Just Thought I Would Throw This Out There...

[PS90]

Originally Posted by Transmition

The stats only cover the peak of covid, when few people were moving anywhere. If people were fleeing the state then wouldn't it be negative? Really need 2022 figures.
I'm not sure where people were supposed to be moving into to increase Seattle's population, since construction stopped there were no new apartments or houses. You can't add more water to a full bucket. This was why house prices went crazy last year, high demand and low supply.

Seattle didn't suddenly run out of space in the last 2 years. Growth was high until just recently. There's other reasons at play here.

Originally Posted by Transmition

Worse places are cheaper because demand is lower. Combine that with people no longer having to live near their job, it makes sense that people would move from the expensive high-demand areas. Given the increased costs of city apartments over the same period, they were replaced by others. Notice how the places with the highest percentage decline were also 8/10 red states, makes me wonder how much of the gains were just people moving from one red area to another.

This year's figures will be the better test, no weird covid effect to muddy things. With many red states enacting oppressive authoritarian laws against healthcare and and expression, book bans and mass shootings, will there be a flood of people moving to blue states? Idaho isn't a good place to be pregnant with so many OBGYNs leaving and maternity centers shutting.

Most of the counties listed for percentage decline are tiny counties, population-wise. And most of them are in Louisiana or Mississippi. According to the chart at the bottom of that Seattle Times article I just cited, 9/10 of the biggest declining states are blue states.

And in reply to your bottom sentence - the "authoritarian" thing could have easily been said about Washington in the midst of Covid. And those other things you mentioned are actually a pro, rather than a con, for some people. Crazy that other people have different opinions, right?

[Pahn]

Originally Posted by PS90

And those other things you mentioned are actually a pro, rather than a con, for some people. Crazy that other people have different opinions, right?

Wait, book banning, mass shootings, and the government making your health care decisions are good things?

At any rate, you won't like it when a loved one dies of a preventable condition because the State decided they didn't need or shouldn't get care.

And enjoy the mass exodus of doctors. Rural areas already struggle with lack of medical providers.

[PS90]

Originally Posted by Pahn

Wait, book banning, mass shootings, and the government making your health care decisions are good things?

At any rate, you won't like it when a loved one dies of a preventable condition because the State decided they didn't need or shouldn't get care.

And enjoy the mass exodus of doctors. Rural areas already struggle with lack of medical providers.

Are you being serious right now?

Mass shootings are a "red state" thing? I would love to see data on that.

And the government making healthcare decisions??? Do you not remember less than 2 years ago when King Inslee was getting people fired for not getting his vaccine???

[UniversalTraveler]

Why even bother arguing Left vs. Right. Seattle has a horrid and further mounting homeless crisis that from what I'm seeing, isn't getting a pinch better but headed in the wrong direction. Do you REALLY think any politician is going to fully address this let alone the gang activities that surround the Metro Seattle area? If you believe that I have a bridge in NY I can sell you real cheap. And if you think Seattle has it bad take a look at your down South neighbor in Portland. That place is truly up for grabs. I even doubt a Right leaning politician could cure their ills. But one things for certain. The liberal leaning folks have done NOTHING.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by Pahn

Wait, book banning, mass shootings, and the government making your health care decisions are good things?

At any rate, you won't like it when a loved one dies of a preventable condition because the State decided they didn't need or shouldn't get care.

And enjoy the mass exodus of doctors. Rural areas already struggle with lack of medical providers.

Lemme tell ya, pal; the insurance companies have been making patients' health care decisions for them for a very long time. They decide what tests will be paid for, and which won't; they direct primary care doctors to be the gatekeepers to access to testing and referrals to specialists in an effort to keep costs low, and they direct specialists to avoid diagnostic testing and scans, etc. as much as possible. I could go on. But in terms of poor patient outcomes, it makes no difference who controls the spigot: government or private insurance.

[PhoenixSomeday]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Lemme tell ya, pal; the insurance companies have been making patients' health care decisions for them for a very long time. They decide what tests will be paid for, and which won't; they direct primary care doctors to be the gatekeepers to access to testing and referrals to specialists in an effort to keep costs low, and they direct specialists to avoid diagnostic testing and scans, etc. as much as possible. I could go on. But in terms of poor patient outcomes, it makes no difference who controls the spigot: government or private insurance.

It does seem hard to get any kind of testing done beyond useless blood work. They're so deflecty about it. You have to really push a doctor to get testing done. And even when a DOCTOR says that some test is medically necessary, insurance is likely to send you a letter anyway saying "Actually, we've decided your doctor is wrong, and this isn't actually necessary." O.k., person who wasn't actually in the room with the doctor and patient.

[509]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Lemme tell ya, pal; the insurance companies have been making patients' health care decisions for them for a very long time. They decide what tests will be paid for, and which won't; they direct primary care doctors to be the gatekeepers to access to testing and referrals to specialists in an effort to keep costs low, and they direct specialists to avoid diagnostic testing and scans, etc. as much as possible. I could go on. But in terms of poor patient outcomes, it makes no difference who controls the spigot: government or private insurance.

Yep, your right about insurance companies....EXCEPT I can go to the State Insurance Commissioner, the Attorney General's consumer fraud division, and in my case the Inspector General for Health Care Fraud.

Your right in the sense that nobody cares, well the Attorney General consumer fraud division was willing to take my case.

Since it was a Federal employee insurance the State of Washington was told by the Federal government that they had NO JURISDICTION over Federal health care plans. But they suggested FRAUD was something that the Attorney General would be interested in looking over.

Yeah, the Inspector General's fraud response, was file an appeal with your insurance carrier. Right they are ripping off the taxpayers for $51 per medical physical for retired Federal employees and I am suppose to talk to them!!! It wasn't about the $51 for me, it was ripping off the taxpayers for $51 for EVERY Federal employee.

Thankfully, in Trumps last year in office he finally got a law passed called the NO SURPRISES ACT, which mandated disclosure by the medical community prior to the appointment.

That ended the fraud.

Having the government control your health care means no rights of appeal, and nobody willing to take your case.

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by PS90

Are you being serious right now?

Mass shootings are a "red state" thing? I would love to see data on that.

As requested. Not mass shootings per se, but murder rates: https://www.thirdway.org/report/the-...murder-problem

The top 10 murder rate states are increasingly dominated by Trump-voting states.

Solidly red states have dominated the top 10 murder rate states for the past decade—some for each of the last 21 years. Louisiana had the highest murder rate in the country from 2000 to 2018, until it was surpassed by Mississippi. Before becoming the state with the highest murder rate in 2019, Mississippi held the number two spot for 16 years between 2000 and 2018. Alabama has been in the top 5 for 20 out of the last 21 years. South Carolina has been in the top 10 for each of the past 21 years. All of these states have voted for the Republican presidential candidate in every election since 2000. The red states of Arkansas, Tennessee, and Missouri have also consistently been in the top 10 since 2004.

A handful of Biden states have as well, but not to the same degree as Trump states. Maryland has been among the top 10 for 20 out of 21 years, New Mexico for 16 years, and Georgia for 10 years. States often mentioned in the media as crime havens, like California and New York, have not graced the top 10 once. New York has never even been in the top 25 for murder rates this century.

Between 2000 and 2010, red states and blue states roughly split the top 10, with four or five of the states being blue. But after 2010, murder rates fell in blue states relative to red states. Beginning in 2011, red states have held 7 or 8 spots in the top 10 every year.