Category Archives: Uncategorized

wizardarchetypes:

I know I’ve posted about this but I still think about the time I was a dog groomer in the middle of nowhere and that old lady called in and said she had a wolf and we were like whatever and booked her because sooo many people who say they even have wolf crosses actually just have GSD/malamute crosses or whatever so she came in and it was actually a wolf and I was like ma’am idk if I can bathe your wolf actually and she was like I told you it was a wolf and I was like I mean. That’s true you are correct this is on us. However,

faggotstump:

faggotstump:

MESSAGE TO ALL BITCHES: WE ARE SURVIVING THIS YEAR NO MATTER WHAT.

CAUSE PROBLEMS ON PURPOSE.

animentality:

uterus v2.9.1 has been installed.

winderlylandchime:

I’m seeing a bunch of posts that make me think most USAmericans don’t know about The No Surprises Act.

It was passed in 2021 (thank you Biden) and essentially states that if you don’t have insurance or your insurance doesn’t cover a service you need (or want) you are entitled to a Good Faith Estimate of the cost of care. (If your insurance does cover the service, you should be able to estimate the cost of care based on your deductible and co-pay.)

As a healthcare provider who does not accept any insurance, I am very careful to not violate The No Surprises Act. Why? Because for every penny more than $400 that the Good Faith Estimate was “off” (or if it wasn’t provided), you are entitled to a refund for that amount.

Y’all. Ask for a Good Faith Estimate. Get it in writing. Compare it to what you are paying. If you are not provided an estimate or if it’s wrong by more than $400, demand a refund.

catasters:

hylianengineer:

hylianengineer:

86 Stories of Progress from 2024

Would anyone like to join me in my New Year’s tradition of reading about good things that happened this year?

A couple highlights:

• There are now ZERO COAL POWER PLANTS in the UK. Zero! Also zero in Slovakia, which closed its last coal plant a full SIX YEARS ahead of schedule! This is great because coal is like, the dirtiest fuel source ever. It’s awful for the planet, it’s awful for our lungs, it’s just The Worst. Goodbye and good riddance!
• Last year, EU CO2 emissions fell by 8%, and the data’s not all in for this year yet but they’re on track to drop even more. Yeah, you read that right – the EU may have already passed peak carbon emissions. Excuse me while I do a happy dance over here in the corner – this is a BIG FUCKING DEAL!
• This may have been a bad year for abortion rights in the US, but we’re an outlier – over the past 30 years, we are only one of four countries to tighten abortion restrictions, while 60 countries have made it more available. This year, France became the first country in the whole world to make abortion a constitutional right. Seven US states did so too – Colorado, New York, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, Arizona and Missouri. That’s right, Missouri! Shocking, huh?
• A drug to prevent HIV infections was 100% effective in trials. That. That’s insane. It’s not a vaccine, but it is the closest we’ve ever been to one.
• Deaths from tuberculosis, the deadliest infectious disease in the world, hit an all-time global low. Hooray for preventing a truly staggering amount of death!
• Egypt and Cabo-Verde both eliminated malaria, and 17 countries started distributing the new malaria vaccine – remember that? Remember how insanely exciting it is that was now have a vaccine for malaria? It is saving lives as we speak.
• Deforestation in the Amazon is half what it was two years ago.
• The largest dam removal project in history was completed – removing four dams from the Klamath River, thanks to decades of activism by the Karuk and Yurok tribes. A month later, there were salmon spawning in the river basin again – for the first time in a century. Nature’s pretty incredible at bouncing back, if we can just give it the chance. I repeat: Largest. Dam removal. In history!
• China finished the Great Green Wall
• Prewalski’s horses returned to their homeland in central Kazakhstan, where they’d been missing for 200 years!
• 22 species were removed from the endangered list – let’s hear it for the Saimaa ringed seal, Scimitar oryx, Red cockaded woodpecker, Siamese crocodile, Narwhal, Arapaima, Chipola slabshell and Fat threeridge mussels, Iberian lynx, Asiatic lions, Australian saltwater crocodile, Asian antelope,  Ulūlu, Southern bluefin tuna, Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog, Yellow-footed rock wallabies, Yangtze finless porpoise, Pookila mouse, Orange-bellied parrots, Putitor mahseer (this is a fish), Giant pandas, and Florida golden aster!

This year was deeply shitty in a lot of ways – but not all of them.

alexilulu:

eterniitea:

naamahdarling:

redshift-13:

The health insurance industry has a term for this sadistic practice. It’s called “step therapy.” If the choice is between a more expensive medication that works and a cheaper one that doesn’t work as well and might have worse side effects, the insurance company requires that the cheaper drug be used first.

One benefit to the insurance company is that the patient on the cheaper drug might die before they get a chance to use the drug that works but is more expensive. That’s money in the bank for the insurance company.

Or, the patient might be so worn down and harmed by the cheaper drug that they just give up the fight to get the drug that will help them. Again, that’s bank for the insurance company.

Can’t even describe how many times the latter has occurred to me. It’s fucking exhausting.

You CAN get exceptions sometimes but the insurance company can just…decide to change their mind, or not honor it, randomly. Or force you to renew it.

My BF gets monthly harassing letters from United pressuring him to go on a medication that doesn’t fucking exist. “Friendly” of course, very “Oh heyyy bestie, we’re your cute little gatekeepers, tee hee, and we noticed you were on this dumb little druuuug, so icky and expensive. But how about this other one, the generic? Yeah. It hasn’t actually been made available yet or anything, this has been an issue for moooonths but it’d be great if you could swiiiitch. We just enjoy making sure you make the best decisions and would love it if you just, like, became unable to hold the job that gets you insured with uuuuuus.” *Intense vocal fry*

Good news for people in Illinois, step therapy will be banned starting Jan. 1, 2025! And prior auth for mental health crisis inpatient stays, and junk insurance. It’s the first state to ban step therapy, and won’t be the last (I hope).

Pritzker signs law banning health insurance companies’ ‘predatory tactics,’ including step therapy

And in 2026 will require insurance to cover a name brand medication if the generic is experiencing a shortage.

Murphy law combats prescription medication shortages

And a lot of other cool stuff. So, go Illinois!

If you’re facing step therapy rejections for needed medication, tell your provider about steptherapy.com, which is an organization connected to the National Psoriasis Foundation, one of the conditions that deals a lot with this. They provide state by state breakdowns of protections against step therapy requirements that don’t help you or don’t make logical sense. They also provide forms tailored to each state’s specific protective law if one exists and give your provider a straightforward way to state why you need a therapy over its bullshit alternatives. It’s concise, to the point and very strongly worded.

I use this at work daily and it’s improving our hit rate in fighting step therapy requirements for diseases where a failed step in step therapy means permanent, degenerative harm to their body (not even including mental anguish from having to go through a failed therapy to receive necessary care). If you’re faced with shit like this, advocate for yourself as much as you can and go down swinging in the appeals process (every insurance in the US is required to provide an appeals process for denials, you CAN win in there with your doctor’s help) if you gotta.

flinxypie:

whatcoloristhatcat:

cute-catts:

The calmest orange car ever 🐱🐱

red mackerel tabby

@thatmooncake

catchymemes: