08:36 – The final countdown commences. Barbara retires in 30 days, at the end of this month. I’m sure she’s looking forward to it, as I certainly am.
Not that “retires” means she won’t work any more. She’s retiring from the law firm but will be coming to work for our own company, to which we’re both looking forward. What this really means for Barbara is that she’ll have control of her own time. She’ll work when she wants to, or when we need her to. She’ll take time off to do her own thing when she wants to, whether that means taking a long weekend to go to a craft fair with one of her friends or taking a couple weeks off to go on a bus tour with another friend. But mostly she’ll be working for our own business.
All of which got me to thinking about what an odd concept retirement is. The idea that at a certain age, one simply stops working and takes a multi-year (or multi-decade) vacation. Our parents’ generation was the first in human history to take the idea of retirement for granted. Before then, most people worked until they dropped. Everyone who wanted to eat had to work for their food. People who were too old to do hard physical labor worked at tasks that were less physically demanding, like watching children or shelling peas or darning socks or sharpening tools.
When the first Social Security checks were issued in the 1930’s, they were to retirees aged 65, who could be expected to continue living and drawing checks for a couple of years. And those checks were just enough to keep the retirees from starving or ending up on the streets. They were intended to provide only a basic supplement to whatever the retirees had saved on their own. Nowadays, it’s common for a retired couple to draw SS checks of $50,000/year or more. Our children are paying for that, and they can’t afford to do it. The American population over 65 is bankrupting our young people, who are just barely able to support themselves, if they’re lucky. We’ve gone from about 30 working people minimally supporting each retiree in the 30’s to a ratio much nearer to one worker supporting one retiree in style in 2015. That’s simply not sustainable. It never was, and it never can be. That’s why Barbara and I will never really retire. We’ll keep the business active as long as we can physically do so.
“Nowadays, it’s common for a retired couple to draw SS checks of $50,000/year or more. Our children are paying for that, and they can’t afford to do it. The American population over 65 is bankrupting our young people, who are just barely able to support themselves, if they’re lucky.”
It’s also common for many retired couples to double- and triple-dip on various retirements and they recoil in horror at any suggestions of means-testing; that money is all THEIRS, by God, and they’re gonna TAKE it, every last dime. Children and grandchildren? They’ll have bumper stickers that you see from time to time: “We’re Spending Our Grandchildrens’ Inheritance,” hahaha. So SS has now become sacrosanct and Untouchable Forever.
Until it runs out, of course. The whole thing is unsustainable, and when one generation is tasked with endlessly supporting the older ones, what could possibly go wrong? Besides generational resentment, bitterness, anger and deprivation, I mean.
“…like watching children or shelling peas or darning socks or sharpening tools.”
…reloading ammo and firearms and handing the firearms to the people at the gun ports when under attack by hostiles…tending to the wounded, teaching the kids about the lost Western civilization that once existed on the planet….etc….
Wait, wait, wait. I’ve paid into SS for something like 47 years now. Maybe two or three more to go. My employers’ too and double when I was self employed. With interest that should be a whole lot of money owed back to me after I retire.
WHAT? It’s not there? You gave it to people who never paid in? You borrowed it? It’s a pyramid scheme?
I’m floored.
You paid double the entire time, whether the money was collected directly from you or from your employers before they could give it to you.
“WHAT? It’s not there? You gave it to people who never paid in? You
borrowedstole it? It’s a pyramid scheme?”Fixed it for you 🙂
Politicians never saw a pot of money they didn’t want to give to someone…
I think it’s a version of the sunk cost fallacy. They whole idea, common on .gov projects, that after spending a large amount of money, you MUST spend more to finish or you’ve wasted all of it. Very common when underbudgeting to hide the true costs of some public works boondoggle, like a sports stadium. Now with SS, they stole the money thinking that it wouldn’t matter because OF COURSE they could just steal it back from somewhere else, since they’ve made all those promises, and you wouldn’t want to sink the whole thing would you? They’ve spent so much already giving it to those people, they HAVE to spend more now that these people are due.
But there’s no where else to steal from. And the ‘entitled generation’ is about to hit SS en masse. And they will-by god-find SOMEWHERE to steal that money from or there will be heII to pay. The trick of inflation and devaluing the currency to steal from the future won’t work forever.
nick
More and more people have begun to understand just how badly the government has and is raping them.
And the real bitch is that nearly none of these people could go back to work even if they had to and were physically capable of doing so. They’re useless. They have no skills that anyone would pay for. This will not end well…
The new “Fear The Walking Dead” tv show is meeting my expectations. The police in LA are shooting the walkers and the citizens are demonstrating about cop violence. Awesome!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_the_Walking_Dead
My wife pays enough in taxes to cover both of our mil pensions. Is that karma, yin/yang, even steven, justice? WTF, over? Enough to cover Mr. OFD, too.
“They have no skills that anyone would pay for. This will not end well…”
Indeed. Tens of millions of hungry mouths. That’s it. Multiply that worldwide.
My accumulated skillz, from the world of employment:
Soldier/cop: Too old now but can still work firearms and explosives; just not up to humping a ruck all over the landscape much more than a couple or three miles. Well, maybe I could do five to ten miles now. But it would suck.
Teaching: Didn’t like doing it for groups; much better at one-on-one tutoring, in fields no one gives a shit about anymore.
Computers: Basically a machine operator, just like I did when I ran wave-solder machines or PCB fab gear in factories long ago. Swell, as long as there’s a market for that and the juice is still running; otherwise not so much.
Pretty useless, in fact, another hungry mouth. But I’m learning commo stuff, fixing and modifying firearms, a bit of gardening, and I can cook and write stuff, and render competent basic first aid and CPR. Not a bad shot, either, actually.
The police go to the wrong house and a gunfight ensures.
Authorities say an Atlanta-area police officer was shot and critically wounded when officers responded to a call of a suspicious person and showed up at the wrong house.
DeKalb Police Chief Cedric Alexander said three officers responded Monday night. The officers entered the home from the rear, identified themselves and one of the officers was shot in the leg.
I’m sure after the investigation, the innocent homer owner, AKA *perp*, will be charged with attempted murder. Moral of story, yell “Police” when you break down a door. That means everyone should immediately lay down their weapons. lol Way to go douchebag police. We all know they will be found innocent and the *perp* tried.
But all our police and soldiers are HEROES and can do no wrong, ever.
Ho ho.
And what’s to stop some gangbangers from kicking in the doors and yelling “POLICE!”? It’s been done.
Speaking of gangs and suchlike; got any in your AO? Does your AO look like it could be a nice place for gangstas?
http://guerrillamerica.com/2015/09/why-your-intelligence-section-must-identify-gang-activity-now/
As I’ve said, the concepts of separate military retirement checks, civil service checks, private retirements checks, SS checks, etc. etc. is going to disappear. No more double-dipping, let alone triple-dipping. Hell, single-dipping will inadequate despite the fact that it’s all going to be rolled into one big pool and distributed as the government sees fit. There goes your 401K and eventually all privately-held equity and bond portfolios. From each according to our abilities, and to each according to arbitrarily government-defined “needs”.
I expect the current retirement payments to continue pretty much unchanged for the next few years. Five, maybe ten. I expect to see SS become the umbrella. Eventually, it’ll subsume and replace military pensions and private pensions. Civil-service pensions at the state and local levels will be next-to-last to go, and those at the federal level the last to go. But, eventually, go they will, and we’ll end up with the federal government as the single payer for all retirement checks. Count on it.
Oh, I’m counting on it, alright; you and I and others here will be in our late 60s and early 70s, just in time, maybe, in the last little window that’s left, to skim off some of the SS we’ve already paid in. After us, nothing.
But I’m also figuring that we may not make it, and we’ll never see that money again, and taking steps accordingly, i.e., working until we drop and trying to understand what it is we’ll do when we’re finally too old and/or sick to lift a finger anymore.
Your bodies will be liquefied and used to feed the next generation of drones as they grow in their maturation chambers.
“Your bodies will be liquefied…”
Damn, they shoulda caught me when I was still drinking; coulda been liquefied for jet or rocket fuel.
I keep seeing and hearing that the robots are gonna take over all the jobs and then the planet, though; will this be anything like “The Terminator” franchise?
I’m betting I’ll be dead before Dr. Bob’s prediction comes true. In the mean time, make as much money as possible and buy beans, bullets and bandages.
…and babes. Grab us some of them Lost Wages showgirls in your Apache and slide this way, hermano!
Geez, I’m just looking into Obamacare prices. The cheapest plan available for Barbara and me is about $14,000/year, not counting all those tax credits for which we won’t qualify. That plan is basically what we used to call Major Medical. The deductible is $11,000/year, and the insurance pays absolutely nothing until you’re $11,000 out of pocket. The most expensive is more than $30,000/year, but has only a $1,000 deductible and $3,000 out-of-pocket. No matter which plan we choose, we get raped. I just hope Obama and all the other progs die long, agonizingly painful deaths, and I hope they all do it soon.
I’m just looking into Obamacare prices.
Sounds about right. The lazy low class scum pay just a few dollars, if any, and their deductible is less than the cost of their shiny new iPhone. You and I, as in people that actually earn a living and are productive members of society, are again subsidizing those losers.
My company plan is about 14K a year with the company paying 90%. When I retire I will be on Medicare which should reduce the cost. The rest I should be able to get from the VA. I don’t know what I am going to about my wife. Hopefully it will be about half what the two of us would spend. But I suspect that Obuttwadcare will not allow that and will only cover a spouse on a family plan.
What I don’t know is how the income is factored in. I will not have any income from work for the next five years. Does Obuttwadcare consider your assets in determining how much you pay or is it only income as reported on your income tax return? If only income on the tax return then I may be eligible for credits.
I’m on Tricare retired insurance until I hit Medicare age. Same with MrsAtoz (under my plan to save her insurance costs). Talk about a cost saver. $495/yr for the family. Kids OK till 26th year which is about when I’ll hit Medicare.
The middle class takes it in the shorts. The MSM doesn’t report this. I guess a lot of peeps go without. Why get insurance if you have to pay thousands until your deductible. If you have a major medical emergency, then pay the penalty. Oh, yeah, that pesky IRS will be after you, so you better not have a refund coming.
that pesky IRS will be after you
It just seems backwards that the IRS can seize your assets without a court order and in fact no court or legal oversight. Other agencies are not allowed to do such. But if the IRS seizes your assets by mistake you have to get a court order to get your assets back. Of course you cannot get your legal fees back from the IRS even when it is the mistake of the IRS that caused the seizure. What you will get is on the IRS radar and all your future returns are audited with revenge on the mind of the IRS.
@RBT
Have you looked into a health plan for all the employees of your small business? It might be cheaper.
Sounds about like what we saw too.
I pay for mine, and theirs, and I get less for the money.
Note also that “out of pocket” doesn’t mean what you think it means. For example, they don’t consider copayments to be “out of pocket” expenses.
Even with 2 kids we don’t come close to using up our deductible. So I pay the full cost of my insurance and the full cost for the services each year, and part of the cost for some other people too.
Isn’t life grand.
nick
MR ECH may have a contribution here, as previous comments led me to believe he has some experience in this area.
And IRS presumes guilt.
nick
“It just seems backwards that the IRS can seize your assets without a court order and in fact no court or legal oversight.”
They’ve done it to us twice and also threatened us with seizure of house, cars, other assets and also with prison. In the second seizure, it was a mistake on their part, for which they expressed no remorse and we spent weeks getting our bank account straightened out, with zero income during that time, and also lost a ton of money on bounced checks we’d written to pay bills….and ready for this? Taxes, with the agreement we’d already had with them. That money is gone; the bank sez tough twinkies and the IRS won’t even bother dignifying our question with an answer.
As for the ObolaCARE health circus, we’ve struggled to get Mrs. OFD on the system over many months and have been paying $500/month so far while also trying to schedule an MD appointment around her wacky schedule. So that’s $6,000 a year for her and I get my med stuff done at the VA so far.
The underclass elements simply show up at ER’s for treatment, or, if they are on the plan, they have low deductibles, which they can get out of paying anyway, and they can still manage to swing iPhones, ciggies, booze, dope, big-screen tee-vee’s, and get fat as pigs while enjoying life’s cornucopia in the Land of the Big PX.
When is the tipping point? The breaking point?
I suspect when the Hurt kicks in good and hard for regular citizens beyond what we’ve experienced so far, in punitive and confiscatory taxation, the loss of civil liberties, the mis-education systems, rising costs of essentials, the super-PC speech and behavior codification, and rising violent crime and bad behavior from the underclass, we’ll finally accelerate from zero to ninety and start cleaning house. It won’t be pretty. It’s a shit-ton of firepower and a lot of anger and bitterness and resentment.
Can it be repressed by State military and police forces? We shall see. Can those forces go around to every firearms owner and confiscate their stuff? Very doubtful.
“Nowhere is a revolution in thinking more needed than in the Land of the Free, which has created a tax code so Byzantine and unfair that each year thousands of Americans make the gut-wrenching decision to renounce their citizenship.”
http://www.sovereignman.com/trends/italian-prime-minister-calls-for-a-revolution-17407/?inf_contact_key=1aaeb34a8e79eb7ce281e604d0f39b54a7272b7a185485c84a7c16284fee54dc
I looked at the small-business Obamacare options, and they’re worse than the individual ones.
Ray, what makes you think the IRS is the only government agency that seizes assets? Pretty much any agency of the federal, state, or local government can seize your assets any time they want to. You don’t have to be convicted of anything. You don’t even have to be charged with anything. Even in cases where you’ve been proven not guilty of what they allege, they can simply refuse to return your assets and the law is on their side. It’s called asset forfeiture, and it’s one of the most blatant examples of the government being out of control. And it’s not at all rare.
Have you looked into a health plan for all the employees of your small business? It might be cheaper.
I have seven employees and five family members on our business health insurance, BCBS PPO. I am paying an average of $580/month/person with a $3,000/person deductible and a $1,000 out of pocket/person. Maybe that is backwards, doesn’t matter much.
I have been reading that it will go up 32% on Dec 1. Really looking forward to that.
“It’s called asset forfeiture, and it’s one of the most blatant examples of the government being out of control. And it’s not at all rare.”
That is correct, and also correct that the IRS Gestapo is not the only Fed agency that does this. Plenty of folks have found this out the hard way; sometimes they take your house, offering you “fair market value,” of course, so they can hand it over to private developers that they’ve been in bed with, or to build new gummint offices. Then, funny as chit, nothing ever gets built there, and it’s left a derelict vacant lot forever.
Cops will stop you for some reason, on the road or on foot, and if you’re carrying what they consider a large amount of cash, they’ll confiscate it on the spot as probable fruits of dope dealing; you won’t see it again, no matter how hard you try. Or they’ll simply take your car or boat. God forbid they find a joint or residue. Which they can plant, of course.
It’s not private property, but we’re waiting to see what happens when the town here moves its highway department site from the lake shore, about 200 yards from here, to another spot further inland. What will they do with that substantial lot? It must have brownfield status by now, with all that motor oil and gasoline and other stuff that have been on the premises all this time. Plus scrap metal that allegedly interferes with the cell phone reception here in the ville.
“Really looking forward to that.”
That sounds suspiciously like sarcasm; and a micro-aggression against a carefully thought-out healthcare plan developed by experts with the Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat of Dear Leader.
Obamacare made insurance more expensive since there are first dollar mandated items that must be covered, no matter the deductable. IIRC, that includes a physical each year, well-woman checkups, immunizations, female contraceptives, etc.
What a plan can help you with, even with high deductables, is getting the insurance company rate on procedures, which are anywhere from 20-90% off “list price”. List prices for hospitals are mostly fiction and are simply there as a negotiating tool.
Bob, if you have average salaries of under $50k/year and provide the coverage via your business, you can get a tax credit to offset part of the plan costs. I would expect that the rules are moderately complex and may depend on how your business is structured (sole proprietor, LLC, S corp, etc.)
I know a bit about this from having been a PITA to my employer a while back, and since my wife and dad is/was a physician/podiatrist. What we are now seeing is an arms race between the insurance companies and the hospital chains to see who can consolidate the fastest in order to get more bargaining muscle. I expect that we’ll see essentially 3 health care insurers in the US in a few years, 3-4 national hospital chains (along with a few big regional chains/federations), and a handful of huge physician groups covering those not working directly for hospitals. Independent physicians are effectively dead under PPACA. They have to be part of a big group to handle the administrative, compliance, IT, and reporting burden that PPACA mandates. I’m not sure what the minimum size for a physician group will be in the future, but it will be in the several hundred range.
Ray, what makes you think the IRS is the only government agency that seizes assets?
I don’t. However the IRS is not a law enforcement agency and does seizures based on the whim of a single individual. I suppose my small town could think my property would be a good spot for a 7-11 so the mayor’s brother could have a job. They could offer me $1.29 which they think is fair market value because the land would require hazardous waste removal (the pool water).
“Independent physicians are effectively dead under PPACA.”
Bummer. Can we assume the cause of that was/is malice aforethought?
“I suppose my small town could think my property would be a good spot for a 7-11 so the mayor’s brother could have a job. They could offer me $1.29 which they think is fair market value because the land would require hazardous waste removal (the pool water).”
There it is, hermano. Maybe less than a $1.29, though. You should pay for the hazardous waste removal, after all.
RBT, if those costs can’t be reduced by getting in on a small business collective or something, you’d probably be better off not getting coverage and just paying the penalty. Or not paying the penalty when you send in your quarterly payments.
Alternatively, how about divorcing Barbara and marrying an illegal immigrant man? As an “undocumented migrant worker” he’ll qualify for all sorts of bennies, probably including good deals on health coverage. You’d be included as a dependant, and Barbara, too, after you adopt her. Everyone wins!
As for the “issues” with Socialist Security and related scams, I’m looking forward to the day when oldsters are dangling from lamp posts. And millions of bureaucrats and politicians, too. Sorry, geezers on the list, but I already have a rope with your name on it.
@Bob, we covered this the other day but doesn’t Barbara have COBRA from her current job? Or did Obolacare kill that also?
Obamacare made insurance more expensive since there are first dollar mandated items that must be covered, no matter the deductable. IIRC, that includes a physical each year, well-woman checkups, immunizations, female contraceptives, etc.
And that the “well off” pay subsidies for the scum XXXX not well off.
BTW, the prescriptions costs are totally weird under Obolacare. A couple of my prescription drugs are now “free” each month. Or, are $100 each month (Rythmol which has a list price of $560 at Walgreens).
“Sorry, geezers on the list, but I already have a rope with your name on it.”
Oh, aye? What makes you NOT a geezer?
“You’d be included as a dependant, and Barbara, too, after you adopt her. Everyone wins!”
Outstanding solution!
As fah as ol’ OFD is concerned, ObolaCARE was designed and implemented with malice aforethought to do just what it is doing: sow massive confusion, fraud, incompetence, etc., and consolidate loot for the top dawgs, like always, since the friggin’ pyramids and the Sphinx.
New stuff, but sorta old stuff, on Steve Jobs:
http://www.ibtimes.com/steve-jobs-man-machine-movie-review-alex-gibney-suggests-apple-founder-was-more-ayn-1988096
What a dick.
Just like Gates, Zuckerberg, Ellison, et. al.
About the only big IT guy I knew of that was decent and a real human being has been Woz.
Ken Olsen was a good guy.
Yeah, Ken was a decent guy, too; I met him briefly once, and also saw his office at the old Assabet Woolen Mill complex down in Maynard, MA, with the original orange crate he and Gordon Bell had used as a desk in the old days. What a place that was; one floor would enter another building and you’d suddenly be on a whole different floor.
His only drawbacks were a failure to see the future of personal computers after the Rainbow caper (didn’t believe anyone would have a use for or want one in their house, never happen, etc.) and his Calvinist religious beliefs.
Linus Torvald also seems to be a pretty good guy, too.
I’ll know I’m old when I get into a fight and lose or when I do something physically strenuous and my heart explodes.
I think you’re wrong. More to the point, Linus thinks you’re wrong. He loudly and frequently proclaims that he’s an asshole, often in response either to strangers saying he’s a nice guy or people complaining that he’s not as nice as he’s supposed to be.
What he is, is competent. Yah, there are probably things he could be doing better in managing the development of the Linux kernel, but realistically he’s likely as good as we’re going to get.
It’s possible he’s nice in person, when dealing with the public or others who are not already friends. That’s not the impression I get, but I don’t have first-hand knowledge, nor reliable reports from people who are not either already friends of his or who went in with a chip on their shoulder.
“I’ll know I’m old when I get into a fight and lose or when I do something physically strenuous and my heart explodes.”
Well, good, then; I was worried, but now I know that I’m not a geezer, either. So no one has to hang me yet.
“I think you’re wrong. More to the point, Linus thinks you’re wrong.”
Uh-oh, looks like we still need to find a decent, pretty good, big IT guy. Apparently they’re all dicks, so far, except Woz, and he hasn’t been big in a long time.
More wunnerful nooz:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/09/paul-craig-roberts/the-institutions-of-western-civilization/
Tipping point? Breaking point?
The Diplomad on Trump:
“If he doesn’t do that, the sniping and sneering and derision will eventually take a toll. Mark my words. And, again, I do not want to live my remaining years in a country run by and into the ground by the likes of the Three Stooges of the Apocalypse, Hillary, Joe, and Bernie–with Elizabeth Warren as Shemp.”
Read the whole thing; it’s only five paragraphs.
“It would guarantee the Dems the White House. You can say what you want about RINOs (Republicans in Name Only), but–OMG as the kids would say–look at what the Dems are proposing! Could this nation survive as a recognizable entity with four or eight more years of the Dems CIABN (Communism in All but Name)? Would not Romney or even, gulp, McCain have been better for this country and the West than the current calamity in chief?”
Who cares? It doesn’t MATTER who is in the WH. Period. Romney, McCain (oh wait, McCain would get us into World War IV), Perry, Rubio, Cruz, whomever, are gonna do what they’re TOLD. If that means the chair of Goldman-Sachs visits the back door to the WH weekly to do that gig, so be it. Did it with Obummer. So the answer to Diplomad’s last question there is a resounding “No.” We would not have been better off and could conceivably be worse off, actually. Again we have cognitive dissonance over a supposed difference between two halves of the War Party with allegedly different ideologies and objectives. That is just patent bullshit.
Trump, Biden, Cankles, Sanders, whoever, who cares. What’s pretty certain is that unless the Repub hierarchy does a radical step back and runs Trump, they will fail again, utterly. The demographics alone dictate that now, and it’s their own damn fault, too. Good riddance to bad, treasonous rubbish.
So we’ll probably get either Empress Cankles or Biden at this point and we’ll have eight more years of Bolsheviks supposedly running the show, but it’s the actual rulers, a corporate fascist oligarchy, who call the tune. As has been the case for a very long time now. They probably think it’s funny to have actual commies in putative charge.
A long time ago the late Robert Conquest wrote a book speculating on how things would be if the Soviet Russians invaded and took over this country. There wouldn’t be much, if any difference, between how the communist totalitarians run it and the fascist totalitarians run it; they’re interchangeable, as are their secret police and military. We’ll be ruled in effect from now on by a Stasi bureaucracy and Gestapo. They don’t have to send vans round in the wee hours with thugs kicking in doors with truncheons anymore; they’ll simply ruin you financially, destroy your family, and leave you destitute in internal exile/purgatory.
If the masses start getting uppity, they’ll make some violent examples, round up the ringleaders and put a bunch of us in concentration camps if need be. And this will go on until maybe some day enough Murkan peeps get fed up and angry enough to push back. I wonder….
“About the only big IT guy I knew of that was decent and a real human being has been Woz.”
And Seymour Cray!
All hail CDC! All hail NOS/BE! All hail Chippewa Falls!
Trump, Biden, Cankles, Sanders, whoever, who cares.
My Lord and Savior, The Mighty Trump ™, will save this country. When I’m TMT’s Chief of Staff, I’ll remember your horrible, horrible words on My Maker, Mr. OFD. You’ll be on my shit list. Cankles bra adjuster and panty cleaner for 6 months.
Trump 2016! ” A Vote For Trump Is A Vote For Freedom ™”
“Mr. OFD. You’ll be on my shit list. Cankles bra adjuster and panty cleaner for 6 months.”
I can sense Mr OFD licking his lips in anticipation… 🙂
MrAtoz and Miles_Teg on the Master Shit List, Trumpster bumboyz wringing out his used skivvies for a year while memorizing the Great One’s endless bloviating and contradictory public statements. (smiley face)
“Independent physicians are effectively dead under PPACA.”
Bummer. Can we assume the cause of that was/is malice aforethought?
It was planned. They would rather negotiate with fewer corporate entities than a bunch of small businessmen. The law has so many compliance mandates that the only way to afford them and keep track of them is to have professionals do that. So, you can’t afford that as a small group, so you get big. In addition, the Accountable Care Organization requirement mandates a big pool of physicians in each ACO to spread risk. One or two bad outcomes or overly sick patients in an ACO can lead to severe financial difficulties for the practices in the ACO unless the pool is so big that the numbers average out.
Thanks for the clarification. But if it means more hassle and expense for us Mundanes, that’s A-OK with the big decision-makers, I guess.
Someone in your AO may be practicing “boutique medicine.” Very popular in Cali, a physician or group decide to only take a small group of customers, who prepay for a year of ordinary care. Don’t recall what they do if you have a serious issue.
might want to do some google fu
nick
Someone in your AO may be practicing “boutique medicine.” Very popular in Cali, a physician or group decide to only take a small group of customers, who prepay for a year of ordinary care. Don’t recall what they do if you have a serious issue.
Also call “concierge medicine”. I love it – same day appointments, appointments average 30-60 minutes and longer if needed, email and direct cellphone access to the doctor 24×7, etc. Although you do revert to the “usual” system if you need to see a specialist, but your concierge physician can facilitate next-day appointments, accompany you as/if needed, etc.