Monday, October 7, 2013

Barker's Newsbites: Monday, October 7, 2013


My healthcare insurance is going to lead to my death... massive stroke... I just know it!

So... as you folks know we're going to India in December. We'll be in-country from December 13th thru December 31st.

Part of the pre-trip prep entailed planning for a trip to a developing nation is a cyber-visit to the CDC to check on what inoculations are recommended...

Recommended by the CDC... the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention... the Federal Friggin' Government...!!!

So... we take down all the pertinent info and send it along to our general practitioner so that he can order whatever he doesn't have on hand and then give us our shots.

We did this well over a month ago!

We gave it a week or so before calling to make the actual appointment and to confirm that the doc had gotten our letter. He had. An appointment was set... but unfortunately something came up (on the doc's end) so we didn't actually get to see him till this past Thursday.

So... on Thursday we got our flu shots... our Hepatitis A shots... and scripts for Typhoid and Malaria pills as well a Cipro - to hopefully serve as an antibiotic gastric distress preventive.

I get my regular meds through our local Walmart pharmacy, so I filled the Malaria and Cipro scripts there. Cipro was a bottom tier copay and the Malaria drug was next tier up I believe. (Though I may have it backwards...)

But as for the Typhoid drug... Vivotif... Walmart didn't have it and the pharmacist said he couldn't order it.

(*SHRUG*)

Annoying... but no big deal. 

Only... it became a big deal.

I brought the Vivofit script over to my local RiteAid and they had (have!) the Vivofit in stock... BUT... according to the computer it wasn't (isn't!) covered by my insurance.

(*HEADACHE*)

I've now spent several hours on the phone trying to get to the bottom of all this... but Mary beat me to the punch. Apparently the problem is that my doctor wrote a script for oral meds when only injectable meds... injectable preventative inoculation meds... are covered.

Do you believe this shit...?!?!

Is an injectable available? We'll see!

Oh... and I haven't even gotten to Japanese Encephalitis yet! That's another one the CDC says we should be inoculated against! The drug is called Ixiaro and apparently without insurance the "street cost" of getting the required shots would run us well over $1,000. (Yes! You read that right!)

In the end I have confidence that I'm gonna get all my shots taken care of via our insurance plan that we spend what... something like $14,000 dollars a year on... but what an act we're being put through!

Geezus... just... GEEZUS...!


3 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/06/us-usa-immigration-california-idUSBRE99500420131006

Illegal immigrants can be licensed to practice law in California under one of eight bills expanding immigrant rights that were signed by Governor Jerry Brown on Saturday.

* OF COURSE THEY CAN...

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

"While Washington waffles on immigration, California's forging ahead," Brown said in a statement. "I'm not waiting."

* YEAH... UH-HUH... AHEAD...

A study by the University of Southern California has found that more than 2.6 million people, most of them Latinos, lack legal status in the state.

(*HEADACHE*)

The new laws, including the one letting undocumented immigrants become lawyers, could set a precedent for the nation. They are part of a push to increase [illegal] immigrant rights in the strongly Democratic state.

* YEP...

Critics of Garcia's bid to gain admission to the California bar included the U.S. Justice Department, which opposed it in a brief filed with the state's Supreme Court last year.

* BUT THEY'RE NOT SUEING, ARE THEY?

(*SMIRK*)

* THEY'RE NOT TAKING A STATE WITH A DEMOCRATIC GOVERNOR AND A DEMOCRATIC LEGISLATURE WHICH IS DEFYING FEDERAL LAW (AT AT BEST INTERFERING WITH WHAT I THOUGHT HAD BEEN DEEMED A PURELY FEDERAL MATTER BY THE SUPREME COURT WHEN THE STATE WAS ARIZONA) TO COURT TO FORCE THEM TO CEASE AND DESIST.

William R. Barker said...

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/roll-over-plan-treasury-needed-pay-record-75t-maturing-debt-fy-2013

Treasury Needed to Pay Off Record $7.5T in Maturing Debt in FY 2013, Issued $8.3T New Debt; Increased Net Debt $777B

* AND THAT'S JUST THE HEADLINE, FOLKS!

* OH... AND BTW... DOES ANYONE TRULY BELIEVE THAT THEY "NEED" TO INCREASE NET DBT BY $777 BILLION...??? I SURE AS HELL DON'T!

The spread between the old debt held by the public that matured and was paid off during the fiscal year and the new debt that was sold to cover government spending over and above tax revenues, increased the net federal government debt held by the public by $777.223 billion during the fiscal year.

* AGAIN... "NECESSARY...???"

In the previous fiscal year, 2012, the Treasury had needed to redeem only $6,804,956,000,000 in Treasury securities, but then it needed to turn around and issue $7,924,651,000,000 in new securities — increasing the net debt held by the public by $1.119695 trillion.

* "NEEDED" TO INCREASE THE NET DEBT HELD BY THE PUBLIC (THAT'S US! AND OUR KIDS!) BY $1.119695 TRILLION...??? DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT, FOLKS?

The Treasury was forced to redeem a record amount of old debt in fiscal 2013, even though the debt did not increase as much as it had in fiscal 2012, because a large portion of the debt is composed of shorter-term Treasury bills and notes, for which the government can pay a lower interest rate than it would need to pay on longer term Treasury bonds.

* AND WHEN RATES GO UP...??? HMM...??? WHAT THEN...??? (OR DOES ANYONE SUPPOSE THE FED CAN KEEP JUGGLING FOREVER? AND IF YOU BELIEVE THAT, WELL... WHY NOT JUST WRITE EACH AMERICAN A $50,000 CHECK EACH YEAR AND ALL SINGLE PEOPLE WOULD BE IMMEDIATELY MIDDLE CLASS AND FAMILIES... SIX FIGURES FOR JUST A COUPLE!)

Thanks to the short-term, quick-roll-over nature of most of the federal government’s marketable debt, the average interest rate the government’s marketable debt was just 1.981% in September.

In January 2000, it was 6.620% — or 3.3 times as great as it is now.

In September 2013, the average interest rate the Treasury paid on Treasury bills was 0.074%. The average interest rate it paid on Treasury notes was 1.808%. The average interest rate it paid on inflation-protected securities was 1.084%.

* I GATHER INFLATION-PROTECTED SECURITIES ARE INSTRUMENTS WHERE IF IT'S A CHOICE OF THE TAXPAYER GETTING SCREWED OR THE "INVESTER" IT'S GONNA BE THE TAXPAYER EVERY TIME.

* FINALLY... KEEP READING... THIS LAST BIT SAYS IT ALL:

And the average interest rate it paid on 30-year Treasury bonds was 5.101%. That means the interest rate the Treasury needed to pay on its long-term bonds was about 69 times as great as the interest it paid on its short-term bills.

William R. Barker said...

http://washingtonexaminer.com/park-service-oks-immigration-reform-rally-on-closed-national-mall/article/2536908

A planned immigration reform rally will take place on the National Mall on Tuesday even though the site is closed due to the government shutdown.

* AN ANTI-ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION RALLY...???

(*SMIRK*)

Organizers for the "Camino Americano: March for Immigration Reform" were spotted Monday setting up a stage and equipment on the National Mall for the rally which will take place on Tuesday.

* AH... SO NO... NONE OF THOSE TEA PARTY TYPES...

(*SNORT*)

A few scattered barriers around the park have signs informing visitors that the area is closed as a result of the government shutdown.

* AND YET...

Susana Flores, a spokesperson for the rally, confirmed for the Washington Examiner that the Park Service will allow the event to take place under the group's rights granted by the First Amendment.

* BUT... BUT... BUT... DOESN'T EVERYBODY HAVE THESE SAME FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS...?!?!

(*SNORT*)

About 30 members of Congress are expected to attend the rally, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.

* LET ME GUESS... SECURITY WILL BE ROBUST... DAMN THE COST.

The event is hosted by several immigration activist groups, together with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the AFL-CIO.