Kirk W

13 hours ago, Ro and Joe said:

Was told to try Pine Sol and Calgon

Be careful as Pine Sol has a history of damaging the seals in the system after a period of use. 

Calgon Carbon Products Application

Thanks for sharing that, Chalkie! I just posted it on my Facebook page too. 

1 hour ago, 2gypsies said:

Could you give a link to the article you're talking about?

He did post a link but it was removed because it was a bit over the line into politics. The article was about mobile home park lot rental rates. We attempted to find a less political version of the story but could not find one. That article discusses who the residents will vote for in the coming election.

I think that he is interested in RV park rates and we all know that those have risen pretty much everywhere, but more in larger population areas and high tourist areas. 

2 hours ago, Chalkie said:

Since then UC Health has added 3 Urgent Care, 5 Primary Care, 7 Medical buildings, 1 new Hospital, and 1 stand alone Emergency Room to its portfolio. I daresay this was not all done with donations and grants.

So are those facilities sitting empty and unused, or was it needed expansion? Any "non-profit" or not for profit organization still has to take in more than they pay out in salaries and expenses, plus funds to pay for maintenance and upgrades, replacement of equipment and structures, and all of the other things that any for profit business does, with the exception of paying any dividends to investors. Organizations that attempt to operate on a break-even financial status, sooner or later find themselves facing bankruptcy. 

This thread got me to poking about trying to find more information about who owns hospitals nationwide and some of what I discovered has been quite surprising. 

Relative to skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), hospitals are more likely to be non-profit and government-owned and less likely to be for-profit. Across all ownership types, 54.6 percent are structured as corporations, 26.6 percent as limited liability companies, 2.6 percent as partnerships, and 16.2 percent as “other.”   Aug 2, 2023

Ownership of Hospitals:

Control type Non-profit  2,286 hospitals ~ 49.2% ~ 209 beds

For-profit  1,677 hospitals ~ 36.1% ~ 107 beds

Government  681 hospitals ~ 14.7%  ~ 175 beds

It would be fine if you were to post them.

Just use the other media tab in the lower, right corner of the posting window. When you click on it there are 2 choices. If you use "insert from url" paste the address you get these results.

How much higher is the floor in the slide now? It looks like a couple of inches. 

There is a limit to what you can store on the forum host but if you store your pictures on any of the free photo storage sites you can post them via that url as much and as many as you wish. 

• Photobucket.
• Shutterfly.
• Adobe Creative.
• SmugMug.
• Flickr.
• 500px.
• Dropbox.
• Google Photos.

4 minutes ago, Angie M said:

What happened?

Nothing has changed. The forum is the same as it has been since it moved to the present host.

I am glad to hear that you found a solution and sure would like some pictures.

1 hour ago, Chalkie said:

When I was younger it seemed that insurance was at least balanced. Patient care was good, insurance paid the providers well, and the investors made money. Today with all the consolidations in the medical industry into giant medical providers that control multiple aspects of health care under one umbrella, profit has become king.

HISTORY OF HEALTH INSURANCE IN THE UNITED STATES

Only 9 percent of the population had insurance on the eve of World War II. That percentage had more than doubled to nearly 23 percent by the end of the war. It more than doubled again by 1950 and was close to 70 percent by 1960.

The History of Health Insurance: Past, Present, and Future

Because medical technology wasn’t very advanced, the actual cost of obtaining healthcare was relatively low. Prior to the 1920s, most surgeries were performed in people’s own homes, so hospital bills were rare. People were more concerned about the wages they’d miss out on if they were sick and unable to work. For this reason, “sickness insurance” products started popping up to help people cover their living expenses when they couldn’t earn an income due to illness or injury. 

Even a doctor in private practice by himself is a for-profit business. Publicly owned corporations attract investors by paying out profits and must do so in order to survive. Neither my parents or Pam's had any kind of healthcare insurance when we were growing up in the 40's & 50's, although my parents did get some coverage in the late 50's.

What percentage of hospitals in the U.S. are non-profit?

According to our database and research from the Annual Review of Public Health, nearly 60% of acute care hospitals in the U.S. are non-profit. Definitive Healthcare tracks nearly 3,400 non-profit hospitals in our database.

Profitability of Large Pharmaceutical Companies Compared With Other Large Public Companies

Large, for-profit companies play a central role in providing medicines to the public. Virtually all of the US Food and Drug Administration–approved medicines in the United States were developed by for-profit corporations.12 The 25 largest pharmaceutical companies accounted for 73% of all pharmaceutical sales in 2015.

Also, have you checked the other end of the drain tube to make sure that it is located properly and is not pinched or plugged?

Why not just find one or two others who plan to go and travel together to and from but separate for the time there? That way you can have the security of fellow travelers on the trip and the independence to explore while there? 

2 hours ago, lappir said:

I asked both of my Financial Managers to remove any money I have invested from funds that supported for profit health care and was told by both that it was not possible.

11 minutes ago, Randyretired said:

With IRA's you can invest however you want.  If the current IRA doesn't allow that move it to another company. 

Randy is right. If your fund manager doesn't do what you want you need to move to a different company. Since I am now retired, I moved all of the funds of my 401k into an IRA as soon as I was retired, just so that I could control things. 

EDIT:  I can and do research companies at time and if you have internet access you could do that also. It does take a little work and you do have to do some study/learning but you can learn how with a little effort.

1 hour ago, lappir said:

I hope one day it become illegal for health care providers to provide better care to their "Investors" than they do to their actual patients. 

Tell me more about this. Who does it and what evidence do you have? How do they know which patients are investors? I have never heard of this but I do have some money healthcare equity funds. Is that why we get good healthcare or should we expect more? 

EDIT: I did some digging on the internet and didn't find any evidence of preferential treatment, but I did find some negative information.

What Happens When Private Equity Takes Over a Hospital 

from Harvard Medical School, December 26, 2023

26 minutes ago, lappir said:

It's the case of investors buying all the good companies stealing the wealth generated by the prior good and providing a substandard product so they can loose enough money to bankrupt the entire entity.

Interesting business analysis.  Who are the investors, maybe owners of 401k's and IRA's? People like you and I?

"As of December 31, 2022, a total of $37.8 trillion was held in U.S. retirement plans and accounts, of which $26.3 trillion was in employer-sponsored plans and $11.5 trillion was in IRAs."

17 minutes ago, lappir said:

I think it's wrong for my Medicare to send out information leading me away from a good local pharmacy and encouraging the use of a huge corporation that controls insurance, medications, durable health goods and most likely a large portion of the Health Care FOR PROFIT machine. 

I think that is mostly the result of efforts to bring prices down for healthcare of all kinds. There are economies of scale and that isn't just a theory but it is what is ending retail business in small towns and rural America. Big companies are not causing small town stores to close, but the people who buy from them are. Improved highways and automobiles have made it easier and less time consuming to drive a distance to save money and that also plays a part in the change. When I was growing up there were 2 grocery stores, a pharmacy, and several other retail stores in Dwight, KS where I went to school. About once a quarter we would all load into the car and travel the 18 miles to the county seat (Council Grove) where the big stores were to do major shopping. Once or twice a year we would travel the 32 miles to Manhattan for the bargains there!  If residents would pay the higher prices to shop close to home those stores would still be there, including the pharmacies. You might be willing to pay extra, but would you pay that difference for prescriptions if Medicare only paid what the chains charge and you had to pay all of the difference? Very few people would do so and some could not afford to. I agree that it is sad to see the small retail stores going away, but I also admit to being part of the problem because I try to save money too.

2 hours ago, lappir said:

Don't know if either links will work.

The first leads to a very interesting article. It makes me wonder about pharmacies in the larger communities. We tried Walmart pharmacy but the service was so poor that we went back to CVS which is where we were getting them before. 

The second link didn't lead to any email but rather to the site of Aetna insurance and they are the parent of the prescription coverage that we have for part D medicare. Aetna Insurance Co. is owned by the CVS Health Group. 

3 hours ago, franco-bolli said:

Given how dispersed the parking was the last time, I can see why there are so many folks on the teams.

The entry area is much farther from the actual camping site at Sweetwater than in any other venue that I was involved in but it did work out pretty well with the separate entry gate for arrivals. At Tucson the distance between arrival and parking the RVs is much less but we had difficulty preventing any backup on the public roads when arrivals were coming really fast and with early arrivals in anticipation of the beginning of parking for the day. In Tennessee and Sedalia, MO the entry is right into the campground and that presents an entirely different set of issues. Vermont was one especially unique and it was also my first time as Security Team Leader so thank heavens I had some experienced assistants and experienced Parking Team Leaders to help me out. Each time you go to a new venue the team leaders have new issues to work out and new plans to make. Both of your team leaders were part of the parking team for several years before taking over and they have done a great job. The two teams work very closely together and I really enjoyed working with them. When you have so many RVs arriving in a short period of time and with several different types of parking, it takes a big team to handle it. There will be times that you will have several full hookups,a couple wanting dry camping, someone for the solar area, perhaps a family parker, an X-scaper, and someone handicapped all arriving in rapid succession. As a result there must be people to direct each of them and others to park them in each area. The parking is the biggest job that is done completely by volunteers, in my opinion. Security is probably the longest one as they work from the start of parking until the closing of the Escapade but the team is much smaller. I am proud to have played a part in both areas. Some of the closest friends that we have today are people we got to know working with them at Escapades and the staff comradery is what we now miss most since my wife's health prevents our attending. There are friends that we only saw at Escapades. 

28 minutes ago, lappir said:

if I do any thing to my computer it will be to most likely replacing it with a Mac,

My backup laptop is a Mac that is configured to run Windows. 

While I'm no longer on staff, I was part of security for 10 years and since they and parking work closely together, I think that I can answer your questions. Various staff members begin arriving on site as much as a month before it opens with the key staff positions all there by about Monday preceding the event. Assuming that the timing this year is the same, the parking team leaders will be there about a week before you and the remainder of the team arrives on Wednesday. That afternoon the team meets with the team leaders to get organized. Thursday is the day most other staff and some vendors arrive and it is used to get parking and security teams into the positions that they will be working and give that a test run. Parking is the largest team of volunteers and always has quite a few with previous experience to help. On Friday the pace increases with the remaining vendors, staff and early arrivals coming in to be parked. Saturday is the biggest day and Sunday being a partial day is also very busy. Parking team goes on duty at 7 am and closes at 2 pm each day. If past history is an indication you can expect 900+ RVs total. Once the Escapade opening takes place the members of the parking team are finished, except for the team leaders. The security team is also involved as they do traffic management and deal with late arrivals. One nice feature of the WY facility is that the gate used for arrivals is away from the main entrance so that it can be opened when parking begins and closed when parking ends for the day. It also has a much larger staging area to allow RVs to be clear of the road ae they line up for processing. 

I think that you will find that the parking team leaders do a very good job and that their key assistants are good at what they do. The team works hard but also has plenty of time for socializing and most members return for more than one Escapade. 

12 minutes ago, Wanderin said:

Miss the group and miss the gatherings

We are happy that you are back! 

The IRS really doesn't care where you "felt that you lived," only what you actually paid in sales taxes and the total of all deductions still needs to exceed the standard deduction for it to matter. With no mortgage interest or much else, it has been a long time since we came very close to exceeding our standard deduction. I'm always amazed in reading income tax related threads how many people pay someone to do individual income taxes when it is so easy by using one of the many tax calculation programs available. This link is from the IRS website.

Use the Sales Tax Deduction Calculator

If you calculate your estimated sales tax at a 4.2% tax rate, you would need to have paid that sales tax on $23,810 to deduct $1000 or if you expect a deduction of $5,000 the purchase total would be roughly $120,000 in sales taxed purchases. 

Are you sure that you would not be better off to take the standard deduction and forget about trying to track sales tax? I have found Turbo Tax very easy to use. Unless you have an unusually complicated situation for someone retired, it really is unusual for it to save money by filing long form. This year we had two 1099's from SS, another from my 401k, another from my pension plan, yet another from my non tax sheltered investments, and a W2 from a part-time job. While it took just a little more time, it was not difficult at all, mostly the uploading of the documents in pdf format. 

The 2023 standard deduction is $13,850 for single filers and those married filing separately, $27,700 for those married filing jointly, and $20,800 for heads of household.  You will need to have enough deductions to total more than you standard deduction in order to save anything from the long form. 

Cortes Campers looks to be competing with Casita Travel Trailers. 

7 minutes ago, agesilaus said:

I made an error tho and assumed that it started at Natchez and missed the south leg which starts at Jeckson IIRC.

The NPS says that it is from Natchez, MS to Nashville, TN? That's the part we traveled.

Angie M, how about an update on where you are on this and what you plan to do?