SpoonFighter Comments

Comment on On-call, the bane of my existence by: The Muser

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:53:22 +0000

Okay, that you are on-call and farting onions sucks, but I am glad it has produced such fabulous poetry.

Comment on Hacking the Election by: SF

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:51:58 +0000

Once again, the Green Party was ROBBED!!!

Comment on Hacking the Election by: Clair

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:12:55 +0000

Yeah, they were definitely hacked!

Comment on Hacking the Election by: Christopher

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 04:49:58 +0000

What’s the proof that the Republicans ever stole an election? Why do you think there isn’t any cause to be annoyed, upset, and up in arms about people toying with our democratic process, by way of Mickey Mouse votes or anything else? Why would such concern qualify someone as a “wacko” in your eyes? I really am curious.

Comment on Hacking the Election by: daveawayfromhome

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 07:50:20 +0000

I worry about this a lot. I worry mostly about what will happen if Obama loses, because I dont think it will be a legitimate loss, and I’m not sure people will sit still for it if the Republicans steal the election this time.

Of course, if Obama wins, there will be those who will believe the hype from the GOP and blame it on all the Mickey Mouse votes, then watch the wackos come out of the woodwork.

Combine all this with a collapsing economy, and you’ve got a recipe for some real ugliness.

Comment on Best Medical Treatment in the World? by: Clair

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:09:15 +0000

The Y! email address I have for you bounced saying you no longer exist!

I hope I have it right. Anyway, I emailed you and my friend Aaron to see if either of you are available tomorrow for lunch or dinner? I arrive a little after 11 and have to work until about 6pm. And I have a car this time!

Comment on Best Medical Treatment in the World? by: danb

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:12:33 +0000

do you own car insurance? if you own/if you owned a home, do you/would you have a homeowners policy?

what’s the difference?

as with any insurance, you just have to carefully define what’s covered and isn’t covered, and make personal choices about deductibles vs. monthly payments, etc., etc.

Comment on Best Medical Treatment in the World? by: daveawayfromhome

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 02:44:27 +0000

DanB’s assessment is pretty good, as far as the madness of making insurance employee-driven(perhaps health organizations should be like credit unions), but my problem with the current system is the insurance companies. If relying on an employer to make your health care choices is crazy, how whacked out is placing those decisions into the hands of a company that makes its money only if it doesnt have to pay for your medical care?
One thing the pro-privatization crowd forgets is that when the government runs a program, it’s primary focus is people (even if they dont do a very good job sometimes). Any private company providing the same services instead of government will have a different priority: Profit.
Companies that do not think about profit first do not succeed in a for-profit arena.

Comment on Best Medical Treatment in the World? by: The Muser

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 20:35:19 +0000

Oh, dear, we really must get together soon. I knew you were bordering on the edge of heresy, but now on the edge of liberalism too???

Miss you. Let’s have coffee. Though beer is better. Much much much better. So maybe beer. The Yard House (which is within walking distance from my house) has about 6,000 beers on tap or something (I may be exaggerating a tiny bit…but not much). Always good to have 6,000 beers on tap within walking distance from one’s domicile, I say.

Comment on Best Medical Treatment in the World? by: danb

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:28:41 +0000

Health care is such an sticky issue. I think the reason it’s so divisive is that the current hodgepodge “system” in the US isn’t all government or all private. So people on one side point to health care companies & $#%^* HMOs and say, “see! the free market approach isn’t working!” and people on the other side point at all the regulations and at Medicare and say, “see! this is only going to get worse if we have a one-payer system.” We all point to the same obviously broken mess (albeit different parts) and draw completely different conclusions.

Eg, the guy in the article talks about horrible things that happened to him as a patient, and yet, based on the same facts (well, we readers only get a subset of all that he went through), apparently he and the Spoon somehow end up with opposing solutions.

Questions we have to step back and ask ourselves:

- Why on earth should we tie one’s health care to one’s current job? I think I had at least 4-5 different so-called primary care physicians in the 8.5 years I lived in DC. And I only worked at 3 different places, but at least two or three times my employer decided to switch companies. Why should employers make health care decisions? Insanity. Let people the people/patients do it.

- What if I want to buy just health INSURANCE (protection against the big stuff), not virtually comprehensive health coverage? I mean, what was wrong with paying out of pocket for routine medical bills like check-ups, etc.? (Has this not contributed to the rise in health care costs?) I.e., I buy car insurance for accidents, not to cover oil changes. A car insurance salesman would be happy to sell such a policy to me, of course, but I’m not gonna fall for it.

In sum, if we actually want the best medical treatment in the world, we first 1) get rid of the artificial link between one’s job and one’s health care (btw, does anyone ever actually think about or even know what this link is?? — specifically, it’s the IRS saying that health coverage bought through one’s employer is tax free) and 2) take away the special treatment that they give to HMOs in the HMO Act of 1973.

This would be a start towards a free-market system (you’d have to repeal plenty of other stuff, too, to make it a true free-market health care system), and prices would go down (leading to higher coverage, mind you) and quality would go up. But until then, don’t blame so-called “private” health care. That doesn’t exist unless you willingly ignore the govt’s fingerprints on every part of the system.