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d3, yes I agree with what you’re saying now. Bureaucrats should not be deciding what medical treatment people need; doctors should be deciding that. I guess where we disagree is that I don’t believe just leaving it in the hands of private insurance companies is going to solve anything. I think they are the PROBLEM, not the solution.I don't think we should leave it in the hands of private insurance companies either. Personally I think the doctor should decide what he is going to charge for his treatments. If he is trying to charge to much and the insurance company has a problem with that, they should take him out of their list of covered doctors. My gut tells me that unless a doctor is too good to need to accept insurance he will work with the insurance companies to come up with reasonable rates. These will lead to higher primary prices, but I believe at the same time it will lower emergency room costs because it will overtime increase the number of primary care doctors. Part of the current problem of having set prices used by Medicare and insurance companies is that it is not always equitable and unless both them and the government are will to accept that the cost of service is dependent on both physical location of service and quality of service they cannot be equitable. The way the system currently works though, I do not see the government as being willing to properly differentiate what the salary of a talented doctor in NYC vs a Novice in Las Cruses NM. Unless that can fairly happen you cannot have equity for doctors and there will be a shortage of talented primary care providers. My whole premise is that I fear we are slowly heading this way and that government involvement will most likely make the problem worse. Also I fear that if we over standardize medicine the US is going to lose out on their current ability for coming up with medical breakthroughs because doctors will be more likely become required to give specific treatments verses doing what they think will work best. Am I the only one who worries about handing my health choices over to the government or any other entity that does not have a strong medical background?
I actually don’t think most doctors should be completely in charge of it, especially when they get paid for procedures. I know way too many cancer patients used as lab rats that ran up million dollar medical bills, having procedures done that were unnecessary and dangerous that made their lives shorter and more painful… The entire medical field has been perverted by profit and greed.I think most of the greed comes from insurance companies and not the doctors. People on here seem to believe that all doctors are making a lot of money and are taking of us. I believe this is true in some medical fields, but in regards to family and non-specialized medicines we are taking advantage of the doctors
OO said the physical therapy rehab facility are always keeping the seniors for the max time Medicare allows. I have never seen one senior getting discharged after 3 days even though the injury is minor. There is so many Medicare abuses that this is not even funny.Actually, that's not true. I work in a SNF and we regularly discharge patients when they're done with their therapy, whether thats a few days or a few months. The facility has to justify the amount of therapy provided to every patient and if the patient doesn't need the service, they go home. Are there abuses? Absolutely - I worked in a facility that was absolutely horrible and ended up leaving due to the abuses, but I reported it first. But there are facilities that are run ethically and morally. In fact, I'd say that more are ethical than not. Right now our healthcare system is run by for-profit companies whose job it is to keep costs down so that they can make money hand over fist - this includes denying procedures that, had they been done they would have prevented further surgeries. The govt helps to set prices, but private insurance companies do their own setting of prices too. Other countries have shown that the govt can get involved and it can be beneficial.
I think Sarah was being facetious with that VP comment. Everyone knows that the veep is second banana but that job doesn’t exactly have a bunch of appeal. Some swingers around here seem to consider her the gorilla their dreams and I’m sure they wouldn’t mind monkeying with her tail if the time was ripe. Well, at least this Chiquita isn’t on the Dole and doesn’t act like a fruit.I wasn't talking about the "could somebody even tell me" thing, which seemed to be a joke -- I was talking about the "they're in charge of the US senate" comment. Tenpoundbass says
Those You Betcha’s and the word grasping as she reaffirms “in this “Great country of ours… Uh that is America†is a tell that she is soul searching by the seat of her pants for the next words to say, as she reads her audienceShe doesn't pause that often or even say "uh" that much -- she just stumbles through sentences that a 12 year old could manage without sounding like a total buffoon. Beyond that, she's a creationist and believes that "the public" should "debate" science. Because, don'tcha know, if people don't believe something to be a fact, it isn't a fact!
I’m tired of it too, but you’re still nitpicking. The utopian concept of communism where the means of production is owned by the people doesn’t exist, and never has. There has never been a true communist country under that definition. So to nitpick about that distinction seems quite meaningless, wouldn’t you say?No. Communism and socialism are simply not the same thing, or degrees of the same thing. Just because there has never been a (large) communist society does not mean that communism and socialism are the same thing, or that it's OK to equate them as being similar. Socialism has a lot more in common with capitalism than it does with communism, as both are systems assume benevolence on the part of those with "power", but inevitably lead to power hording and controlling the lives of individuals. Some Guy says
That’s nice, except I did no such thing. You read ALL of that into my post. All I did was type the word “communist†and everybody freaked out. Please, please, please, quote where I equated Keynesian economics with socialism, or said anything about failures of socialism.Why do you assume that all of my comments were directed at you? Some Guy says
A government owned and operated health care system, with hospitals owned by the government and doctors as government employees is not “Keynesian economics†by the way. That is in fact socialism. That ASPECT of the government would be a socialist one. To say, “It’s not socialism because other things are not owned by the government†doesn’t cut it. You can have various socialist elements without it being necessary to say an entire society is socialist.Of course -- though nobody is seriously considering that type of medical system. The most extreme proposals are for single payer, which is also not socialism. By reasons for "nitpicking", as you say, is that the distortion of this issue is astounding. Instead of having serious debate on the issue of how to fund health care, we keep seeing discussion about fully government owned and operated medical systems as though that was what people were going for (and automatically dismissing that policy by equating it with the failed socialist system of the USSR). That's why I say that people who are intelligent and actually understand the issues need to stop throwing around terms like "socialism" and "communism" (as well as "free market", for that matter) where they're inaccurate or just plain wrong. It's intellectual dishonestly. Do you want people to agree with something because they've been presented with the facts and made a rational decision, or do you want people to agree with something because it has been mischaracterized and presented as something with an inherent negative bias?
ctually, understanding the math, as the market continues to contract, the median price will actually move UP, not down. Weird huh. The problem is the word “medianâ€. If 10000 houses sold last year for 200K, the median is 200K. If one house this year sells for 220K, the median is 220k, a 10% rise in prices.That's not how math works. The median is the point where half of all values are above and half are below. In your scenario, the median is still $200k. There are some systems of calculation that exclude duplicate values, but those are only for very specialized equations and certainly aren't used for house prices. You can't change a median by moving values at the edges. The point still holds for the most part, but please get the math right. A better example would be this: - In year 1, 1000 houses sell for $500k -- the upper end of the market has completely disappeared. Median == $500k. - In year 2, 1000 houses sell for $300k, and 1000 houses sell for $800k. Median == $550k For the people who are in the 'lower' tier of home buyers, it looks disheartening. House prices are up! But the reality is that, for them, house prices are actually down by over 40%. This is exactly what will start to happen as prices on high end homes start to fall and sales pick up.
Teddybearneil saysI mean I would love for the home prices to crash further so that I can snag another property for pennies on the dollar..but thanks to the re-flation policies of the Fed/Treasury, it appears that a combination of low interest rates, plenty of loans being originated with only 3% down payment, banks NOT foreclosing on properties and the existing inventory of foreclosed properties pretty much cleared out, I don't see how and when prices will come down further. A bottom with a bounce as another wag suggested, is a possibility, but I am not betting on it. I am definitely going to buy a home if it gives me a monthly positive cash flow by renting it out!!I am one of those who believe in the historic co-relation between household incomes and home prices. I have been watching with unconcealed glee as prices crashed and even managed to snag an REO in Texas in 2008. I now notice that Zestimates are starting to go up on ALL the properties that I have in my Zillow favorites. It would suggest to me that we have reached the bottom in housing! I am now scrambling to snag another property before the home prices start back up on their upward curve!!Oooh, Zestimates. Yeah, those are really accurate…
Well, it only is if you make it so. I think we should not accuse someone of “semantics†when we are really accusing them of “playing a semantic *game*†of distorting the meaning of a concept.That's exactly my point when I complain about use of terms like "socialism" and "communism". There is a MASSIVE difference between a single-payer "insurance" system and what you might get out of a "socialist" system. When you start throwing around these terms, you're distorting the actual discussion about what is best for our country by bringing fear to the table. If you tell Joe six pack that a single payer system is communism, he's going to automatically reject it, without actually investigating what is being proposed and how it would work. There have been numerous studies that show that people are open to just about anything if you phrase it a certain way. Politicians know this all too well, and people like Karl Rove have made their entire careers on influencing opinion through selective language. drfelle says
If they’re paying for cable TV and INTERNET, eating out, paying for a mortgage they can’t afford, wearing designer clothing, buying Plasma’s/Blu-Rays, having kids out of wed-lock, financing a car, etc, etc, Then YES!So your basic argument is that it's OK to overpay for health care because there is still a lot to sacrifice? Perhaps we should all live like serfs so that we can afford to pay the insurance companies whatever they ask? That's not a solution. A "solution" means coming up with the best way to reduce the crushing cost of health care on society as a whole. Health care costs have been growing at a rate more than double the general cost of living. That is not sustainable.
Creation or Evolution, it’s both human interpretation. Exactly how evolved or “Evolution works†for that matter. Is only speculation and theories at this point.You do realize that a "theory" has actual scientific meaning, right? Saying that something is "only" a theory doesn't somehow denote the status of the research. The theory of Gravity is only a theory, too. That's the whole point of science. Being presented with facts and interpreting those facts. There are no "facts" in creationism -- it's not science, it is theology. Tenpoundbass says
There are Zealots in the Scientific community as any change to their Scientific religion is Heresy and to not believe or question is Blasphemy.Oh please. There are no real scientists (you know, people with degrees and experience who perform scientific research) who do any such thing. The scientific method requires peer review and reproduction, which is something that global warming deniers, creationists, and people who believe that oil 'grows' out of the ground hate. If you believe that the prevailing scientific knowledge on a given subject is wrong, all you have to do is perform some research that contradicts the existing research. It isn't that hard to disprove something that is obviously wrong, but it's very hard to disprove something that is probably right (like gravity and evolution). I'll agree with the argument that science can and has been misinterpreted and misused, but that doesn't change the nature of the discovery process. As an example: Fact: The earth is getting hotter. Theories as to why: (Prevailing theory): Lots of evidence suggests that the earth is getting hotter because of increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. (Somewhat common) Valid, but less thoroughly researched evidence suggests that the warming may be caused by other effects than CO2, such as solar cycles and geothermal activity. So, yeah, it's absolutely possible for people who know the facts to continue doing research to try to determine whether the prevailing theory (which we can control) or the less-common theory (which we can't control) hold true. But it isn't "science" to just dismiss the basic fact of the earth getting hotter. That's like dismissing gravity because you don't like it when you fall on your ass. Tenpoundbass says
Religious nuts have always challenged Science, and Science has seemed to get along just fine. Why get in a pissing contest over climate change, evolution ect…Because the creationists (like Sarah Palin) want to teach Creationism in school, and fill my children's head with nonsense about magical sky dwellers who created man out of some dust. If Sarah wants her kids to believe such stories, she's welcome to attend any church that she likes.
How about teaching people to exercise, to stop eating corporate poison, to cook for themselves,Absolutely. Guess what, though? Uneducated people lack the knowledge to make those decisions. If you want them to be able to make those intelligent decisions, you're going to have to provide them with a good education. The poverty / poor education cycle is vicious. The 'corporate poison' is another fun issue. How do you teach them not to eat it? If anyone tries to publish the evidence of how horrible this food is for you, they get sued by McDonald's and co. Hell, look at the food pyramid. It was written by the farm lobby, which is why it makes the completely outrageous claim that grains (you know, wheat, soy, and corn) should form the basis of our diet, and that meat is of equal importance as fruits and vegetables. That is so beyond unhealthy that it's almost criminal. How do you expect ordinary people to make good decisions about their health when they're being told that giving their kids white bread peanut butter and jelly sandwiches is healthy? Many other countries have addressed these problems by heavily regulating their food industries. I might get on board with that approach, but I doubt that the people who think that the current system works would be. Of course, that's not going to change the basic nature of health care. There is no free market when I get hit by a truck. "Personal responsibility" isn't involved when a building collapses on me.
stop taking drugs and drinking and smoking,The government-funded anti-smoking campaign (surgeon general's warnings, high taxes on tobacco, and TRUTH ads more recently) have accomplished exactly that. Smoking rates in the US have fallen to less than 20% of their peak, all because the government stepped in and made people aware of just how bad smoking was for them. So that worked. Maybe soda should come with warning labels too (in some countries, it does).
stop vegetating in front of the idiot box, stop wanting to pop a pill for every perceived ailment,How about banning the advertising of medication? "Ask your doctor about..." is just wrong. Your doctor should be the one telling you about a medication, not your television.
stop obsessing about being sick (you get what you THINK)? When we don’t need doctors, then they’ll just have to find something else to do. (Oh, pardon me for being so naive.)We will always need doctors. What you're suggesting would certainly cut down on heart disease and some forms of cancer, but the big burdens would still be there. Is "personal responsibility" going to make bones stop breaking, the elderly stop aging, or anything else? And just SAYING "personal responsibility" is meaningless when you have a society that has been built up to cram bad ideas down everybody's throats. The free market has utterly failed at steering people towards healthy lifestyle habits, so the only option there is going to be even more government intervention. I am 100% in favor of changing behavior here. We need our school lunches to no longer include nachos and dr pepper. We need to make McDonald's cease to be the most popular resturaunt. We aren't going to do that when the food companies who make these terrible products have all the money and can skew perception all that they want.
anks NOT foreclosing on properties and the existing inventory of foreclosed properties pretty much cleared out, I don’t see how and when prices will come down further.Foreclosures in Silicon Valley continue to climb:
There were 591 foreclosures in Santa Clara County in June, up 22 percent compared with May, ForeclosureRadar, a Discovery Bay company that tracks California foreclosure activity, reported Tuesday. Foreclosures were up 63 percent in May from April. In a sign that the trend would continue, notices of default — the first step leading to foreclosure — rose by 11.5 percent. Foreclosure sales statewide jumped by 24.7 percent, the company said, marking the third consecutive month of increase following a moratorium pending announcementCan anyone explain me how I can infer inventory of foreclosed properties will clear out soon?
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