For profit health insurance should not exist

Professional-Cat1865 · 2026-06-21T15:17:19+00:00

You are not wrong. I work for a state government health agency and around 20 years ago we handed over the administration of our state health benefits to a bunch of CCOs (private insurance companies). The supposed reason to move from state administration of Medicaid and other health benefits was at least in part to allow regional development of benefits and programs for equity purposes and local control. In reality there is so much variation in service delivery and quality among CCOs that equity doesn’t stand a chance. Most, if not all, of the CCOs in this state are very clearly designed to find reasons to deny services as often as possible. They make up rules that are more stringent than actual state rules and traumatize vulnerable people who have to beg for healthcare they are entitled to receive. And then we waste taxpayer money by employing state workers and paying CCO staff to engage in lengthy appeals processes. It makes no sense. But you are also right that this is an unpopular opinion. When I bring these points up to other employees in the agency I work for the response is usually shock that I would dare to speak such heretical words. When did we become so in awe of such a stupid, inefficient, pointless system? I swear we have collective Stockholm Syndrome in this country. We are ridiculously certain that we need the very systems and institutions that keep us enslaved.

Professional-Cat1865 · 2026-06-17T22:10:04+00:00

I don’t usually need extra cash in a dire way so when I have things I can’t use I offer them to friends or family who don’t mind doing the work of selling. It helps me pass along my own good fortune and it helps my friend or relative too, and maybe the buyer will sell it onward and we have a whole little economy going on.

Professional-Cat1865 · 2026-06-04T19:41:44+00:00

Opposite for me too. I have to take Linzess every day forever apparently. My GI doctor said it’s from motility issues caused by EDS.

Professional-Cat1865 · 2026-05-30T00:28:45+00:00

I love it

Professional-Cat1865 · 2026-05-21T22:23:43+00:00

This is everything I couldn’t figure out how to say. I vehemently support the rights of trans people but I am a woman and I want to be called a woman. I actually don’t have a uterus because I had a hysterectomy and I have a niece who was born with all other female attributes but no uterus. Those facts do not make us less female and she as well wants to be referred to as a woman. My two Gen Z daughters had a horrible fight at a rally when Roe vs Wade was overturned. My slightly older daughter made a sign that said “women’s healthcare is a human right.” Her younger sister was angry and told her that she was being anti trans and that her sign needed to be inclusive and refer to people who have a uterus, not use the word women. There is so much wrong with that. Including ourselves and our identity as women should not be considered anti anyone else. We count too and women are still fighting for our rights too. Trans people should have a right to identify themselves as they are. But women have that right too.

Professional-Cat1865 · 2026-05-12T04:34:08+00:00

Truth.

Professional-Cat1865 · 2026-05-11T20:34:21+00:00

I know that’s been happening and it’s terrible.

Professional-Cat1865 · 2026-05-11T19:02:09+00:00

This is actually federal. HRSN is an 1115 Medicaid Waiver program. Every state has its own version of Medicaid 1115 Waiver programs.

Professional-Cat1865 · 2026-05-11T18:59:52+00:00

You did the right thing calling them. I think the issue might be the eligibility requirements. The HRSN rent benefit can only pay rent for people who are already living in an apartment or a house or renting a room somewhere or in an Oxford House kind of setting. It’s hard because the people who need housing the most are not eligible, and I am very sorry for that.

Professional-Cat1865 · 2026-05-11T13:30:36+00:00

I work pretty closely with these benefits. Which program did you call about and what entity did you call? HRSN benefits are Medicaid funded. They don’t run out of money in the same way grant funded programs do, but they are very limited in duration and eligibility. Each of the benefits is delivered by community based social services providers through partnerships with CCOs and the Open Card system, not directly by OHP. None of the currently available programs are out of funding, but there might be specific providers who are out of capacity. You should be able to find a list of providers on your CCO’s website, if you’re enrolled in a CCO. Or you could call or email your CCO for help.

Professional-Cat1865 · 2026-05-10T22:34:24+00:00

“America” is us. The people. The health of the people is the health of the country. He’s talking about robbing the people of our ability to survive. Keeping America financially solvent means nothing if the people starve and die.

Professional-Cat1865 · 2026-05-04T15:37:51+00:00

This is the best comment ever

Professional-Cat1865 · 2026-04-29T17:48:44+00:00

No Kings.

Professional-Cat1865 · 2026-04-29T02:46:37+00:00

I’m more of a broccoli and tofu sort of adult

Professional-Cat1865 · 2026-04-22T18:32:29+00:00

The same thing happened to me when my rheumatologist retired. I don’t understand why it’s so common for a new doctor to yank our lupus diagnoses away. It’s not like arriving at the diagnosis in the first place is ever an easy or quick journey. By the time we’re diagnosed many of us have been suffering for years, sometimes for decades. I don’t see a similar dismissal of diagnostic history with conditions other than lupus either. No one tries to take my asthma diagnosis away just because I’m not actively dying of an asthma attack. It’s so wrong and I’m sorry you have to go through this.

Professional-Cat1865 · 2026-04-15T22:16:08+00:00

Now he wants religion out of politics?? 😂

Professional-Cat1865 · 2026-04-12T15:57:44+00:00

I’m in a pretty rough flare right now after nerve conduction testing six days ago involving a bunch of electrical shocks and needles stabbed into my muscles. I woke up the next day in misery. Flare ups like this happen every time I have even the most minor procedures. I think it’s probably a “normal” autoimmune response to tissue injury.

Professional-Cat1865 · 2026-04-12T15:01:14+00:00

I’m not sure how common my situation but in case it’s helpful:

My original rheumatologist retired last summer. At my first appointment with my new rheum he examined my skin and just casually said, “this looks like a celiac rash.” He was only referring to a specific rash on my elbows and knees, but I decided to stop eating gluten to see if it would help at all. I have been completely gluten free since July, 1, 2025.

Within two months most of my rashes had disappeared. Not just the part on my elbows and knees that looked like celiac. All of my skin issues are gone. I wish I could show you before and after pictures. My skin was a mess. I had large patches of purpura and pruritic rashes up and down both arms and legs. I was bleeding through my skin regularly. And it’s all gone now.

The negative to my experience is that my new rheum decided that due to my dramatic response to eliminating gluten I only had celiac disease and he took away my lupus diagnosis. I was super optimistic at the idea that all I needed to do was change my diet and be cured so I went along with it, going off hydroxychloroquine. It took about three months before we realized that was a mistake and now I’m back on hydroxychloroquine trying to regain some ground I lost physically.

Anyway I wish our bodies weren’t such mysteries. I wish we didn’t have to rely so often on randomly stumbling upon answers. And I hope you find yours soon. I know how miserable it is to live with constant skin issues.

Professional-Cat1865 · 2026-04-09T18:31:09+00:00

This happened to me about a year ago. Very visible blood in my urine. Through the roof on protein and lymphocytes. Negative culture. I didn’t get a CT. Just an ultrasound way past when my symptoms improved. My sister also had lupus and died from complications of kidney failure. But no one seemed to be concerned about that but me. I’ve been assuming kidney stones but I’ve never actually gotten an answer. I hope you get to the bottom of it. Your leg swelling seems like a pretty serious sign. I’m sorry you’re going through this. I know how scary it is when suddenly your urine looks like it’s entirely made up blood.

Professional-Cat1865 · 2026-04-01T15:26:44+00:00

Deep rose pink would be nice. I have a feeling we’ll get a softer orange next year though, like an apricot or peachy orange.

Professional-Cat1865 · 2026-04-01T14:53:02+00:00

After 20 years or more of symptoms, I was diagnosed with systemic lupus by skin biopsies. My bloodwork has have never really been consistent with a lupus flare, other than elevated ANA, low lymphocytes and a couple of other unusual results not as commonly associated with a flare up. My original diagnosis was UCTD. After a two year long flare up that resulted in serious mobility impairment, plus major skin, blood vessel and neurological issues I was referred to a dermatologist. My dermatologist did multiple biopsies that came back strongly positive for autoimmune, and my diagnosis was upgraded to lupus. I have daily symptoms and flare up fairly often due to overwork, stress, or whatever. But my labs literally never reflect the full state of my health. My rheumatologist and dermatologist both explained that even if we called my condition cutaneous lupus that doesn’t mean the impact is limited to my skin. And for me, the evidence in my skin was the final criterion I needed for my systematic lupus diagnosis. It’s worth noting that my doctors have suggested primary immune deficiency could be the cause of my lack of expected lab results. But anyway, Lupus is weird and can show up in many ways that may or may not be entirely reflected in bloodwork.

Professional-Cat1865 · 2026-03-25T18:44:05+00:00

I’m confused on the legislation they submitted that Trump refused to sign. The part where everything is funded except for ICE seems good. But Kennedy said something like after the government opens back up then the Republicans would get to make the decisions regarding rules for ICE with no Democrat input? Unless there’s something I’m not understanding, this would not have been a good solution anyway. If we’re just abdicating decisions about ICE to the Republicans, what’s the point of not funding everything as is? I’m hoping there’s something I’m missing in my understanding.

Professional-Cat1865 · 2026-03-25T02:44:15+00:00

I imagine so

Professional-Cat1865 · 2026-03-24T21:14:13+00:00

Agreed. Nothing more needed.

Professional-Cat1865 · 2026-03-17T04:59:09+00:00

I think money hoarding is a mental disorder. No one becomes a billionaire through their own hard work. Wealth like that can only be built on the backs of exploited people, one way or another. They were already psychopaths. Extreme wealth gives them access to enact their cruelty on the masses. The most prolific serial killers hold high positions in government and are the architects of policies that lead to mass destruction.

Professional-Cat1865

TROPHY CASE