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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Jun 28, 2017 14:46:02 GMT -5
I got a notice to renew my driver's license. Monday, I was out running around and near the DMV, so stopped in. Empty parking lot should have been my first clue. Closed on Monday. Fine.
So today, I decide I'm going to do it online. The fields call for First name, Last name. I fill in my first name, last name, DL number and DOB. Bounces back. I look at my DL and see that it has my first name, middle initial. So I fill in first name, middle initial. Bounces back. Hmmm....I fill in my first name, middle name. Again it bounces back. Delete it all, fill in first name, middle initial and I finally get through. But because I made 4 attempts, I'm locked out and need to renew at the DMV.
I don't wanna go to the DMV again,
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Jun 28, 2017 14:55:17 GMT -5
If the DMV had existed in Dante's time it would have been included as the 10th circle of hell.
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Tennesseer
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Post by Tennesseer on Jun 28, 2017 15:43:04 GMT -5
If the DMV had existed in Dante's time it would have been included as the 10th circle of hell. Don't forget the cable companies too.
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milee
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Post by milee on Jun 28, 2017 16:41:02 GMT -5
At least you can choose whether or not you'd like to have cable. No such choice with whether or not you deal with the DMV.
And again, for everyone who wants single payer government controlled health insurance or Universal healthcare, before you decide you want the government in control over your health and life, please remember your last visit to the DMV. Government controlled healthcare will be just as friendly, efficient and customer-oriented....
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 28, 2017 17:07:11 GMT -5
Medicare works pretty well...
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Bonny
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Post by Bonny on Jun 28, 2017 17:13:08 GMT -5
I "qualified" to renew by mail. $33. CA gets some things right.
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milee
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Post by milee on Jun 28, 2017 17:19:33 GMT -5
Medicare works pretty well... But it only works because it's one of many income sources for docs and providers (hospitals, clinics, etc). Medicare's reimbursement is lower than that of private insurers, so most docs and providers need a mix of payers to operate. If the other payers go away, then some providers will close and not all docs will stay in business, either. Here in Florida, many if not most docs already limit the number of Medicare patients they'll see since the reimbursement rates are so low. When I was doing turnarounds of troubled healthcare facilities, one of the major reasons many of them were failing was when they became dilapidated or otherwise unappealing and patients with other options went to other facilities, leaving only the Medi/Medi (healthcare abbreviation for Medicare/Medicaid) population using their services. Most facilities couldn't exist with the low Medi/Medi reimbursements so they'd either go BK, find private or charity funding or figure out how to improve the payer mix. Medicare isn't some magic solution. It only sorta works right now because it's one of a mix of payers. If the other payers go away, docs and providers will fail, retire, decline to continue, etc...
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Jun 28, 2017 17:29:16 GMT -5
I am in DMV hell right now. Showed up and got number 324 and they were on number 266. It took 2 hours to get through all but the last part.....where I pay.
I am still waiting to pay.
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weltschmerz
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Post by weltschmerz on Jun 28, 2017 17:34:40 GMT -5
At least you can choose whether or not you'd like to have cable. No such choice with whether or not you deal with the DMV. And again, for everyone who wants single payer government controlled health insurance or Universal healthcare, before you decide you want the government in control over your health and life, please remember your last visit to the DMV. Government controlled healthcare will be just as friendly, efficient and customer-oriented.... ?? I have single payer healthcare. My last visit to the DMV to renew my licence lasted 10 minutes. I was actually disappointed...I had brought a good book to read and was looking forward to the next chapter.
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milee
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Post by milee on Jun 28, 2017 17:38:16 GMT -5
At least you can choose whether or not you'd like to have cable. No such choice with whether or not you deal with the DMV. And again, for everyone who wants single payer government controlled health insurance or Universal healthcare, before you decide you want the government in control over your health and life, please remember your last visit to the DMV. Government controlled healthcare will be just as friendly, efficient and customer-oriented.... ?? I have single payer healthcare. My last visit to the DMV to renew my licence lasted 10 minutes. I was actually disappointed...I had brought a good book to read and was looking forward to the next chapter. I know, but not all of us live in the Perfection that is Canada. It's fantastic that your DMV is so magical as well! This is not how most government run things work in America. Our organizations that are run by government tend to be poorly run by largely unfriendly and almost comically unhelpful employees. The few competent, helpful employees that somehow manage to be hired are quickly driven insane by the system they're trapped in...
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weltschmerz
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Post by weltschmerz on Jun 28, 2017 17:42:22 GMT -5
?? I have single payer healthcare. My last visit to the DMV to renew my licence lasted 10 minutes. I was actually disappointed...I had brought a good book to read and was looking forward to the next chapter. I know, but not all of us live in the Perfection that is Canada. It's fantastic that your DMV is so magical as well! This is not how most government run things work in America. Our organizations that are run by government tend to be poorly run by largely unfriendly and almost comically unhelpful employees. The few competent, helpful employees that somehow manage to be hired are quickly driven insane by the system they're trapped in... Canada is not "perfection". That being said, why is your government seemingly incapable of running ANYTHING? What the hell is going on down there?
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Jun 28, 2017 18:30:43 GMT -5
I know, but not all of us live in the Perfection that is Canada. It's fantastic that your DMV is so magical as well! This is not how most government run things work in America. Our organizations that are run by government tend to be poorly run by largely unfriendly and almost comically unhelpful employees. The few competent, helpful employees that somehow manage to be hired are quickly driven insane by the system they're trapped in... Canada is not "perfection". That being said, why is your government seemingly incapable of running ANYTHING? What the hell is going on down there? You lucked out. My MIL recently renewed her DL in Vancouver. Hell exists on your side of the border too. Your Canadian utopia is only in your mind. When I hear the crap she needs to go through to pay taxes, buy property, get a passport or Nexus card (took me 20 min, it takes her a month to renew her Nexus card), I see that all government employees are similar.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Jun 28, 2017 18:31:43 GMT -5
BTW...it cost me $108 to get out of DMV hell. That was for an enhanced DL.
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milee
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Post by milee on Jun 28, 2017 18:33:07 GMT -5
I know, but not all of us live in the Perfection that is Canada. It's fantastic that your DMV is so magical as well! This is not how most government run things work in America. Our organizations that are run by government tend to be poorly run by largely unfriendly and almost comically unhelpful employees. The few competent, helpful employees that somehow manage to be hired are quickly driven insane by the system they're trapped in... Canada is not "perfection". That being said, why is your government seemingly incapable of running ANYTHING? What the hell is going on down there? I don't know. But it's bad and it's pretty consistently bad across the board. It's a great big country with a huge, diverse population and little incentive for government to run things well. So it doesn't. Go into any government operated "service" and you'll receive barely competent service with a side order of contempt. And until you've experienced that here, you don't really understand how much some of us dread the idea of dealing with the government regarding anything critical. A little while ago someone posted about their difficulties with a tax issue. You posted that you simply called the local tax agency and your issue was fixed. Maybe that's why you have a very different outlook on what you want and trust your government to do. If we have an issue with the IRS, it's quite difficult, time consuming and unpleasant - and we all know and expect that. Same with the DMV, same with the post office (not technically a government agency but run much like one, receives government backing and operates under government regulations), same with local zoning departments, same with any government branch we deal with. The stories are endless...
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weltschmerz
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Post by weltschmerz on Jun 28, 2017 18:34:57 GMT -5
Utopia in my mind? I never said it was a utopia, and I know for fact I waited 10 minutes, if that.
My son never had to wait long, either.
But we do wait for healthcare. Want to trade? Feel better?
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Jun 28, 2017 18:40:58 GMT -5
By county it can be different. Pinellas County has a great DMV set up. You go in, tell them what you need, they give you a number. You're sent to a person who is trained to deal with your issue quickly and efficiently. Hillsborough County? A clusterfuck of the old system that you hope you get a person who has a clue what they're doing.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Jun 28, 2017 18:45:13 GMT -5
Utopia in my mind? I never said it was a utopia, and I know for fact I waited 10 minutes, if that.
My son never had to wait long, either.
But we do wait for healthcare. Want to trade? Feel better? No thank you. Waits at the DMV are variable. TX was miserable, KY was very, very easy, I not only got my new license, I was able to register my car and pick up my plates and was out in less than 20 min. WA when I got my first license was easy, my renewal was a pain but it is done. It didn't help that their computers went down. I chose to go at the end of the month. The last week of the month is usually worst.
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quince
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Post by quince on Jun 28, 2017 18:58:33 GMT -5
It absolutely depends where you are in the US. I'm sure that things vary in Canada too.
Here, I can make an appointment at the DMV, and there's a separate, much shorter line for it.
Back in MI, I couldn't, but I didn't live in a super high population density area, so the lines were tolerable.
I've mostly had helpful people when dealing with this sort of thing.
People usually don't say anything when an interaction they had goes smoothly, though.
I've been paying my own bills for 20 years. In this time, 5 times have I had to follow up on a medical bill because something in the paperwork went wrong. 2 times have I been contacted by collection agencies for unpaid bills (that were actually paid). All the hundreds (thousands?) of other times, things went right.
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weltschmerz
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Post by weltschmerz on Jun 28, 2017 20:20:41 GMT -5
Canada is not "perfection". That being said, why is your government seemingly incapable of running ANYTHING? What the hell is going on down there? I don't know. But it's bad and it's pretty consistently bad across the board. It's a great big country with a huge, diverse population and little incentive for government to run things well. So it doesn't. Go into any government operated "service" and you'll receive barely competent service with a side order of contempt. And until you've experienced that here, you don't really understand how much some of us dread the idea of dealing with the government regarding anything critical.
A little while ago someone posted about their difficulties with a tax issue. You posted that you simply called the local tax agency and your issue was fixed. Maybe that's why you have a very different outlook on what you want and trust your government to do. If we have an issue with the IRS, it's quite difficult, time consuming and unpleasant - and we all know and expect that. Same with the DMV, same with the post office (not technically a government agency but run much like one, receives government backing and operates under government regulations), same with local zoning departments, same with any government branch we deal with. The stories are endless... Oh, but I do. I lived in the US, I've dealt with the DMV and other government agencies, and everything seems 10 times more difficult than it should be. And yes, it absolutely does depend on which state/province you're in.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 28, 2017 20:28:28 GMT -5
Medicare works pretty well... But it only works because it's one of many income sources for docs and providers (hospitals, clinics, etc). Medicare's reimbursement is lower than that of private insurers, so most docs and providers need a mix of payers to operate. If the other payers go away, then some providers will close and not all docs will stay in business, either. Here in Florida, many if not most docs already limit the number of Medicare patients they'll see since the reimbursement rates are so low. When I was doing turnarounds of troubled healthcare facilities, one of the major reasons many of them were failing was when they became dilapidated or otherwise unappealing and patients with other options went to other facilities, leaving only the Medi/Medi (healthcare abbreviation for Medicare/Medicaid) population using their services. Most facilities couldn't exist with the low Medi/Medi reimbursements so they'd either go BK, find private or charity funding or figure out how to improve the payer mix. Medicare isn't some magic solution. It only sorta works right now because it's one of a mix of payers. If the other payers go away, docs and providers will fail, retire, decline to continue, etc... I'm sorry, I was under the impression you were discussing how the program functions and satisfaction of its enrollee with its functioning and dealing with the program. Were you originally discussing the solvency of the DMV?
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milee
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Post by milee on Jun 28, 2017 20:43:54 GMT -5
But it only works because it's one of many income sources for docs and providers (hospitals, clinics, etc). Medicare's reimbursement is lower than that of private insurers, so most docs and providers need a mix of payers to operate. If the other payers go away, then some providers will close and not all docs will stay in business, either. Here in Florida, many if not most docs already limit the number of Medicare patients they'll see since the reimbursement rates are so low. When I was doing turnarounds of troubled healthcare facilities, one of the major reasons many of them were failing was when they became dilapidated or otherwise unappealing and patients with other options went to other facilities, leaving only the Medi/Medi (healthcare abbreviation for Medicare/Medicaid) population using their services. Most facilities couldn't exist with the low Medi/Medi reimbursements so they'd either go BK, find private or charity funding or figure out how to improve the payer mix. Medicare isn't some magic solution. It only sorta works right now because it's one of a mix of payers. If the other payers go away, docs and providers will fail, retire, decline to continue, etc... I'm sorry, I was under the impression you were discussing how the program functions and satisfaction of its enrollee with its functioning and dealing with the program. Were you originally discussing the solvency of the DMV? If we're discussing expanding Medicare as a solution, it's reasonable to think about whether it would even survive in its current form if you expanded access to it. Something that very few of the people who advocate giving everybody Medicare seem to have examined. It doesn't currently take in enough funding to sustain itself long term and that's with the fact that it already pays such low rates for most procedures that a facility or doc that has exclusively Medicare patients would cease to operate. So if you're proposing to expand the number of people using Medicare, you first need to look at what that would cost (both from a revenue and reimbursement/cost side) and if it's even possible. I wonder how much people would like Medicare if they had to pay for the amount that it really costs the government to provide to them and if that cost were increased further when reimbursements had to be increased to keep the system running when the other payers go away? I think people might not like Medicare as much then. Right now, it's highly subsidized. Take away the subsidies to keep it operating and it's not the same thing. The idea that we just "give everybody Medicare" is about as realistic as the idea that we improve education by just "giving everybody access to the same services that special needs students have". Heck, if my child had a full time aide in school and all the individual services provided to certain special needs children, my child could have already completed his schooling by age 10 and be working on college level stuff - I would be very happy. So why wouldn't we do this? For the same reason we don't let everybody access Medicare - the government (us - the taxpayers) couldn't afford it.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 28, 2017 20:47:35 GMT -5
I didn't propose anything. I said Medicare doesn't have the same reputation that the DMV does, so that your warning that single payer would look exactly like the DMV is inherently flawed, given that the current 'socialized' medicine component the government oversees looks jack shit like the DMV.
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irishpad
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Post by irishpad on Jun 28, 2017 20:50:38 GMT -5
I am in DMV hell right now. Showed up and got number 324 and they were on number 266. It took 2 hours to get through all but the last part.....where I pay. I am still waiting to pay. If you had been at our DMV, you wouldn't have been able to post this because "no phones allowed". Does it make sense? No. Especially in era when some would be using their smart phones to pay.
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milee
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Post by milee on Jun 28, 2017 20:53:49 GMT -5
And the comparison to Medicare and socialized medicine fails because Medicare only covers a portion of our population, with the rest of the population's private insurance underwriting the system and keeping it afloat.
There is no other DMV that people can access in another way. Most government services that serve all people and that people are forced to use because there is no alternative - as would be the case in socialized healthcare - suck. Medicare doesn't suck totally because there are alternatives and because the higher amounts other people pay allow Medicare to keep operating like it does.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 28, 2017 20:55:14 GMT -5
I am in DMV hell right now. Showed up and got number 324 and they were on number 266. It took 2 hours to get through all but the last part.....where I pay. I am still waiting to pay. If you had been at our DMV, you wouldn't have been able to post this because "no phones allowed". Does it make sense? No. Especially in era when some would be using their smart phones to pay. Our DMV locations only take check or money order. You can pay with a cc online for renewals.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 28, 2017 20:57:02 GMT -5
No, because Medicare doesn't own /employ the hospitals and doctors offices and nurses and doctors, etc. Which is most likely how any single payer system here would continue to operate.
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weltschmerz
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Post by weltschmerz on Jun 28, 2017 21:02:51 GMT -5
If you had been at our DMV, you wouldn't have been able to post this because "no phones allowed". Does it make sense? No. Especially in era when some would be using their smart phones to pay. Our DMV locations only take check or money order. You can pay with a cc online for renewals. You can't pay by debit card?
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milee
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Post by milee on Jun 28, 2017 21:02:54 GMT -5
OMG, anyone who wants the government to own and operate hospitals or clinics needs to spend some time in their local county hospital and clinics. In California, New Mexico and Arizona, the county facilities were uniformly horrific with conditions ranging from merely disgusting to downright frightening and dangerous. The ones in Florida I've seen just seem to be dilapidated, dirty and slow, so maybe they're better? But still not where anyone would voluntarily choose to go.
If you live in an area where the county hospital and clinics are somewhere you'd voluntarily go if you had a choice you are lucky indeed. But you might want to spend some time traveling to other American states before making a decision.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 28, 2017 21:10:35 GMT -5
Our DMV isn't too bad if you don't go over the lunch hour. I still avoid it whenever possible and do all renewals online. They charge me a couple bucks for the convenience, but I'm cool with that.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 28, 2017 21:12:43 GMT -5
Our DMV locations only take check or money order. You can pay with a cc online for renewals. You can't pay by debit card? Nope. Only place I've been in years I've run to get a money order because it was closer than home and I forgot my check book.
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