to move up and down
Going “swimming” in Safeway bag suits.
The whopping medical bill faced by the family of Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke, who died from a head injury while practising at Park City, Utah, has triggered a spasm of embarrassment among Americans over their health-care system.
Burke, of Squamish, B.C., died at a Salt Lake City hospital nine days after crashing on the half-pipe course at Park City. The accident tore a vertebral artery in her neck, causing bleeding into her brain.
Her care wasn’t covered by competitor insurance provided by the Canadian Freestyle Ski Associationbecause the Park City event was unsanctioned.
That left with Burke’s family with a bill initially estimated at $550,000, later revised downward to around $200,000, some of which will be covered by B.C. Medicare.
Burke’s husband, Rory Bushfield, also set up a web site to solicit donations, while the event’s sponsor, drink-maker Monster Energy Co., belatedly promised to assist the family.
But the Salt Lake City Tribune reported Tuesday that the medical-bill flap has been cited by U.S. and international media “as proof of what ails the U.S. health-care system.”
Wendell Potter, a former U.S. insurance industry executive but now a critic of the American system, wrote in the Huffington Post this week that the Burke family’s plight compounded their grief.
“The irony is that had the accident occurred in Canada, her family would not be having to come up with more than half a million dollars to pay for her care,” wrote Potter, an analyst for the Center for Public Integrity. “Her care would have been covered because, unlike the U.S., Canada has a system of universal coverage.”
An estimated 700,000 American families file for bankruptcy each year because of medical debt, he wrote.
“No one in Canada finds themselves in that predicament, nor do they face losing their homes as many Americans do when they become critically ill or suffer an injury,” Potter wrote.
Calgary Herald columnist Robert Remington, who along with Potter was cited in the Tribune story, quoted an un-named commentator who summed up the Burke family’s experience this way: “Sorry for your loss. Here’s your bill.”
Steve Morgan, a health policy analyst at the University of British Columbia, told Remington that U.S. insurance companies routinely negotiate down such big medical tabs but uninsured Americans pay full retail because they have no bargaining power.
“Morgan says Burke’s case should be a sobering reminder to Canadians of what could happen in a privately-insured market, rather than a public system where everyone is insured against a catastrophic event,” Remington wrote.
Tragedy strikes twice.
(via foulmouthedliberty)
Woe Canada.
ouch
Just so you know, American friends, gay marriages performed in Canada are not null and void…there are some technical difficulties with divorce…people are getting angry that they can’t get divorced in under a year. The law is being looked at for revision. Canada is still cool (kind of). See more here…
http://www.cbc.ca/strombo/mobile/touch/social-issues/dan-savage-savages-stephen-harper.html
I just love this look. I wish I could go someplace other than Canada and wear this. But, it begs the question: how does the shirt not fall off when you do things? I could just see my kids ripping the front off in no time.
Rats. Maybe it’s not such a great idea.
(Source: prettyplacesprettyfaces, via my-name-is-nipple)
Short Hair Hera (Taken with instagram)
My 4 year old decided to cut my 2 year olds hair this evening. Thankfully, nothing was touched on the front.
this is by far the best thing on tumblr.. couple videos got nothing on this.
This is literally one of the best things I have ever seen, ever.
OH MY GOD
omg
oh my god. hey you’re also really hotvi
aw his teeth are perf.
this made me so happy
omg this is the best.
my god
oh my god <33
this is so fucking good
aw this is cute :’)
omg this is perf
bahahhahahah I love this! G-Ma is hilarious!
Grandma be bustin’ a move. She’s precious!
Totally gonna be me & my grandkid someday.
I will never be this cool went I’m old(er).
(Source: franktwitchy)
GPOYW
I am so sick.
Repeat: there are bigger problems in the world. That’s what I need to do right now.
R.I.P. Bill of Rights 1789 - 2011
R.I.P. Bill of Rights 1789 - 2011
Forgive my ignorance - did this actually happen in the US? American friends, please enlighten me.
(Source: addtoany.com)
My gaze went to my phone for 30 seconds. In that time period, Shehera has managed to moisturize her entire leg with ranch dip.
Zoolites, at night. The girls are posing in front of a Christmas bunny. The sunglasses stayed on ALL evening.
I was so shaken by this recording. I knew about Jonestown and the mass suicide, but to hear the way in which people followed this man and his “prophetic word” was another thing entirely. I could only listen until his followers started taking the cyanide and giving it to their screaming babies. That’s when I shut it off. To believe in something is good. To believe blindly is not. Whatever one follows – be it a religion, organization, or these days, celebrity – we need to check in with ourselves and ask: is what this person/group saying ok? How does it affect my life? My family? My Children? Ugh. I hope I can sleep after that one.
From Archive.org, one of the more disturbing historical artifacts of the late 20th Century: “An audio recording made on November 18, 1978, at the Peoples Temple compound in Jonestown, Guyana immediately preceding and during the mass suicide or murder of over 900 members of the cult.”
A good deal more on Jonestown, including transcripts of various tapes such as this one, can be found here: http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/.
I remember when this happened. I was 11—too young to wrap my head around the insanity of a mass suicide of 900 people.
Actually, I’m still too young.
Listening to this… chills the blood.
And you wonder what courage it must have taken for Christine Miller — whose rebellious voice you hear on the first half of the recording — to take the microphone and speak against Jim Jones.
I can’t believe there’s a tape of this. I kind of can’t believe I listened to it all. I read through some of the source material and noticed that Jackie Speier, the congresswoman who spoke about her experience with abortion this past year, was one of the wounded in the attack on the airstrip.
From her Wikipedia page:
Speier served as a congressional staffer for Congressman Leo Ryan. Speier was part of the November 1978 fact-finding mission to investigate allegations of human rights abuses by the Reverend Jim Jones and hisPeoples Temple followers, almost all of whom were American citizens who had moved to Jonestown with Jones in 1977 and 1978.[5] Speier was one of only two members of the mission who were concerned enough about potential violence to make out a will before traveling to Jonestown.[10] Several Peoples Temple members ambushed the investigative team and others boarding the plane to leave Jonestown on November 18. Five people died, including Congressman Ryan. While attempting to shield herself from rifle and shotgun fire behind small airplane wheels with the other members of the team, Speier was shot five times and waited 22 hours before help arrived.[11] The murder of Congressman Ryan was the only assassination of a Congressman in the line of duty in the history of the United States.[12] That same day, over 900 of the remaining members of the Peoples Temple died in Jonestown and Georgetown.
Jackie Speier was shot 5 times and waited almost 24 hours for help. And we thought she was a BAMF for talking about abortion. What an amazing life she’s had.
eject: Nurse Reveals Top 5 Regrets of the Dying
From Arise India Forum:
“For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. Some incredibly special times were shared. I was with them for the last three to twelve weeks of their lives
People grow a lot when they are faced with their own…
(Source: t.co)
