ShazzieB
ShazzieB's JournalNew Illinois law impacts healthcare, begins in 2025
ILLINOIS (WCIA) — For some in Illinois, hospital bills may begin to look a little different in the new year.
Beginning in January, hospitals will be prohibited from directly billing a patient that is 138% below the federal poverty line.
In 2024, the Federal Poverty Guidelines was $15,060 for a one-person household, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 138% would be around $20,782 for a one-person household.
*snip*
You can read more about the new law here. For a full list of laws beginning in the new year, click here.
December Photo Contest Finals Thread is up in General Discussion!
I am both happy and relieved 
to announce that the December Finals Thread been posted in General Discusion. You can find it here: https://upload.democraticunderground.com/100219854977
The poll will run for 72 hours, after which I will post the winners.
At this time, I would like to thank everyone who entered for your contributions and the whole community for your patience throughout this rather protracted process. I think we have a pretty darned impressive slate of finalists, any of whom deserve to win, and I can't wait to see how it all turns out!
***December Photo Contest Finals Thread***
Finally, at long last, this is the final poll for the December Photo Contest! The 10 photos here have been chosen by you, DU members! Now you'll pick the top 3.
Please feel free to leave comments as they add greatly to the fun!
This poll will run for 72 hours and then there will be a post announcing the winners.
Autumn sunset
Autumn Collage
Colors along the Clearwater River
The Chemistry Of Color
November 1 Setting Sun
Autumn Garden
Fall at the Falls
Autumn on Peshastin Creek
Autumn in the high desert
Early December, Dawn
***December Photo Contest--Autumn--Preliminary Thread #3 REPEAT***
As I reported earlier this evening, Preliminary Thread #3 of the December Photo Contest was accidentally deleted before I had the chance to tally the votes in all 3 threads. (If you're curious, you can read all the embarrassing details here: https://www.democraticunderground.com/1036140371)
In order to be as fair as possible to those who photos were posted and voted on in that thread, I am recreating the thread to allow people to vote for their favorites in that set of photos.
Fall Deck
Family Fun in Fall Foliage
Fall in the City of Rocks
A Florida Autumn
Autumn in the high desert
Early December, Dawn
Fall in Everett, Washington
Big time screwup: UPDATE!
EDIT: I have recreated the thread, so everyone can vote again! You can find it here: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219842057
To all of you who replied to this post earlier with words of support and encouragement, I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. Thank you from the bottom of my 💙!! I'd hug you all if I could. Instead, I'll just post this: 
========================
ORIGINAL POST
I have screwed up big time! ☹😨😰😥
I was getting ready to count the votes and make the thread for the finals, BUT. I accidentally deleted one of the preliminary threads! 
When I made the preliminary threads, I forgot to set the time limit for the poll in the third thread. You have to do that when making the poll, and there's no way to do it retroactively. So it looked like the voting was still running in that one. I decided to do an edit and add a message in all caps saying that the voting is closed, and any votes posted after X time will not be counted.
So I clicked the new "Options" button on the post and went to hit "Edit," but I accidentally hit "Self-delete this post" instead, then hit "Okay" before I realized what had happened, and the whole post disappeared. 
I am so, so, SO sorry!
The only thing I can think of to do to rectify this is to recreate that post from scratch and give people another chance to vote in that thread. So that's what I will do later this evening. In the meantime, please accept my deepest and most profound apologies for this screw up. 
December Phoro Contest - preliminary polls
The 3 preliminary polls are up in General Discussion. That's right, I said 3! we ended up with 21 entries, because I forgot to lock the thread once there were 20, so I made 3 polls with 7 entriies each.
I apologize for the delay. i expected to have them up earlier today, but was thwarted by computer problems. I ended up having to make the polls on my husband's desktop computer, which I'm not used to, so it took a lot longer than it should have.
If you notice any errors, please post a comment in here and I'll fix them.
Here are the links:
Thread #1: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219835710
Thread #2: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219835723
Thread #3: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219835733
Thanks for all the great entries! Please keep these kicked!
***December Photo Contest--Autumn--Preliminary Thread #2***
This month's theme was a seasonal one: Autumn.
Please vote in all 3 threads! And do let us know what you think; we always love your comments!
Link for Preliminary Thread #1: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219835710
Link for Preliminary Thread #3: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219835733
Halloween Fishing Trip
The Chemistry Of Color
November 1 Setting Sun
Halloween Fun
.
Autumn Garden
Fall at the Falls
Autumn on Peshastin Creek
***December Photo Contest--Autumn--Preliminary Thread #1***
This month's theme was a seasonal one: Autumn.
Please vote in all 3 threads! And do let us know what you think; we always love your comments!
Link for Preliminary Thread #2: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219835723
Link for Preliminary Thread #3: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219835733
Autumn sunset
November Beach
Autumn Collage
Rowing
Colors along the Clearwater River
Camouflaged in the Cold with Beady Eyes
The Sun is Low as the Days Grow Short
December Photo Contest is now cloaed!
We now have 20 entries, and I'm declaring the context officially closed. My thanks go out to everyone who submitted photos, shared your thoughts, or assisted in any other way.
Threads for voting will be posted later this week, as soon as I am able to do it.
In the meantime, happy holidays to all of you, regardless of which one(s) you celebrate!
I'm partial to the Solatice myself - yay for the return of the sun!
December Photo Contest - UPDATE
I am delighted to announce that we now have 19 entries! If no one objects, I'm inclined to close the contest tomorrow as previously planned, without opening it up to additional submissions from those who have already entered. One more entry would be nice, to bring it up to an even 20, but I'd rather not extend it beyond that.
My reasons are twofold: first, this is a very busy time of year for a lot of people, and I like the idea of wrapping it up and proceeding to the voting relatively quickly, rather than dragging things out.
The second reason is personal. I haven't mentioned it here, but my husband and I are still recovering from a flu bug that had us laid low most of last week. We're on the mend now, but still sleeping a lot and not back to anything close to a normal energy level. I thought I'd be back to normal by now, but I'm just...not. For that reason, closing the contest at 20 entries appeals to me greatly, on a purely personal level.
I'd hate for anyone to feel short shrifted by the contest being closed with fewer than 30 entries, and I'm interested to know how people feel about this, so this is your chance to express any disagreement! Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Profile Information
Name: SharonGender: Female
Hometown: Chicago area, IL
Home country: USA
Member since: Tue Mar 26, 2013, 03:18 AM
Number of posts: 19,063