#health inurance

[insurance360]

The Ultimate Guide to Understanding Health Insurance

Health insurance is a type of insurance policy that helps people manage their healthcare costs by paying for medical expenses in part or in full. Understanding health insurance is critical to making informed decisions about your healthcare needs, and the healthcare needs of your loved ones. In this ultimate guide, we’ll explore the key aspects of health insurance, from the types of plans available to the terminology used in the industry.

Read more

#important of health insurance #how to apply in health inurance #benefit of health insurance

[itsthatmff]

Hello everything is fine? If requests are still open, can I request opm Garou, Saitama and Sonic with a partner capable of healing any serious injury and renewing their vital energy?

So interesting. It was my first time writing for sonic so don’t go too harsh on me 😞. And yes everything is fine! Just school stressing me out lmao. But I hope you enjoy!

Having an S/O who can heal wounds

Gn!reader

Included: Garou, Saitama, Sonic

Requests are open !!

Garou

It was in that shack where you and your friends often came to hang out because it was an unused and empty place in the middle of the forest that you found that white haired man resting after a long and tough fight.

It couldn’t even be considered resting the way he looked. Blood dripping down his body like water. Of course you immediately tended to him without thinking twice.

You were a B-class hero. Downplayed to the support role, a mere healer. People - especially the association did not see the potential in you. It always bothered you but in this situation you were lucky. God knows what Garou would have done if he had seen your name in the Heroes lexicon instead of just skipping the Pages with the B-class ranked heroes.

One instance lead to the other and it became the norm healing him up whenever he got injured. You developed a weak spot for him. The way he sat on the dust filled couch with his legs spread and his head leaned back. Always making snarky remarks. And always being shirtless.

“It’s great I have ya. Got my own private hopsital.”

“You good? Stop starin at my abs and heal them damnit..”

And of course he has a soft spot for you. May not show it but he cares for you in his own way.

It was when he began coming over for the most useless reasons that you realized he had a crush on you.

Like for instance before or in the middle of fights he’d come looking for you asking you to renew his energy. But after a while he came over every second day with the excuse that “What if I get into a fight?? I need all my power ya know.”

Once you start dating he eventually finds out about you being a hero. Doesn’t really care about it. He is just as upset with you that no one acknowledges your true powers and asks you if you want to join him on his hero hunting but you refuse.

That does not affect your relationship though.

Will lay on you as he lets you heal him. Is real snuggly. Will also groan extra loud to get you all flustered though.

Saitama

(Does this guy even get inured???)

After some research I’ve come to the conclusion that this guy has never gotten severely injured. He does feel pain but it barely hurts.

He does get some tiny scratches from time to time though.

Those if course you heal as his partner. He insists that he doesn’t need it but secretly loves the care you provide him.

When out on Monster battles you two are the best duo to see. While he takes care of the Monsters you take care of any citizens in the area.

He admires you so much and thinks you’re like the backbone of the heroes association because in the end you’re the one who contributes to the citizens and the heroes health.

If anyone dares to say otherwise they’ll have a problem with him.

Let’s you play support in video games because you’re “made for it”

What he does love getting from you are massages though. Your massages are magical because due to your healing and energy renewing powers they make one feel refreshed.

He’ll ask for one whenever he gets the chance.

“A massage’s always good. I can seriously start to feel the back and shoulder pain at my mid-20’s.”

Sonic

At first he’s very reluctant over getting treated by you.

The chairman he works for offered him a personal assistant/nurse. Which was you of course.

This guy knows no shame. Literally strips himself naked in front of you so you could inspect “all his wounds clearly.” It takes you some bickering around for him to put his clothes back on.

Also this guy CANNOT SIT STILL FOR A SINGLE MINUTE. always has to hop on from one place to another with his super speed. It’s just more ‘comfortable’. You literally have to cuff him down sometimes for him to sit still.

And will not stop talking during the treatments. Talking about being the fastest, avenging saitama and whatsoever.

It’s like a therapy and treatment session all at once.

Once you both start dating he gets so comfortable. Will enter the room and lay on you without saying a word expecting you to treat him.

Will justify the injuries he’s gotten like it’s his job.

“Ah that one..you see there was this frick of a cyborg who did not know when to quit. He chopped my hair off too..can you believe it?!”

“See but i’m still stronger than him though. Next time I’ll bring you his head as a souvenir.”

#one punch man #headcanons #garou #garou opm #garou x reader #opm headcanons #opm x reader #garou x y/n #garou the hero hunter #garou headcanons #one punch man x reader #one punch man garou #saitama x reader #saitama opm #saitama one punch man #saitama #speed o sound sonic #speed o sound sonic x reader

[toxicanonymity]

raider and sweet pea and a sweet little pet birdy 🤍 i miss them! i hope you’re having a great day

Thank you!! This is so sweet. Maybe the bird was inured and sweet pea nursed it back to health. Joel says it's not their pet, but he's in denial 🤭

Have a great night 🖤

#raider!ask #toxask

[nancydrewwouldnever]

one iota of shit //

I see your Knives Out Reference. 😉

I agree about worrying about the state of his mental health. There are many people who don't have the resources or time that he does to seek help. He is just too arrogant and stupid to do so. It all just screams of an entitled, privileged man with zero accountability. All of which is enabled by those around him. People have always said that Lisa was or would be the voice of reason, I don't believe this for one moment.

I got shadow-banned for some odd reason today when drama was unfolding, maybe that's a blessing in disguise.

Look, but this is why I no longer give one iota of shit about it.

Chris has all the resources ever to get help. He is not like my cousin who was living without health insurance and only making $700 a week. There was a reason why my cousin ended up committing suicide: he was effectively locked out of help for his mental illnesses due to being poor, and he got to the point he could no longer fight against it.

Chris can afford the best doctors, therapists, treatment programs, and living coaches in the world, without batting an eye. All he has to do is decide to do so. Instead, he seems more "content" [per his SMA interview] to stay inured in the same old self-destructive, self-medicating, self-perpetuating cycles which insure he will never change, become self-accountable, get on the real road to contentment through hard self-work.

Whatever, bro, just go take another bong hit and down another Sam Adams. Pet Dodger and goof out on your animated shows. Text your latest beck and call girl to come over and give you a bj. Just don't stop for one second and really consider what that gnawing black hole at the center of your self might be pulling in from your personal gravity well. Because soon enough you might have to grapple with the realization that, for all your advantages, your life has become one huge vast void of nothingness.

#ask

[the-masculine-alpha]

Hypno Rugby Captain Rent Boy

For Michael, selling his body was his livelihood right now, and he wasn’t about give away any freebies, and that included nude pictures. But, just like with his body, virtually anything was negotiable if the price was right.

When Michael had begun selling his straight ass thanks to his neighbor, the executive who hypnotized the beefy rugby player and forced him down the path of prostitution- and he was straight, though most of his many paying sex partners found that hard to believe after an all-night session with him - he had been relatively restrictive in the activities he would consent to: no barebacking, no piss-play, no spanking, other than an occasional slap to his buttocks while he was being fucked, and no restraints. But, as time passed and Michael became more inured to the challenges of being a rent-boy, he gradually relaxed these strictures, the intense brainwashing files were rewiring his Alpha brain. Thus, while he would never permit a new client to bareback him, he was more flexible with regular clients and, so long as they were able to provide him with relatively recent test results showing that they had a clean bill of health, he would permit them to fuck him raw and even seed his boypussy if they wanted, Of course, he charged more for permitting this, but his clients seemed more than willing to pay extra just for the enjoyment they got in breeding a hot, young stud with their babymakers.

And it wasn’t long before Michael made a similar economic adjustment to his refusal to participate in piss-play and being spanked. So long as a client was willing to pay extra, Michael now let them piss on him or in him - either down his throat or up his boypussy, though the latter came with a hefty price if they wanted to do it before they fucked him. Similarly, Michael no longer had any objections to letting someone spank his ass either with his hand or a paddle, so long as he was adequately compensated for the pain he had to suffer. Michael was somewhat more careful with letting his clients use whips or a cane or other instruments like that since there was always the possibility of actual injury but, if he knew the client well enough, he was willing to trade the pain and indignities that he endured for the cash remuneration he received.

That had been Michael’s great epiphany as he worked as a fuck-boy for hire - he had more than just his body to sell. He could market his ability to withstand pain and his ability to suffer physical and sexual humiliations as independent commodities that could drastically increase his total income. It was simply a question of how much pain and degradation that Michael was willing to subject himself to in order to make more money. And, when he thought about it that way, Michael realized there were really very few things he wouldn’t do if he was offered enough money. He’d even allowed himself to be double-penetrated anally twice in the past four months. The pain had been awesome - both times. But he charged $1,000 for the service and, afterwards, he consoled himself for his incredibly battered and sore boytwat by thinking about what he could buy with the money he had made.

In the last year he’d only had occasion to refuse one request - he just could not bring himself to allow his mouth to be used as a substitute for a commode in a scat scene. That was just too much for him. But, other than that, he was pretty much open to anything a client wanted to do to him - provided, of course, that the price was right.

That, in the final analysis, was the ultimate arbiter of what he would consent to - the price his clients were willing to pay. Michael knew this made him a complete and total whore and, at times, he was embarrassed when he thought about what he had become. But he also realized that it was precisely his willingness to do almost anything, his willingness to subject himself to virtually any conceivable humiliation, that made him such a successful and in-demand hustler, that allowed him to charge premium prices for all of his services, that enabled him to afford the lifestyle he was now enjoying.

So, yeah, the dude tonight could have his nude photograph of Michael and Michael would pose however the man wanted him to - provided the price was right. Provided the price was right. Because for Michael, at this stage of his life, that was the only thing that mattered. The only thing.

[kenyatta]

Overwork culture is the ideology of the “right” to work at its most perverse. It may monetarily advantage a handful at the top, but the societal damage is tremendous. Most of our acute societal ills are directly tied to poverty, and as numerous studies and pilot programs have shown, could readily be ameliorated by the very simple step of giving people money, whether through programs like the child tax credit (a tremendous success) or UBI (read a great, nuanced explainer here). But there are second-tier problems that spiderweb around overwork — problems related to community-building, child and eldercare, community wellness, overall health outcomes and plain-out happiness and satisfaction and civic engagement. Turns out it’s incredibly hard to build community, to forge social safety-nets, to agitate for larger social change, to even give and receive care when you’re dedicated, willingly or not, to the culture of overwork. Maybe this doesn’t sound familiar. Maybe you told overwork culture to fuck off during the pandemic or a decade ago, maybe you live elsewhere and have always considered it a sort of pathology. But maybe some it — the struggle to find the time to do anything but work and raise your kids and recover from work, the philosophical support of unions but a struggle to see the need for one in your workplace, a general inurement to overwork culture — feels comfortably real. Maybe you feel like you’ve woken up and realized that you’re pretty bad at community, bad at leisure, bad at rest, bad at sustaining friendship….bad at most things, really, that aren’t work. At that, you’re an expert. And in that case, it’s worth asking yourself, again and again, until you can stare the answer straight in the face: at what cost, and for whose benefit?

The Wages of Overwork - by Anne Helen Petersen

[dreadfutures]

Happy Friday! :D For DADWC: From the sensory prompts, how about: "A shimmer of water droplets in the sun" and "calloused palm" for Dirthamen/Ixchel (or another pairing if it strikes your fancy)?

I have been sitting on this one for a while 🥲

for @dadrunkwriting

Rating: T

Pairing: Dirthamen x Lavellan (time travel Elvhenan AU, #sunbird)

-:-:-

The orchards are hot, and the thick air is cut by the persistent hum of hidden insects. Outside the rows and rows of trees there is a gorgeous breeze, and the air feels ten times more dry, but he has followed Ixchel's trail and knows she has ventured somewhere into the grove. He plunges in and enters what feels like another world entirely--because it is.

Dirthamen's estate produces fruits unlike anything his family might anticipate. To the unobservant eye, the oranges are nothing more than oranges, and the peaches are nothing more than peaches, like those gifted to him by his sister. They are of course aware that he studies all manner of subjects and his love for botany is well known. But these oranges, peaches, and, soon, apples, are grown not solely in the Waking world.

They are not grown from his sister's stock. No, these trees were each seeded from dreams he found deep in the Fade, transplanted and transposed here. He had chosen to make this land his home because it was closest to the borders of the Fade, and though he has anticipated some consequences, the ones he found in his orchards had surprised him.

Sometimes, they scared him.

This was one such moment.

"Vun'ean!" he calls as he strides between rows of peach trees. The ground is scattered with some fallen fruit, and their boughs are crowded with them. They are dark, dark red and splotched with orange and yellow like an imagined sunset, and their heady scent perfumes the air. It is enchanting, and he is not fully inured to it--though he can steel himself enough to be safe.

If he were to linger here long, he is not so confident he will be able to resist.

"Vun'ean!" he shouts again, but he cannot help but feel that the trees swallow up his voice entirely.

He continues following the trail she has left behind, more in the shape of how she parts the Fade and does not touch it, than anything else. It is like following in the wake of some aquatic creature as it cuts through water.

A fleeting vision nearly overwhelms him: Ixchel in the water, her dark hair streaming behind her as she approaches him, submerged nearly to her eyes--then rising up, slowly, water cascading from her skin--droplets catching the sun--

"Ixchel!" Dirthamen calls again, breathless.

"Here!"

He races after the sound of her voice, until it floats down to him a second time: "Up here."

He stops in his tracks, his raven hair plastered to his cheeks and neck with sweat, and sees but a glimpse of her up in the tree nearest him. He tries to catch his breath, but fear has gripped him too tightly.

"Ixchel, have you eaten any of these peaches? You are not in trouble, but I must know," he asks.

"I would not take something that you did not give me," she says, offended. "I know it is dangerous here."

That gives Dirthamen pause, and he frowns as he draws closer to the base of the tree. She is perched high above him, lounging with her back against the trunk. Her hair is tied up and away from her face, which shines where the sun hits it.

"They are not dangerous to your health," he says slowly. "So you are certain you have not tried one? Not even a bite?"

"No, my lord," she says with the roll of her eyes clear in her tone alone.

He sighs, and the peaches once again flood his senses upon the inhale.

"What are you doing here, then?" he asks.

"Looking," she replies. "They are beautiful. And up here there is a wind, and a view. The sky is different."

"That is because it is a view into the deeper Fade."

Ixchel's surprise is palpable in her momentary silence. Then she lowers herself down from the higher branches and he can see, as she approaches, her wide and curious eyes. The expression on her face brings heat to his--more heat, at least.

"Then these are Fade-touched fruit?" she asks. "What do they do?"

Dirthamen looks up at her, the strength in her brown arms apparent as she hangs on to a branch above her for balance, the line of her hip and powerful thigh taut as she waits for him to answer, reluctant to leave the tree entirely.

From this angle he can appreciate every curve.

He swallows. "They are a pretty lie."

#da drunk writing circle #dirthamen x lavellan #sunbird #elvhenan au #pssst theyre aphrodisiacs

[semper-legens]

130. Kindred, by Octavia E Butler

Owned?: No, library Page count: 295 My summary: Dana is a black woman in the 1970s, with dreams of being a writer. But when she is called through time to 1815, to save the life of a young boy named Rufus, she is assumed to be a slave. Time after time Dana is called back to the past, her life entwining with that of her ancestors...but what will she do to ensure her own future? My rating: 4.5/5 My commentary:

Once again, I am poaching books from my workplace’s Black History Month display for my own reading, but this is a worthy addition. I’ve never read any of Octavia E Butler’s work before, so this one drew my eye. On the surface, it’s a pretty simple story. A young woman from contemporary America is dragged back in time, and has to interact with her ancestors and, in a roundabout way, assure that she is born. But the layers this story has to it, the nuance packed into both story and characters, means that this story will stay with me for a long time after I put it down.

Warning for slavery, rape, assault, and graphic injury under the cut.

Dana herself is a very strong character. One of the best things about her is how practical she is - after her first trip back in time, she starts packing a bag to take with her containing useful items, like medicine and weapons and maps. She is constantly trying to figure out her situation and understand what is happening to her, and how she can stop it. She’s working things through, she’s giving her own perspective on things, but she’s not invulnerable. When traumatic things happen to her, such as being beaten or causing herself harm, she reacts as any person would. She’s a full human being and very well-written.

Of course, the theme of this book is slavery, and exactly how a person can be either inured to the horrors of slavery or become the enslaver. Rufus starts out as a reasonably innocent young boy, but as we see him grow, we see him becoming more and more monstrous in his treatment of the black people who are legally his property. Dana starts out almost liking him; in the end, the only thing stopping her killing him is the fact that he’s her ancestor, and she has to ensure that she’s born. We the readers are never really encouraged to like Rufus, but we see enough of his point of view to understand how society has warped him into this monster. Similarly, we see Dana becoming more and more used to being treated as a slave, even while she recognises that she has some privileges over the other enslaved people on the property. She remarks on how easy it is to become used to everything that is done to her, and through her we see the other people on the plantation - like Sarah, a cook who could have fallen into the ‘mammy’ stereotype, but who is given depth and agency and character as a deeply angry and traumatised woman suffering the loss of all of her children. Every person has depth, every person has a life and a story, every person feels whole.

And the questions this book raises about morality are fascinating. In order to facilitate her own later birth, Dana essentially facilitates a woman, Alice, being sexually exploited and abused by Rufus. In himself, Rufus isn’t a complete monster, he shows some empathy and decency...but he still keeps people as property and mistreats them horribly. Dana tries to save Alice’s life, nursing her back to health, but Alice is still enslaved and the life Dana saves is a bleak one. Is this right? Is any of this right? How can Dana, or anyone else for that matter, make the right choices when so much choice has been taken from her? The answers aren’t easy, but the questions should be asked.

Next up, a complete tonal shift...and one of the worst books I’ve ever read.

#Kindred #Octavia E Butler #book blog #bookblr #book blogging #4.5

[lapeaudelamemoire]

headache. getting sick of using tumblr actually. getting sick of using everything.

usb-c adapter for wired earbuds got bent out of shape because it's a sticking-out liability. always hated it for that reason but it was the only way i could use wired earbuds. now it's no different from the wired earbuds from when we were teenagers and you had to bend it just a certain way and hold it to keep it going. but wireless earbuds get lost fucking easily and headphones make the keloid scar on the top of my left ear fucking hurt and worsens it by pressing on it.

got a tv to watch things on so my eyes won't be so fucked by watching at a shorter distance on laptop so much but can't fucking watch youtube where many chinese dramas are uploaded because the ads are relentless, and the video players on random chinese streaming sites aren't supported by chromecast.

try to go on tumblr on laptop so i'm not looking at my phone so much. rich text editor is a fucking laggy pos. now i gotta remember to type extra < br > and < p > < / p >s for everything.

can't buy contact lenses online here without a prescription which you have to have updated every two years. who tf has time for that when everything is only open during office hours? you want me to have to take time out from placement for this?

probably have to make another appointment with rent legal aid, which is also limited solely to only during working office hours.

i'm so fucking tired of rent shit taking over my entire month, all the energy and time i have, while trying to deal with school and placement.

that's not even what i came on here to say.

also hate typing on this laptop tbh which is a crying shame but

-

i'm not okay and i don't think we should be. i think we should all stop going to work or school or whatever and i don't want to see another mental health practitioner to talk about how i feel about what's going on in the world today and palestine especially because actually i think this is the correct response that we all should be having, we shouldn't be going on with our daily lives, we are being affected as we fucking should, and i don't want to go see someone about it to 'deal with it' so i can carry on going to work and school like this is fine.

i don't want to be 'well-adjusted' aka inured to this happening. we should be feeling shit. we should be doing something about it in the sense of stopping this atrocity, not in the sense of going to talk to someone to normalise it so we can go back to work or go about our day.

i don't mean we should all traumatise ourselves and not attend to our own health mentally and emotionally, but being deeply affected and depressed that this is going on before our eyes is not wrong or a sign that we need to go see someone to diffuse it. it isn't a maladjustment, we're working as we should - as social creatures who co-regulate. and we should be affected enough to be turning out in the streets en masse to stop things going on as if this is acceptable.

#personal

[sublimeobservationarcade]

Is It Fair For Australian Corporations To Make Record Profits During A Cost Of Living Crisis?

The Australian economic landscape has seen a succession of Australian corporations declaring record profits. The big insurers were the latest, joining the banks, the supermarket duopoly, the airlines, and a host of miners and fossil fuel companies in achieving record profits. Is it fair for Australian corporations to make record profits during a cost of living crisis? Many ordinary citizens are struggling to afford to put food on the table and meet their rent or mortgage payments. High inflation in the local economy has been the given reason but analysis by pundits has revealed that many companies have been price gouging on the back of a lack of competition in the market. This means these companies can set the price and consumers are bereft of power in the equation. “Australia’s life insurance industry doubled its profits to $1.2bn in the 12 months to 30 June 2023, KPMG’s annual market review reveals. The cost of premiums for individual-advised disability income life policies rose by 10-12 percent, consistent with recent years, as insurers tried to staunch losses and boost profitability.” (https://kpmg.com/au/en/home/media/press-releases/2023/10/life-insurance-profits-double-premiums-rise-17-october-2023.html) “Australian private health insurers earned $1.3bn more in surplus from hospital premiums this year compared with two years prior, while returning less money to customers, a new report suggests.” (Natasha May, 15 Dec 2023, The Guardian)

Profit Raking Australian Companies Price Gouging Amid High Inflation

What kind of country do we live in where it is OK for Australian businesses to profit from the pain of the community during an economic crisis? Rents have been spiralling up and up, which means landlords are doing the same to vulnerable tenants. Many of our elected members of parliament are landlords and derive substantial income from their property portfolios. Several enquiries into price gouging by Coles and Woolworths are underway, as governments and unions seek to understand the state of this massive duopoly and its effects upon the nation. Amid all this the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has been steeply raising interest rates on the cash rate in a bid to slow the economy and halt the rise of inflation further. This has been achieved at the cost of much financial stress and the start of job losses throughout the nation.

RBA Offers No Scrutiny On Prices Rises By Australian Businesses Consumers in Australia are the targets of RBA monetary policy and workers too it seems. There were no warnings from the central bank and its governor about price rises by corporations and businesses. No, warnings were directed at any wage increases and at the economic behaviour of consumers. The RBA is firmly on the side of business, as bankers always are in this economic paradigm. It is a strange state of affairs that those raising the prices, which is of course inflationary, do not come under any public scrutiny. The extreme concentration of market share in the hands of too few corporate entities would, one would think, make this lever a far more effective one to pull than the broad spectrum one of raising interest rates. Monetary policy hurts the poorest and those who can least afford it the most within our economy. Its very design is a socioeconomic political statement about where power resides and with whom. “AGL's underlying net profit after tax for the six months ended Dec. 31 was A$399 million ($260.11 million), compared with A$87 million a year earlier. According to Jefferies, the consensus estimate was A$311 million.” (https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/australias-agl-energy-profit-jumps-in-first-half-on-higher-electricity-pricing)

Money Matters More Than People In Australia The Australian community, after a decade of Coalition neoliberal economic policies, has become inured to a money matters most ethos. The LNP invariably put the business side of things first in any debate about what is most important. The divide between rich and poor has become ever wider on their watch. The user pays rentier economic model keeps taking more from those who can least afford it and redistributes that combined largesse to the super rich. Thus, extra big super profits for banks, insurers, miners, oligopolies, billionaires, and the big end of town. Meanwhile the working poor slide further into desperate straits. Rents are unaffordable in Australian cities and there is a dire shortage of rental stock. Governments stopped building social housing because neoliberal economic thinking told them that the market would take care of things. Well, it bloody didn’t! The rise of short term holiday lets further stripped properties from the long term rental market. Again this is about servicing wealthier Australians for their holiday accommodation at the expense of places for workers to live. Record immigration into Australia has just made the shortage of housing stock much worse.  

Corporate Australia A Moral Waste Ground Ordinary Australians are taking it in the neck and the wallet from the corporations doing business here. Domestically big business is feeding on the need for essentials like food, energy, and shelter costs. Record profits are being made across the board at our very real expense. Since the pandemic, we have sustained a barrage of economic wolves at our doors. Any government assistance from that time has been eaten up and then some by these companies who operate as if it is perfectly OK to raid the savings of the working poor for their record profits during a cost of living crisis. There is no moral high ground in the business world in Australia – it is rapacious and uncaring via its price gouging. You know what it says to me? It tells me that many in Corporate Australia are unscrupulous and very willing to take advantage of people when they are down. It is weak s*** from faceless folk putting the boot into needy Australians like the elderly and the poor. It should be called out for what it really is! Allan Fells declared that Australian companies have been raising prices well above their own increased costs of doing business. “The former head of Australia's competition watchdog has urged the federal government to order an in-depth investigation into supermarket profit margins and supply chains, accusing the major chains of "overpricing". “ (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-23/allan-fels-says-supermarkets-are-overcharging-after-accc-inquiry/103378936)

How About A Conversation About What Is Right & Fair? Shouldn’t we as a nation and a community be having a discussion about what kind of country we want to live in and how we do business? About whether price gouging during a cost of living crisis is acceptable corporate behaviour in Australia? Is it really necessary for business to have all the advantages in its corner and for we consumers to have none. Capitalism is supposed to be about a free market economy, but what big business does is remove that competition via mergers and takeovers. The ACCC has failed in Australia and that is because our governments have underfunded it and left it yet another toothless tiger incapable of policing the big end of town. Business has bought our politicians by campaign donations and purchased influence at our expense. Political parties are corrupted by these machinations in their fund raising activities. Where is the NACC? The great invisible new federal ICAC has been nowhere to be seen. Our political campaign funding safeguards are completely inadequate.

Australians Short Shrifted By Corporate Australia We the people are getting short shrift from corporate Australia and our governments. The RBA does nothing but prop up the existing unfair status quo in economic terms. Australia has the greatest corporate concentration of market share in too few hands the world has seen. Our media is owned by Murdoch, Nine Fairfax, and Kerry Stokes. This is why we don’t see too many stories about certain things like corporate control and undue influence because they are in bed with their big advertisers. Unthinking Australians fail to see how they are constantly being manipulated by what they do and don’t see in their news.  Pro-Israel news reporting is but one current example of this sway of corporate media and its doctoring of the news. Murdoch’s News Corp is the most blatantly right wing of the lot always beating a climate change denying, extreme conservative, and anti-progressive drum to its viewers. Murdoch mines the politics of grievance to rile up the dominant cohort of entitled white viewers on Sky News Australia and in his newspapers. Famously in America his Fox News is largely responsible for making the extreme polarization between left and right far worse. Profiting by stirring up contention and ill feeling. Fox News was successfully sued nearly a billion dollars for reporting libellous and untrue stuff about the 2020 presidential election in the US. Lies and distortions are the bread and butter of the right wing press around the globe.

Is it fair for Australian corporations to make record profits during a cost of living crisis? The simple answer is no. What are we as a country going to do about it. Will the apathetic Aussie stand up for her or his human rights? Will we demand our governments do more? These supermarket behemoths should be broken up, as should many of the oligopolies and duopolies operating in our economy. Prices must come down! People over profits! The smug Scott Morrison is gone and the Coalition are no longer in power. It is time to make some real changes to undo the economic advantages of the big end of town. Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Money Matters: Navigating Credit, Debt, and Financial Freedom.  ©WordsForWeb

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#Australia #coprporateAustralia #costoflivingcrisis #highinflation #moralfailure #politics #Woolworths

[wordtowords]

The Color Vermilion

vermilion - noun - a brilliant red color (Google)

For whatever reason, lately I've been noticing colors, red in particular. Yes, I've been seeing red, but mainly in the positive sense. Perhaps it is because it is autumn in the New York area, and the trees that are still managing to hang on to their leafy headdresses are modeling their most brilliant hues, vermilion being one since the Japanese maple is common in these parts. Two days before Thanksgiving, the retail store owners are busily preparing for the upcoming holiday season, displaying garlands of Fraser fir, garnished with vermilion ribbons to festoon the tops of the in-store cases. Even the winter wreaths that droop from up high on the street lamps sport smiling vermilion bowties. Like a narcissist, red likes to be noticed.

Yet vermilion isn't seasonal. The ubiquitous signs of red generally exist to warn not to forewarn. But are we beings who are inured to the color becoming immune to their attempts to control our actions? I often think we are, intentionally or unintentionally. For instance, there is a huge vermilion plaque that is posted next to the pool in my health club. It reads: "Shower Before Entering" or something to that effect. It is large enough to be viewed and ignored. Seriously, I think people see it and do the opposite, thinking it is just a suggestion, not a command. Heck, even I ignore it because it has a dictatorial attitude that is off putting. Yet the belligerent majority goes unpunished since the apathetic lifeguards dressed in matching red T-shirts don't enforce it. Maybe they should because I've noticed that the dirt littering the concrete bottom of the pool is becoming more and more apparent. Maybe I'll set an example and obey the signage if only to be rebellious. Other vermilion signs are meant to direct traffic accordingly, and I have witnessed oblivion in regard to them as well. Yes, I'm talking about the stop signs and the red lights at intersections. Running these might cause vehicular injuries or deaths, and does; however, some still don't respond to vermilion posts. And they should even if it is inconvenient. 

In this busy world filled with complications and distractions, it is hard to stay on track, hard to see the vermilion sign posts that exist to save us from ourselves. Despite being human, wanting to change the course of history by not following the rules, we just have to sometimes because in doing so, the greater good becomes better, healthier, safer. I am hoping to live to see more in the way of red. Just sayin'. 

#word-to-words #slice-of-life #blog #blogging #editorial #reading #vocabulary #ReadersMagnet #spilled thoughts #good advice #personal-essay #writing community #writing #truth

[tehjmastuh-rants-101]

To Michigan's Health Care and Health Inurance Systems

I'd thought I'd put my literal $0.02 by saying that YOU ALL FUCKING SUCK!! I was recently involved in a really bad car accident, and now feeling the after effects of not one occuring pained hip but two of them. And it seems like we can't fucking get help of sympathy from anyone. Even when we go to our appointments witch I tried to attend today, I've wasted $20.00 in gas, and my time, and my mother's time. We did NOT vote for shit like this. Biden should've done a better job in office, but he will continue to fuck Michigan Health over until a new president gets in office.

To whom it may concern, this is your very pissed off patient who is sick, injured, and on the brink of health anarchy if no one is gonna fucking help a sick patient like me. So, if I die. It's not my fault. It's your fault for not providing the care that I seek out for. And it's not just me that needs the care, it's other ppl in my family such as my own mother.. Insurance companies needs to do better and give us better fucking policies. Enough is enought! Signed your pissed off patient! RANT OVER!!

#Health #healthcare #Youhealthdontmattertothers #all health matters #mental health matters #orthopedic health matters #rants #vent it out #venting

[mymedtrips]

Best Knee Replacement Surgeons in India

Knee is the largest joint of the human body, it is a hinge joint which allows flexion and extension and also slight internal and external rotation. It connects our thigh to our lower leg. Similar to all other joints, the knees are part of our skeletal system. The knee helps to support our weight. It is synovial joint and have freedom to move. Any movement that involves our legs relies on our knees. It is also considered as compound joint, hence there is a chance of it to get injured easily.

The knee is made up of bones, cartilage, muscles, ligaments, nerves and tendon and three bones, femur, tibia and the patella. The ends of the femur and tibia and the back of the patella are covered with the articular cartilage. This cartilage is slippery substance and it helps the knees to glide smoothly when the leg is stretched or bend. There are two wedge-shaped pieces of meniscal cartilage which act as shock absorbers between the femur and tibia. Ligament in the knee act like a rope which holds the bones together, and keep our knee stable. Muscles are connected with bones by the tendons.

Among the most common injuries, the ligamentous and meniscal tears are most common. Anything that damages the bones or tissues affects the knees, they can be- arthritis, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, ACL tears, MCL tears, meniscus tears, sprains, bone fractures, dislocation. Some of the common tests advised to diagnose the knees are X-rays, ultrasound, CT scan, MRI.

Knee transplant or knee replacement surgery is done to replace the inured parts or the worn-out knee joints. This can help ease pain and makes the knee to work better. In the surgery, the damaged bone and cartilages are replaced with metal parts. These surgeries are done in by best surgeons for knee replacement surgery in India in best knee replacement surgery hospitals in India. To be confirmed whether a knee replacement is required or not, the knee’s range of motion, stability and strength is checked by the surgeons.

Most common reason for knee transplant surgery is to relieve arthritis pain. Surgeons recommend either a total knee transplant or partial transplant. Surgeons provide the required diagnosis to get ready for a surgery. This includes- a whole body physical examination, blood tests, ECG to check heart health, dental exam to reduce the risk of having infection post-surgery, imaging tests. These tests may add up to a huge knee replacement surgery cost in India.

Knee Replacement Surgery cost in India

The minimum knee replacement surgery cost in India is INR 1,50,000, while the maximum knee replacement surgery price in India is INR 6,00,000. However, the price varies depending upon the location of hospitals in different cities. The price of knee replacement surgery in India is based on method of surgery, cost of implant, doctor’s fees, type of replacement, hospital stay.

Best Knee Replacement Surgery Hospitals in India

Best hospitals for knee replacement surgery in India are- Fortis Hospital, Nanavati Hospital, and Artemis Hospital.

Best Knee replacement Surgeons in India

Some of the best knee replacement surgerons in India are- Dr. Ashok Rajgopal, Dr. Harshavardan Hegde, and Dr. Subhash Jangid.

My Med Trip is a leading medical tourism company in India. We are offering complete medical and healthcare services with medical consulting in India for foreign patients. We help patients in finding the best hospitals, top doctors, and good accommodations at affordable costs in India. We offer surgeries, treatment and transplant. Some of them are kidney transplant cost in India, heart transplant, bone marrow transplant in India, cancer treatment, liver transplant in India,  prostate cancer, best cardiologist in India, ovarian cancer, hip replacement surgery cost in India, knee replacement, shoulder replacement surgery cost in India, brain tumor,  breast cancer surgery in India, orthopedic surgery cost in India, shoulder surgeons,best hospital for prostate treatment in India, orthopedic surgeons, liver cancer treatment in India, heart valve replacement knee surgeons, and so on.

Source: https://mymedtrips.blogspot.com/2023/10/best-knee-replacement-surgeons-in-india.html

[injuredcyclist]

This is hardly the first time I’ve questioned American empathy. I feel this way each time someone says “All lives matter” after an innocent Black American is shot by a cop. I feel this way whenever I see people cheering legislation that makes trans youth fear using a bathroom or just trying to be comfortable in who they are. I question our empathy every time someone starts talking about the Second Amendment within hours of a shooting at a school or mall or grocery store. I feel this way whenever I see elected officials wishing ill health or death on their political enemies. How emotionally healthy are we, as a people, when, in moments of profound and painful tragedy, we feel compelled to insert our political opinions or policy positions? Can we not, just for a moment, feel for the victims?

#the atlantic #empathy #xochitl gomez #I wonder how much this is related to people not being aware of their surroundings and other people in grocery stores #or waking around in public or even crossing parking lots #the number of people I’ve watched not bothering to look for oncoming cars in lots is mind blowing

[minim]

The Candle Burns yet It Also Sheds Light Upon Us

One might assume I hated my parents, but I almost never did and not at all until I was an adult. In part, this was because I could not process the trauma and insecurity of my childhood until I had strayed far from it in time. I do not believe I understood how random violence and parental vindictiveness (often seemingly in response to nothing any of us children had done) had such an effect on me.

I cannot categorically assert this, but I believe (or at least I feel) the terribleness of my parents hurt me the most—not because I was directly hurt the most, but because I felt it the most. The terror was permanent to me. The idea that violence and anger could arise out of the air kept me alert, always ready for an eruption of anger, and not necessarily directed at me.

Only in the last couple of years, after decades of processing our life as a family have I figured our the rough outlines of the familial disorder we children suffered—and suffer we did. I have concluded (though I certainly could be wrong) that the reason I still feel this long-passed pain and horror is because I created myself as an empath, which allowed me to feel intensely the pain, humiliation, and disregard—the simple disregard for the health and care and protection needed by but rarely received by each of my siblings and me.

I believe this because I locked my siblings in my bedroom, so my father could not hurt us while he was beating my mother until she could not see out of her eyes. I believe this because when I grabbed José Sanjines’ jacket as he was turning from me, thus tearing it, he insisted on a fight to balance the weight of the world in the direction of justice. After a few minutes, I was clearly in control, with José on his back, me atop him, and both his arms pinned to the ground. But I had no will to hit him, so he took over the fight and won. I walked home—just a few Andean blocks—with my face bloodied. My father saw the state of my body and said nothing. I assume he believed I lost a fight because I did not possess the manly will for violence. I just had no desire to hurt, having experienced enough for myself and no desire to add to anyone’s burden of physical pain.

I will remind you I am no saint. I have hurt people in my life, even those closest to me, but I have wrought physical violence very rarely, and never as the instigator.

So it is that I believe I experienced the pain my parents meted out to my siblings—pain in the form of justice, of course. The strongest of us and thus the one who suffered the most and the longest was my middle sister, who became a marathoner in her adulthood, maybe because she had inured herself from pain. She collapsed at the end of one marathon, likely because she had no idea she was pregnant, but she finished the marathon, and her son was born and continues to be hale and hearty.

This sister was designated the fat daughter by my mother, though the difference in weight between her and my other sisters was due merely to a difference in age and height. This sister was forced to finish her meals (and, yes, I realize the irony in this), and at a least once she was left overnight to finish her dinner—which she never did. She waited and slept in the darkness of the living room overnight. She was the daughter who wet the bed (as I, earlier, was the son who did the same), and my mother would terrorize my sister in the middle of the night if she had wet the bed and then forced her to sleep naked on a wet mattress.

These stories are not the usual familial recollections we tell about our childhoods, but each of us lives in a different world—each with different affordances and impediments. I did not have an elder sibling who could, decades after the fact, piece together our chaotic childhood to explain what had happened to me. (Though neither do my siblings, since I do not speak to four of them, and the remaining one communicates with me once or twice a year, and I never initiate a conversation.)

The point of this story, however, concerns my mother, who died in her early sixties, just before she would have been eligible for Social Security, which she awaited more impatiently than she waited for grandchildren. Her death was a blessing to her, because she otherwise would have died as her sister did, gasping for air as emphysema slowly killed her, just as it murdered my dear aunt.

My mother was not a proper mother, and my father will never be an acceptable either. They lived their entire lives as children, my father now—if the stories of my middle sister are correct—a ball of dementia, as I am likely to be in my future.

I cannot forgive anything or anyone. Not even myself. If we speak ill of others (as I do and am doing now) we also must also hold ourselves to account.

But we also live in two worlds simultaneously. One is the real world, where so much goes wrong and we are never good enough and the weight of humanity impinges on us as a weight upon our chests (exaggerated for rhetorical effect). And the other is our cinematic life, in which our parents love and care for us, our friends don’t abandon us at the first scent of distress, and we believe we can do good on this weary and benighted planet.

And in that latter life, which is one of the lifetimes I live within, I always light a votive candle, if I find myself in a Catholic Church, in remembrance of my long dead, childish, and massively flawed mother. I do this because she would be pleased if she knew I was doing this. I conduct this pointless act—usually in Europe—because I want her to be the mother she never was, and because I wish I could have been the son I was never allowed to be.

I carry out this simple act because I tried very hard to ensure my children would never have the life my siblings and I had. If I succeeded in anything in life—and I did not do this alone—I raised my children without terror and with love. My childhood did not allow me the prospect of love, but I required it for my children.

I have stepped on this earth to raise my children well and erase the memory of my past. And I provide an image of the candle I burned for my mother in the new cathedral in Salamanca, Spain.

#essay

[dallasareaopinion]

That word better is a bit generalized, but what is the follow up

And that is difficult to find or define. Better can be taken out of context, but it is not just a generalized term, it is also subject to individual interpretations. What I think is better is completely different from what you think is better.

And then for me to say that society needs to make it “better” is just another monsterous context problem that you as the reader cannot make heads or tails.

So lets switch gears and not define better, but try and find out why we cannot make our society or government better. And there is actually some context for this thought.

It is hard to make something better if you have no control to make your own life better. And for our own society or government to be better we need the personal ability to make our lives better, but yet again if our society or government were better then it would be easier to make our lives better and the circular philosophy begins. So lets take a quote completely out of context to see what we can do.

One of the many complaints I have had over the years is the decline of the middle class in our society. And there are many reasons for this, but I recently came across a different perspective than I normally read.

I have been reading a book called The Myth of Normal by Gabor Mate, MD with Daniel Mate.(not finished yet) This book deals mainly with how trauma affects our lives and more specifically our health. The bottom of the cover has this blurb: Trauma, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture. And this is important because it is this (or a) toxic culture that prevent us from being better. And if you throw in that people have experienced trauma that affects their lives, and the book goes into great detail about this aspect, you get an idea of why better is more difficult than we would like it to be. 

So it brings me Chapter 19″From Society to Cell: Uncertainty, Conflict, and Loss of Control. 

“We know that chronic stress, whatever its source, puts the nervous system on edge, distorts the hormonal apparatus, impairs immunity……..” and goes on to start to tie in the stress affecting us individually affects us as a society. And that leads to page 214 (there are footnotes in his book that you are not included in this text).

“Many people exist at the mercy of forces completely beyond their power to affect let along control. Who knows when the next cyclic recession will strike or when yet another megabusiness will downsize, merge or relocate so that livelihoods are jeopardized with barely a day’s notice. Even prior to COVID-19′s economic ravages, one had become almost inured to news that yet another corporation was declaring masses of employees redundant “High Street Crisis Deepens as 3,150 Staff Lose Jobs in One Week” was a headline in the Guardian in January 2020 a few weeks before the pandemic arrived in Britain” (and currently we can add the AI headlines to adding to our job stresses, my note). “Only months earlier, the New York Times had reported on the deepening insecurity of American families: “The cost of housing, health care and education are consuming ever larger shares of household budgets and have risen faster than incomes. Today’s middle class families are working longer, managing new kinds of stress and shouldering greater financial risks than previous generations did. (13) As the famed anthropologist, researcher and author Wade Davis remarked recently in a broadly circulated Rolling Stone piece, “Though living in a nation that celebrates itself as the wealthiest in history, most Americans live on a high wire, with no safety net to brace a fall(14).  A better blueprint for allostatic overload could not be imagined.” 

So what do this mean to achieving better, interestingly this goes back to my attempt at humor with the circular statement above. In my opinion the three most important aspects of having a successful middle class are the three items mentioned in the New York Times piece from the book. Having good housing, health care and education are the foundations for families to feel secure and then be able to grow. You have heard it many times the backbone of a democracy is a strong middle class and to have a strong middle class you need housing and health care security, then education to grow as a person and be able to contribute even more. If the middle class is struggling with all three then the middle class struggles to be better hence they cannot contribute to the larger better of society. So to make the middle class better hence our country better or our government better, we need to make ourselves better, but here comes the circle, we need the government to be better so we have access or have the ability to access better housing, healthcare and education. 

This blurb from the book is out of context from the whole of the book, yet it helps me to explain some of the challenges we face when I say we need to make things better. 

Like I mentioned I have not read the whole book and there are some aspects of it from talking to others who have finished it that I would not condone, but overall if we are experiencing events that create a sense of trauma in us, (better explained in the book) then how can we go forth as a well rounded human being to overcome what ails us to become better. The book references this as a concern for our overall health, but in the chapter 19 it touches on more of what I pratter on about which is the health of our society or any society for that matter.  

How can I ask you as a fellow citizen to help us make this country better, when we are all affected by traumatic events in our lives that negatively effect how we perceive what is better. A hungry person sees a meal as better, a rich person sees more wealth as better, but for the vast majority of us, what should be our basics in having a strong society have been lost over the years or why I say the middle class is declining. Unfortunately I am not so well read that I have references handy to back me up, however I do feel confident that this topic has voluminous works that would validate some of my points.

I do like this book because it is an interesting read, but also because it hit on something I feel is lost today from a completely different viewpoint. Sure one paragraph on page 214 is not the whole answer, but it alludes to exactly what all of the middle class is feeling right now which is this feeling that something has been taken away from us that we are having a hard time identifying. And if we cannot identify or put our finger on it, we cannot define what would be better. 

Which leads me to say, we need new leadership (new parties) to stop the circular philosophical problem above and help us identify what is needed for better housing, healthcare and education and subsequently help us get there.

Cheers