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23908. thoughtful - 4/9/2008 1:37:57 PM I hope you suggested to your friend that s/he try showing up at the emergency room to get a colonoscopy screening test and see how far s/he gets. 23909. thoughtful - 4/9/2008 1:49:59 PM J@h, that is amazing. I think they kept my brother in the hospital for at least a week after he had his stent put in.
And that money up front thing with insurance is beyond belief. What happens to all the people who don't have the $10k because they spent it on paying their insurance premiums!
Just like the catch-22 with the alternative minimum tax, which we get nailed by. We're not masters of foundations and charitable giving or anything. But we pay through the nose in property taxes which increases our deductions so much that the feds make us pay even more with the AMT!
 23910. judithathome - 4/9/2008 3:49:58 PM I don't know what people do who are told they need a stent in their brain when they have no access to ten grand that they can come up with in ten days' time. I guess they don't get one and they die.
Wonk, tell your friends they don't generally DO neurosurgery in the ER...or, as Thoughtful says, diagnostic testing. In fact, twice now my son has been sent home with incorrect diagnoses after trips to the ER....once they told him he had a pulled muscle in his leg...he had a blocked artery and almost lost his leg...and once they said it was sinus headache, sent him home, and it was a stroke.
So your GOP friends, who likely will never have to depend on ER care, can be content with the knowledge that the great unwashed is slowly being weeded out for lack of funds.
And I mean no disrespect to anyone who works in ERs...they save lives and work under immense pressure, made even worse by the numbers of people who can't afford regular care. It's just that mistakes CAN be made...especially when they are dead tired from treating everyone and their dogs for every known malady. The last time I was at the ER (Keoni had what we thought was a ruptured hernia) a man came in with his girlfriend and he had a COLD...a cold and cough which he could have treated with OTC stuff from the drugstore. He ended up in the cubicle next to Keoni and I could hear him describing his illness...it was Friday night and he'd had this for three days; he didn't even have a fever! The med tech suggested he go buy some Nyquil and Mucinex at Walgreen's. And this cost approximately $900+....for a damned cold. But of course, he got his advice from the ER for free.
23911. judithathome - 4/9/2008 3:52:54 PM I grew up thinking you didn't go to the emergency room for anything but a dire emergency...a car wreck left you with broken bones; a heart attack; an early labor coming on...a stroke.
Not colds or flu or a vague ache in your hand from carpel tunnel syndrome. 23912. thoughtful - 4/9/2008 4:17:54 PM But that's precisely the point. In one sense, we do have universal health care...it's just that the system operates so poorly and is so full of inefficiencies that we are getting worse outcomes for more than twice the cost of those countries that do have universal health care.
And for all of those folks who gripe about socialized medicine (note it really isn't socialized medicine...it IS socialized insurance!), they should ask all the folks in the USA who currently get socialized medicine, known as medicare, how happy they are. 23913. wonkers2 - 4/9/2008 4:31:19 PM True. 23914. Ms. No - 4/9/2008 6:14:02 PM Good news, Judith!
Congratulations on the groundbreaking T'ful!
hey, Wonk, do your neighbors make you wanna join iiibbb in his gun stance? ;->
My trip to the tax specialist this year pissed me off because I had to claim my state REFUND from last year as INCOME. Sure sounds like double taxation to me but of course we don't do that. My accountant was hopping mad. She's been to several conferences already protesting this ridiculousness. 23915. thoughtful - 4/9/2008 8:12:39 PM Thanks, missy, but we're still waiting...nothing yet. 23916. anomie - 4/9/2008 8:24:14 PM Ms No, But you deducted the same amount from last year's tax, no? So by claiming the refund as income, you are simply correcting the record from last year. Otherwise you'd be deducting the same amount twice.
Your tax advisor doesn't get this? 23917. wonkers2 - 4/9/2008 9:07:15 PM No, Ms. No, they don't. More guns aren't the answer to the problem. 23918. Ms. No - 4/10/2008 7:07:49 AM Anomie,
I'm not sure if you're kidding or if I'm just not getting it. That money was earned in 2006. Just because the government was holding it until 2007 doesn't make it income for 2007. 23919. Ms. No - 4/10/2008 7:08:38 AM Ah, Wonk, you know I was teasing you. Dontcha eveb wanna throw a rock at 'em? Maybe just a little? 23920. anomie - 4/10/2008 12:03:02 PM Ms No,
I'm not kidding. I know ot sucks, but it makes perfect sense. Each year we deduct the total amount of state tax withheld as if that's the amount of state tax we actually pay. But some of us get some of that money back in the form of a refund, meaning in effect that we took a deduction we didn't deserve. In order to "correct" for the amount we over-deducted, we clain the refund as income and pay tax on it the following year. Then we AGAIN deduct the current year's withholding - all of it - and start the cycle over.
I'm astonished that the person who does your taxes doesn't explain this to you. 23921. thoughtful - 4/10/2008 2:32:28 PM anomie, that's the way i understand it as well. We were in a situation with tax refunds for a couple of years and it took a couple of years to get it to all go away. 23922. judithathome - 4/10/2008 2:42:47 PM Spent an hour in our "terror room"...the laundry room...while tornado sirens went off all around us from 3 am until 4. We listened as the rain and hail and wind pelted the house.
I guess we survived okay. I read Keoni and Harley an article from the newspaper about the Pillsbury Bake-Off. Kept them all calm and relaxed. 23923. thoughtful - 4/10/2008 2:46:37 PM scary stuff...glad you're ok. 23924. anomie - 4/10/2008 3:04:32 PM Ms No, just to clarify: Yes, it is money earned in 2006, but you didn't pay tax on it in 2006. You deducted it. Therefore, your refunded amount is now taxable in 2007 (the year in which you receive it). The good news is that you don't need to pay a penalty for deducting too much in 2006. You simply claim the refunded amount as ordinary income in 2007. 23925. anomie - 4/10/2008 3:07:49 PM Judith, we don't have much extreme weather here in Vegas, but come to think of it, my little laundry/utility room would be the best shelter just in case. Thanks! I'll stash a flashlight and a book in there! 23926. arkymalarky - 4/10/2008 3:21:20 PM That stuff is hitting here now and Mose is on a bus full of school kids and won't be back until noon. Another group of kids is on a much longer trip--overnight--through horrible weather. Makes me a nervous wreck. I don't stress having to sit in the hall with a bunch of kids, but on the road withthem in bad weather is very scary.
I couldn't decide about Mazie, then decided she'd be safer outside. It's working out to be a hellatious storm season. 23927. Ms. No - 4/10/2008 5:13:56 PM Anomie,
Thanks, that does make sense, but now I'm a little disturbed about why my tax person didn't explain this. I mean, I probably wouldn't even have noticed had she not made such a big deal about it.
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