Author: coastcontact

I am a somewhat cranky but mostly optimistic 65 plus who refuses to give up on this maddening world. The purpose of this BLOG is to express my feelings, thoughts.

Jimmy Carter dies at 100

After a year in hospice care former President Jimmy Carter has died at 100.

Carter’s achievements were few. Carter was sworn in as the 39th president of the United States. On his first full day in office in January 1977, he pardoned most Vietnam-era draft evaders. He signed treaties to return the Panama Canal back to Panama in 1999. Senate narrowly ratifies them in 1978.  In September 1978: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Carter signed Camp David accords, which lead to a peace deal between Egypt and Israel the following year.

Sadly he did little to rescue 52 hostages that Iranian militants took when storming the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. The inflation rate hit a record high of 14.6% in March and April of 1980.

It was the high inflation and his failure to rescue the hostages held in Iran that led to Carter’s defeat in that fall’s election.

In my opinion Jimmy Carter was the worst president since Herbert Hoover.

Delay, Deny, Defend

It might be easier to make sense of the recent fatal shooting of an insurance CEO, an act with ominous overtones about health care costs and insurance coverage, if any one aspect of health-care finance in America had gotten dramatically worse. 

But what if there is no one thing?  

Everything in American health care seems to cost more, across the board, year after year. Millions of insurance claims get denied. Medical debt routinely drives patients into bankruptcy. And patients see no relief in sight. 

“Americans forgo necessary health care every single day, because they can’t afford it,” said Caroline Pearson, executive director of the nonprofit Peterson Center on Healthcare. 

Americans spend more out of pocket on health care than people in most comparable countries, the health policy nonprofit KFF found. In the United Kingdom, for example, out-of-pocket health care costs totaled $764 per person in 2022. 

“We don’t consume a lot more health care than other countries,” said Dr. Atul Grover, executive director of the nonprofit AAMC Research and Action Institute. “We just pay a lot more for each thing.” 

United Healthcare reported net income of $22.3 billion last year, had net income of $20.6 billion in 2022 after making $17.3 billion in 2021 and $15.4 billion in 2020. Before the pandemic United Health made $13.8 billion in 2019.

Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It is a 2010 book by Rutgers Law professor Jay M. Feinman

Luigi Mangione Has Become A Social Media Folk Hero. The Glorification of Luigi Mangione Is Disturbing – But Not Surprising

Luigie Mangione is escorted into Manhattan Criminal court for his arraignment in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024, in New York.

Honda, Nissan begin talks to forge world’s 3rd-biggest automaker

Honda and Nissan have officially entered into talks to combine their companies by summer 2026, the companies announced Monday, a deal that would create the world’s third-largest automaker by sales.

A merger would bring the Japanese auto giants under a joint holding company, according to a news release. Mitsubishi, a longtime Nissan partner, also has agreed to join the negotiations.

I have owned Nissan cars for decades. The first was a Datsun 200SX. Mine was blue. The car was the size of a Ford Mustang. It took us to Las Vegas at least once and ran better than our Chevrolet on Highway 15.

I have also owned some Honda Accords and Honda Civics that were equally reliable.

Why these companies are negotiating is to giving them the muscle to compete with GM, Toyotal

The three brands already have a partnership to work on vehicle intelligence and electrification, which includes technological collaboration with the goal of achieving “carbon neutrality and a zero-traffic-accident society.”

The deal joins Japan’s second- and third-largest automakers, giving the combined company the scale to better compete in the tumultuous global auto market. Last year, Honda built nearly 4.2 million cars and sold nearly 4 million globally, while Nissan said it produced and sold about 3.4 million. By comparison, Toyota and General Motors sold about 10 million and 6.2 million vehicles in the same year respectively.