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Nation’s Health Insurance Cost Problems Won’t Go Away
The deadline has passed and the millions of Americans whose income level or occupational status have qualified them for government subsidies to help pay for health care insurance will be seeing much bigger bills for the coverages they selected and purchased through the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).
The Democrats will again try to get something done to remedy this and this time around they will have Republican allies who recognize that they are on the wrong side of the argument and risk losing Congressional seats this year.
The president is offering meaningless solutions and trying to transfer the blame to the insurance companies which he says have been ripping off consumers for years.
When such essential services as health care are subject to the workings ot the capitalist system, where providers, employers, and investors all expect not to have to operate at a loss, figuring out who pays for what services becomes a challenge. Other nations have responded to it. We can too.
Healthcare should not be a profit center for anyone! Come to think of it, neither should education be one.
JL
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Seasons Greetings
Jackspotpourri has sent its best wishes for a Happy New Year to those on its email list! And many thanks to those who have responded! And if we missed you, accept our wishes belatedly.
Among those NOT included on that list were President Trump, and his appointees such as Russell Voight, Peter Hegseth, Kristi Noem, and Stephen Miller, none of whom deserved more than a dirty old lump of coal in their holiday stockings and whose 2026 I hope is equally unrewarding, as chickens come home to roost.
Oh yeah, no greetings went to Florida governor DeSantis either.
JL
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Sports Page
Somewhere in past Jackspotpourri postings, I have touted the crucial value of strong offensive lines in football, enabling the offense to do its thing. No better illustration of this was the University of Miami’s takedown of Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl the other evening.
Watch the linemen who are drafted by colleges, and even by NFL teams. After developing a strong offensive line, a strong defensive line should be the next priority. Quarterbacks may get the headlines but it is on the line of scrimmage where games are won or lost.
And while on the subject of football, there should be some improved clarification as to what is, and what is not, pass interference. Another area deserving of review is whether a tackler is primarily trying to stop a runner’s progress or primarily trying to dislodge the ball, creating a fumble. I believe that today’s coaching emphasis is on the latter, which encourages unnecessary violence, but don’t tell that to most coaches. There ought to be a line drawn somewhere between these two purposes of tackling.
Another area of concern remains the ‘transfer portal.’ Without it, insofar as the current College Football Playoffs illustrate, Miami wouldn’t have its quarterback, who gets his passes into the air within a second of getting the ball from the center, nor would Ole Miss have an unbelievable field goal kicker, for whom three pointers from over 50 yards out are routine. And more than four years of eligibility is a joke.
Finally, I suspect the day of unlimited ‘free’ football (and ultimately basketball, hockey, and baseball) on TV is drawing to a close. What had been traditional parts of a contract with a cable or other service provider, like news or weather, is now slowly moving to internet streamed channels requiring additional and usually costly subscriptions.
After all, the view from a seat in front of a TV set is far better than any provided to ticket holders wherever a game is being played.
JL
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Food Shopping
With the holidays over, I can go back to using the Boys Farmers’ Market as my primary grocery source, but only if their parking lot opens up a bit. Nevertheless, I will continue to shop elsewhere for what isn’t available there at a fair price (like yogurt), especially taking advantage of Publix’s buy-one, get one free, deals. Otherwise, Publix offers the most choices of everything one needs but unfortunately at premium prices.
From my experimenting during the holidays, I’ve concluded that Sprouts is a waste of time, and that the lowest prices of all are at Aldi, although the particular brands or items that you want are probably not available there. If saving money is one’s highest priority, Aldi should be your only stop. Forget all the rest. You will not go hungry. And even if it isn’t your primary grocery choice, you always can find some interesting items there. Their shopping carts require a 25 cent deposit though. (You get it back when you turn in the cart. Bring your own shopping bag and a quarter!) Aldi has the same German ownership as does Trader Joe’s, and even carries some interesting German specialties.
Shopping at Whole Foods can be a trifle expensive (but not as horrid as at Sprouts) but it does build up one’s ego, filling your cart from an environmentally acceptable standpoint, of which they brag. Again, you won’t find exactly what you want there and getting out of their parking lot can be a problem if you live south of Boynton Beach Blvd, but it’s worth an occasional visit.
If I had to assign them grades, here goes:
Boys Farmers Market - A minus
Aldi - B minus
Whole Foods -C
Publix D (they don’t discourage ‘open carry’ of guns)
Sprouts F
(Trader Joe’s and the remaining Wynn-Dixie stores were not included because they are out of my immediate area.)
JL
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Homeowners Insurance, Again
Go back and check this cranky old man’s last posting on this subject on Jackspotpourri. You know, it’s entirely possibly that the ‘entity’ that took over the billing for my homeowners insurance did send me an email advising me of that. If they did so, and I did not recognize its name which is likely, it would have been deleted along with other apparently promotional emails selling something or other from sources with which I was unfamiliar. The ‘proper’ thing to have done would have been for such an email, if it had been sent, were to have it sent from the original agency, whose name I would have recognized, telling me what was going on. Don’t expect things to be done ’properly’ in Florida.
JL
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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri
Your comments on this ‘blog’ would be appreciated. My Email address is jacklippman18@gmail.com.
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Email Alerts: If you are NOT receiving emails from me alerting you each time there is a new posting on Jackspotpourri, just send me your email address and we’ll see that you do. And if you are forwarding a posting to someone, you might suggest that they do the same, so they will be similarly alerted. You can pass those email addresses to me by email at jacklippman18@gmail.com
More on the Sources of Information on Jackspotpourri: The sources of information used by Jackspotpourri include a delivered local daily ‘paper’ newspaper (now becoming the South Florida Sun Sentinel) and what appears in my daily email; that includes the views of many contributors. Be aware that when I open that email, I first quickly glance at and screen out those sent to my very old former email address and those considered ‘promotional’ by Gmail’s system as no more than advertisements or requests for donations.
Besides these sources, I also utilize the Google search engine where I can look up any subject I want.
Lately, these search results have been headed by a very generalized summary clearly labeled as being developed by AI (Artificial Intelligence). On occasion I might use such search results, but when I do, I will say that I am doing so. Generally, however, I try not to use such summaries in preparing Jackspotpourri.
After such ‘AI’ search results, there follows the other results of my search. Unlike the anonymous AI-generated summaries, the sources of these results are clearly indicated, giving them a greater credibility than any AI summary.
I feel that It comes down to who YOU want to be in the driver’s seat in seeking information: yourself or something else (Artificial Intelligence), the structure of which somewhere along the way had to have been created by others, with whose identity I am neither familiar nor comfortable. At least when I read a column by Timothy Snyder, for example, I know from where it comes, and to some extent, what to expect.
Caution should be exercised in using Artificial Intelligence.
JL
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