Thursday, November 19, 2009

Gift Card for/from GIs idea-- (part of the truth and reconciliation)

Image: Windshield view of a busy Baghdad street (or any of several exotic spots).

Willy: D'ja see the eyes on that little kid as we bounced over his parents? Thought I'd s*** myself!

Joe: Yeah! We shoulda gone back and got the little f***er. Another five, six years, he'll be wirin'-up bombs!

Friday, November 13, 2009

[In response to a post 10-12-09 at Scam.com, in Political Chat, on Health Insurance]

Other countries; thanks, Spector567, for the NationMaster links. We need to start with facts, as good and to as many decimal places as we can get them. (Reminds me of the Heinlein quote.)

I'm told PBS' Frontline recently did a special called IIRC "Sick Around The World" [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/countries/models.html], noting that among others, Taiwan has a 'Medicare-for-All' system that sounds like a good model.

It's abundantly clear that the profit motive is a lousy way to take care of our health. When HMOs first arose, there was hope that costs would be reduced by preventive care; screenings, early treatment, nutrition counseling and education and so on. Didn't happen. Denial and cancellation was much easier to do, insulated from the rage of the sick customer's survivors.

As far as immigrants, I would much rather they were all (yes, like the GB-NHS, _every_ resident) treated out of our overall tax-supported system (in a _huge_ group, spreading the costs) than not treated at all, or waiting for a crisis at the ER, where the cost is the most, and likely finding that some disease epidemic has spread because of that lack of early treatment. This is called 'enlightened self-interest'. BTW, that immigrant is paying into the tax system also, even if not into his own account (perhaps with someone else's SS#), and certainly with the most regressive of taxes, sales taxes.

Invective ("liars, filth, vermin") and obscenity (well, you know which ones) that Power-One likes to use are not the path to a reasoned discussion toward problem-solving, just the usual bully tactics the Faux Noise crowd uses to shout down a conversation. Not interested, Bully-Bait.