As with most things, the government failed to keep up with the investment. With the US system, as healthcare prices continue to skyrocket, the insurance carriers pass on those increased costs to the insured.

We always forget that health insurance carriers are NOT in business to pay for your healthcare, they are in business to make a profit................and every penny spent on their policy holders is a penny out of the investors pocket.

The problem here isn't insurance, it's the cost of healthcare, which is what insurance pays a portion of. As an example, what cost $10,000 in 1990, now costs $35,000. The "patient" had to pay coinsurance ( typically 20% ) of $2000 in 1990, now pays $7000. Wage increases have not kept up with these costs, further eroding the ability of the average American's ability to prosper.

We need to treat healthcare like any other utility, as a "must have" component of daily living, allowing providers to make a REASONABLE profit and take insurance carriers out of the loop. Everyone every where pays the same price, no matter where or who they are.

I feel this is a very important POV.. rather then demand collage for the kids. other options do exist..

I liked the end subject of owning a business best..


Meghan KennardFollow
February 18 at 10:08 AM
In High school I wonder why they pushed college on us so hard instead of trades?🤔

They didn't tell me union plumbers can make $1,600 a week with NO OT and NO DEGREE.. or that truck drivers can make 6 bands if they buy their own truck with NO Degree? Or that traveling welders can make 100,000 a year with NO Degree.🤔

For some reason they made it seem like college was the only way to be successful. I swear... it's as if the guidance counselors training was to redirect our thinking and to fixate our minds and success in life based off the results we get from the college we choose. Notice they never mentioned us starting a business or even taught us how to in school? They always made sure they pushed the collegiate agenda and never even mentioned an outside option like trade school.

Our school system is not designed to make bosses. It's designed to make s***es. Otherwise they would train us to be self employed and self sufficient. They do not. Teach your children that they are more than just a piece of paper. Their minds can expand pass the average status quo and that they have sk**ls that can not be put on paper. There are great engineers right now managing a restaurant because they listened to their guidance counselor instead of their heart.

#FoodForThought
#CopiedandPasted
#NotSureOfOGPoster

I said Joe Biden was dead politically. I am now standing on a table, figuratively, saying I was wrong. One of my former work places we would stand on a table and say we were wrong when we were wrong.

I can't figure out how Joe did it. It was not his brilliance on the stage. It was not money. Until lately Joe's campaign was running on fumes, money wise. It wasn't hard work. Joe won in places, I think he did not visit much. So how did Joe knock Mike, Pete, Amy, and soon Lizzy out of the race and pull even about with Crazy Bernie ? It makes no sense, unless the invisible hand of fate was working behind the scenes. Maybe fate's other name was Barak Obama. Maybe it was the elders in the DNC, or maybe it was Putin.

Well whoever it was we now have out match up. Bernie verses Joe. Crazy verses senile.

10 Topics Guaranteed to Start an Argument
MORRIS M.
Listverse. com

One of the great things about the internet is the way it opens up debate. Now we don’t just read a news story, we actively get involved below the line—broadcasting our opinion to millions. At its best, this sort of ‘below the line’ activity can throw up more interesting points than the article itself. At its worst… well, you only have to look at stories on any of these topics to see how opinions can polarize. For instance, good luck finding a rational debate on:

10. The Existence of God
One of humanity’s most-enduring questions is: ‘is there a God?’ For millennia, people have fought and k**led each other over the issue and wasted a ton of ink justifying their opinions. So you’d think by now we’d have learned to debate the question sensibly. In reality, nothing could be further from the t***h.The trouble is, both sides (atheists and believers) have their minority of fundamentalists who will do their level-best to ‘win’ the argument by being as condescending as possible. Atheists accuse their religious counterparts of ‘believing in sky fairies’ and compare religious upbringing to child abuse; while the religious faction simply resort to attacking the concept of science.The weird thing is, most of us have probably met plenty of atheists and believers and never encountered a single lunatic. From personal experience, I know my Christian and atheist friends largely respect each other’s opinions and never try to ‘convert’ others to their side. In fact, watching a debate between these guys would likely be genuinely informative—so why is it only the diehards who ever make it onto message boards?

9. The Israel/Palestine Question
Around the world, there are dozens of ‘contested’ territories: Northern Ireland, Kashmir, the Falklands, Gibraltar and the Western Sahara, to name a few. Many of them have long, turbulent histories, periodically spill over into violence and one of them (Kashmir) nearly triggered a nuclear war. So why is it only the disputed Israeli/Palestinian border that whips up such emotion?Let’s be clear here: I’m not saying there’s nothing to get worked up about. The situation is undoubtedly tense, not-helped by such things as rocket attacks on Israel, Israeli airstrikes, the seizure of Palestinian land and the violently anti-Semitic propaganda prevalent in the region. If you have to deal with it on a daily basis it’s only natural you’d form a strong opinion. But what’s puzzling is how the entire internet has chosen this specific land-dispute to jump onto—and invested it with such emotion that rational argument becomes impossible.

8. Taxation
Tax is more-or-less a fact of life: none of us want to pay it, most of us don’t like what it gets spent on, but most of us use some of the stuff it buys—so we begrudgingly pay up. If we think about it much beyond that, it’s probably because we’ve either heard about some company refusing to pay a single cent; or some dumb government introducing a ridiculously unfair rate. But mention taxation on a message board and watch the lunatics come crawling out the woodwork.Now, to be fair, I’ve voiced some strong opinions on tax on these very pages. So feel free to call me a hypocrite. But I’ve never argued for a one hundred percent tax rate or literally equated taxation with s***ery—which is what you’ll hear on any forum dev**ed to the topic. Like everything else on this list, it seems to be only the extremists who leave comments on these articles: the beret-wearing Che Guevara wanabees and Ayn Rand worshippers.

7. Feminism
As much as people like to get their hackles up at the thought of atheists and Christians or that chunk that comes out their paycheck each month, nothing compares to the vitriol evoked by feminism. Simply put: a good deal of the population seem to see the term as an invite to either spew violent misogyny or get into an oppression competition. And that’s before we even get onto the various strands of feminism that spend more time attacking each other than the patriarchy.Now, if we’re being honest, there are some forms of feminism that really do suck. Equally, a lot of serious articles about ‘men’s issues’ often get shouted down under sarcastic calls of ‘lolz what about teh menz?’ But the sheer hatred feminism seems to stir up is way out of proportion to any of this. After all, the basic concept is something we should all be able to get behind. For example: do you think everyone deserves equal pay for equal work, the freedom to make their own life choices and to live without the threat of violence, no matter what type of g*****ls they have? Then congratulations: you’re a feminist.

6. Circumcision
There are two types of circumcision: male and female. Female circumcision is better known by its more-t***hful name ‘female g*****l m********n’ (fgm) and everyone pretty-much agrees it’s a really bad thing. Male circumcision, on the other hand, is an absolute powder keg.That last link, by the way, goes to a representative article on the subject—if you have time, follow it and check the comments. That’s how most discussions about circumcision look: a whole mass of people screaming child abuse, threatening to call the police and comparing the practice to witch burning. To clarify: I’m not trying to take sides here. If you have a particular bugbear about this issue, that’s your opinion and I’ll respect that. But for the life of me, I can’t see why this particular issue might drive people into a howling frenzy. Yet venture below the line on any article mentioning it, and that’s exactly what you’ll see.

5. Islam
Sticking the word ‘Islam’ in an article is like lobbing a hand grenade into a hornet’s nest. Simply put: a lot of people have some very strong opinions on the subject—and they’re not afraid to let you know it. Unlike some of the entries here, the reason is pretty clear: a decade of news stories linking radical Islam to bomb attacks, assassinations and violent r**ts have left most of us in no doubt that we need to tackle religious extremism.But debates on Islam rarely focus on ‘extremism’. For wh**ever reason, a vocal minority of our online community have gotten used to speaking about it as a monolithic entity: as if there’s no difference between, say, a moderate Indonesian leading a regular life and a Sudanese extremist. What’s weird is how this rarely applies to any other religion. Can you imagine someone seriously being unable to differentiate between Oprah and Fred Phelps because they’re both Christian; or between Jerry Seinfeld and a member of Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox community? Well, apparently that’s how some people view 1.6bn of their fellow human beings.

4. Freedom of Speech
If there’s one thing the internet loves, it’s freedom of speech. We’re kinda libertarians in that respect: there’s little more likely to invoke the wrath of Anonymous than a serious attempt to curtail our right to it. However, it’s often taken as read that this freedom extends to anything and everything; and not everyone agrees.See, although freedom of speech may be enshrined in American law—to the extent that even scum like Westboro Baptist Church are constitutionally protected—the same logic does not apply elsewhere. In Germany, for example, it’s a criminal offense to display a N**i f**g and you WILL do time for it. In France, denying the holocaust can get you a prison sentence. The online clash usually comes when American ideology crashes up against European—with neither side willing to accept their system isn’t ‘best’. So let’s be honest here: free speech may be an idea worth fighting for, but just because parts of Europe have taken a different route on certain subjects does not make them any less ‘free’. Minor restrictions do not automatically make an Orwellian dystopia—any less than total freedom automatically results in the anarchic Wild West.

3. C*****e C****e
Most scientists wish the public would get excited about their chosen field. Mention awe-inspiring concepts like string theory, Hawking radiation or gravitons to the man on the street and he’ll probably go out of his way to avoid you. For climate scientists, however, it’s a case of ‘be careful what you wish for’.Thanks to decades of programs, books and blogs written on the subject, just about everyone now considers themselves an expert. And part of that expertise apparently involves shouting down the other side—bizarrely enough, for the exact same reason. Those who don’t believe in it see a vast conspiracy by scientists, liberals and other boogeymen to put us all in FEMA prison camps, while those who do see a vast conspiracy involving the Koch Brothers and big oil to manipulate the ‘sheeple’ into believing otherwise. It’s a perfect storm of paranoia centered around an issue most of us aren’t qualified to understand—and, every time someone brings it up, the sparks are sure to fly.

2. The Holocaust
As you may have noticed, I’ve tried to maintain a largely neutral tone on most of these. That won’t happen here. For wh**ever reason, despite the mountains of evidence and eyewitness testimony proving otherwise; there are still people out there who honestly believe the holocaust was either exaggerated or simply didn’t happen. And their brand of mental sickness is virulent enough to infect the comments section of any article that cares to mention it.There are a few things in the world that mark you out as a bad person; and denying the holocaust is one of them. It’s not just the extent of human suffering that occurred in moral blackholes like Auschwitz and Treblinka; or the sheer hatred required to send millions of Jews, gays, Poles and disabled people to certain death. It’s all that plus the stubborn refusal to learn from history—to pretend genocide never happened. And trust me, if there’s one mistake we never want to repeat from history, it’s this one.

1. A******n
Here it is: the most-d******e issue you will ever encounter. With feelings running so high on both sides, it’s impossible to take any sort of stance on a******n without seeing the entire comment section explode in your face—so I’m remaining one hundred percent neutral on this one.You’re probably aware of the basic arguments. Pro-lifers believe with the utmost intensity that k*****g a fetus is as bad as k*****g a child. Pro-choice supporters believe with an identical passion that criminalizing a******n is State intrusion into women’s bodies, and completely incompatible with a free society. Politicians meanwhile try to search for a middle ground—a point where termination remains acceptable and a point where it unequivocally isn’t. But this is one argument that’s never going away: so long as there’s a human race it will continue to rage—and nowhere is this more apparent than on the internet. Now, I’m not going to make any value judgement on this, and I appreciate that people have strong feelings about it. But wouldn’t it be great if both sides could debate this and other issues—just once—without resorting to hysterical name-calling? I guess we’ll find out in the comments.

Yep... Same to you...

Lots of washing and stay away from crowded areas....

The problem with this one is that some carriars never display symptoms.. And it can survive on surfaces for an extended period of time....

China just got an infection from people travelling (I believe also Italy) and they want to know why stricter measures aren't being enforced by other nations...

Top 10 Essential Facts About The C****av***s,
Listverse. com
JONATHAN H. KANTOR

There is a lot of fear and confusion surrounding the c****av***s called C****-**, and it doesn’t help that some elements of the media have been firing off information many consider fear mongering. Even a recent Listverse article could be considered as such, but fear is the last thing anyone wants to spread since even a global p******c doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. The information on the v***s is limited at the moment, as there will need to be a great deal of study before it is fully understood. In the meantime, information is power, so this list contains ten things you should know about C****-** and how best to protect yourself from misconceptions, misunderstandings, and outright media lies about it. This information is just the tip of the iceberg, so keep up to date on outbreaks in your area from official sources, and everything should be fine.

10. What Is A C****av***s
C****-** is a c****av***s, which means very little to most people who don’t work in v******y or immunology. A c****av***s is a group of v***ses that can infect mammals and birds. In humans, they can cause respiratory tract infections, many of which can be treated with over-the-counter medication. The so-called “common cold” is the result of a c****av***s, and while most are well-understood and rarely more than an inconvenience, some can be lethal. C****-** refers to the outbreak of the disease, which is broken down as C****av***s Disease 2019.The v***s itself also has a name, but it’s a bit of a mouthful: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome C****aV***s 2, or SARS-CoV-2. Part of that acronym may be familiar, seeing as the world already went through a similar outbreak of SARS in 2003. The v***ses are related, and it wouldn’t be out of the question to call this new outbreak “SARS 2.0,” though you likely won’t hear any professional virologists say that in the media. Regardless, C****-** is a c****av***s, and it is spreading, but that’s not a cause for alarm; rather, it’s a cause to prepare and protect ourselves in much the same way we do when it’s cold & flu season.

9. Where C****-** Originated
It’s well known that the v***s was first seen in W***n, China, but it’s not fully understood exactly where it originated. C****-** is likely a zoonotic v***s, which means it can be t***smitted between animals and people. This has led researchers to look for animals that might have originally carried the disease. There are a lot of similarities between C****-** and two bat-derived strains of Betac****av***s, which means they are likely related. Because the v***ses share about 96% of the same genes, it was initially believed that bats were the source of the outbreak, which was pinpointed to the Huanan Seafood Market, where exotic animals are sold.As time went on, and more research was conducted, Chinese researchers were able to determine that C****-** shared 99% of the same genetic information as a similar v***s that infects pangolins. This suggested that pangolins may have been an intermediary host for the v***s, but the research wasn’t officially published, and much of the analysis remains unconfirmed. While determining the precise origin might help virologists better understand C****-**, doing so isn’t entirely necessary in combatting the spread of the disease, now that it’s been released into the human population.

8. How C****-** Is T***smitted
Since the first day the world learned about the W***n C****av***s, the fear of it spreading began to rise. How was it t***smitted, and what could be done to limit its t***smission? People have always feared Ebola, but that’s far harder to catch than something like a c****av***s, and it’s all about what it infects and how it is t***smitted. C****-** causes a respiratory infection, and it’s through a person’s respiration that it spreads the easiest. There are two known means by which the v***s spreads: person-to-person and through contact with infected surfaces.In a person-to-person situation, the v***s can be spread through close contact, which is generally considered to be a distance of six feet. The way a person can pass it on is through respiratory droplets, which are produced when a person coughs or sneezes. Covering one’s mouth when this happens helps alleviate the spread of the disease, and infected people should wear a facemask to reduce the risk of t***smitting it to someone else. But please heed the Surgeon General’s warning and don’t buy a mask unless you need one:

Seriously people- STOP BUYING MASKS!They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #C****av***s, but if healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!

The other way it is spread is through a surface contaminated with the v***s. A countertop could have been in the pathway of a sneeze, which carried C****-** to its surface. Touching that, and then touching your mouth, nose, and possibly the eyes can result in infection.

7. How C****-** Is Detected Or Confirmed
One of the biggest issues with detecting C****-** in a patient is that it presents much like the common cold. To combat this, researchers across the globe have been scrambling to come up with a way to test for the presence of the v***s, and this has resulted in several different testing methods. One of the best ways to check for the v***s isn’t to see if you can find the v***s in a person’s body—it’s to find the antibodies the body produces to fight the infection. The tests that look for antibodies are called serological tests,[8] and a firm in Singapore may have perfected a means of conducting this type of test to find C****-**.Antibody tests are probably the fastest and easiest way of detecting the presence of C****-**, but it isn’t the only way. There are tests currently being used around the world, which look for the v***s’ genetic information in a person’s saliva, mouth, nose, and anus. These tests use the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method, which is a process in molecular biology that rapidly produces billions of copies of DNA for study. While these tests can detect the presence of C****-**, they cannot identify people who were infected and ultimately cleared of it.

6. Who Is At Risk
There is no known immunity to C****-**, which means that everyone is at risk of catching and spreading the infection. That doesn’t mean this is a perfect time to panic; just because you might become infected, doesn’t mean you’re going to fall over dead in a few hours. C****-** can be dangerous, but like most infections, certain portions of the population are more at risk than others. Young children, healthcare professionals, the elderly, and people with a c*********d i****e s****m are the ones who are most at risk of becoming seriously ill from C****-**. When a healthy adult contracts the v***s, there’s a possibility that they will not show any symptoms at all, and won’t get sick. This is one of the reasons the v***s has managed to escape the confines of W***n, China, to infect the world. Infected people who are asymptomatic become unknown carriers, and even when an otherwise healthy adult does show symptoms, they are often mild and comparative to the common cold.

5. What Are The Symptoms Of C****-**
The first part of this block is going to list the symptoms associated with C****-** that shouldn’t scare anyone, but the last bit will be all about the more dangerous aspects of the disease. Don’t be alarmed, as these are the worst-case symptoms that won’t affect most people who are infected. The most common symptoms of C****-** are fever, coughing, and shortness of breath. These are the same symptoms most people get from the common cold, but they are the mildest possible symptoms a person can experience.For those who are under a greater deal of risk due to a c*********d i****e s****m, or meet the criteria previously mentioned, symptoms can become far more severe. C****-** can increase the chances of contracting pneumonia, it can cause multiple organ failure, and in some cases, it can result in death. These are the most severe cases, though all are of concern due to the ease by which it can be t***smitted from person to person.

4. C****-** Mortality Concerns
Yes, C****-** can end a person’s life, but that doesn’t mean the world will end up like it did in Steven King’s The Stand. The mortality rate for C****-** is estimated to be 2.3%, and while that number may seem low, it’s not. If you compare the mortality rate of C****-** to something more common like the flu, it’s considerably higher. The flu has a mortality rate of 0.1%, which sees an average of one death per 1,000 people. These numbers are determined via the case-fatality rate (CFR), which compares the total number of infected patients with those who succumbed from the disease.While C****-** is much higher than the Flu, it presents as a mild infection in the vast majority of people who have had it. The majority of people who have died in China have been elderly, and studies of deaths from the v***s show that the CFR jumps to 14.8% for people who are 80 and older while those between the ages of 70 and 79 have a CFR of 8%. For people who were already critically ill when they came in contact with the v***s, that number jumps to 49%, suggesting they are the most vulnerable members of the population.

3. Avoid Becoming Infected
In reality, there are steps you can take to avoid becoming infected, and chances are, you’ve been doing them all along. Because C****-** is a c****av***s, which is passed in much the same way as a common cold, the best way to keep from getting it is to wash your hands with soap and warm water, avoid touching your face after coming into contact with anything commonly used like doorknobs, and if you have to go outside, try to avoid sick people. Odds are, you do all of that already, so you don’t have to let C****-** upend your life or your routine. If you have concerns about winding up in a place with a lot of potentially infected people, you can avoid traveling and going to events with crowds, but that may not be necessary. If it makes you feel better to wear a face mask, you can do so, but make sure you get the right kind. The US Food and Drug Administration recognizes four off-the-shelf N95 respirators, which may be effective in stopping the spread of C****-**: 3M™ Particulate Respirator 8670F, 3M™ Particulate Respirator 8612F, Pasture™ F550G Respirator, and the Pasture™ A520G Respirator. These respirators are not suitable for children or men with facial hair, so it’s time so say goodbye to that ironic hipster beard!

2. C****-**, HIV, & Other Conspiracy Theories
One of the reasons there are so many conspiracy theories about v***ses like C****-** is that few people truly understand it. Hopefully, this list will help with that, but there are people who hear a comment like, “This v***s may use the packing mechanisms of other v***ses such as HIV,” and their imaginations tend to run wild. That finding was published by scientists at Nankai University, and it’s true. The v***s does have an HIV-like mutation, but that doesn’t mean someone weaponized a form of HIV in a lab somewhere and released it upon the world, as some conspiracy theories have stated. These same mechanisms appear in many diseases as the result of natural mutations. That remark has everything to do with the means of fighting the spread of infection, and research like this helps push further research, which could hopefully lead to a cure or v*****e. You may have seen other conspiracy theories, including one about a new 5G wireless infrastructure being the cause of the disease, but this is so ridiculously false, it barely deserves mention. The most important thing to do when it comes to hearing these stories is, ask yourself if they make sense, see if they are published by reputable sources, and take a common-sense approach to anything you hear.

1. What To Do If You Think You’re Infected With C****-**
The very first thing you need to do is remember the words printed on the cover of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which are “Don’t Panic.” Panicking doesn’t help you or your loved ones, so you need to take care of yourself to ensure you don’t spread the infection and make sure you get the proper care. If you develop a fever along with symptoms of respiratory illness, you should call your healthcare provider and ask for their advice. They will know the right questions to ask to help determine if you’ve got the common cold, or if you have something more serious.If you fear you truly did come in contact with someone infected with C****-** and are concerned you may have it as well; you need to get tested. Because you are leaving the house to get checked, be responsible, and keep your mouth and nose covered. This will keep you from passing the v***s to other people, so if you have a respirator or surgical mask you can use, do so. If not, you can use a scarf or similar article of clothing. Your local hospital may not yet be equipped with testing kits for C****-**, so call your local public health department for information on the best place to go.