So assuming I do a substantial rewrite and expansion, I’ll want to come up with a more interesting title. How about “Beating America’s Health Racketeers”? Or “Surviving the ‘Health’ System That Wants You To Die”?

Any thoughts?

My particular benefit administration company has one of those wonderfully Orwellian names – I can’t hear it without thinking of the evil company in RoboCop. As for dental, that’s a whole different nightmare. For all that the free market is supposed to supply all our needs, there’s a critical need for dental coverage that actually covers dental costs . [...]

Thanks, techgeek15. As I think about it, though, that numbered list should probably be re-ordered. In fact, the whole piece could do with a re-write, adding in some of the points that came up in the comments as well. While I’m at it, I should probably explain HRAs, FSAs, and how they are so effectively [...]

The thing is, my family’s medical situation isn’t all that complicated. If any of us had a really serious or expensive condition, one that required frequent trips to the hospital or a lot of tests, there would be absolutely no way to survive our modern health-insurance system. And that’s the problem. America doesn’t really have a [...]

Thank you! And thanks, CTuttle! I’m afraid I may not have given the piece a sufficiently-interesting title, though.

Have you ever noticed that they never make a mistake in your favor? It’s always a denial of service, never an acceptance of a charge that was inappropriate. Of course, most of us just do what our doctors tell us to do. So there’s no reasonable way to try to put in a claim for something that [...]

NPR is government run radio. Do you expect them to tell you the government is doing something illegal or wrong?

During most of my lifetime, they would and did at least acknowledge when the government acted in a questionable manner, and would at least include voices which were actually critical of controversial governmental activities. Were they storming [...]

I suppose it makes me a bad person that the first thought that occurred to me on reading that was “Gee, if I became disabled in an ability that was necessary to my job, I’d be unemployed before I knew what hit me! And soon after, my family and I would be homeless and indigent.” But [...]

The problem is that our godlike and unchallengeable Free Market doesn’t offer any sort of tolerable alternative for radio news in our area. Nor, as I understand it, in most other areas of the United States. If the people never even get to hear an alternative viewpoint, what chance do they have to actually change the [...]

Honestly, I never knew what was so great about NPR to begin with.

If the only alternatives are right-wing talk radio, whatever what used to be called rap is now called, or country radio – and god, modern country radio is the worst thing that I can imagine, cultural programming to produce a nation of ignorant, [...]

Ah yes, Diane Rehm. I suppose it’s ageist of me, or something, but I cringe every time I hear her quavering, painfully slow voice. And yes, like most of NPR she seems to stick religiously to right-wing establishment “experts” and pundits. God forbid they ever have someone on who might actually point out that the [...]

quasit, we’ve already got some irresponsible hack in office.

I’m all too aware of that. And in any case, in retrospect that was badly put; the point isn’t that someone irresponsible is (under any interpretation) likely to eventually get their hands on such power. It’s that nobody can be trusted with such power. “Power corrupts, and absolute [...]

Unfortunately the only things that I remember for sure are that it was on 89.7 FM WGBH, and that it was some time between seven and three days ago – and on a weekday, not on the weekend. Also it must have been between 9:30 AM and 2pm. That’s about as far as I can [...]

Every day, over and over. Funny, you’d think I’d remember that the world and my country have lost their moral compass and become everything we opposed during World War II. But each morning I wake up hoping that it was all just a bad dream.

I’m in northern Rhode Island. 89.7 WGBH and 90.9 WBUR are our two options; they’re both Boston-area stations. The signal from local NPR stations are too weak to receive. One of the two (I forget which) used to broadcast classical music in the off-hours. Eventually they dropped that in favor of painfully puerile talk shows [...]

Unfortunately I don’t. I tuned in while it was already ongoing, and wasn’t paying close attention until I realized just how crazy the world had become. It was on last week, on 89.7 Boston – WGBH. I like Democracy Now!, and rather respect them. But as far as I know, they’re not on our local [...]

In that case, shouldn’t we be trying to learn their techniques? Because the only alternative that I can see is to lie down and die. And if no one resists the drone-masters, even more innocents will die…because they will never be satisfied as long as anyone has a crumb left, nor a scrap of human dignity. [...]

Let’s be practical. Drones are going to be used more and more, all over the world, and our government as well as private corporations and police departments will be using them against us. So while deploring drones is certainly a moral thing to do, it would be wise for us to start making some preparations. What [...]