flowersjeff

Totally agree with you.

Adding to this: Oftentimes there isn't a single person in the place that even knows what X costs...and hasn't a clue how to determine that number.

Years ago, I was between jobs and asked for the 'cost'. The reply I got was "$20", a typical copay at the time. When I explained my situation and was asking for the actual out the door costs...20 bucks. They really didn't even understand how to approach my question (could see it in their eyes/response). When I asked for another person in the office - 20 bucks. Hell, even the Dr told me 20 bucks. The bill I received was not 20 bucks - surprise surprise. And what could I do really - hold them to the 20 bucks? Where was my 'proof'...

Many of the people doing the admin work simply are not trained nor equipped to understand the gravity of the position. They can set you up on a calendar and fill out a postcard - beyond this, and there's problems. And why should they? They are being paid to be calendar/postcard filling person only.

The system itself was designed weirdly to begin with, it assumes that you are a wage earner of a large company that is paying insurance as an employment perk. If you deviate from this model - then these sub-systems don't know what to do.

Whilst I can totally dig where you're going with this - love the idea of open API's... we know it aint a tech problem.

How did Europe do this with that whole payment services directive (I think that this is what I'm thinking about) - the one that forced all payment systems to have open APIs and such?...

How would we get something like this in the works? It would require a mandate from ??? Congress / the President / Bigfoot???

I can only imagine how these companies would not like this information out. Even if one were to explain that having this data would yield optimizations of their internal systems, saving them money, as the information would most likely make many within the organization look badly.

Totally agree - and it is truly a sad reflection on us as a species.

What's the real kick in the pants, we all will need medical care at some point in our lives...

It's legal because when you tell people you know that this has happened to you - unless it happened to them personally as well, they will just assume that you don't know what you're talking about or confused.

And so this practice thrives.

Amen

And... How many times do we need to hear from these Medi* Recipients to keep the guvernment outta their medical plan.

I really think that we need to stop listening to attitude and perceptions' based studies, and focus on cold hard numbers ($).

People don't understand the system - not by a long mile and will swear up/down/sideways that they do...We need to take a more analytical approach and look at the numbers.

Very true. The level of disconnect that we have in this nation around this is just unreal.

I can understand the sentiment...i.e.: It seems like we in the USA only are willing to fix that which is beyond broken, and I think it has gotten beyond the point of fixing honestly.

Honestly- don't even know how we could 'fix' this. The fact that we need study after study after study to tell us what we already know, it's gross.

Coupled with the fact that it seems impossible to communicate to people just how bad it is (only when they have to personally experience the horror of our medical system to become believers) - I'm personally terrified.

I really have to give it to USA Today, the amount of effort/work to create this is immense.

My worry is around maintaining and so perhaps there's a 'github'-like tool/platform that they could use to ensure the data is updated.

Perhaps folks could suggest a scale'able solution that wouldn't break the bank towards the responsible upkeep this would entail.

Don't know why you're getting the downvotes.

Thanks for the TL;DR - as the site didn't work for me. Also, the analysis is spot on.

The whole selling point of Macs - the lack of need to 'tune'. Yet I even had to do this with my 2014 model - otherwise, the laptop would run hot to the touch. It is troubling to see the trend happening.

The fact that there's well over 250+ comments and growing here alone, shows just what a sh*tshow this keyboard is. I was in the market for a new laptop, but the feel of these just turned me off. So I got a 'new' used laptop off of craigslist.

Coupled to this, I've had a number of friends (three so far) with issues. One had Apple not only replace their keyboard but looking over the bill of work - replaced the MB and some other components. All because their "e" key didn't work?... They were covered, so no costs - except not having their work computer for the couple of days.

The fact (for me ;-) ) that chromebooks have better feelings keyboards ought to be a wake up call.

It really seems like there's no one in charge of late, and perhaps a single a-hole demanding stuff work/clean design/simple is more needed than ever before.

Don't know where you see that fantasy? In the chain that kik published (probably the one that they thought made them look the best - mind you), I saw a load of passive aggressive/weasel words. Where's the offer?

If I call you up and bug you to do something for me (a stranger mind you); then it is up to me to come right out and explain the value proposition. Not hem and haw, dancing here and there - hoping that you will just drop to your knees, just because. And then when you don't - I can then get mad and threaten you? What world do you want to live in? That one sounds insane to me.

Kik (the company) are some shady ass m/f'ers. Yet the open source programmer is getting all of the lashes for telling them off? "He could of used a more grown up tone...???"

Also - NPM really dropped the ball. Shows how little they care about the developers that make them relevant in the first place.

Lastly - at the end of the day Azer's holding a big bag of jack....And has had his work effectively stolen (I'm referring to left-pad). How does this incentivize anyone to put their work in this resource going forward?

Azer is the hero of this story - make no mistake. He refused to make way for a big corporation, his only mistake was trusting that his choice of software host would have his back. Shame on npm and shame on kik.