I have a regular monthly trip I take to a Pain Clinic to get my scrip for Percodans renewed. Nothing ever changes, but it's required for Narcs. Often my transportation picks up another person with some chronic issue they need to do monthly or even weekly. Besides Pain, high on the list of people we pick up are the folks with Krappy Kidneys going in for Dialysis. Ther are so many of these folks hospitals can't service all of them, so there are separate stand alone Dialysis clinics they go to for their biweekly blood scrubbing. Each of these cute little biznesses probably pulls in excess of $10K/day or $3M/year as a conservative estimate.
What is gonna happen when these folks see their Insurance Premiums
DOUBLE in January? A LOT of them will not be able to afford the new price. No Insurance, No Dialysis. Not sure how long a person with KK Disease can last without a blood scrubbing, but I don't think it's much more than a month or two. There are MILLIONS of these people.
Now, besides the Dead People problem, how many of these little money machine clinics will have to shut down if their clients can't pay? Every clinic has a supervising Doc making 7 figures, Nurses & Technicians making 6 figures and Records Clerks & Office Personnel making high 5 figures.
Add to that all the Stand Alone diagnostic clinics that do Radiology and Ultrasound scans. A CT scan these days ranges between ~$300 to $7000, some as high as $20K. Ultrasound not as pricy, but every pregnant woman gets at least a couple, and they do them for bladder problems and circulation issues also. Xrays for broken bones and Cancer treatment. Etc, etc, etc. All these places TOTALLY depend on the Insurance payments for their economic model to work.
We all know these places charge outrageous fees to make the ridiculous profits they pull in, but how much can they or will they lower their prices to what people can actually afford and how fast can they do that?
The Med Industry is a major contributor to the GDP. How will a recession in this sector affect the general economy? Do you think this little problem has been looked at more than 2 steps ahead in the consequences by the Braniac Politicians in CONgress or the WH? Rhetorical Question.
(https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/4o4Lw341DbU1MAAG9p-7_sVS69w=/0x0:5234x2944/1952x1098/media/img/mt/2025/12/2025_12_05_ACA_Cliff/original.jpg)
THEATLANTIC.COM •
2025-12-05We Are Looking at a Massive Crisis (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2025/12/obamacare-aca-premiums-congress-trump/685164/)
Health-care costs are about to spike in a way that Americans can't afford.
RE
Quote from: RE(https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/4o4Lw341DbU1MAAG9p-7_sVS69w=/0x0:5234x2944/1952x1098/media/img/mt/2025/12/2025_12_05_ACA_Cliff/original.jpg)
THEATLANTIC.COM • 2025-12-05
We Are Looking at a Massive Crisis (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2025/12/obamacare-aca-premiums-congress-trump/685164/)
Health-care costs are about to spike in a way that Americans can't afford.
RE
Small changes by any administration can potentially go unnoticed, and then the cumulative effect could be a mess.
This certainly doesn't look like one of those. When people who claim to want to blow things up, whatever it is, (Civil Rights Act, Education department, the 19th Amendment of the Constitution, and now apparently the 14th) actually start to DO so.....well....then we get to see if Americans are even Americans anymore.
Quotewell....then we get to see if Americans are even Americans anymore.
Based on what we have seen so far, I'm not getting my hopes up. Consider the key changes in German society by early 1934: One year into Hitler.
Gleichschaltung (Coordination): All institutions are forcibly aligned with Nazi ideology.
The Enabling Act (March 1933):The Enabling Act (March 1933): The power to enact laws without the Reichstag.
Removal of Opposition: The first concentration camp, Dachau, opened in March 1933 for political prisoners.
Things are not moving as fast as then, but we have Fascism Lite
🍺 no doubt. Oppression with half the calories. The rhymes with Germany in 1933 are all over the place. Allied forces will be marching into the ruins of Washington DC about 2038-2039 if things keep rhyming. In a book I was reading decades ago the author was comparing Germans of that era to Americans. Of All the European nations the Germans seemed most like Americans to him. So if things keep rhyming our western front will be a very cold place to die.
Quote from: K-Dog on Dec 07, 2025, 11:37 AMAllied forces will be marching into the ruins of Washington DC about 2038-2039 if things keep rhyming
Who makes up the Allied Forces? Chinese & Ruskies?
Given the stockpile of Thermonuclear MIRV Warheads in the possession of all the main parties involved, I do not think the rhyming will be quite so exact once the military action escalates.
Far as how the average J6P will react, I expect the
STICKER SHOCK coming in January will not play well.
(https://gifsec.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/popcorn-gif-46.gif)
RE