Vote for Cruz, screw your parents

Market Ticker ^ | 3/21/16 | Karl Denninger

[Myrddin]

My former landlord spent 15 years on dialysis. 3 times a week, 5 hours per session. $1500 per session. Everything after age 55 was tallied as a claim against his estate upon his death. His estate was nothing but debt, so the taxpayers lost that play. He wrote books and plays during the hours idled by dialysis. When he passed, I successfully hacked into his Apple laptop and desktop machines and updated the passwords so his family wouldn't lose the work and records on the machines.

[wardaddy]

I’ve paid maximum my whole life self employed

Not sure how much

It’s gone up up up since late 70s it’s not about 17,000 a year I think

I doubt I’ll live long enough to get it but my wife might

There are lots better ways to do a national pension

[wardaddy]

That would be six percent of gross pay

That’s crazy

[nclaurel]

My father would be 116 this year had he lived. He felt if you didn’t work you should not eat at any age. Because those older than even I learned to believe the government would take care of you, I give those to old to start saving a break. Younger people need to prepare to care for themselves. The pyramid of worker vs takers has inverted. At 67 I still work as much as I can and we prepared for retirement.

[okie01]

Presumably, your landlord was on Medicaid if there were claims against his estate.

My dialysis clinic bills Medicare about $1500/session, too. But they receive (and settle for) only about $300/session -- which still mounts up at 3x per week. It's also a demonstration of how government involvement distorts a true accounting of medical care costs.

Good work on making all that material available to your landlord's survivors. In the same circumstance, I know how much I would've appreciated what you did.

[DoughtyOne]

[BlackElk]

I am also a dialysis patient since 2014. I am now about to start the education program for peritoneal dialysis which I will be able to do at home while I sleep. Since it is do-it-yourself, it costs a LOT less because there is very little need for nurses, doctors, technicians, brick and mortar buildings, etc. Once every couple of weeks, go to town for a blood test. The machine is provided by Medicare as are the supplies which are delivered to the home monthly. It requires a simple abdominal surgery to insert a tube for external access and uses the stomach lining to dialyze.

I anticipate that I will save three weekly one hour round trip to town replaced by one trip every two weeks and three weekly four hour dialysis sessions at a clinic in town replaced by three to five overnight dialysis sessions while I sleep. Also saves me a load of gasoline and car maintenance expenses wle saving the taxpayers a lot of money as well. Better patient outcome. Better patient experience. Less expensive for patient and Medicare.

Let me add that no one in my family has ever suffered kidney failure before and that my kidney failure was massive and sudden and left me in a coma for nearly a month. I am diabetic and have some degree of heart failure. I remember my impoverished grandmother's sense of relief when Medicare was established when she was in her eighties. She had been a Licensed Practical Nurse but could not afford medical care for herself. When she got Medicare, she did not abuse it. The only serious expense was a month or so of end-of-life care in a nursing home while she was dying of heart failure.

When I was young and was a state chairman of Young Americans for Freedom, I refused to distribute literature calling for abolition of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Unemployment Insurance and other such programs. In my state, we concentrated on supporting the military and the Vietnam War, supporting legitimate law enforcement, opposing liberalism in the GOP (the likes of Nelson Rockefeller, George Romney, William Scranton, John Lindsay, Richard Nixon in many respects, Gerald Ford, etc.), supporting Ronaldus Maximus always, resisting and thwarting such as the "Students for a Democratic Society," radical professors and college administrators and other elements of the New Left that hatched and nurtured the likes of Obozo and his pals and Her Royal Thighness and her pals.

I never imagined that my very life would depend on Social Security and Medicare but I never acted to deprive anyone else of Medicare or Social Security.

May God bless you and yours and nurture your health and well-being for many years to come.

[okie01]

Appreciate your point on in-home dialysis. Unfortunately, it's not available to me because I have so much scar tissue on my abdomen.

The scar tissue is an artifact of my cancer surgery in 1989 -- which probably contributed to my otherwise unexplained kidney failure in 2006. I underwent a very powerul course of chemotherapy to deal with the cancer. It worked...but probably left me with damaged kidneys and "brittle" veins -- which have complicated my dialysis treatment.

I've no complaints, though; the chemo saved my life.

Thank you for your kind wishes. Be assured they are returned in full strength.

[PLMerite]

SaraH Silverman is best viewed with the volume way down.

She used to be very easy on the eyes, but crazy.

Now I think she's very easy on the eyes, BUT CRAZY!

But, man, if they can ever cure crazy...

[CyberAnt]

Well, with about 93 million people out of work .. no payments are being made to SSN or Medicare.

Medicaid was only designed for the indigent. Now, it’s used by everybody.

And .. Al Gore’s Father lead the DemocRATS responsible for the backdoor into SSN .. and now every “social” ill uses it to supplement income of people who have not paid into it.