge everyone to be cautious about this familiar type of language that tries to frame violence as the “only remaining option”. It’s almost always pure rationalization coming from people’s anger rather than truly being our only option.

Always two, there are.

tldr: one idea would be challenging their ability to hide behind licensed MDs who are paid to shoulder liability

This is actually my field, and I’ve spent countless hours of my life arguing with these insurance companies on behalf of patients they’ve denied, (losing more often than I’ve won, but you have to try). They suck.

When they’re being exceptionally unreasonable, the bridge-burning hail mary I would throw would be threatening the license of the provider that denied the appealed claim. It has worked a surprising number of times.

Most people don’t realize that it’s not just paper-pushers at insurance companies who are denying claims. Those folks can routinely deny things that policy excludes, but if it’s a judgement call or a challenge that their policy isn’t meeting medical necessity, they hide behind doctors on their payroll who are putting their license on the line when they have to say that the insurance company is justified. Those individuals can be reported to their licensing board or even sued. Short of voting in universal healthcare one day, I think this is the most direct route to challenge this nonsense.

I’d encourage everyone to be careful with this type of thinking, because I’m seeing it a lot. Characterizing situations as having only two unpleasant options (“two tracks” in this case) is a classic strategy to rationalize violence. Gangs use it, terrorist groups use it, and even governments trying to justify wars use it (e.g. remember Bush’s “You’re either with us or against us”).

It’s a textbook false dichotomy, and it’s meant to make the least unpleasant option presented seem more palatable. This situation is not as simple as “either you’re in favor of insurance companies profiting off of denied healthcare of millions or you’re ok with murdering a CEO”

It makes you go blind.

Haha, I did. I still posted a few, but I was out of town with family for days and was barely on my phone.

Many campuses are like small, sprawling towns, with various buildings dedicated to different departments, dormitories, or common areas like libraries/cafes/etc. It’s like a self-contained ecosystem where you can just live there as a student and have everything you need.

Dating too. You’ll never have a group of so many single people the same age as you again, and college selects for people with similar life experiences and goals.

If there was one piece of advice I could give to young adults in school, it would be to not be afraid to start thinking long-term. There are lots of adults who graduate and get stuck in the work/home/sleep cycle for years, then wish they had prioritized this before it got more difficult.

Don’t worry, you’ll forget about it soon.