Why The Medical Costs In America Are So High!

[wildthing]

New York Apartment Features Ultimate High-Def Man Cave

Sauna, hot tub, steam room and motorized bed make this an AV geek’s wonder spa.

 

December 05, 2012
| by Steven Castle

It may be the ultimate man cave. It even resembles a cave, decked in
granite walls and floors. But this 800-square-foot New York City
apartment boasts not one, not two, but three big-screen Samsung HDTVs,
plus a 106-inch drop-down Screen Innovations display served by a $15,000 Wolf Cinema near-4K projector. And you can view them all from the motorized, roll-out bed.

To which point you may ask: Why? And the best answer may be why not.
The apartment owner is a doctor whose office is next door, and who can
access his secret A/V lair with a keypad or his smartphone to open a
hidden door in a bookshelf.

One is immediately greeted with what appears to be two large art
pieces of art. Home electronics designer and installer Todd Anthony Puma
of The Source Home Theater Installation & Design in New York City reaches for a URC MX-6000i RF and Wi-Fi remote, and with a touch of a button, the Vutec ArtScreen artwork in the facing frames roll up to reveal two 55-inch Samsung LED HDTVs.

At the same time, the button rolls down the 106-inch Screen
Innovations Gamma Screen and fires up the Wolf Cinema SDC-15 projector,
which can shine a 3840 x 2160-pixel resolution (near 4K) using JVC’s
D-ILA engine. The projector is tucked into a ventilated space above the
rollout bed, along with two Paradigm SIG-1.5R in-ceiling speakers, which are wall-mounted behind rectangular grilles to achieve rear-channel surround sound.

But back to the question: Why or why not? This doc likes his
technology—so much he keeps updating the system. He also wanted to be
able to watch TV from inside his sauna, located behind the drop-down
screen and behind glass. With the two TVs in the side walls in the
adjoining lounge, he and a guest can face each other and watch the tube.
Or they can view the 46-inch Samsung TV mounted behind a mirror while
soaking in the hot tub, which is couple of steps up from the main lounge
area.

Three Zoned Spa

Did we not mention there’s also a sauna and hot tub? The multiple
video screens are enough to distract one. There’s also a steam room in
the bathroom—as well as an electronically operated Kohler shower and
Toto Neorest toilet that can be remote controlled. Speakers for the
sauna are tucked below the teak benches and floor and use Ixos extreme temperature cables. Here URC’s MXW-920 weatherproof remote is used.

Three zones of audio—the main lounge/bedroom, hot tub area, and sauna—are served by a NuVo
Grand Concerto multiroom audio system, with a NuVo touchscreen and iPad
apps for control. Puma also went to pains to make use of the URC
MX-6000i remote simple, by making nearly every function in the
spa-partment available from one page. Hard buttons are labeled for
different areas, and holding down a button can turn on one system or
another. More detailed controls lead to other pages. The Kohler shower
operates independently, but Puma and URC are looking at ways to
integrate the sauna, hot tub and other amenities.

URC is also controlling the Lutron lighting switches and dimmers,
which Puma programmed to offer ceiling halogen lighting, rectangular
backlit marble cubes and colored LEDs for effects.

Three Systems, Nine Speakers

The biggest technical feat, however, may be the in-ceiling speaker
layout in the main lounge and bedroom, which must serve the 5.1-channel
front-projection system, as well as the two facing Samsung TVs that each
get 6.1-channel treatment.

Nine of the Paradigm SIG-1.5R in-ceiling speakers are used to create
surround sound for the three separate systems, including the two mounted
in the wall and framing the Wolf Cinema projector for the surround
channels in the 5.1 system. The other seven are in the ceiling, with
rows of three located above each TV for their front and rear channels
and one in the center that serves as the center channel for the
5.1-channel front projection system. The left and right front channels
for that system utilize the other speakers in the configuration that are
nearest the screen, while a Paradigm Sub 12 subwoofer fires from the
round grille behind the steps to the hot tub area. That area gets two
speakers.

The systems are governed by an Anthem MRX-700 A/V receiver for the TV systems and a Marantz NR1602
receiver for the front projection system, with automatic switching so a
speaker isn’t being powered by both. When both TVs or all systems are
on, all of the speakers go into multichannel mode with dialogue coming
through them all.

The good doctor did not want each video display to act independently, though. If used together, they all show the same video.

The systems are accompanied by a Marantz UD5005 Blu-ray player. These components, plus Panamax Furman’s BlueBolt system that allows energy monitoring and remote reboots, are located in a rack behind a glass door off of the hot tub room.

The Source Home Theater Installation & Design also equipped the
spa-tacular digs with industrial-grade broadband, using a commercial
version of Verizon’s FiOS, plus Apple AirPort Extreme. A security panel
with remote controlled digital locks on an exterior door can be opened
by the owner via his smartphone.

 

(http://www.electronichouse.com/article/new_york_apartment_features_ultimate_high-def_man_cave?utm_source=eh_Outb&utm_medium=web)

[StormCrow]

move to Canada... problem solved

[PingLo]

move to Canada... problem solved

 

Unless you are a Dr.  we can tell why Pimpedout is down here...

[JohnnyQuest]

move to Canada... problem solved

#1 Storm man.....

[JohnnyQuest]

 

move to Canada... problem solved

 

Unless you are a Dr.  we can tell why Pimpedout is down here...

it keeps them honest Pingy doo....he he

[Guybrush]

And this is considered a "small apartment"?

[TBB]

move to Canada... problem solved

But then you run the risk of running into Pete or Joe!! - Not worth it.

[FLDMARSHAL]

here is the answer to ur question my freind

 

Health and Human Services (HHS) …

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Retired as a city worker, Sheila Pugach lives in a modest home on a quiet street in Albuquerque, N.M., and drives an 18-year-old Subaru.

Pugach doesn't see herself as upper-income by any stretch, but President Barack Obama's budget would raise her Medicare premiums and those of other comfortably retired seniors, adding to a surcharge that already costs some 2 million beneficiaries hundreds of dollars a year each.

More importantly, due to the creeping effects of inflation, 20 million Medicare beneficiaries would end up paying higher "income related" premiums for their outpatient and prescription coverage over time.

Administration officials say Obama's proposal will help improve the financial stability of Medicare by reducing taxpayer subsidies for retirees who can afford to pay a bigger share of costs. Congressional Republicans agree with the president on this one, making it highly likely the idea will become law if there's a budget deal this year.

But the way Pugach sees it, she's being penalized for prudence, dinged for saving diligently.

It was the government, she says, that pushed her into a higher income bracket where she'd have to pay additional Medicare premiums.

IRS rules require people age 70-and-a-half and older to make regular minimum withdrawals from tax-deferred retirement nest eggs like 401(k)s. That was enough to nudge her over Medicare's line.

"We were good soldiers when we were young," said Pugach, who worked as a computer systems analyst. "I was afraid of not having money for retirement and I put in as much as I could. The consequence is now I have to pay about $500 a year more in Medicare premiums."

Currently only about 1 in 20 Medicare beneficiaries pays the higher income-based premiums, which start at incomes over $85,000 for individuals and $170,000 for couples. As a reference point, the median or midpoint U.S. household income is about $53,000.

Obama's budget would change Medicare's upper-income premiums in several ways. First, it would raise the monthly amounts for those currently paying.

If the proposal were already law, Pugach would be paying about $168 a month for outpatient coverage under Medicare's Part B, instead of $146.90.

Then, the plan would create five new income brackets to squeeze more revenue from the top tiers of retirees.

But its biggest impact would come through inflation.

The administration is proposing to extend a freeze on the income brackets at which seniors are liable for the higher premiums until 1 in 4 retirees has to pay. It wouldn't be the top 5 percent anymore, but the top 25 percent.

"Over time, the higher premiums will affect people who by today's standards are considered middle-income," explained Tricia Neuman, vice president for Medicare policy at the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. "At some point, it raises questions about whether (Medicare) premiums will continue to be affordable."

Required withdrawals from retirement accounts would be the trigger for some of these retirees. For others it could be taking a part-time job.

One consequence could be political problems for Medicare. A growing group of beneficiaries might come together around a shared a sense of grievance.

"That's part of the problem with the premiums — they simply act like a higher tax based on income," said David Certner, federal policy director for AARP, the seniors lobby.

"Means testing" of Medicare benefits was introduced in 2007 under President George W. Bush in the form of higher outpatient premiums for the top-earning retirees. Obama's health care law expanded the policy and also added a surcharge for prescription coverage.

The latest proposal ramps up the reach of means testing and sets up a political confrontation between AARP and liberal groups on one side and fiscal conservatives on the other. The liberals have long argued that support for Medicare will be undermined if the program starts charging more for the well-to-do. Not only are higher-income people more likely to be politically active, they also tend to be in better health.

Fiscal conservatives say it makes no sense for government to provide the same generous subsidies to people who can afford to pay at least some of the cost themselves. As a rule, taxpayers pay for 75 percent of Medicare's outpatient and prescription benefits. Even millionaires would still get a 10 percent subsidy on their premiums under Obama's plan. Technically, both programs are voluntary.

"The government has to understand the difference between universal opportunity and universal subsidy," said David Walker, the former head of the congressional Government Accountability Office. "This is a very modest step towards changing the government subsidy associated with Medicare's two voluntary programs."

It still doesn't sit well with Sheila Pugach. She says she's been postponing remodeling work on her 58-year-old house because she's concerned about the cost. Having a convenient utility room so she doesn't have to go out to the garage to do laundry would help with her back problems.

"They think all old people are living the life of Riley," she said.

 

[Bombshell]

Doctor's pay or how they choose to spend it doesn't really have anything to do with the "high medical costs" in the United States but that sounds like a pretty effing awesome setup!