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Readers! A November fund-raising drive!

 

It is unfortunately time for another November fund-raising campaign to support my work here at Behind the Black. I really dislike doing these, but 2025 is so far turning out to be a very poor year for donations and subscriptions, the worst since 2020. I very much need your support for this webpage to survive.

 

And I think I provide real value. Fifteen years ago I said SLS was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said Orion was a lie and a bad idea. As early as 1998, long before almost anyone else, I predicted in my first book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, that private enterprise and freedom would conquer the solar system, not government. Very early in the COVID panic and continuing throughout I noted that every policy put forth by the government (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, jab mandates) was wrong, misguided, and did more harm than good. In planetary science, while everyone else in the media still thinks Mars has no water, I have been reporting the real results from the orbiters now for more than five years, that Mars is in fact a planet largely covered with ice.

 

I could continue with numerous other examples. If you want to know what others will discover a decade hence, read what I write here at Behind the Black. And if you read my most recent book, Conscious Choice, you will find out what is going to happen in space in the next century.

 

 

This last claim might sound like hubris on my part, but I base it on my overall track record.

 

So please consider donating or subscribing to Behind the Black, either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. I could really use the support at this time. There are five ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation. Takes about a 10% cut.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription, which takes about a 15% cut:

 

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You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.


When you go for your annual physical — free under Obamace — the doctor cannot treat you for, or even answer questions about, any new ailments.

Finding out what’s in it: When you go for your annual physical — free under Obamace — the doctor cannot treat you for, or even answer questions about, any new ailments.

We are obligated by law to code specifically for the reason of the visit. An annual exam is one specific code; you can not mix this with another code, say, for rectal bleeding. This annual visit covers the exam and “discussion about the status of previously diagnosed stable conditions.” That’s the exact wording under that code — insurance will not cover any new ailment under that code. If you are here for that annual exam, you will not be covered if you want to discuss any new ailment or unstable condition. I cannot bait and switch to another code — that’s illegal. We, the physicians, are audited all the time and can lose our license for insurance fraud.

You, the patient, will then have to make a decision. Do you want your “free” yearly exam, or do you want to pay for a visit which is coded for a particular, new problem? You can have my “free” exam if you only discuss what Obamacare wants me to discuss.

In other words, this so-called “free annual physical” is a fraud. In fact, in order for it to be free, both the doctor and the patient have to purposely ignore any new problems that might have come up since the last physical. Or the doctor has to cheat and do work for which he will not be paid.

None of this should be surprising. You allow the government to stick its hands into everything you do, those hands are going to go places you never expected or would have permitted. Just ask anyone who has had to go through airport security.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

7 comments

  • Because my primary care physician doesn’t accept insurance, I can discuss whatever I please, and not worry about whether something will be covered. Nor does his office have to break down the visit into discrete codes. On my last visit we talked about several different concerns. Under the current insurance system, his office probably would have billed an insurance company for several hundred dollars in ‘treatments’. As it was, I spent well under $100, and all of my concerns were addressed.

    I have long maintained that health care insurance isn’t the solution, it’s the problem. On a cash basis, the cost to the patient increases, but not onerously so, while the overall cost of healthcare is dramatically reduced. Government – run healthcare increases by an order of magnitude the enormous complexity and cost of the current insurance system, and, as the post demonstrates, reduces the quality of care. But hey, it’s ‘free’.

  • Chris Kirkendall

    Lunacy ! This brings to mind Dennis Miller’s quip, “If you think health care is expensive now, wait till it’s free!”…

  • What!!!! One is tempted to say this law was written by chimps with a typewriter, but that would be a disservice to primates. No, it must have been done by critters lower on the evolutionary scale–Democrats?

  • JGL

    I read an article from Forbes, I suggest you all find and read it, ” 5 ways to protect yourself against Obamacare” ,

    one of the things it lists is something I have been thinking about, Health savings accounts. It apparently frees you

    from these onerous phoney details.

    It appears that by Obamacare claiming that you are entitled to a “free” yearly visit the real intent is to end or

    elliminate such a thing. Brilliant!

    A testament to the American peoples chosen condititon, willfull, unconcious ingnorance.

    Just like Obama who talks about something one way and implments it in a 180 degree manner. Again, brilliant!

    Another thing, the word “insurance” is now used incorrectly, this is now not insurance. Insurance is a business

    model designed to spread risk / cost statistically through out a particular population segment, Obamacare is the

    gaurantee of healthcare for all with no risk / cost calculation involved. Its “FREE” !

    Their job for this to be successful will be to limit all care and call that success. Its the same thing as a private

    company limiting care only this is accomplished by a bunch of politically concerned beauracrats. That can only be

    good. NOT!

    Call it what it is, American Socialism / Communisum universal healthcare.

    The spanking is coming, what remains unknown is the legth of time until or if we wake up.

  • Pzatchok

    This is what you get when insurance company lobbyists propose and write our health care laws.

    They conned the Democrats into thinking they were giving something away for free and at the same time reforming healthcare.
    The Dems fell for it because its what they have always wanted. A sucker is born every moment.

    Where is our and the governments cash going? Straight to the insurance companies. Some is taken by fine and then passed onto the insurance companies. Some other is forcibly paid directly to the insurance companies.The last bit is paid in the name of covering the poor directly by the government to the insurance companies.

    At no point is the government getting anything from this. Not even enough to cover the new bureaucracy to supposedly manage it.

    We will know the people have lost everything if they pass any sort of law limiting complaints or restitution from problems involving the government rules and laws.

  • Perhaps I am mistaken, but doesn’t Obamacare reduce the amount one can put into HSAs?

  • This might backfire on lobbyists when they find their companies bankrupted by this insane legislation.

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