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From Variety:
Quotas obligating Netflix, Amazon and other streaming services operating in the European Union to dedicate at least 30% of their on-demand catalogs to local content are set to become enshrined in law soon.
Roberto Viola, head of the European Commission department that regulates communications networks, content and technology, said the new rules, which will also demand visibility and prominence of European product on streamers, are on track to be approved in December.
"We just need the final vote, but it's a mere formality," he told Variety at the Venice Film Festival.
Netflix, Amazon and other streamers will be required to fund TV series and films produced in Europe by commissioning content, acquiring it or paying into national film funds through a small surcharge added to their subscription fee, something which is already happening in Germany. Netflix tried unsuccessfully to fight the German surcharge in court.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @04:07PM (45 children)
Some aspects have their place.
Did you know that some backward countries lack something as basic as socialized medicine? Believe it or not, citizens have to stop and seriously ponder whether a cut, break, concussion, cancer, etc. really warrants the attention of a medical professional. In first-world countries, that's just not a question that needs asking.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @04:15PM (2 children)
I read an ancient historian call government supplied medicine an example of Bread and Circuses.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @09:20PM
Personally I would call it a mark of a civilised society.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @08:59AM
You dont understand the words you are using or their relevance to society.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Arik on Tuesday September 04 2018, @04:26PM (40 children)
Except it is. It always is. First world countries may choose to spend themselves into third world status to create an illusion otherwise, but that path is not sustainable. Efficient allocation of resources is one of the basic problems of human existence and it doesn't just magically go away once a certain level of wealth has been achieved. It simply recalibrates to the higher level, it doesn't become any less important.
A society that habitually spends thousands of dollars to provide emergency care when a little soap and water and a bandaid is sufficient is not a society with good long-term prospects, no matter how wealthy it might be at the start.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 5, Informative) by c0lo on Tuesday September 04 2018, @04:56PM (9 children)
Of course it's not sustainable when you let your pharma fleece you 3 times the price for the same drug they sell in countries with socialized medicine [scientificamerican.com].
But that's not the fault of socialized medicine. You should try it before jumping to blame it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday September 04 2018, @05:59PM (8 children)
Which just goes to show that our system is really no less socialized than the others. We just do it to benefit the big companies that generate campaign contributions. Pointing out how shitty our system is as an argument against a free market is black humor.
"But that's not the fault of socialized medicine. You should try it before jumping to blame it."
No, it's not, and yes, I *have* actually tried it. I lived for some years in a European country considered a model for socialized health care. I needed to see a doctor once; I had to wait IIRC it was only maybe 3 or 4 months to see a GP, who spent 10 minutes with me and certified that I needed a specialist. Then about 7 months to see the specialist. It was kind of nice not having to pay cash, but the prediction that when you quit using money to meter the services something else will have to fill that function was shown correct. The meter is how long you can wait. If you die waiting to see a doctor, well, then they can scratch your name off the list and get someone else in. Rich people tend to fly to the USA, or Thailand, or elsewhere and bypass the wait. Poor folks don't have that option.
Also it was very clear that the doctor did not in any way shape or form work for the patient. Now, to be fair, that's not the case in the USA anymore either, though it's within my memory when it was. I think I miss that more than anything. To a doctor that I'm paying out of pocket, I'm an important patient and a person. To a doctor that works for the state (or a quasi-state organism such as the insurance company,) I'm just one of the annoyances scheduled for today. There's a huge difference in feel.
Is that system just across the board worse than ours? No, definitely not. But again, I'm not defending our current system in the US, which is just about as awful as one can imagine. But European style socialized medicine isn't nearly as great as those who promote it want you to believe either. It's no magic bullet, it doesn't solve all problems, in fact it really solves few if any. It's a relatively minor reshuffle of the same set of cards.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by quietus on Tuesday September 04 2018, @06:18PM (4 children)
I'd like to know the name of that country because over here, you simply go to the doctor and be redirected to a specialist immediately (if necessary; if not, make an appointment for a couple of days, tops a week or two, later).
(Score: 3, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday September 04 2018, @06:54PM
I'd like to know the name of that country because over here, you simply go to the doctor and be redirected to a specialist immediately
Pulled-out-of-his-ass-istan.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @07:07PM (2 children)
Wow, that sounds so nice to this American AC who's trying to get a somewhat elective surgery done that will allow me to discontinue one of my medications. (So it will pay for itself, nearly no risk of complications, and can eliminate side-effects from that med such as needing to eat a salt-rich diet... one would think that any sane medical system would be all about helping me get this done... oh well.)
A week or two is how long it's going to take me to even figure out which specialist I may go to so that my insurance company will pay for part of the cost! (And I will only find out how much it costs [total including insurance coverage but also my out-of-pocket] after the surgery is complete and I get the bill!)
(Score: 4, Touché) by fyngyrz on Tuesday September 04 2018, @10:48PM
One would. But as you said, you're an American, so you (we, in point of fact) don't have one.
(Score: 2) by quietus on Wednesday September 05 2018, @07:31AM
In case you got the impression that everything is free though, it isn't.
You will also know only what it costs after actual surgery and hospital stay -- bills arrive anywhere between a couple of weeks and about 6 months later. However, the price is capped/reasonable: open heart surgery plus a 3 week stay in hospital will come down to € 2,500 (that's about $3000), while a regular doctor visit will cost you about $32 (payable immediately, in the latter case). Note also that, unlike in one of Michael Moore's documentaries where he visits the NHS, while prices are low for medication, they're not fixed i.e. a 30-day provision of blood-pressure lowering medicine will set you back about €12, while a box of aspirines will cost about €7.
However, you can recuperate part of that cost later by passing by your (public) health insurer (this does not happen automatically though, and can only be done up to two years after expenses).
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Tuesday September 04 2018, @06:27PM (2 children)
Haven't experience such long times even when living in my birth country, in Eastern Europe.
Wait for the GP was hours (you pick your GP in advance from those around your home); if there's indeed a need for the specialist, the wait time depends on how critical the problem is: anything from waiting for months for heath annoyances to be hospitalized in emergency.
There are private clinics and their are affordable for the middle class in a large range of health problems (less affordable for retired elderly, they were shafted - paid for a certain level that got reduced over time).
You can have a mixture with the care provided by a private clinic and the medicines on the socialized medicine prices - makes a lot of a difference for, e.g., 'freshly' approved cancer treatments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Arik on Wednesday September 05 2018, @05:19AM
I don't remember exactly how long it took to see the GP, I doubt it was as long as I said there actually, but that bit was mickey mouse, there was never any doubt whatsoever that I needed a specialist, the nurse that I spoke to to get on the waiting list to see the GP was perfectly competent to say so and would have if he'd been allowed, but nonetheless I had to wait to see a GP who simply said the nurse was right so I could start waiting for the specialist. That doesn't sound like a sane system at all. And the total time to get to the specialist *was* right about 9 months. I remember wondering what happens when a pregnant woman needs a specialist.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday September 05 2018, @12:46PM
I lived under socialized medicine in the military long ago, and this topic is little discussed in the USA (probably intentionally via propaganda)
Under socialized medicine in the Army if you are obviously trying to get a light duty profile to skip out of a shitty NTC rotation or field exercise, you can doctor shop for awhile and maybe it'll work but you'll mostly get a big F you, change your socks and take advil and drink water is all the help you'll likely get, and not see a doc or specialist doc for months. Consider malingerers at basic training, etc. On the other hand if you get shot, you can expect helicopter medivac, infinite free trauma care, the money spigots really open wide.
The USA model was you tell your doctor what you want and they do it like an overtrained bellhop begging for a tip, whereas the socialized medicine way is much more like military health care, and seeing as less than 2% of the USA is/was in the military you can see the confusion.
The analogy is truly excellent; consider how troops bitch about everything as part of the job reqs, so naturally all you'll EVER hear about military medical care is one sided anecdotes against it; thats natural and normal, not a bug. Ditto military food, leadership, etc. Its natural and normal and a good sign if all you ever hear about socialized medicine is how much it sux. Post office and DMV are similar too. Hell, the local public library is like that, sure has a lot of people in it, given all the bitching about it you'd think it would be abandoned...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @05:09PM (16 children)
That's bullshit and you know it. Nobody in civilized countries will use emergency heath care "when a little soap and water and a bandaid is sufficient" - believe it or not, the people of civilized countries are civilized.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday September 04 2018, @05:46PM (15 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday September 04 2018, @06:22PM (1 child)
I'm pretty sure the poster meant a much bigger cut, such as a slash or gash.
I also doubt it would require thousands of dollars to treat that. Poster didn't specify "emergency care" for a cut either.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @07:10PM
Are you sure? How much are hospitals and insurance companies charging for soap, water, and band-aids these days? *grin*
(Score: 4, Touché) by c0lo on Tuesday September 04 2018, @06:38PM (12 children)
Oh, come on... does "cut, break, concussion, cancer," sounds to you like an endorsement for "use emergency services to apply band aid"?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Troll) by Arik on Tuesday September 04 2018, @10:50PM (11 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday September 04 2018, @11:07PM (10 children)
Sorry, mate, I'm not buying your interpretation about his words.
A civilized country doesn't get to that level of civilization if there's no pragmatism/common sense within its population.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Arik on Wednesday September 05 2018, @03:14AM (7 children)
"A civilized country doesn't get to that level of civilization if there's no pragmatism/common sense within its population."
Yes, when we reach what the other poster is calling 'civilized' that is actually a diagnostic of decay.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday September 05 2018, @03:23AM (6 children)
True dat if indeed that's what he intended to say (I'm still maintaining my doubts).
It's too effing stupid to act this way, I haven't seen any example of your proposed interpretation, but then again I haven't seen most of this world. (No, it doesn't resemble anything I've actually seen in Europe)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Arik on Wednesday September 05 2018, @04:10AM (5 children)
But it does seem to be *exactly* how many US-based advocates of socialized medicine *imagine* it would work. That's what they think they're voting for. The fact that it's fundamentally self-contradictory and impossible isn't the sort of thing these people seem to be able to work out. They're afflicted by magical thinking - they don't really know how anything works, so it's all just magic to them anyway.
The fatal flaw of Democracy is that these people exist, and they vote.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday September 05 2018, @04:35AM (4 children)
Really? Oh, man, to put it in mild terms, that's unbelievable childish/naive.
Ummm.... I tend to assign a significant amount of blame to:
1. exceptionalism => the blind belief that all the world is suboptimally organized, nothing to learn from outside America, we are the best
2. the "American dreaming" as a phenomenon - it's enough to work hard and you'll get ahead, thinking may not be necessary
3. the "education" - US has bitten hard on behaviorism and won't let go, with everything it brings on the table: reward/punishment, everything that cannot be measured does not exist, etc. Which translates into the abandon of critical thinking in the majority of population - "learning to the test" and conformity is the first step. "Keep it simple, stupid", "don't fix it if it works", "the boom/bust cycle is inherent for an/the/any economy", ("home prices never go down" in the past), etc. are everyday shortcuts and nothing more complex needs to exist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Arik on Wednesday September 05 2018, @05:13AM (3 children)
We're certainly not the only people prone to that, but yes, we're truly awful on that score. In our defense, it's relatively easy to see why - isolation was our early blessing that let us grow to superpower size, and our political class has been pushing exceptionalism full bore through both the right and the left wing since before I was born.
The "education" (it's not education, just schooling) is indeed the big problem. And that system, ironically enough, is one of the very few things we imported.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday September 05 2018, @05:31AM (2 children)
Heh, no, unfortunately you aren't the only one.
(I'm curious what info you have about it being an import? The way I know, in regards with the "education", the thing was put forward by an American: B.F.Skinner [wikipedia.org]. Not that the nationality of that person would make any difference).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Arik on Wednesday September 05 2018, @06:09AM (1 child)
Horace Mann successfully imported the Prussian school system to Massachusetts, back about 1850 or so. He pitched it as a way to turn those unruly Catholic immigrants children into productive and well-behaved units of a vague, likely non-denominational Protestant flavor. While we had long had laws that required that children be educated, this was the first time that we had a specific school given a legal monopoly on providing that education. Minorities often resisted and in some cases the troops were deployed to enforce the law. This is when many of the features that we think of today as just being parts of "school" itself, like the rigid class rankings, the bells and class periods, were actually imported. From Prussia. This system was in vogue in Europe at the time as well, and I understand it was an influential model imitated around the world, though I don't really know the details outside the US.
At any rate, back in Massachusetts, Mr Mann and others of his class generally approved of the results and they worked to spread it to other states. Similar laws were passed, similar school systems setup, and very quickly our pre-Prussian form of schooling became effectively extinct, illegal, and to add insult to injury; smeared in the public mind as backwards.
Skinner comes along much later, comes from and presumes the Prussian system. He also takes it a bit further in terms of following the logical implications.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday September 05 2018, @06:14AM
Interesting, thanks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday September 05 2018, @12:49PM (1 child)
Hows that work with intentional demographic replacement? Especially if the cultural demographic being replaced literally invented western medicine while the replacement culture is stone age villagers?
Magic dirt doesn't exist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @12:58PM
(rings like English, but makes no sense. "intentional demographic replacement" is that a thing? What the hell does it mean?)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday September 04 2018, @06:11PM (12 children)
So please explain this to me: How is it that the first-world countries that have socialized medicine both spend a lot less money and have better medical care outcomes than the privatized system of the US does? And if you want the biggest bang (increased life expectancy, quality-of-life, etc) for the health care buck anywhere in the world, look no further than communist Cuba.
And there are lots of reasons why the US system is demonstrably less efficient: For instance, any money spent on marketing a hospital or treatment is money not spent on providing that treatment.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @06:20PM (2 children)
I'm not sure that's true. What is true is that you will not be bankrupted by a curable illness when costs exceed your insurance cover.
Come on now. [panampost.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @07:54PM
hospital comfort != patient outcome
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday September 04 2018, @09:16PM
If you're not sure, it's because you haven't bothered to look at the data. Here are some basic numbers for 4 countries provided by the World Health Organization:
Cuba [who.int]
USA [who.int]
Canada [who.int]
France [who.int]
If you look at the numbers, you'll see that the USA spends about double what Canada and France do, and about 4 times what Cuba does, and yet Americans have a lower life expectancy than all of the others. The USA also stacks up badly compared to those other countries on infant mortality [cia.gov].
As for your article about the Cuban health system: I have serious doubts as to your source, since it took some digging to figure out basic information about the publication like where it was based and who owned it, and it turned out it was based in Miami. That means that its writing about Cuba is almost definitely coming from the Cuban exiles whose longstanding goal is to overthrow the Cuban government, which means it's very hard to take what they say at face value. As for the people I know personally who have been to Cuba, and the Cubans I've had direct conversations with, the medical system was doing some truly innovative and good ideas at least in the more rural areas, like:
- There's an assigned neighborhood or village doctor. That doctor is responsible for primary care for all the residents of the area.
- The doctor is consulted for decisions that affect health in the area, for instance ensuring that latrines aren't near water supplies.
- Doctors are trained in cheap herbal remedies that they grow right in front of the clinic. More minor problems get those herbal treatments, rather than pills that are often unavailable.
Is it perfect? Nope. But it's a lot better than many of the other countries in the same region at similar income levels facing the same problems.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @06:21PM (2 children)
The US has socialized medicine, its just crappier.
Interestingly, my friend recently went to cuba and said hotel concierges are richer than the doctors (since they get tips from foreigners). The real story about cuban healthcare is that it proves 99% of modern "healthcare" is unnecessary or even harmful since they can achieve similar results without the newest tech, etc.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @10:13PM (1 child)
Don't you worry, that only lasts until your tip is lower than expected.
Tips are cancer and a tool of modern slavery.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @10:36PM
How so (to both sentences)?
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday September 04 2018, @06:22PM (4 children)
Because what you're describing as 'privatized' is nothing of the sort. It's been progressively collectivized and it's no less collectivized in the US than in European model countries. It's simply been collectivized in a different way - primarily for the benefit of insurance companies, and other big players in the health care market.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @07:14PM (3 children)
So there's really no real-world example we can point to of modern, capitalist medicine.
Is there?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @08:03PM
china ?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5678764/#CR1 [nih.gov]
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Tuesday September 04 2018, @08:08PM
Medical tourism probably comes closest. People fly in from somewhere else, pay, get treated and fly home. It's mostly elective or cosmetic surgery, but it does provide a model for the system.
From memory so don't quote me, I think the costs for cosmetic surgery in Thailand were about one third that of surgery in in AU. There was a current affairs show interviewing people doing it from here and even with the airfare it was cheaper.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday September 04 2018, @10:55PM
The best we can do is distinguish between markets which are a bit more or less free in various ways, but there is no real free market for medical care, anywhere.
As someone else already mentioned, medical tourism might be the closest thing to look at, places like Thailand for instance have relatively less regulation (at least in some important ways) and as a result we see things like people from Canada and Sweden skipping the lines and flying to Thailand for care. But that's not really a free market, it's just one slightly less unfree corner of a much larger and incredibly unfree market. They're still competing directly against socialized systems in a setting where they can't possibly compete on price, yet they do brisk business, so they're doing something people like.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday September 05 2018, @12:55PM
Socialized medicine is a white privilege which can only be successfully implemented if your population is over 80% white OR if you make medical your countries super-industry secret sauce (like Cuba).
Socialists of the national variety are generally pretty chill for right-wingers with the concept of socialized medicine; you just can't run that program unless the population stats permit it. The state of Maine could run socialized medicine; the city of Detroit not so much.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @05:55PM
This is a good thing. Doctors mucking around are just as likely to mess something up as not. Like it or not, our understanding of the human body remains extremely rudimentary. Give someone tools like government propaganda, concentrated chemicals, and sharp objects to try to fix something they don't understand, what outcome do you expect?
At some point though who are you going to ask when you have no other choice? The witch doctor, or some random guy?
At least the witch doctor is used to dealing with sick people. Although, I'm even starting to question that... At this point I often find better health info on reddit/blogs than pubmed (eg the low carb fiasco where the healthcare professionals redefine low carb to be whatever they want).