[Info-vax] Nice printers for OpenVMS?

[Doug Phillips]

On Aug 8, 10:02 am, David Froble <da... at tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
> Bob Koehler wrote:
> > In article <jvrpgj$j9... at news.albasani.net>, Jan-Erik Soderholm <jan-erik.soderh... at telia.com> writes:
> >> Bob Koehler wrote 2012-08-07 19:17:
> >>>     And, I assume, you pay taxes?
>
> >> Of course, we all do. Don't you ?
> >> But that is not something I have to focus my life on.
> >> And I/we pay enough to not having to worry about
> >> medical expenses either. Quite nice.
>
> >    My point, exactly.  Republican'ts say we're not allowed those taxes.
>
> And why is that?
>
> It's all about the money.
>
> As for the medical issue, it is a condition created and maintained by the
> insurance companies.  Again, it's all about money.  Hugh political contributions
> attempt to maintain this condition.
>
> They started with rather inexpensive HMO plans.  Then paid the providers a
> fraction of that billed.  The providers know what to do, raise the costs until
> they get what they need, and then some.  The HMO costs then go up.  In time you
> cannot afford to be without insurance, which is exactly what the insurance
> companies want.
>
> So then where do all the medical insurance premiums go?  To provide medical care
> for the policy holders?  Get real.  There is the hugh political contributions.
> And in Pittsburgh, just about all the major construction projects are for the 2
> major medical insurance companies.  I have several things on good authority.  A
> mahogany board room table.  $400,000.  Their initials placed on the US Steel
> building.  $1.6 million.  All while limiting what they provide to the policy
> holders.
>
> Can't say that I trust the government to ever do anything well, but in this
> case, they would have to work very hard to be worse than the medical insurance
> companies.

I just got a nice rebate check from my former health insurance
provider. The Affordable Care act requires insurance companies to
spend at least 80% of their premium receipts on health care services.
They were spending only 70%. Funny, though, the premiums increased
every 6 months "due to the increased cost of healthcare" and maybe it
was just a coincidence <g> but executive compensation also increased
during that period.

I recently watched a PBS TV show (don't remember the name) about
Norway and their social-democracy. Afterwards I did a bit of on-line
looking. I realized that like many other Americans I was pretty
ignorant about how things actually work in some other countries. I've
always been for national healthcare and now all of the FUD being
spewed by our PAC-controlled Republicat politicians pisses me off even
more.

In the US, voter apathy is an obstacle. "I'm doing OK so I don't
care." As more people feel the pain of Congress' special interest
based legislation maybe more people will stand up and decide to vote
the vultures out. I doubt it, though. It takes some effort to wade
through the political war of FUD and if someone is occupied with
keeping food on the table and a roof over their head they just don't
have time to do that, so the best FUDslinger usually wins.