Eric Takabayashi wrote:
> Kevin Gowen wrote:
>
>> Michael Cash wrote:
>>> If there is anything more bizarre and fucked up than the Sepponian
>>> health insurance situation, I don't want to know about it. I
>>> (re)injured a knee and my doctor recommended surgery. The hassle
>>> with
>>> the insurance company to get it approved was unbelievable. I finally
>>> got on the phone myself to a sweet young thang at the insurance
>>> company and asked her what the deal was. Her words: "My supervisor,
>>> Cricket, has to approve all surgeries".
>>>
>>> I gave up.
>>>
>>> My health care depended not on the judgment of a physician, but on
>>> some inaccessible chick by the name of "Cricket".
>>
>> I think that Americans overuse health insurance to an alarming
>> degree. Insurance of any kind is "oh shit" money.
>> Oh shit! My house burned down! (here's your check)
>> Oh shit! My car was crashed in a wreck! (here's your check)
>> Oh shit! A crane fell on me and I need emergency care! (here's your
>> check) Oh shit! I'm dead! (here's the check for the fam)
>>
>> This odd practice of using insurance to pay for the routine and
>> expected expenses of maintaining one's health such as routine
>> checkups, prescription medication, etc. is simply mind-boggling.Oh,
>> and let's not forget the folks who think it is an employer's duty to
>> provide heath insurance. I actually know a waiter in this town who
>> thinks that his employer (a small restaurant in a strip mall) should
>> be providing him health insurance.

Bullseye.  just knew you would respond to this.

> Will you not look for such benefits in your employment package?

Not particularly. I mean, it's nice if it's there but it would not be a deal
maker or breaker.

> I know a woman (among many I've met) who *proudly* announced she had
> just quit her job (and was "very happy"), and after hearing her
> dissatisfaction with her old job, I suggested joining a well known
> temp agency to find the kind of work she would like and have the kind
> of freedom from responsibility she explicitly craved, she said that
> she *might* try it, AFTER collecting some unemployment.

Sheesh.

> This woman is apparently one of those many people, almost always
> women, I've known who thinks they are entitled to receive hundreds of
> thousands, perhaps even millions of yen, and enjoy a vacation of up
> to 330 days (perhaps even traveling and shopping abroad), because
> they've paid a few hundred yen a month in unemployment insurance,

Starting to understand why I hate entitlement programs? I know of a woman,
divorced with one child, who is now living with a man whom she appears to
love very much. Guess what her stated reason for not marrying the man is.

> while other people even in a small place like Fukuyama, like another
> woman I know, are only allowed to have ONE discretionary holiday per
> year at Boon. This other woman was told this was the first and last
> time she would be able to have such a day off.

What's Boon? Was it an annual company practice of bestowing a nice thing
(boon) upon an employee?

-- 
Kevin Gowen
"When I'm president, we'll do executive orders to overcome any wrong
thing the Supreme Court does tomorrow or any other day." Dick Gephardt
(D-MO), presidential candidate