Red, 2-door, Dodge Colt from the 1980s. Mine had no floor on the passenger side but we put a rug over the hole for “safety.”

Yeah. Hatchbacks. I had this US model back in the day. There was just enough room in the hatch to add a sixth person to the car, as long as they were lying down. 😂

The fiat is visually appealing BUT I would posit that the mini is iconic. Honestly, either would be a hilarious addition.

Sometimes, when you’re reading a book, you just know the author is about to break your heart. That’s what page I’m on now.

I think this might be my favorite.

A longhaired, chocolate, mini-doxy sleeping like she’s dead. She’s stretched out, on her back, on a vintage quilt. The quilt has a worn cream background covered with holly hobby forms in once-bright cottons. The doxy is wearing her red beaded necklace collar and nothing else.

Yes. She is snoring. Last night, she belched so loud I thought there was a beer-bellied longshoreman in the house.

Can anyone tell me how to infuse a shower with marble?

Also useful for wielding like Gandalf, when you have the occasional unexpected encounter with a Balrog.

Jaws the movie is so much better than Jaws the book.

Really lovely. I appreciate the bittersweetness of your words.

Ugh. I made the mistake of engaging with my cousin who compared the US attacking Iran to the use of nuclear weapons in Japan. Why didn’t I just mute? Or block? Or both? Or yeet myself into the ocean?

Woke up to the Artemis II playlist this morning. Things are grim but the music is joyful.

Hmm. I rather like the idea of the magnet always being “on.” And good luck to the pedestrian who shows up in armor.

I have one! It’s great fun, hangs by a window to freak out the neighbors.

The sun is shining on Freya, the chocolate mini-doxy, who is stretched out along a pair of jean-clad legs on a wooden deck.

Ah, spring!

Haha. I was going to suggest the anbernic. It *is* a little rough on the quality side but sooo many games.

I’ve grown as a fish fry consumer. The Bitter Ends fish fry at Nancy’s Revival in Wilkinsburg, a “fits-the-bun” rather than “overflows-the-bun-by-two-meters” sandwich, was absolutely fantastic. Housemade, light-as-air, tartar sauce, tangy greens, and a tender bun made it a panko-coated masterpiece.

I personally never saw much grift, though it undoubtedly exists. We always wrote in our employer contracts that admin costs would be no more than 30% of total price. For whatever that’s worth!

Always happy to yap. 😂

The need to quality-check providers still exists, another function that insurers currently do. What disappears is the connection between employment and access to care. So, people who sell insurance to employers aren’t needed. But even in other countries, rich people buy private insurance.

Well, if you look at other countries, our Medicare is probably the closest example. Medicare “hires” other companies (mostly today’s insurers) to process claims and answer customer service calls. In UHC, the work of paying doctors, in essence processing claims, of a sort, still continues.

I think UHC is the answer but he has previously soundly disagreed with that position. 😂

Possibly. The blue cross blue shield plans work collaboratively to maintain a national network with cost and quality data. It requires thousands of employees to manage. I’m thinking that Mark has a scale issue to resolve.

He hasn’t offered a lot of detail. Honestly, not to sound cynical, it seems like he’s trying to stir some excitement, generate some PE or VC money. Nothing I’ve read makes me think his approach is, in any way, designed for the average household. It’s all very costly and he doesn’t know the nuance.

If 15 (all!) of Ma and Pop’s employees have heart transplants, it’s the insurance company, through that fully insured plan, paying. There’s no way that Ma and Pop’s could collect enough premium dollars to pay the millions in health care costs for 15 transplants.

Ma and Pop’s has to purchase fully insured coverage. It costs more for employees because the insurance company takes on all the risk. What risk? Well, if 15 Target employees have heart transplants, Target still has 199,985 employees who are helping to pay.

A self-insured employer, like Target, with more than 200,000 employees, uses all those “premium” dollars from employees’ pay checks to pay for whatever health care its employees need. Ma and Pop’s Country Kitchen couldn’t collect enough healthcare premiums from their 15 employees‘ pay checks.

Employers who have fewer employees are less likely to be allowed to self-insure. The whole basis for insurance is that the more people enrolled, the better spread the risk is. Basically, all of us help to pay for care for those who need it. The more people paying, the less each person pays.

For context, health insurance rates are based on a combination of factors that include the health of the employees, the number of family members included in coverage, the design of the health plan, and the amount of money the employer contributes to the monthly premium paid by each employee.

If employers don’t want to or aren’t eligible to self-insure, they can offer fully insured plans to their employees or direct them to shop on their state’s exchange. (It’s called Pennie in Pennsylvania. Each state has their own thanks to the Affordable Care Act.)

I quote-posted Mark’s post with the thread. RBP, BTW, is reference-based pricing. It’s a pricing strategy that says, basically, that a specific service “should” cost $X and that’s what the employer or insurer will pay. If the provider doesn’t like that price, they don’t see the patient. Period.