Jacob Asher

@mcuban There have been pilots based on where employers have tried contracting directly with providers such as Boeing I believe a few years ago. I don't recall significant price reductions despite best efforts.

Hospitals with dominant market share, where no insurer does, have leverage. No question. But. The first step in health care economics is the plan someone chooses. That plan sets the parameters and economics for every care choice the member can make. The very fact that patients can not shop for the best price and apply it to their deductible, or they can not afford their deductible , even in markets dominated by a system or two, shows where the leverage truly is Plus the insurance companies control ALL the patient economics once care starts. Which is huge leverage They ULCD Underpay Late Pay Claw Back Deny That distorts the entire healthcare economic system Yes , hospitals join in the fuckery, by doing shit like facilities fees , 340b abuse, Charge master arbitrage and abuse. And more. Yes. But they don’t control the cash. When hospitals and all providers grow their direct contracting businesses , see costpluswellness.com , you will see prices come down. So bottome line , take the big insurance companies out of the mix, hospital prices come down. It’s all right there on costpluswellness.com

Jessica: I love that you read a newspaper. Watters: I read more than you. Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, New York Post. Jessica: And you still say this crap on TV after you've read all that?

Anne Applebaum nails it:

This is the world we live in - a Republican senator lies on live TV, gets caught lying, and just carries on blissfully, changing the topic, no correction or apology or admission. No consequences. No shame. Nothing.

Oh how I love her! ❤️ Olivia Dean covering Knocks Me Off My Feet by Stevie Wonder

Desidero formulare i migliori auguri di pronta guarigione a #LindseyVonn che ora tornerà a casa sua negli Stati Uniti. La Vonn ha potuto apprezzare lo straordinario sistema sanitario pubblico italiano che si è presa cura di lei con tre interventi chirurgici. In Italia, a differenza che nel suo paese, ci prendiamo cura di tutti: ricchi o poveri, vip o anonimi, Americani o italiani. Se ne avrà occasione, spieghi a Trump e a Kennedy Jr cosa vuol dire prendersi cura di chi sta male.

What's impressive about this accomplishment is that every appointee in this term is worse than those in his first term. I didn't think there were that many corrupt incompetents available in the Heritage Foundation database.

Happy Blizzard of ‘78 Day if you’re observing it….

I said what I said.

@kimsmithholmes I don't think post-liberals had anything to do with anything. The inflection point was 2008 when America elected a black president. Suddenly we discovered that a huge chunk of the GOP were hard-core racists. That's what killed traditional conservatism.

Melania Trump, moonwalking? Laura Benanti's latest 'Late Show' visit had Stephen Colbert in stitches.

Kara Swisher: “Stephen Miller, like Bendetsen who created the internment camps for Japanese, Heinrich Himmler in the Nazi regime, this is what he is. People like Stephen Miller will go down in history as evil, has blood on his hands, and should be jailed at the end of this”

GOP Sen. Thom Tillis: “Stephen Miller never fails to live up to my expectations of incompetence”

Has a single prominent Trump donor spoken out about the murder? Any of the CEOs of the companies that donated to the new ballroom or the inauguration? Are all of them comfortable being complicit in state violence against citizens?

Literally the creepiest fascist in America. And an absolute, dedicated liar. #Pondscum

We’ve come to a horrible place: - Fed “Agents” Can Murder You for Holding a Cell Phone - Fed Officials Can 100% Lie About it + Smear Innocent Victim - Fed Govt Now Unable to Hold Fair & Honest Investigation + Blocks State Action - This is a National Crisis. 🇺🇸 Take a Stand.

AOC: "How rich is it that she is saying showing up to the scene of a protest with a legally owned weapon should be grounds for a person's death, execution at the hands of the state, by the same party and administration that praises Kyle Rittenhouse."

Okay so, 1) an American citizen exercises his First Amendment right to peaceably assemble and his Second Amendment right to bear arms, out of apparent concern that a tyrannical federal government is violating basic protections afforded under the Constitution 2) after coming to the aid of an unarmed woman who's been shoved to the ground by a masked federal agent, the citizen -- impaired by pepper spray, holding nothing but a cell phone -- is dragged to the ground by a group of other masked agents 3) during the scuffle, shortly after one masked agent removes the weapon from the restrained citizen's person, several other masked agents open fire, unloading 10 shots from close range and killing the unarmed citizen 4) despite video evidence, a spokesman for the federal government says the citizen approached agents with a gun, provoked a violent confrontation, and planned to "massacre" law enforcement You really want to defend this? Go ahead. Just know, you look like an absolute fool.

Take a moment to look at the inhumanity captured in this extraordinary photo running on the front page of tonight's Minneapolis @StarTribune. It shows federal immigration agents immobilizing a protester on the ground and spraying chemical irritant directly into his face. The scene reminds me of the brutality used against civil rights protesters in the 1960s. We look back at those old photos and wonder how the authorities could have behaved so savagely; many years from now, young Americans will look at these photos from 2026 and wonder how anyone could have justified shooting a woman in the head as she tried to drive away, arresting 5-year-old schoolchildren on the street, or holding a man down and spaying chemicals into his face. Thanks to the Star Tribune reporters and photographers for documenting this work; they create accountability, they make democracy work, and they make all of us in journalism proud.

Today is the 1st anniversary of the worst presidency in American history. It has been so bad, I don't even know what its worst action was. Destroying NATO to benefit Russia? Conducting an illegal coup in Venezuela? Forming a Gestapo-like organization that murders Americans?