I Am Not Attempting To Change Your Vaccination Philosophy
If you want to eat 10,000 Italian sausages, haggis, menudo, soon dae, instant ramen noodles, and cotton candy for decades but
you refuse to get vaccinated because you are afraid of what’s in it, or
you put your principles/political beliefs over probability, or
you forgot that you had a polio/measles/MMR vaccination to enter elementary school,
then I ain’t gonna to change your mind, because you have a different set of “reasons” which we will not resolve here, that is for another wordsmith. Let’s move on.
Media is Powerful and NY Times At The Top
Actual journalism is valuable, and to her credit, Miss Kliff has notably shifted course over the years. She has exposed situations where either health insurance carriers or healthcare providers have, for one reason or the other, created havoc on a patient’s/policyholder’s life. That her position at the New York Times would be coveted by almost every journalist on the planet, and the has reached it is an undisputed, impressive feat itself. In other words, this isn’t a personal attack, she might even be a Cowboys and Wolverines fan.
However, for those that have followed the MYM Newsletter, I have pointed out enormous bias, or misstatements of facts regarding the ACA made by Miss Kliff and others. She wasn’t alone, nor was she the most extreme (enter Andy Slavitt and Ezra Klein). They all violated the principle of “If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.” This happens all the time, and especially when considering financial matters of every stripe.
“My insurance didn’t pay as they said it would.”
”It’s Obama’s / Trump’s fault.” > Pick a name, any ‘ole name or reason. How about: you didn’t understand how a duck actually works?
Using that principle, the cash flows of the ACA on everyday people looked and quacked like a tax (higher income, higher premiums). Guess why? “Follow the cash flows” didn’t lie: it’s a tax.
IRMAA and APTC are simply putting this front and center, something that followers have known for years and years, because there is no chance that they have continued to follow me, and not known this.
You do not need an advanced degree, you do not need years of financial experience around the world, you could groom animals for a living for all I care, all it takes is for people to ignore noise/jargon, and follow the cash. My most gratifying work is when we connect with those that may seem to be unlikely clients, but our explanations are clear so that they understand that a particular contract/situation is a duck, not an elephant..
Miss Kliff’s articles were evidence of either a) incomplete understanding of how insurance is priced (almost certainly true) or b) political bias (I will leave that with you). I don’t really care about point b, other than the fact that she had an inherent platform to subtly implant this bias. However, I care A LOT about point a. You might say I care too much about point a. Fair enough.
The reason I am this insistent, every time, is that noise gets mixed in, on top of your incomplete or flawed understanding of a facts, like that probability runs the price of health insurance, not your political beliefs. Humana, UHC, et al DO NOT CARE ONE STITCH whether you are Catholic vs Protestant, very certain. But since you are on such unsure footing, noise can push you off balance.
A higher standard needs to apply to those that have inherent platforms, like the New York Times. It’s one thing for a dog groomer to murmur to herself inaccurately, it’s quite another when the culprit is a journalist at one of the most influential media organizations on the planet.
Back to the Tweet: Social Media Makes This Worse
All we have here is a complaint about the systematically high cost of healthcare delivery in the US. There is no silver bullet here, you would need a coordinated set of bullets, and every one of them would face pushback, and those who oppose will have a very rational reason for doing so. You might think their reasoning to be distasteful in some way. but if I simply asked, “If it was your child/grandson, what would you tell them that their position should be?” SCREEEEEECH, your protestations would likely end. Where you stand depends on where you sit (Miles’ Law, from my political science days in Ann Arbor, home of the soon-to-be College Football Championship finalist Michigan Wolverines. Create your own newsletter, heh).
Back to the point. Tell me how this tweet is relevant to anything? Is there anything newsworthy here? Are there fully-developed solutions here? All there exists is noise.
Why Am I Making A Stink?
Watch the beginning part of this video: wax on, wax off.
Distractions are the true pandemic
“I didn’t get anything from my insurance.”
“The carrier wanted to intentionally not pay my claims.”
“My doctor is greedy, he ordered 5 tests.”
“Big pharma shouldn’t be allowed to charge that.”
“My advisor told me to go find a health insurance agent for that.”
There can be elements of truth or myth to this, but when you don’t understand why, then the reasoning for your decision-making can be flawed. When you realize the flaws, and circumstances change, who is the one that faces the consequences?
So while we do not have a crystal ball, we can agree that there is a huge difference between accepting risks unknowingly versus accepting risks willingly.
This is the nice version. The far less forgiving version sits on GH2Unfiltered.com, which is part of the paid Substack, yo. Deep in the weeds, I proposed the “set of bullets” that could actually be executed, in my opinion, called “How To Fix Health Insurance Markets.” No one is asking me. Imma justa guy.
Official website for Maximize Your Medicare (click here).
GH2 Benefits professional services website (click here).