Buggy? It's Not Built Yet!

The good news is that the accouting portion of the ObamaCare.fail system is not buggy. The bad news is, there are no bugs because it hasn't been built yet.

Henry Chao, the Obama administration official who oversaw the technical development of the federal health insurance marketplace, said Tuesday that his team has yet to complete 30 to 40 percent of the overall project.

...

Parts of the project that users would see — notably the Web portal, HealthCare.gov — are 100 percent finished, he said. But “the accounting systems, the payment systems, they still need to be” completed, Chao said.

The payment system Chao referred to relates to the subsidies many low- and middle-income people will receive to help them buy insurance on the state and federal Web sites. In most cases, government subsidies will be paid directly to the insurers. People getting the subsidies will simply pay the discounted premiums.

Also yet to be finished is a component that ensures that the state and federal marketplaces and the insurers have accurate, matching information about enrollments.

But no worries - yes, some people need to make their first payment by Dec 15 so that their coverage is effective Jan 1, but the government officials in charge don't seem to know that, so they are aiming for mid-January:

Bataille, during a conference call after Chao's testimony, did not give an date by which the site's insurer payments tool would be up and running, saying it "will come online over time."

"It's something we do not need online until the middle of January," she said. However, for people's insurance to kick in by Jan. 1, they need to make payments for their Obamacare insurance policies by Dec. 15.

Whatever - those evil insurance companies will get paid eventually.

On a related front, we have more good news - the NSA won't be getting court orders to access the HealthCare.fail customer database. The bad news is, they won't need to - computer security experts think the new site is a hacker's paradise.

"The privacy and security of consumers' personal information are a top priority," White House spokesman Jay Carney said after the hearing.

Hmm. Another high priority is selling that bridge in Brooklyn...

Comments

[Steve]

Prediction: the systems won't talk to one another leading to insurance companies getting subsidies for people who signed up but are no longer making the premium payments. Perhaps even worse, the subsidies will be paid upfront with no tracking to see if people actually pay for their policies

I see a parallel with the housing bust where brokers collected commissions for mortgages that the borrower never made the first payment.

[Danube on iPad]

As the Times said, unrestrained glee.

[henry]

Systems degree of difficulty (low to high):

Website
"Enrollment"
Payments
Reconciliation.

Difficulty increases exponentially, as do costs to build. Think 80% of cost for that last 20% of function.

Chao also testified they would do the same level of testing on the unbuilt portions-- none?

[clarice]

Remember Obama's already said there'll be no fraud prosecuyions by the feds re Obamacare. I see a Rube Goldberg contraption where under armed threat, citizens have to put their private health and financial info into the machine and at the other end are thieves, hackers and ACORN musclemen.

[Rob Crawford]

In software, percentages of completion are meaningless. Completion is a binary state -- does it do what you want, or doesn't it?

Percentages in measuring software come from two places -- managers who don't know what they're talking about, and programmers pressed by their managers to come up with a number the clueless managers can report up the chain.

[Captain Hate on the iPhone]

It's even worse than I thought and my expectations were very low. To say that something like this is entirely unacceptable in the private sector is competitive for the biggest understatement ever.

[MarkO in warm weather watching Duke Basketball]

Irrational exuberance.

This is what would happen if a university faculty tried to build a house.

[narciso]

Rube Goldberg was the thought that occurred to me, clarice, also that Tom and Jerry cartoon with the perfect mousetrap. Wasn't there some other instance of flawed metrics re this administration,

[Rob Crawford]

Chao also testified they would do the same level of testing on the unbuilt portions-- none?

Less than none.

I suspect -- and the SCFOAMF's continued discussion of a "website" -- that they all assumed this would be just like one of the brochureware sites cranked out by his campaign. A little graphic design, some creative writing, and voila!

A system with meat behind it is harder. A system where the requirements are nebulous at best and changing minute by minute is worse. A system that has to unite dozens of other systems is... well... I know of two going on right now -- one is Disney's bet-the-bank new park admission and ID system and the other, well... "Death March" is a reasonable description.

The administration apparently approached managing this as seriously as they approach national security.

[boricuafudd]

Its a common strategy for car dealers get them in the door with promises. Get them to pick a shiny car and then sit them down with the Finance Department and sock them with the real payments.

Wow, I did not know we had elected car salesmen to run the country.

[Miss Marple]

Rubio is saying the magic words to O'Reilly: bailouts for insurance companies at taxpayer expense.

THAT caught his attention, because although he has a good health plan with Fox, he will be right there with the rest of us "Folks" when taxes go up.

Also, Rubio said that many of his democrat colleagues didn't know the bail-outs were in the bill. (Either they are lying to him or are as stupid as we think, or both.)

[henry]

A system where the requirements are nebulous at best and changing minute by minute is worse.

Except for the guys billing by the hour.

[narciso]

It's actually worse then that, you can't pay which is the whole point of the exercise,

http://therightscoop.com/video-obama-trying-to-shift-some-of-obamacare-failure-blame-onto-republicans/

[Some Guy]

Wow, I did not know we had elected car salesmen to run the country.

That's an insult to car salesmen...

[Jane-Rebel Alliance1]

Someone needs to pass a bill denying and and all bailouts to insurers. That will shut this thing down tomorrow.

[Captain Hate on the iPhone]

When you lose BOR you've lost the king of the economic dumbasses. 404Care better try to start moving some Factor gear to get the guy back who, along with the JEF, is looking out for the folks.

[Extraneus]

In software, percentages of completion are meaningless.

Anyone who tries using them is laughed off the stage where I come from, while being flogged.

"Ok, two months to get to eighty percent. So two more weeks to a hundred?"

Flog, flog, flog.

[Ignatz]

--Chao also testified they would do the same level of testing on the unbuilt portions-- none?--

It's called the Pelosi test.

[Jane-Rebel Alliance1]

Sorry Miss Marple, I didn't see your post before I posted mine. And I'm not watching O'Reilly.

[MarkO in warm weather watching Duke Basketball]

How the hell did they think this was going to work?

[narciso]

Can you imagine the scope of such a bailout, talk about 'staring into the abyss

[rse]

Well I am just back from the kickoff of the very first Equity Index in the South. Metro ATL gets to join Boston, Denver, and Portland, Oregon.

NK says we are about to default on principal and these people are waiting for their fairness. Literally creating maps so people will know which geographic areas have more and less and be acutely aware of the disparities and said all that.

One of the opening slides had social equity under a picture of two goldfish bowls. One large and one small and the small one had the larger goldfish and that was not fair.

Honestly it's as if there's a belief in the Great Hander outer although that is how govts have behaved since the Great Society and it's now time for justice.

Talk about home invasion people are being fed a diet that it's not your personal choices or your parents that matters it's the structure. You have less because others have more.

Good luck Steph.

[Miss Marple]

Oh, that's ok, Jane. The more the merrier.

I only have O'Reilly on because I am waiting to see if Megyn Kelly is still going after Obama for lying. I believe there was another lie uncovered today, although I am a little foggy since I am coming down with a chest cold.

I had another black reverend on to say that our dislike of Obama is because he is black. I am so tired of this litany that I want to shake people. And of course, O'Reilly never pointed out that without white people, Obama would still be in Chicago organizing on the South Side.

[Miss Marple]

Caller to Dana Loesch thinks that the web site is really being designed for single payer and all of the stuff we are now seeing is just to distract. He thinks when people are without insurance, confused and scared, they will try to roll out single payer.

I consider this fraud and intentional wasting of taxpayer money, if that is what they are up to.

But as someone said earlier (daddy, I think) they are starting to push single payer as an easier alternative.

I am posting this again because the last time I posted it it disappeared, although I think some people may have seen it.

[daddy]

Yesterday I transcribed Obama's pep talk Telephone call wherein he said 100 Million were enrolled in Obamacare:

Most Americans uhhh who don't currently have healthcare are gonna' be able to get Health Care for less than the cost of their Cellphone bill or Cable bill uhhh and in the first month alone we've seen more than a hundred million Americans already successfully enrolled in the new Insurance plans.

But let me focus on this Cellphone Bill comment: are gonna' be able to get Health Care for less than the cost of their Cellphone bill

Googling "Average Monthly Cellphone Bill" we got many responses:

---The average monthly cell phone bill is $47.16 according to a new report from the CTIA Wireless Association.

---Wiki-answers: around $69.99.

---The average phone bill can change depending on which phone company is being used. The average phone bill is about $50 per month. Although this number slightly changes every year, it has remained between $45 and $55 each year.

---Cell phone bills vary a lot depending on the carrier. As of 2012, most cell phone carriers have monthly plans that average from $40 to $100 per month.

---JD Powers and Associates: The average individual's cell phone bill is up by 31% since 2009, to $71 a month, reports J.D. Power & Associates.

I have heard so much about how it's going to be so wonderfully affordable, but I don't believe I've seen a cash amount of just how inexpensive it is actually going to be. Well if I take Obama's "Cellphone Bill" comment at face value, then most of the millions of folks who don't currently have HealthCare Insurance now, will have it for between 45 to 75 bucks a month in future.

Has anyone heard that figure put out there before, or am I just late to the party?

Off with the dogs. Bye.

[MarkO in warm weather watching Duke Basketball]

Thanks to Obama, there will never be single payer in this country.

[clarice]

CH: "When you lose BOR you've lost the king of the economic dumbasses. "

You betcha.

[Jane-Rebel Alliance1]

For those of you in the cauliflower cult, I made cauliflower hummus today. I've never been a big hummus person but I have to say it was excellent.

[henry]

Daddy, what do folks pay for Obamaphones and pirated cable? They'll pay the same for Obamacare. People who have cell phone or cable bills won't sign up.

[jimmyk]

Thanks to Obama, there will never be single payer in this country.

I'd always hoped that he would be able to unify the country.

[mad jack]

"In software, percentages of completion are meaningless."

Just curious but how do I know I'm not being taken to the cleaners by software development guys? My approach of saying "you're not getting a %#@ dime more until it works" seems to sort of work for me after I've already spent a boatload:-)

[Cecil Turner]

Thanks to Obama, there will never be single payer in this country.

I'm not nearly so confident. But I certainly hope you're right.

[Account Deleted]

The "it's a front for single payer" talk doesn't pan out. The purpose of the 404Care.fail website is to determine eligibility for Parasite First Class status. It's a roach motel California with a 7 million user target.

If you are one of the over 12 million private (rather than group) buyers who do not aspire to Parasite First Class status, you buy your insurance via eHealth or directly from the fascists at BlueGovIns.

My guess is that there were never, ever 7 million potential Parasites First Class and the Thelma and Louise launch is meant to provide cover for their non-existence.

[narciso]

Is he merely a fool, or a knave;

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/11/19/chris_christie_s_sympathy_for_obama

this is who they push for leadership, you need to know what the actual situation is.

[jimmyk]

The pushback on the Census scam is that whoever faked the data wasn't "systematic" about trying to skew the results, just get adequate numbers of responses.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-11-19/census-bureau-suggests-job-manipulation-was-not-systematic

But that means the numbers are less reliable, at best, so there's still real election-related fraud. It may be possible to narrow down the scope of the impact, but I wouldn't let the Census Bureau do the investigating, though that is likely what will happen.

Stephanie, best wishes for tomorrow.

[centralcal]

Jane - really loving your cauliflower comments here and on FB.

I have had some hummus that was yummo - couldn't get enough of it (made by a little local cafe, owner from Lebanon) and some that was merely - Meh!

[jimmyk]

The "it's a front for single payer" talk doesn't pan out.

Also, while the JEF has gotten away with a lot of discretion, I suspect this would be a bridge too far, and there's no way the enabling legislation would ever pass.

[Danube on iPad]

I think single payer is deader than Louis XIV. The killer, simplistic (but telling) sogans leap to mind: "A website was a bit too much for them, but now they want to manage your healthcare." (Well, surely we can do better than that, but I think you catch my drift.)

[Old Lurker]

Nor am I, Cecil.

I keep worrying that this Fubar is too easy and either they are all way stupid or way clever. If the former, fine. If the latter this could be a big push past a scary tipping point.

[Rob Crawford]

Just curious but how do I know I'm not being taken to the cleaners by software development guys? My approach of saying "you're not getting a %#@ dime more until it works" seems to sort of work for me after I've already spent a boatload:-)

Look into "agile" processes. The idea is you limit the amount of time, say, a month, and after that you decide if you want to pay for another month's worth of work. You help them focus on the features that offer you the most "bang for the buck"; they should deliver those first. After each iteration you provide feedback and changes; "it's done" is valid feedback.

[Rob Crawford]

Anyone who tries using them is laughed off the stage where I come from, while being flogged.

Lucky you. I've pushed back on the idea -- trying to get tasks defined as small as possible, with the understanding that they're DONE or they're still in progress, no "20% done" BS -- and gotten in trouble for it.

[narciso]

So, that ABC poll that was so highly touted today, Obama had the same approval rating in October of 2001.

[narciso]

Sorry 2011, his dissaproval has been at the same point on several occasion,

[Centralcal on iPad]

I am not quite seeing how single payer has a chance in this political climate. What am I missing.

[Jane on Ipad hi there NSA]

So the guys who testified re: Benghazi are absolutely livid about the WH spin, and they said the guys at the consulate didn't even have weapons and we're screaming to DC that they had been set up. It was clear this was a planned attack from the 1st second.

Catherine Herridge has the story.

Oh and BTW, Obama wrote a letter to the American people rather than go to Gettysburg which we can all agree was much much better.

[Jane on Ipad hi there NSA]

The worry about single payer is that it will be the only available, immediate remedy when the entire medical world implodes.

[Skoot]

I only listened once, but I thought Chao said 60-70% of the back end still needs to be built and then Gardner asked about testing and Chao answered "on the 30-40%?" meaning what they have right now. So when he said "30-40%" he meant near term testing on the to date completed portion of the back end.

That's what I heard, anyway.

[mad jack]

Thanks, Rob. Your approach is basically the approach we try to take. Now if we can figure out how to deal with the "we will not be supporting that version of ___ after next year" stuff we'll be all set!

[narciso]

He had to backpedal, after he let 'the cat out of the bag' but that was the segment from Gardner's dialog with Chao.

[clarice]

The lack of security on the website and the HHS "waiver" of the privacy/security regulations of HIPAA raise some intriguing legal questions. If privacy is a constitution right, and HIPAA represents the codification of that right in federal law, how can HIPAA waive it?

[narciso]

That's a bizarre story about Murphy isn't it clarice?

[Account Deleted]

Jane,

How does 'the entire medical world implode' when the mythical 7 million, who currently do not have insurance, still don't have insurance next year?

I'd rather read speculation on the 404Care.fail website being a vehicle for enlistment in the Obama Freeshit Army. I could buy a little of that one.

[Porchlight]

Hey, Rob Crawford, good to see you.

We haven't even gotten into electronic records compliance issues yet.

[NKonIPad]

Hello RobC

[Danube on iPad]

Does anyone think that current house of representatives will pass a single-payer bill? Or the house we are likely to have after 2014? 2016?

I sure don't..

[clarice]

It is very bizarre, narciso and patterico is not a wild man.

[Jane on Ipad hi there NSA]

Rick,

The issue will be when the very real 10 million, like me don't have insurance, after we always have in the past, and a few of us die because we lost our doctors.

[miss Marple]

Rick,

How long do you think hospitals can stay open with reduced government payments and few paying customers due to no insurance? What are doctors going to do when they are swamped by amedicaid patients?

There are lots of things coming that people haven't realized yet.

[Account Deleted]

Jane - MM,

Why would either of you use 404Care.fail to purchase insurance when you can exam plans and sign up via eHealth? People who have their plans canceled do not need to use the BOzocare exchange unless they qualify for the subsidy and want it.

[narciso]

I thought it was some crazy story, until the DHS connection came into being,

Seriously, if they thought there would be a minor inconvenience like the 1989 bill, what will be the reaction to this broad spectrum
SNAFU.

[Porchlight]

This Reuters UK article claims the next Reuters/Ipsos poll has Obama approval at 37%, but RCP doesn't have it up yet.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/11/20/uk-usa-healthcare-idUKBRE9AI18F20131120

[Ignatz]

Does anyone have any semi reliable numbers re, actual number of people ACA will subsidize vs not, especially if and when the employer mandate kicks in?

The market itself was already a vast impenetrable web that still sort of worked.

They are introducing so many perverse incentives and squeezing the balloon in so many places only to have it squirt out somewhere else, I don't see how they keep the entire edifice from crashing....or since we're talking Barry, maybe Oedipus is more apt.

[Publius of Idaho]

DOT

Who needs the stinking House of Representatives. JEF will issue a EO, or maybe just an anouncement from the press room.

What is anybody going to do about it?

[jimmyk]

Complete repeal will be the more obvious solution, not to partisan Dems but to virtually everyone else, including the vast majority of the public.

[BB Key]

POI, bunch happened in first 20 mins

[miss Marple]

Rick,

TRue, but a lot of people don't know that. The medical records thing is another mess ( I was a victim of this) as well as protocols demanded for treatment. The government is not allowing certain treatments.

It is a mess and it is going to be a rolling disaster, and people are going to suffer needlessly and some may die.

[daddy]

Mark Begich, DEM Alaska, has just dropped in to fix the ObamaCare mess, and it was all over Local Talk.

Begich says that in addition to the Presidents Gold, Silver, and Platinum Plans, there should now be a really low rent plan added on, called The Copper Plan!

“These ‘copper plans’ are just common sense – more choices and lower premiums means more control for Alaskans.” said Senator Begich to Alaska Public Radio.

The lower premiums provided by Sen. Begich’s bill would be especially beneficial for young people who tend to have lower health care costs. The copper plan provides a balanced option for consumers who want to pay lower premiums, maintain their essential health benefits, and are willing to accept the higher out-of-pocket costs.

Sounds great, right?

And here's the best part, where Senator Begich really gives us his understanding of the free market:

Sen. Begich’s bill would ensure that at least half of covered medical services are paid for by insurance companies.

How about that. You don't pay and the Government doesn't pay. The people on the hook to pay are the people who survive in the Free Market, the Insurance Companies. And they can't raise rates because he says so, and they have to pay more than 50% because he says so, and magically everybody will have wonderful HealthCare because Mrs Thatcher was wrong,"we'll never run out of other people's money!"

Yippee! I think from what I just heard as blowback on local Talk Radio that Mark Begich just did more damage to his reelection chances than anything the Repub's have run against him in the last 5 years.

Here's the story: President Obama getting some heat from DEMOCRAT US Senator Mark Begich?

[Account Deleted]

Ignatz,

There are absolutely no reliable numbers. The numbers used were generated to produce the static CBO buffoonery to show a deficit neutral cost. I am unaware of the existence of a single survey of the uninsured to determine a price point at which they would actually purchase.

This is socialist scientism at its finest. You might as well start the process with "Assume a unicorn. What color would you like it to be?".

[Jane on Ipad hi there NSA]

I won't use the exchange Rick , but I think you are overly optimistic that I can find a plan, and harder still, a doctor.

[narciso]

I looked into E Health, around Halloween, of course, Obamacare has increased the cost, significantly at the baseline.

[daddy]

When you lose BOR you've lost the king of the economic dumbasses. 404Care better try to start moving some Factor gear

Winner!

[Ignatz]

--Begich says that in addition to the Presidents Gold, Silver, and Platinum Plans, there should now be a really low rent plan added on, called The Copper Plan!--

Don't know if he's being a dumbass but in CA at least there is a low rent one called the catastrophic plan only available to those under 30 or those over 30 without affordable insurance and in financial need, whatever the definition of that is.

I thought this was part of Barrycare nationwide in which case Begich is even stupider than I thought.

[Danube on iPad]

"JEF will issue a EO, or maybe just an anouncement from the press room.
What is anybody going to do about it?"

Stop it instantly with injunctive relief. Millions of people with standing to sue. Slam dunk. Ain't playin',get-out-the-wayin', backboard-swayin' slam dunk.
Each and every federal court in the land would quash it outright.

[Ignatz]

Obamacare catastrophic plan.

[clarice]

Good night. Can't imagine what tomorrow's newswill be.

[Old Lurker]

What if on top of the problems above, the insurance companies are being lured into a trap of promised fed lifeboats which never arrive and they become insolvent? In the face of a total collapse, we will be faced with single payer as one path, or rebuilding the old system on the other. In a country that elected Obama and so many others, I would not take bets.

[NKonIPad]

OL@10:47- that is indeed their evil plan for this country.

[narciso]

Aw carp, I wasn't expecting that,

[Publius of Idaho]

TK had you on a string.
Satire and snark you idiot!

[Ignatz]

Besides the actual horrendous implementation of this abomination, we have not even begun to understand the unending legal issues these preposterous convolutions are going to spawn for years to come, some even if it's repealed.

Obamacare itself is a catastrophic plan.

[daddy]

Iggy,

The tell for me is that Begich's plan is not mentioned in the ADN, The Fairbanks paper, nor the Juneau paper, yet he's talked with Alaska Public Radio about it. That tells me that his Media cheerleaders up here don't know how to package it yet for his benefit, so so far they are sitting on the sidelines and saying nothing.

[Captain Hate on the iPhone]

narc I started to suspect something from the back and forth in the morgue but I still couldn't fathom it being Carter. I assume she killed Simmons as her last act. Next week I think I'll get my annual vicarious violence dosage in one hour.

[daddy]

Insty links to a story about Obama being the new Tron, a guy trapped inside a terrible website, HealthCare.gov:

I almost believed it, until I read Obama's reported dialogue:

“Oh, dear God, there has to be a way out,” continued Obama, ducking as several lines of text guaranteeing coverage for preexisting conditions flew just inches above his head. “There has to be.”

Yeah, right.

As if any of us would believe that Obama would say something like "dear God." Pffft.

[BB Key]

narc, No previews, Not what we are lead to believe about Carter

[Danube on iPad]

Still bedridden, better off than I deserve to be, and grateful.

Nytol.

[Jane on Ipad hi there NSA]

W is on Leno. I still love him.

[daddy]

Gold, Platinum, Silver...and now The Copper Plan.

I'm thinking we need a 5th Healthcare Plan---The Zinc Plan.

It'll be affordable for everyone no matter your age or precondition, it'll be completely portable anywhere, the Insurance Companies will be mandated to pay for 95% of all costs, and it'll cover everything but the Kitchen zinc.

[daddy]

Looks like over in Thatcher-Land they're running out of other people's money: Labour: We'll scrap benefits for under 25s

People under the age of 25 would be barred from claiming unemployment benefits under proposals being considered by the Labour Party...will publish a paper later this week proposing a new means-tested “youth allowance” for 18 to 24-year olds who are not in work or education.

Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, has also hinted at taking young people out of the benefits system.

If their National HealthCare System is so wonderful and saving them so much money, why would they need to be booting people off the dole?

[Reality Check]

I said here months ago that I was willing to bet that the [real] reasons why Nancy Pelosi can't show us the contents of Obamacare are because it is all an outrageous scam and Obamacare hasn't even been designed or built yet, and, in fact, it doesn't exist. I was right. Those outrageous liars don't even have a plan, except to rip-off the entire country on a so-massive-as-to-be-incomprehensible scale. All of them should be tarred and feathered and then lynched.

Somebody needs to call their bluff and to demand to see the beef, or else. It should have been done two years ago.

[daddy]

The word in use today at the South African Hominid Excavation is "Antimere"

antimere [ˈæntɪˌmɪə]
n
(Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Biology) a part or organ of a bilaterally or radially symmetrical organism that corresponds to a similar structure on the other side of the axis, such as the right or left limb of a four-legged animal

Another great day for fossilizing according to the tweeters in Tent Control (ops).

Counting today they now have 4 segments of mandibles and the "antimere" tweet comment I believe refers to the fact that in the Science tent above ground they are now matching the left and the right side of skeletal remains, including mandibles.

John Hawks @johnhawks
Sci word of the day: antimere #risingstarexpedition
25 minutes ago

John Hawks @johnhawks
Darryl in the Science tent is working with the teeth to sort out individuals represented, has matched some antimeres #risingstarexpedition

Then Expedition Leader Berger tweets this Large piece of cranium recovered now by Becca and Marina - Great fossil day! Over 371 fossil hominins so far from #risingstarexpedition

Then Burger clarifies so as not to cause confusion It means individually numbered specimens from multiple individuals indeed these are individually numbered bones of multiple individuals

Don't know if that latest cranial part is part of the previous skull brought up on Saturday or a new one, but as usual, everybody's super excited down there. Hopefully we'll find out in a couple of days.

[Neo]

Now this is just awesome ...

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — The Colorado healthcare exchange has processed applications for thousands of people … and one dog.

Shane Smith, of Fort Collins, says his dog Baxter received a letter informing him that a health insurance account had been opened in his name through Connect for Health Colorado.

“I thought, ‘Wow, this is so awesome,’” Smith said with a laugh. “They have gone out of their way to insure my 14-year-old Yorkie.”

Smith had called Connect for Health Colorado to sign himself up for insurance because his old plan was cancelled due to Obamacare.

He’s not sure exactly how the confirmation letter went to his dog, but he says he thinks it’s because of a series of security questions a representative asked him over the phone.

[daddy]

Jane,

I'm watching Leno now. He's doing the "Man on the Street" segment, finding out how little people actually know about American History. It really is frightening how ignorant they are. It is astonishing how little information actually gets into people's heads, considering how much information is available at our fingertips.

Now W is up and he is doing great. Very funny, very relaxed, very sincere. Great to hear so much applause.

[daddy]

.

[Maybee]

How in the world could we afford single payer? The premiums are already going up. It doesn't get cheaper just because that money comes from taxes rather than premiums.

Would politicians really tell middle class families they are going to withhold another $600/mo in taxes?

And does this dream single payer cover all deductibles, too (aas in the UK?)? Where does this money come from?

I don't see it.

[Maybee]

Healthcare.gov should just throw up a paypal button.

[glasater]

Regarding HIPPA/privacy issue, had my annual checkup at the clinic I've gone to since I was a kid. The desk person had me sign a new document basically saying that they would try their darndest to keep my records private but in some circumstances perhaps they couldn't.

This clinic has been on the frontline of going to all electronic records. Have no expectations of anything private any longer.

[daddy]

This is an interesting current twitter feed coming in from one of their paleontologists. The girls are still down in the cave working on some very interesting bones and he includes a couple of nice photos.
When you expand a few of the comments he talks about how they have to sort of walk moonwalk fashion barefoot down below, and very slowly, in order to not break any of the fossils littering the floor.

Hominid Tweets

This pic just came up about 20 minutes ago and if you can expand it you can see that the sort of curved bone the girls are working on is semi-circular and my guess is it's the second skull they were working on earlier.

Sorry I don't know how to post it smaller, so you'll have to right click.

His last tweet just 10 minutes ago is a bummer: #risingstarexpedition ends on Nov 29, limited excavation days ticking down.

[anonamom]

I've not seen this posted yet, and it's important information about depression treatment.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of directed "talk" therapy where the crazy thoughts depressed people have and ruminate over are labeled as such (in much nicer language) and alternative thoughts are offered to replace them.
It's extremely beneficial in treatment---better than drugs (which are only about the same as placebo, but have major side effects).

This study shows that using CBT to treat the disordered sleep that nearly always accompanies depression is beneficial in lessening the depression for 87% of the subjects.

Grandma was right--eat good food, and get to bed on time. And get outside and move for a while every day.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/health/treating-insomnia-to-heal-depression.html?hpw&rref=health

[daddy]

Apparently the girls have revealed it's a frontal bit of skull, because the lastest 2 tweets say:

Lee Berger ‏@LeeRberger
Wow! Frontal

and

John Hawks ‏@johnhawks
Never experienced anything like this. People applauding and cheering when looking at the video feed from the chamber.

G'nite.

[Miss Marple]

Good morning.

Listened to an interview with Roberto Ungeron BBC this morning. He was a former professor at Harvard and is so full of BS that even the BBC interviewers had a hard time getting a straight answer out of him.

I am convinced this guy is where Obama got a lot of his early campaign rhetoric. He says stuff like "We must re-imagine democracy" and "Change must come from within all of us."

He's been down in Brazil destroying their government and was an actual minister under Lula. (BBC pointed out that Brazil is having food riots and such.)