Larry Anderson

@hazardwarning Here's what we have in the U.S.:

1. Private health insurance--which is mostly for those with full-time jobs that provide it.
2. "Obamacare"--private health insurance which is purchased through state-run health care exchanges at a subsidized rate.
3. Medicare--single-payer health insurance provided by the government. Everyone 65 years or older is covered by Medicare. (There are also Medicare supplements that go through private insurance, but we'll ignore those for the moment.)
4. Medicaid (called Medi-Cal in California)--single-payer health insurance provided by the government for extremely low-income individuals. Better than nothing, but many providers do not accept Medicaid.

@hazardwarning My mother-in-law once needed to have a series of injections to treat <redacted>. They were around $5000 a shot, as I recall. Medicare, which our current crop of deplorables wants to privatize (i.e., destroy), picked up the cost.

@hazardwarning As a Yank with company-paid health insurance, I just refilled three months' worth of metformin (for diabetes) for the princely sum of 99 cents. Without insurance, it would be around $400 for the brand-name drug, or $10.00 at Walmart for the generic. Our system is so broken it's ridiculous.

@neilco tosses you a protein bar

@kdfrawg I'm guessing that it will all be fixed at that point.

// @bazbt3 @hazardwarning

@kdfrawg I love them, especially when someone else owns them and handles the maintenance. :-)

// @gtwilson

@gtwilson A family friend used to have a 41-foot boat that we'd take out to the (Santa Barbara) Channel Islands. Only a bit of wood, but it seemed like it was in a constant state of repair and renovation. Truly a hole in the water into which buckets of money were thrown.

@gtwilson That's about what it would take. So. Much. Varnishing.

@gtwilson The only thing more time-consuming than car restoration is owning a wooden boat.

@gtwilson You've discovered the secret of automotive restoration.