Wesley Sanders

helps quite a bit if I'm being honest

don't think there's a better encapsulation of everything wrong with "working class politics" that a literal petit-borgeois business owner is somehow universally viewed as blue collar because he's a white guy with a few slurs under his belt

Funnily enough, the 2022 Democratic nominee for Senate was Mark Holland, who is also a UMC pastor (although one who had also been the mayor of Kansas City). He lost by 37 points.

I don't know Kansas politics well enough to know to be honest. His church is massive - the largest United Methodist Church in the country by far with like a dozen campuses. But I'm not sure if his appeal extends beyond Kansas city in a meaningful way.

But I could see some "centrist" Democrats crossing over and costing the Dem nominee. I'm honestly disappointed he doesn't have the courage to actually say that Trump's GOP is fundamentally misaligned with Christian values, and instead his whole message is some wishy-washy "both-sides" nonsense

Popular KC-area pastor considers independent Senate run to unseat Roger Marshall Adam Hamilton, the founding pastor of the nation’s largest United Methodist church, is embarking on a listening tour across Kansas.

www.kansascity.com/news/politic...

I'm a United Methodist who has valued Adam Hamilton's leadership in the denomination, but a run as an independent seems like it would only help the GOP. The pastor of a church in a liberal denomination that performs same sex marriages won't get many GOP votes.

AI robot apocalypse will probably happen before the catastrophic plan term ends.

This catastrophic proposal is hurting my brain. Luckily I'm at an HPA conference with some of the smartest actuaries in the game these next few days.

Like I’ve been saying: I think one of the big political stories of the year is going to be non-conservative Christians getting loud.

But I have two masters degrees and some transferable skills so I’d probably be fine. That may not be the case for a billing clerk at a hospital or a claims processor at an insurer. And politicians who love to tout UHC never want to talk about those trade-offs and the pain of a transition.

Depending on how it were implemented, the company I founded would be made obsolete and I’d be one of those out of a job - but I’m still in favor of moving to some form of universal coverage.

But it misses the point… no seemingly quick and easy solution like getting rid of insurers or regulating all drug prices actually fixes the problem. Instead, its a wholesale painful change that would make many jobs obsolete and have lots of other knock-on effects.

All of them have powerful lobbyists trying to convince policymakers that they’re not the problem, someone else is. They all say “oh if you got rid of me you only save 5-10% so you wouldn’t fix it.“ and usually those claims are true… physician salaries are <5%, insurer margins are regulated, etc.

The problem with universal health care in the US isn’t that it is impossible - it’s that there’s no one silver bullet that that would suddenly fix it. tons of powerful, moneyed interest - doctors, hospitals, insurers, pharma, and the universe of vendors supporting them

More than half of Medicare beneficiaries are now on Medicare Advantage plans which are usually HMOs that require referrals.

This is welcome from the Pope, and also man, any Christian that needs to be reminded of one of the most famous of Jesus’s sentiments, Matthew 25:40, needs to do some real soul searching.

I honestly can’t take a fourth presidential election cycle in a row in which privileged white leftists claim that the Democratic Party doesn’t do anything because they’re too lazy to spend 5 minutes doing a Google search.

I don't know, Aaron. I think we need to take this seriously. In fact, after surveying hundreds of years of history in the past few days, I've written an article assessing the originalist case here:
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Get a lot of drops in the first week after I lay out expectations but the students who stick around are delightful.

Moved my intro philosophy class to all analog blue book exams. Been one of my better decisions...

Those that have decided not to regulate the stop loss have seen their small group ACA compliant market become effectively the high risk pool for the risky small groups.

Basically, healthy small groups can buy these “stop loss” policies which are really pre-ACA underwritten policies in disguise but because a tiny slice of the coverage is “self-funded,” it’s exempt from state insurance law. Blue states have responded by regulating the stop loss part.

This is so blue states can no longer stop things like “level-funded” plans for small businesses (<50 employees) from undermining the small group market.

I’m assuming choice is referring to ICHRAs here from some of the other GOP legislation renaming them.

A New York Times headline that reads: "Calibri’s Run-In With Rubio Wasn’t Its First Controversy."

Can't say I ever expected to see a "That Font was No Angel" headline. But here we are.

No carrier in their right mind would sell catastrophic plans under these constraints.

This is a crock of shit. The ACA already prohibits federal dollars from being used to pay for abortion.

ACA plans which cover abortion even include a separate $1/mo fee which the insurance carriers have to be kept segregated from the rest of their revenue in a separate bank account.

I’m serious.

dawg not the steakhouse wedding font