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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
SAN FRANCISCO — When John Battelle's teenage son broke his leg at a suburban soccer game, naturally the first call his parents made was to 911. The second was to Dr. Jordan Shlain, the concierge doctor here who treats Mr. Battelle and his family. "They're taking him to a local hospital," Mr. Battelle's wife, Michelle, told Dr. Shlain as the boy rode in an ambulance to a nearby emergency room in Marin County. "No, they're not," Dr. Shlain instructed them. "You don't want that leg set by an E.R. doc at a local medical center. You want it set by the head of orthopedics at a hospital in the city." Within minutes, the ambulance was on the Golden Gate Bridge, bound for California Pacific Medical Center, one of San Francisco's top hospitals. Dr. Shlain was there to meet them when they arrived, and the boy was seen almost immediately by an orthopedist with decades of experience.
For Mr. Battelle, a veteran media entrepreneur, the experience convinced him that the annual fee he pays to have Dr. Shlain on call is worth it, despite his guilt over what he admits is very special treatment. "I feel badly that I have the means to jump the line," he said. "But when you have kids, you jump the line. You just do. If you have the money, would you not spend it for that?"
Increasingly, it is a question being asked in hospitals and doctor's offices, especially in wealthier enclaves in places like Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco and New York. And just as a virtual velvet rope has risen between the wealthiest Americans and everyone else on airplanes, cruise ships and amusement parks, widening inequality is also transforming how health care is delivered. Money has always made a big difference in the medical world: fancier rooms at hospitals, better food and access to the latest treatments and technology. Concierge practices, where patients pay several thousand dollars a year so they can quickly reach their primary care doctor, with guaranteed same-day appointments, have been around for decades.
But these aren't the concierge doctors you've heard about — and that's intentional.
Dr. Shlain's Private Medical group does not advertise and has virtually no presence on the web, and new patients come strictly by word of mouth. But with annual fees that range from $40,000 to $80,000 (more than 10 times what conventional concierge practices charge), the suite of services goes far beyond 24-hour access or a Nespresso machine in the waiting room.
Indeed, as many Americans struggle to pay for health care — or even, with the future of the Affordable Care Act in question on Capitol Hill, face a loss of coverage — this corner of what some doctors call the medical-industrial complex is booming: boutique doctors and high-end hospital wards.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 1, Troll) by aristarchus on Monday June 05 2017, @07:11PM (10 children)
I like it. All of the purported disavowal of "I am not a racist", but a more subtle and understated appeal to social justice! What is not to like? A few suggested applications:
"I am not a marxist, but, it seems to me that throwing shade on workers unions is cutting your own throat! 'Right to (not) work' laws are stupid!"
"I am not a marxist, but, discriminating against people based on skin color or ethnic background has no basis in economics."
"I am not a marxist. but this coffee tastes like crap!"
Now, you try!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ikanreed on Monday June 05 2017, @07:53PM (9 children)
Oh, no see, here's the thing, fucking marxists will tell you there marxists, you goddamn idiot. They're proud-as-fuck of it. I'm not one because I don't buy into: classesless society, dialectics, any of the anarcho-whatever variants that don't account for how to maintain a stable state.
I just think we've let conservative ideologies drive social mobility and gini coefficients into the fucking ground, and even course, vile measures would improve the situation. We address the goddamn problems the can basically be described as "the people we now call republicans ever having even a sniff of power", and capitalism works just fine.
That's not marxism.
That's not socialism.
It's honeslty not even social democracy, but it's probably the closest of the 3 "leftist" ideologies you might be familiar with.
It's not "not racist but" it's "you accused me of having a political position that is not mine but I still respect a fuck ton more than yours", and it's not true.
Sorry your brokebrain ideology caused you to incorrectly identify mine.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by aristarchus on Monday June 05 2017, @08:25PM (5 children)
Ah, so this is what happens when I try to show support for one of the more rational Soylentils! I am on your side, icanreed! No attribution of leftist gradualism or Bernsteinian revisionist Marxism! Trotsky all the way, bro! And viva la Che! All I am saying, is give communism a chance. But then, I am not a Marxist, and neither was Karl.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ikanreed on Monday June 05 2017, @08:31PM (2 children)
I always wonder at people like you who will burn every shred of intellectual honesty you have in order to checkmate a strawman.
You want to debate a marxist? I can direct you to several. But my experience with your kind is that you just use the term and run away when faced with someone who actually gives a fuck about marxist ideology.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday June 05 2017, @08:48PM
Chill, dude! I am not the anti-leftist you are looking for.
(Score: 3, Touché) by JNCF on Monday June 05 2017, @09:04PM
For what it's worth, I'd take aristarchus' last message at face value.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @12:49PM (1 child)
You fucking Greek.
Speak proper Latin when talking about The Leader. Or shut up and go home!
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Tuesday June 06 2017, @05:51PM
Latin? Look, Espanol is about my sixth or seventh language, and it seems that it is all Chinese now, anyway. 白左
http://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2013/10/23/viva-la-che-johor-company-bags-rm197bil-contract/
(Score: 1, Troll) by ikanreed on Monday June 05 2017, @08:26PM (2 children)
And there's a bed-wetting mods I've come to know and love from this site's right wing.
"Calling me on my bullshit is exactly the same as trolling right?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 05 2017, @11:39PM (1 child)
Why can't we just have a nice, polite discussion with the guy who literally wants to murder a lot of people simply because they're too successful?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 08 2017, @04:42PM
Why can't we just have a nice, polite discussion with the rabid dog?