And the decline continues. Time for apple to get off pot and innovate.

No that rarely if ever happens, they cannot touch your credit report or send bill collectors. I have personal experience with this, all you do is call them up and negotiate a cash price and it's usually 80-90% off. You are now required to buy health insurance by_the_Government and there is yearly enrollment windows. If you don't and don't have an exemption, you have to pay_the_government through the IRS a penalty fee. Also you cannot be a dr in the USA without_a_government license. I mean come on I could go on and on and on. It's just a name game the difference.

 

The IRS penalty was removed in a legal action that went to the SCOTUS as part of Trumps attempt to dismantle the ACA (Affordable Care Act). This of course was because insurance companies heavily funded Trumps election along with the GOP in general in their efforts to increase profits through legislation. The primary profit gains come from removing the existing conditions clause and the requirement that insurance companies offer plans that will cover all expenses after a deductible. The latter is much more expensive than what they want to offer which is percentage payment whereby you pay a set amount (usually around 25 or 30 percent) and they pay the remainder. This isn't more profitable just because they typically have to pay much more in claims; they don't have to put in until you pay your share. Think about it in the real world of US health care: You are in a car wreck, you've got a few broken bones, various contusions, etc. Testing will be done, CAT scan, MRI, blood work, x-rays and so on. Maybe you have one or more surgeries. You've got the hospital stay itself to pay for including room, critical care, anesthesia, etc. These things can easily run 50k, if you're unlucky 100k or more. Just a single night and being sent home after a modest testing can push up to 10k. This in a USA where it was recently revealed that research shows a large percentage of households cannot afford to come out of pocket for a 400 dollar unexpected expense. Paying a quarter of that bill is going to be impossible for many many people.

What happens then? Well if you're broke and have no assets it goes much the way hertzian described. You can usually negotiate a payment and see a large portion of the bill absorbed by other parties, you cannot as they say get blood from a stone. If you have assets though it's a different ball game. While they cant send collectors they absolutely can report to credit bureaus after 180 days and they do just that unless you've reached an agreement for payment before the 180 days expire. Meanwhile one of the reason hospitals and most larger care giving centers have a lawyer(s) on staff is because they ran your credit and after a good faith period has expired (this timespan varies by state) they will begin legal actions to seize assets. This can and does include your retirement accounts, that cabin you bought out on the lake that you were planning on moving into after you retired, etc. In fact up to 2019 medical bills were the single largest cause of bankruptcy in the US; this will change in 20 due to COVID but will return to it's number 1 position after COVID.

Meanwhile Canadians pay just slightly more than one half of what we pay for medical care. The misinformation commonly spread by the GOP at the request of their corporate masters is to site the total tax Canadians pay rather than the percentage of it which is actually earmarked for medical care. They of course have many more social programs and other taxes they pay which we do not or not to the same extent which need to be removed from cost calculations. Despite paying just barely more than half our annual cost for medical they lead the US in almost every major metric relating to health; maximum life expectancy, child mortality, etc.

It is not a half dozen of one or six of the other, the US spends more than any other nation on earth for health care and yet sits at 37th in the world in it's health care based on standard metrics, again, that's lifespan, child mortality, specific disease outcomes, access to medical, available preventive care, etc. That's behind almost every European country, even the poorest such as Portugal and Greece. In fact we barely managed to edge out Cuba and are behind Columbia if you want to look at south of the border. I'm American; I love my country but I have to accept some sad truths, we have many problems and health care is certainly one of them.

 

Exactly what I was saying. I know people in the states who lost most everything they owned because their spouse became ill with cancer. 3 years of treatments and fighting, what do they get out of it? the loss of their entire retirement savings, had to sell their retirement property, their home and move to a smaller one, and he had to sell his Jeep. All in all they had approx 200,000 dollars in bills they had to pay off and liquidating assets and savings was the only way.

Take my wifes work insurance plan out of the picture, if one of us got sick with cancer, the out of pocket expenses for our treatment and recovery is ZERO. We are focused on recovering not how to pay outragous health bills because we do not have insurance.

How about apple and their mis-steps hey?

 

I just upgraded to a s9 256gb model 3 months ago cuz I need the storage. I've had the s5 for almost 3 years. This s9 cost me $220. I love to see all the broke people who have their $1k phone always asking for a hand out.
I tell them, enjoy living paycheck to paycheck, I'll be on my sailboat sailing around the boat.

 

With my wifes employee plan we paid 400 each for our iphone 11's. That's not a bad deal. If we sell them or trade them in on newer models before our 2 year contract is up we have to pay the difference but if not, that's all we pay.

 

Yeah, I was spot on early Dec last year. Never start eating chicken until its skinned. @Spartan@HIDevolution do you eat chicken? If so, with or without feathers?

Apple beats Samsung in smartphone sales for first time in five years zdnet.com | Today

For the first time since 2016, Apple sits at the top of the worldwide smartphone sales chart thanks to a very strong fourth quarter 2020 sales period with the four new iPhone 12 models.

 

People will keep buying new iPhones which in turn keeps Apple making more and more cash. Samsung is no angel here as well. We have seen this in laptop space for some time - more expensive BGA trash with little to no alternatives. There was a time when smartphones were interesting; the power of a laptop in the palm of your hands. They were truly for enthusiasts. They sucked as phones but their coolness factor made up for that. I had such high hopes for Windows phones with the ability to run PC applications natively. But, war never changes. And MS met up with the Death Stranding.

My dotage attitude towards smartphones is - buy an overpriced iPhone; keep it for 5 years; throw it away in the local landfill to ensure I am eco-friendly (all parts came out of the ground at some point), rinse and repeat. Am I blown away by the Apple spec sheet? No, it makes me gag. Am I going to play Apple arcade games as though the iPhone is a gaming console? No, phone doesn't have user replaceable battery. No point in wearing that out. Do I care about impressing people that I have the latest and greatest? No. Just a phone. The Apple I grew up with is dead and buried along with Tandy, Osborne, and Commodore. Today's Apple is truly just a lifestyle company.

 

Agreed, apple is the Canada Goose of the tech world. I lived in Yellowkinfe for a while back in the mid 90s, I had a SNOW GOOSE jacket up there for walking to work. It was warm, had heaters built in and was built for function. fast forward 20 years, and snow goose got bought out by a fashion company and now every twat in cities are running around to the bentleys in them. No different than apple at this point.

 

NO Steve Jobs, hence no real innovation?

 

Nope. Unless you call changing from square edges to round edges to square edges again innovation.