Bad beat/Moan/Venting Thread - BBV Archive 2

[MrPillowTalk]

I would need to be very hard up to get rid of the health insurance, the idea of going into public wards is terrifying, never been sick enough to require hospitalisation but every visit I've ever done to one of our hospitals tells me that €1k p/a is prob about right for the peace of mind.

My brother got a bad ear infection on a cruise a few years ago, 3 doctor visits some drugs and a lancing, final bill when claim was settled $18,500, lol @ price of medical care imo.

[V for Vendetta]

I get the feeling you are in favour of an open market in healthcare and insurances.
That will not work here unless we want to become as terrible a system as America.
Risk equalisation, universal insurance and a hospital system and Insurance system that both actively favour private companies run on a not for profit basis are the way forward.


As to what he can do about it he can self insure but he better have at least a liquid million to hand.

I'm in favour of slashing the health care wage bill, having enough functioning hospital beds and a good level of basic health cover and dignity for all. I'm not in favour of the widespread distribution of medical cards, the crazy working hours of hospital staff and the bullshit and tortuous decision making we currently have.

I don't have a solution and it's not a 2 minute rant in the BBV anyway but that's what I'd like. what does that make me I don't know but whatever label you decide to pin me with I don't think I'm unreasonable. As for cardsharks predicament he clearly needs a Swiss re style global employee policy I once set up for globe trotting executives of a multinational client. Could be hard to arrange on a one off basis though.

You should talk to a proper health insurance broker CS and explain your lifestyle and see what they suggest.

[V for Vendetta]

Try something like this CS.

[MrPillowTalk]

Also seeing the ammount of highly questionable lifestyle and sexual antics engaged in by poker players we are probably a reasonably high risk group, so getting the same rate as the geezer who doesn't spend 4 weeks a year in Vegas, stay up until 6am five nights a week and spend far too much time breathing in the air in card rooms probably represents a decent deal.

[eamonhonda]

Should be handicap betting for the election

[Zod]

you should be writing those bus stop ads giving personal advise.

[Zosma]

This post just popped into my head for some reason.
Credit where its due.....

[MegaSin]

On the job hunt and couldn't help laugh at the job title here.

Not really that funny just being immature

SPOILER

[KK82]

Those posters have some hideous looking children imo

Heh.. Was just commenting to my mates today that the kid holding the giant pencil looks very like me.. So, story checks out, yeh!

[Hooch]

On the job hunt and couldn't help laugh at the job title here.

Not really that funny just being immature

SPOILER

sorry can you post the link to this

[MegaSin]

Here ya go

sorry can you post the link to this

[AndyFatBastard]

This post just popped into my head for some reason.
Credit where its due.....

I'm not a doctor but I've seen every episode of House

[Loopz]

On the job hunt and couldn't help laugh at the job title here.

Not really that funny just being immature

SPOILER

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCIhwknRKzk

[eamonhonda]

Apparently jimmy saville one applied for England manager in the 90s but was turned down because he wanted to.put Seaman in the under 16s.

Also I read that George Clooney is doing a film on jimmy savilles life. Its gonna be called Ohshes 11

[AndyFatBastard]

Ms Lenon from New College Cambridge would get it.

[Raoul Duke III]

Ye all think that Obama is still the mortal lock for the US election, I reckon there is value to be had on Mitt now @ 15/8. Mad am I?

look here

when I use the words 'lock of the year', you know from experience I do not toss them around lightly.

Keep the powder dry until I have analysed the India\England series.

[The Situation]

Ms Lenon from New College Cambridge would get it.

Cappleman is obv balls deep in that every night!

[Kayroo]

I assume it's a complete no-brainer yes vote?

I'll be voting no.

[Denny Crane]

I find it strange that Nate Silver wrote an entry about the gender gap but never mentioned the difference in turnout. Having the lead with women is pretty huge.

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/21/gender-gap-near-historic-highs/?gwh=383F10BC51EA5935FDC462E7DFBC04E6

[Guest]

Horrible Bosses is some pile of manure.

[MrsFlushdraw]

A story on health insurance

My friend had her son December 2008. He was induced early as they spotted he had kidney problems. He was delivered and it saved his life. Now.. he was always crying, never happy etc and the parents had a year of hell. He was also diagnosed at 3 months old with haemophilia.

After he turned 1 they operated to add stoma holes to his pelvic area. Giving the kidneys a rest. He was also fitted with a portacath to enable the parents to administer the life saving clotting factor as he had to get taken to hospital a few times a week for his factor to be giving. The first year of his life was constant pains in kidneys but they were just told he was a cranky baby.. After he got the stoma holes he was a different child.

Two weeks ago they reversed the stoma holes to wire back up so he had a normal working bladder and could pee out his penis. He got home on Friday after many complications and reactions. Only 1 surgeon would operate as the other did this op on a haemphiliac child and they lost him and he couldn't go through that again.

The costs of all that would be unimaginable, I can't even put a figure on it. 3 years of doctors seeing him, specialists and operations.

He unfortunately rushed to Crumlin today with very bad bleeding and body spasms. No idea if he has pulled through yet as it was a bad bleed.

For those at the wedding, this is the youngest of my Bridesmaid, one of my closest friends here in Ireland. It is heartbreaking

[Kayroo]

That's awful. Fingers crossed here that it all turns out ok Gill.

[Keane]

I'll be voting no.

How come?

[billstraightener]

bleh ipoker connection problems

Played well over 30k hands cash on stars last month and very smooth sailing, i start to re-use my ipoker account for IPO sats and cash and this week alone have had 3-4 disconnects.

I can even load stars while my ipoker is disconnected

[Hectorjelly]

However, the actual chance of something horrible happen are quite slim and given the nature of insurance companies they generally do their best to not pay a fucking penny anyway so there's a chance I could keep my health insurance and still pay through the nose for health procedures like the possible knee transplant I will probably need.

I don't think the odds are that slim. Obviously the insurance companies manage to make a profit, but a large percentage of adults will at some stage need major health care.

I agree with V for Vendetta that the system is broken. What struck me was that it's not really a proper market, because there is no-one in the system that has much incentive to keep costs down. The health companies basically have a captive market, and the more hospitals charge the more they can charge for premiums, and then just point at the hospitals. The charges just for staying in a private ward are ridiculous. I think the basic fee is higher than a five star hotel, but if you have been in one you will know it's more like a budget holiday. I mean its fine, but for the money you have to pay you should really have your own butler and suite. I'm actually just reminded of the time I nearly had a fist fight with a sixty year old Female nurse; but that's another story.

I get your point about it being a hard subject to debate rationally, as it's an emotional subject.

[Hectorjelly]

I'll be voting no.

I hadn't even heard of the referendum until today. Does anyone want to sum it up or give a link to an article on it?

[Kayroo]

How come?

Essentially I agree with the idea that the family should be the central unit group of society and the newly proposed article gives the child individual rights to be enforced by the State over the parents.

In the last 100 years of this Country the group which has caused, through its agents and machinations, the greatest amount of hurt, suffering and distress to children has been the State. The idea that the State is competent to protect children better than families is simply wrong.

Some people may disagree with me and argue the Church has been worse but remember that the Church has acted as an agent of the State in the education of primary school children and industrial schools.

I disagree with the wording of this amendment. The only thing that needed to be changed was to slightly alter Art.42.5 to allow the Supreme Court to loosen the restrictions on intervention in extreme circumstances and possibly an alteration to the definition of the family (something that this amendment does not do).

Overall on a principle basis I don't like the idea of individualising children's rights outside the ambit of the family. Children have rights now but the family is the competent group to enforce them and that is how it should remain.

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[TheDrunkenOne]

watched QI on i player and this came up on show, fantastic creation, no mechanical parts!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcR7U2tuNoY

[Hectorjelly]

In the last 100 years of this Country the group which has caused, through its agents and machinations, the greatest amount of hurt, suffering and distress to children has been the State. The idea that the State is competent to protect children better than families is simply wrong.

Is this true though? On the face of it it sounds reasonable, but it's a tough thing to gauge. On the one hand you have a discovered system of abuse, that is reasonably well documented. I don't mean to denigrate this at all, but on the other hand you have every other instance of abuse inflicted by family members. I mean, even just through the force of large numbers I would imagine that because the state was in control of a relatively small amount of children it would be hard for them to have caused as much hurt etc, especially considering how much of it would be still undiscovered.

[Foxy]

Also on a side note, I've always felt health insurance is a complete rip off. Never had it, then had appendicitis a couple years back which cost me a bit, got pressured into getting it by the parents then, so had a global policy yoke for the last year, but anytime I had any issues, claiming was like extracting blood from a stone. Then this injury now, I've spent over an hour on the phone to them today to ask if I'm covered for this, and they are sidestepping me transferring back and forth between global and domestic policy people, telling me I need to change my policy from global to domestic and on and on and on aguidshyfgjlkdfhgldsfjkghdsflgjkhdsfgdfhg dfkgjh g FML.
Definitely cancelling my policy, hopefully VHI go out of business and anyone who's running it gets a serious illness and dies and isn't covered under their health plan.




Cliffs: On tilt, VHI suck balls, hope lots of people die

I would have thought the same up until I broke my leg there in July (playin a fucking challenge of all things) and Jesus Christ once something like that happens its awful handy to have! When something major happens how differntly you're treated if you have insurance and if you dont is amazing.
Any sort of VHI is better than not being covered imo!!

[Foxy]

@Kayroo, the church has definitely been the most negative power, especially for children, ever in the country.

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[Kayroo]

My basic understanding of it (which isn't really what you asked, i know) is that the current constitution gives too much power to parents, even if it isn't in the best interest of kids. Kids are essentially viewed legally as nearly 'owned' by parents. The constitutional amendment seeks to give kids their own set of rights which the state will be obliged to protect.

Where is the line drawn? The Constitution guarantees the right to education for all children. This is one of the very few specifically enumerated rights of the child. The new amendment allows a child's views to be taken into accounts where they show appropriate maturity (wording is similar to The Hague Convention test on Art13 defences so I know how it's likely to be interpreted). So if a child decided they wanted to change schools at 14/15 and their parents said no the child now would have an independent cause of action against their parents which the State would have to enforce. The child may not succeed but even the fact that the argument could be entertained is ridiculous.

The current problem with the State intervening in families where the parents are abusive isn't the Constitution it is the interpretation put upon it by successive Supreme Courts throughout the last 50 years. It would take only a minor amendment to allow them depart from that jurisprudence.

Is this true though? On the face of it it sounds reasonable, but it's a tough thing to gauge. On the one hand you have a discovered system of abuse, that is reasonably well documented. I don't mean to denigrate this at all, but on the other hand you have every other instance of abuse inflicted by family members. I mean, even just through the force of large numbers I would imagine that because the state was in control of a relatively small amount of children it would be hard for them to have caused as much hurt etc, especially considering how much of it would be still undiscovered.

As a single institution the State legitimised Magdelene launderies, sent children to industrial schools, handed almost every child in the country over to the Catholic Church for primary education and overall have allowed a massive and systemic abuse of children to continue for decades. The blind eye institutionally turned by the State is disgusting. Families are the right body to protect children, not the State except when ABSOLUTELY necessary

[Kayroo]

@Kayroo, the church has definitely been the most negative power, especially for children, ever in the country.

Until about 20 years ago they were essentially the same thing

[NoRiverRequired]

I'm actually just in the process of renewing our health insurance.

Finding it hard to figure out which plan we should be on... want a decent amount of cover but don't want to be forking out a pile of cash every month either.

would the the level 2 Aviva plans be considered decent enough cover?
Would cover for a semi private room in a private hospital be a minimum? Really haven't a clue when it comes to insurance.

[Strewelpeter]

Very strange decision by an Italian court to jail six scientists for failing to predict the progress of the 2009 L'aquila earthquake accurately enough

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/22/italian-scientists-jailed-earthquake-aquila

[ComradeCollie]

Really liked this, weird that Sting was uncomfortable bringing a song like Roxanne to the band

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgV6IOopi68

U2 were pretty good on that show too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xZZ5fLMh-g

And in honour of the 'Million Muppet March' http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...reaking55.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxardpBReQc

[Foxy]

Where is the line drawn? The Constitution guarantees the right to education for all children. This is one of the very few specifically enumerated rights of the child. The new amendment allows a child's views to be taken into accounts where they show appropriate maturity (wording is similar to The Hague Convention test on Art13 defences so I know how it's likely to be interpreted). So if a child decided they wanted to change schools at 14/15 and their parents said no the child now would have an independent cause of action against their parents which the State would have to enforce. The child may not succeed but even the fact that the argument could be entertained is ridiculous.

The current problem with the State intervening in families where the parents are abusive isn't the Constitution it is the interpretation put upon it by successive Supreme Courts throughout the last 50 years. It would take only a minor amendment to allow them depart from that jurisprudence.



As a single institution the State legitimised Magdelene launderies, sent children to industrial schools, handed almost every child in the country over to the Catholic Church for primary education and overall have allowed a massive and systemic abuse of children to continue for decades. The blind eye institutionally turned by the State is disgusting. Families are the right body to protect children, not the State except when ABSOLUTELY necessary

From my understanding the point of the amendment is to rectify the situations in cases where a child has been abused but cannot become legally seperate from his family ie/ a parent who has abused their child could still end up with full custody of the abused child, despite the requests of the child, and indeed common sense. So if it solves that as it intends to, kinda hard to not vote yes. Saying the state has been a negative influence on the lives of children for the past 100 years isnt really a reason to vote no either, this is a good amendment and its surprising that support isnt universal. The intentions of the bill are completely good natured and intend to make a positive difference.

[Foxy]

Very strange decision by an Italian court to jail six scientists for failing to predict the progress of the 2009 L'aquila earthquake accurately enough

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012...thquake-aquila

Seen that on the telly in the gym today, absolutely baffling

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[NoRiverRequired]

Very strange decision by an Italian court to jail six scientists for failing to predict the progress of the 2009 L'aquila earthquake accurately enough

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012...thquake-aquila

That's mental stuff.
Are they going to start prosecuting the weathermen next time they fail to predict a storm which kills someone?

[Hectorjelly]

The intentions of the bill are completely good natured and intend to make a positive difference.

The intentions of it really don't mean anything, especially in this country - we have a history of referendums having the opposite effect than was originally intended.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland

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[Foxy]

I just kinda think that If the bill even helps a few children have a better safer life then it's a good thing, but maybe I'm young and naive Very true about the church and the state being the same thing up until a couple of decades ago btw, and thank god that's changed now...

[Denny Crane]

About half way down the page it says that men and women vote in roughly equal numbers. did you miss that, or was it a different point you were making?

This is interesting here:

What happens when you just look at polls that include people with cell phones in their polling. Mad to think that most of the main polls are excluding such a huge group of voters who you would expect to be quite different.

Oops missed that. But a quick google says that's not the case.

http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/fast_facts/voters/documents/genderdiff.pdf

[ArmaniJeans]

Think the news media said during the Amanda Knox affair that Italian courts have a huge conviction rate at trial (98%+ guilty), and that the 'real' trial, where you have a fair shot at exoneration, is actually what we call the appeal.

[Lplated]

Essentially I agree with the idea that the family should be the central unit group of society and the newly proposed article gives the child individual rights to be enforced by the State over the parents.

In the last 100 years of this Country the group which has caused, through its agents and machinations, the greatest amount of hurt, suffering and distress to children has been the State. The idea that the State is competent to protect children better than families is simply wrong.

Some people may disagree with me and argue the Church has been worse but remember that the Church has acted as an agent of the State in the education of primary school children and industrial schools.

I disagree with the wording of this amendment. The only thing that needed to be changed was to slightly alter Art.42.5 to allow the Supreme Court to loosen the restrictions on intervention in extreme circumstances and possibly an alteration to the definition of the family (something that this amendment does not do).

Overall on a principle basis I don't like the idea of individualising children's rights outside the ambit of the family. Children have rights now but the family is the competent group to enforce them and that is how it should remain.

Surely a contradiction ?

As the law stands, the child of non-marital parents can be removed from the family and then either kept in State care or placed for adoption, including where one parent [the father] doesn't agree.

The child of a marital family cannot, under any circumstances, be placed for adoption, ironically enough on the same basis that you would resist this amendment - i.e. that the integrity of the marital family is more important. Marital children can be removed from the home and retained in State care.

The contradiction arises from your second and third paragraphs - you rightly consider the State [and/or the Church] to have caused great harm to children - but by your very oppositon you condemn the children of marital families, once taken from the home, to State care - there is no other option for them as they cannot be adopted.

[Kayroo]

From my understanding the point of the amendment is to rectify the situations in cases where a child has been abused but cannot become legally seperate from his family ie/ a parent who has abused their child could still end up with full custody of the abused child, despite the requests of the child, and indeed common sense. So if it solves that as it intends to, kinda hard to not vote yes. Saying the state has been a negative influence on the lives of children for the past 100 years isnt really a reason to vote no either, this is a good amendment and its surprising that support isnt universal. The intentions of the bill are completely good natured and intend to make a positive difference.

It doesn't matter what it is intended to do, it matters what it could do. Every amendment to the Constitution makes drastic changes to how we can legislate and every time we give the State more power it has to weaken something else, in this instance the family and I disagree with that.

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[Kayroo]

Surely a contradiction ?

As the law stands, the child of non-marital parents can be removed from the family and then either kept in State care or placed for adoption, including where one parent [the father] doesn't agree.

The child of a marital family cannot, under any circumstances, be placed for adoption, ironically enough on the same basis that you would resist this amendment - i.e. that the integrity of the marital family is more important. Marital children can be removed from the home and retained in State care.

The contradiction arises from your second and third paragraphs - you rightly consider the State [and/or the Church] to have caused great harm to children - but by your very oppositon you condemn the children of marital families, once taken from the home, to State care - there is no other option for them as they cannot be adopted.

Art 42.5 is the State intervention provision and amending the family definition (decided by the Supreme Court, not the Constitution) would allow for adoption of children from married families. So, in short, my position isn't contradictory at all.

Also you are assuming I want to defend a family based on marriage and that's simply incorrect although I should have stated that previously. I want family to mean something closer to what it actually means now to people in their every day lives.

[Foxy]

Haven't been following it, but why is it baffling? Thought they were paid to do a job and because they performed it so poorly a lot more people died than necessary. Surely, especially with the evidence the judges saw to justify the sentence, it can't be too wrong a decision?

I only got the tail end of it so I may not be entirely accurate but from what I could gather they HAD predicted there would be a tremor of some sort but just failed on clarifying what size it would be (they underestimated it basically) and their underestimation of it was basically a judgement call that happened to be wrong. It is an amazing tragedy, I know, but holding scientists accountable because of a slight error which seemed like it was fairly easy to have made seems extremely harsh to me. The italian system is notoriously trigger happy though, it'll be interesting to see how it pans out after appeal

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[AndyFatBastard]

Holy flurking shnit, the latest Walking Dead is really good telly.

[Guest]

Well it's as good as made up. No one knows what it's all about!

Ironically enough that's the subject of my next lecture.

[KevIRL]

If we start jailing bloggers for mis reporting chip counts, hands, flops or anything then I'm out.

[Guest]

If we start jailing bloggers for mis reporting chip counts, hands, flops or anything then I'm out.

Well you'd have to actually report something to stand a chance of being in trouble, so you're safe

[Lplated]

The Constitution guarantees the right to education for all children. This is one of the very few specifically enumerated rights of the child. The new amendment allows a child's views to be taken into accounts where they show appropriate maturity (wording is similar to The Hague Convention test on Art13 defences so I know how it's likely to be interpreted). So if a child decided they wanted to change schools at 14/15 and their parents said no the child now would have an independent cause of action against their parents which the State would have to enforce. The child may not succeed but even the fact that the argument could be entertained is ridiculous.

Ah here ...

Where in the amendment does the Child get the right to sue the parents?

Speaking of the entertaining of the ridiculous ...

[cardshark202]

Oh we never got to the bottom of my original question. Where do people recommend I should go to get my knee checked out?

[Guest]

I think there's a good sports injury clinic in Northwood in Santry.