Pot Legalized

Quote: MonkeyMonkey

Quote: FarFromVegas

The uninsured use the emergency rooms and what they can't pay gets passed on in higher costs to everyone. You are already paying for the health care of the uninsured through higher costs. Making them buy insurance or pay a penalty (just like with car insurance) will help bring the costs down. Making insurance companies actually use the money they collect to pay for health care and not bonuses is also a good thing.

I've bolded the part that I think needs the most addressing, and italicized the "group" you're referring to.

So, who is this "them" that will now be forced to pay for health insurance instead of using the emergency room as their health insurance "plan"? Is it any of them folks listed in the following quote?

Quote: factcheck.org

The law makes a number of exemptions for low-income persons and hardship cases.

“Individuals who cannot afford coverage”: If an employer offers coverage that would cost the employee more than 8 percent of his or her household income (for self-only coverage) that individual is exempt from the tax.

“Taxpayers with income below filing threshold”: Also exempt are those who earn too little to be required to file tax returns. For 2011 — as previously mentioned — those thresholds were $9,500 for a single person under age 65, and $19,000 for a married person filing jointly with a spouse, for example. The thresholds go up each year in line with inflation, so those cut-offs will be higher in 2014, when the tax first takes effect.

“Hardships”: The Secretary of Health and Human Services is empowered to exempt others that she or he determines to “have suffered a hardship with respect to the capability to obtain coverage.”

Other exemptions: Also exempt are members of Indian tribes, persons with only brief gaps in coverage, and members of certain religious groups currently exempt from Social Security taxes (which as we’ve previously reported are chiefly Anabaptist — that is, Mennonite, Amish or Hutterite).

The argument that the many (all?) of the same people that are currently abusing the system will be exempt from the new system and thus not helping out as you've indicated is so obvious I won't insult you or waste your time making it, just read who's exempt, it's all right there.

Source: http://www.factcheck.org/2012/06/how-much-is-the-obamacare-tax/

I'm talking about people who can afford health insurance and simply choose not to pay for it! And there are a bunch of them! Also, there are people who couldn't get insurance because of a previous condition. My husband treats patients who are self-pay, and even some who can't pay at all, but when it comes time for them to receive diagnostic services (like xrays or MRIs) which his office doesn't do, they have to go to a hospital or clinic with the equipment, and then they can't pay the bill that results. Sometimes they skip out on the bill and sometimes they renegotiate it down to what the insurance would have paid, so basically they receive the same thing those of us who have paid for insurance receive without paying for the insurance, and our costs go up.

There are people who would rather pay for new TVs and a closet full of shoes and we pay when they get sick or hurt because they don't expect to get sick or hurt.

Are the same people who try to ban smoking the people who lead the charge for legalizing...smoking?

Quote: FarFromVegas

I'm talking about people who can afford health insurance and simply choose not to pay for it! And there are a bunch of them! Also, there are people who couldn't get insurance because of a previous condition. My husband treats patients who are self-pay, and even some who can't pay at all, but when it comes time for them to receive diagnostic services (like xrays or MRIs) which his office doesn't do, they have to go to a hospital or clinic with the equipment, and then they can't pay the bill that results. Sometimes they skip out on the bill and sometimes they renegotiate it down to what the insurance would have paid, so basically they receive the same thing those of us who have paid for insurance receive without paying for the insurance, and our costs go up.

There are people who would rather pay for new TVs and a closet full of shoes and we pay when they get sick or hurt because they don't expect to get sick or hurt.

I hate to be nitpicky, but can you cite a source that backs up your claim, or is it based solely on your husband's experience? As I've mentioned before having a debate where "Because I said so..." is a valid argument is not much of a debate.

While we wait, I'll add my version of a common sense response to your claim. These people that you claim can afford it but choose to skip out on the bill are destroying their credit rating with unpaid medical bills. That's hardly how "someone that can afford it" behaves, because you won't stay someone that can afford it for long using that tactic. But common sense aside, I'm really curious to see your credible source that backs up your claim.

Quote: Bigfoot66

This is what Hayek called The Road to Serfdom. One regulation has unintended consequences, so people demand another regulation to clean up the mess from the first, which results in yet more unintended consequences, and the cycle continues until you live in a world where every area of life is very heavily regulated. The answer is not more government force, but less.

Yah, I agree with this opine. The road to Slavery/Serfdom/Debtor's Prison starts out quite innocently. The sad axiom of this is that at some point the Government can't enforce the wide-sweeping elephantine regulations without the use of Militaristic force. IMHO we are well down this spiral.

A little store opened today near me on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington. They had three strains at the beginning, but were sold out of two when I got there around 4pm. There were only about 40 pre-loaded packages on the shelf, and they would close when sold out. This isn't like Colorado where they can poke around in pickle jars full of buds. Can't buy by the gram, so 3.5 grams of 50%sativa/50% indica for $45 including tax (33% tax!). Store was the size of a big walk-in closet, so there was a doorman outside allowing entry to 1-2 people at a time. I was the youngest person waiting in line, and I'm 50. I figure the only folks who would routinely visit these stores are out-of-state tourists or squares who have no connections themselves. As I've stated before, I know so many people who grow now that's it's legal, and they offer it cheaper than this, but I'm curious about the new buffet table of options available now. It'll take some time for supply to catch up with demand.

The weed doesn't smell very good, but maybe that's unique to this strain. It smells like grass someone left in the mower after a rain, but under a loupe it has the nice silvery glissening droplets of nectar we all look for. I'll check it with my Pax vaporizer later.

Check out the brochure and visit the Peninsula Cannabis website if interested. Kinda cool. All of America will follow when the taxman realizes how much cash can be had.

I can't even imagine getting high at my age,
it's such a kid thing. Being around adults
who are are high, they are so useless and
boring. It has such a different effect than
booze. Some of the greatest authors wrote
when drunk, but there are none that wrote
on dope. It's impossible. That's why they
call it, well, you know..

Some of the early packaging may be collectable. Especially if it is dated in the same year month of legalization.

Quote: Evenbob

I can't even imagine getting high at my age,
it's such a kid thing. Being around adults
who are are high, they are so useless and
boring. It has such a different effect than
booze. Some of the greatest authors wrote
when drunk, but there are none that wrote
on dope. It's impossible. That's why they
call it, well, you know..

Yeah, but to grow and sell it to someone who likes to do it, hmmm.

That is really cool to see. I really wish it was legal around here. I don't like to get "high" as such, but it is a great palliative.

Quote: theodores

That is really cool to see. I really wish it was legal around here. I don't like to get "high" as such, but it is a great palliative.

I predict pot will be legal in most of America within ten years. By then some other drugs will be legal in some states.