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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: 5, Informative) by ikanreed on Monday June 05 2017, @04:54PM (57 children)
No seriously.
Kill these people, consume their flesh, and use their skeletons to construct a marginally less shitty society.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 05 2017, @05:01PM (4 children)
Don't be an idiot. You are what you eat. Nothing will change! :)
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 05 2017, @05:41PM (3 children)
Wait, so if I eat the rich....
Let me make sure I have this correct.
1. Eat the rich.
2. ???
3. Profit!
I don't see a downside here!
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 05 2017, @07:07PM (1 child)
you forgot "4. Be eaten"
(Score: 2) by Kell on Monday June 05 2017, @11:15PM
And so the great wheel turns...
Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday June 06 2017, @04:45AM
You got it wrong, it's:
And remember to check it's the meat you wanted to eat, otherwise how would you ever know?
(Score: 2) by julian on Monday June 05 2017, @05:08PM (30 children)
I fear it will come to violence. These sociopaths are only human in the biological sense; their souls are empty.
(Score: 2) by meustrus on Monday June 05 2017, @05:16PM (28 children)
Don't be a hypocrite. You would do the same thing if you had that kind of money. It may be disgusting, but that's a reflection of the society we've built more than of any individual's choices.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ikanreed on Monday June 05 2017, @05:39PM (22 children)
Oh, whether or not they'd do the same if they were rich has nothing to do with the fact that literally guillotining the richest half a percent of people(and their inheritors) in every country would magically solve more problems than it would cause. No policy changes, no justice served, nothing else, it would still improve matters.
I'm well aware that it's immoral. It is explicitly wrong to kill someone for being a rational, non-violent part of a broken apparatus. Only part of me really can't help but think about how much good it would do everyone else.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 05 2017, @05:53PM (21 children)
What you propose is not only dangerous and unethical, but also unlawful. It would do neither.
1) It would cause shit-storm of problems.
2) 30-100 years later (depending on how long it would take for dust to settle) the same exact thing would still take place. So at best you are just advocating for a band-aid. Unfortunately this has been the case time and again in history. With ever more interesting array of idiots believing they have somehow stumbled upon the real solution where no one else had for thousands of years. Eating the rich has been done many times before. The outcome was shit for everyone involved. And it lead right back to square one eventually.
Also, whatever this article says is just propaganda by Marxists meant to stir up "class struggle." It is not a real fucking problem, and it does not need fixing. The example that was cited is actually quite possibly a symptom of inefficiency that is being corrected by free-market solution. If there is a line in one place, but no line in another, the sick who are not in danger of expiring SHOULD be routed somewhere where they can get the help they need without waiting in a fucking line, making everyone else who comes in after them wait that much longer. By this guy paying out of pocket to go elsewhere EVERYONE is better off.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 05 2017, @06:04PM (1 child)
Hohoho.. hahaha... "lawful"... that's funny... hihihi...
As if laws are somehow meaningful or their content objectively desirable.
You silly goblet, the law is not there for you, it's there so it can be used against you when your time comes.
(Score: 2) by Zyx Abacab on Monday June 05 2017, @07:12PM
Back in my day, kids used to say: "the law is powerless to help you, not punish you."
They also said those things semi-seriously, as if though they were quoting something with bitter sarcasm, but hey....
(Score: 1, Troll) by ikanreed on Monday June 05 2017, @06:59PM (15 children)
I'm not a Marxist, but you have to be goddamn blind to not see the problem with 8 lives being weighted equally to 3.6 billion as the current world wealth distribution seems to suggest is correct.
Dead rich people is becoming a necessity now from crying Marx at every attempt to redress an increasingly severe systemic issue.
(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?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by julian on Monday June 05 2017, @07:33PM
Clearly, and I'd ignore anyone saying otherwise. Many people here think anyone to the left of Ayn Rand and/or less racist than Richard Spencer is a Marxist.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 05 2017, @08:30PM (2 children)
You are going beyond the pale with this. How does the Wealth distribution matter on a global scale when discussing medical care in a single country? Apples and Oranges.
But I will bite nonetheless. Tell me, why does a goat herder in some African backwater need whatever your desired level of wealth would be? What does it matter to him that he doesn't have a 3 bedroom house with white picket fence when there is no public utilities? Why does he need 2 cars when there are no fucking roads and he doesn't need to commute anywhere? What is the ideal outcome of your Marxist redistribution of wealth?
You know he doesn't give fuck all about any of it, he just cares how many goats he has to eat/fuck and trade for his next 12 year old wife.
Men like you are definitely Marxists, but not the puppet-masters behind the curtain. You are the useful idiots that are tied to the strings. You think you know what is going on and you have great intentions, but you fail to realize the most basic reality. The currency is not the measure of Wealth. It is only a poor proxy, a simple result of the use of true Wealth by those who chose to spend their true capital. The real measure of Capital and wealth is BULLSHIT. People feed you bullshit, it fills your head, you turn around and spend some of that bullshit to others, like a well paid pawn, and you get the wheels of some shit-storm rolling. Then the person who is indeed wealthy will sit back and collect on his investment as you and your fuck up everything around you. And at the end of the day you will all be fucking poor, and the real bullshit-artists will hold all the cards.
This article is just pure, unadulterated, gluten-free, organic BULLSHIT. Bon Appétit
(Score: 3, Insightful) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Monday June 05 2017, @09:52PM (1 child)
If you're going to call someone else a troll, it would help your credibility if you did NOT go on to insinuate that Africans are backwards, goatfucking pedos.
Jut saying.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 08 2017, @04:46PM
Well, at least he didn't confine the backwards, goatfucking pedos to Africa. Hell, we've got our own, right here in the US. They claim some faith descended from the Mormon church. At least the Mormons have given up the goat fucking.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 05 2017, @08:07PM (2 children)
Heh, at least the propaganda terms are becoming more erudite. "Marxist" is sure a step up from "damn reds" or "commie scum".
So you're probably an opponent of the US Revolution against Great Britain? For better or for worse violent overthrows seem to be the common method of changing society. Once a system stagnates and allows selfish greedy people to sit at the top then it is near impossible to peacefully change anything. The people at the top exert their power to prevent real change, and eventually it boils over into violence.
The only way forward is for conservatives to get with the times and get single payer healthcare, higher taxes on the wealthy, and probably one or two other items. We can discuss what liberals should compromise on, but for the good of the country we need to prioritize those first two. If you want to argue either point in the slightest, then congrats you'll be keeping us on track for some violent shit.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Monday June 05 2017, @08:36PM (1 child)
Liberals absolutely should compromise on all of the following because they're popular but not right:
restricting GMOs,
Promoting organic farming,
uh... dumb twitter hashtags? Damn, I ran out fast.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 05 2017, @09:24PM
Well we never got far in restricting GMOs so that doesn't seem like a big deal.
Maybe more open to updated and properly funded safe nuclear reactors.
I'd say something along the lines of stop religious persecution, but I think that amounts to saying "Merry Christmas" and never "Happy Holidays".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 05 2017, @05:56PM
Yeah, pretty much. I don't blame him for doing for his kids the absolute best.
Blame the system that allows this shit. Blame the system where this kind of shit is built in.
But maybe this is one of those instances where greed is good. I don't know. I'm just an AC on the internet. This one single guy using a medical concierge (with all the ethical questions we may and should have for the doctor providing this concierge service) is not the bigger issue. Millions of people in a first world country who cannot even get in any line for health care is the bigger issue.
However, mostly blame ourselves for allowing the system to exhibit that bigger issue.
That means we have to take responsibility for the system being shit and start to fix it instead of worrying about bathrooms/weed/birth control/gay marriage/whatever distraction issue of no significant consequence. We need to stop being so emotionally invested in those distraction issues. Yes, some of those things are very important (one or two especially to me) but they are unimportant until we fix the system. What does fixing the system look like? My suggestion is instant runoff if Condorcet voting is too technical and very strict campaign finance laws.
Also protip: the existing system is not going to fix itself. It is fundamentally broken. It's not a question of if only we can get the correct D or the correct R in the correct office, then it'll just magically be all better. WolfPAC seemed like a good idea to me. Local systems tend to be less broken than bigger federal systems. This is probably something that will require an Article V convention... before we have another civil war... if there even is any way at all to avoid that in the next 20 years.
Maybe also eat the rich just in case. It can't hurt ;)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 05 2017, @07:55PM (1 child)
Can we stop it with this bullshit arguement? Everytime someone says a person with X shouldn't have done Y, down smug cunt says "you'd do the same if you could". Every day there are countless people doing the right thing, not always out for themselves, keeping the fucking shit together so it doesn't all come crashing down. So how about we give some FUCKING credit to all the decent folks by not using that line any more?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday June 05 2017, @08:15PM
Bullshit. There are approximately half a dozen people in history who would go stand in the long line for healthcare when they could afford faster and better treatment for themselves. For their children there are zero.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Tuesday June 06 2017, @12:41PM (1 child)
But why doesn't he have that kind of money? Is it because he isn't clever enough? Because he doesn't work hard enough? Or is it because he isn't willing to make the ethical compromises required to become that rich?
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by meustrus on Tuesday June 06 2017, @04:45PM
More likely because he wasn't in the right place at the right time. We idolize hard work and risk taking, but while you need both to succeed, you also need a great big helping of luck. Hollywood is full of would-be actors busting their chops on auditions while spending the rest of their time earning enough money to stay in close proximity to the opportunity to live their dreams. Not many succeed. The rest of the economy is pretty similar. And that's even after you idolize the people who can just drop everything to chase the slim chance at success; some of us have responsibilities.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 06 2017, @10:54AM
Dehumanization is a common sociopathic behavior. I think your attitude is indeed strong evidence that you'd act the same, if you had the wealth. I don't consider hypocrisy all that important, but it's something you should think about.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by edIII on Monday June 05 2017, @05:15PM (13 children)
I came here to say exactly that. This is what you get when you let money and avarice run literally everything in your society. When money is in of itself a goal that sets aside all compassion, empathy, and humanity.
You end up with a shitty society that mimics the Psychlo society, which is based entirely on sociopathic avarice and holding leverage over others to exploit them.
At least the fucker feels guilty about it, but if he felt so fucking guilty, is he increasing all of wages of his staff to living wages? Is he making sure it is at least possible for his wage slaves, that made him so fucking rich, to have plain and simple access to the line?
If this fucker wasn't so stupid, he would realize the ONLY reason why he need to feel guilty about spending $80,000 a year for health care for his kids is because other avaricious fucks have made the U.S medical system a fucking joke with maybe 30c on the dollar spent on your care. It's only expensive because of the parasites that have made it expensive.
There are other countries where kids play soccer and their parents don't have this drama in their lives. They just take their kids to a doctor, the bone is set, and life goes on. Only in this fucking shit-hole does a father need to exploit the shit out of everyone else to get on top, so their kids have access to medical that literally tens of millions of wage slavers will no longer have access to at all.
All for greed. All for money.
Kill the entire 1%. Gut them. Watch their blood flow through the streets, and then watch all of our lives get better when their avarice is no longer sociopathically driving us to extinction.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 05 2017, @05:19PM (10 children)
And then the new top 1% takes their place, acting just like the assholes they replaced.
People suck.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by sjames on Monday June 05 2017, @05:58PM (2 children)
That's a story the sociopathic rich tell themselves to excuse their actions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 05 2017, @11:44PM (1 child)
What do the sociopathic poor do?
Go on the internet and bitch about it, accomplishing nothing but feeding their own egos.
(Score: 2, Informative) by sjames on Tuesday June 06 2017, @12:13AM
No, they mostly go to jail for THEIR anti-social behavior.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Monday June 05 2017, @06:28PM (5 children)
It's an iterative process: Cull the top 0.1% every year.
See how they try to escape it: The "Good" ones will realize they have way too much cash and don't need to live the threat, and give back enough to drop safely in the safe zone. The others will try to run or hide, or pay someone else to hide some of their assets (like they do now, but with slap-on-the-wrist consequences only).
Want a moon base built in a decade? Threaten the wrong people.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Monday June 05 2017, @08:43PM (4 children)
I'm seriously proposing that iterative process. My problem is not income inequality, but the undue suffering of the American worker, which is largely representative of the American People. I believe we can have a society where overachievers can rise to billionaire status, without brutally exploiting those around them.
That suffering is simple to understand. They were never paid a living wage, and the engineered inefficiencies of our society cause money to trickle up and pool at the top. That money never trickles back down to help the worker out, as the myth goes.
If everyone is WORKING, not gold bricking, and their performance is adequate enough to continue working, they should get what they NEED to survive. All too often living wage is conflated with access to the excesses of wealth and consumerism. It's not, and instead means the ability to eat, clothe, and shelter yourself while having access to medical care.
We all know what happens when you don't. Walmart creates "wards of the state" the moment somebody starts to work for them, unless they are in the special section of society... the MBAs and executive scum that are deluded enough to believe they are worth anywhere from several times more, to dozens of times more income than the average worker.
This fucker is complaining about having a job that is obviously high 6 figures, possibly 7 figures, and being guilty about getting privileged access to health care personnel who sold their souls and only care for the rich. That doctor deserves to be culled too.
I think at this point our society can only be saved by continually culling the top 1% until things get better. That is the only thing that will motivate them to give back, although I disagree with the idea they are giving back. It's more truthful to represent it as they are returning the goods that they stole from weaker people who were desperate enough to take a work offer that doesn't sustain them. The 1% engineered that environment of duress, specifically to profit from the exploitation of their leverage. That leverage being the worker starving, or watching their kids starve.
That, is the problem in a nutshell; The average American cannot sustain themselves from their own work production on a daily basis. That's a critical problem that has been going on for decades. We all know the consumer debt bubble is coming, precisely because we must go into debt. Debt is preferred and insidious by the 1%. We don't get paid enough to live, so we pay even more to go into debt, to not get enough to pay off the debt, and then.......
Kill the rich. Kill them now. It may already be too late, and I strongly suspect that on a planetary basis we are experiencing a cascade failure in process. An unrecoverable cascade failure. The 1% caused this cascade failure. Period. Fuck them, and whether we kill them or not, their paths are almost universally believed to be leading the 1% to hell anyways. So hell, karma, the death of our planet, at some point the 1% will suffer the consequences. It's a tragedy of epic proportions that they take the rest of us with them.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday June 05 2017, @09:28PM (3 children)
> although I disagree with the idea they are giving back. It's more truthful to represent it as they are returning the goods that they stole
"Give his toy back to your brother, now!"
The confusion might stem, and we see it with some of the regulars here, that getting money doesn't intrinsically make it "my money", in the sense that every dime taken from it is stolen from me. My boss knows that I pay taxes, and pays me based also on how much of that raw paycheck will then go to various civilization-supporting organizations. Similarly, any ROI is (should be) subject to some kind of contribution back to the networks that made it possible. Yet, the US has extremely low levels of taxation, high deficits, and people with the most are always eager to scream bloody murder at the idea that one can live without billions.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Monday June 05 2017, @11:36PM (2 children)
I believe what you are trying to say is that the deductions on pay are now always theft. Meaning, the government taking taxes from you isn't theft. OK. I can see that, but that is not what I'm saying.
All of the money given to my for my work production is in fact, in totality, MY FUCKING MONEY. Immediately, more often than not, the government satisfies the taxation portion. That's not the employer or company paying them, that's ME paying them from MY money. Likewise, anybody that is receiving money from it, is in fact, being paid by ME. So it is all of money, intrinsically, explicitly, implicitly, diagonally, whatever fucking way you want. Not to be confused with matching employer contributions to the government. The employer paid, and I paid. The employer with capital from the corporation, and myself from my own money that I made from the corporation in exchange for my work production.
The Boss does very well fucking know how much of that raw paycheck will go to places, because he controls the accountants that make it possible. The Boss also lives in the same fucking community I do (most of the time I suspect that is true) and is FULLY aware of how much food costs, how much water costs, how much gas costs, etc.
When the Boss decides to pay me less than what I need, then the Boss is STEALING from me, the government, and our community. That "raw" paycheck was too light to begin with, the government should've had more in taxes, and I should've ended up with MORE of MY FUCKING MONEY. Where does that money go? Into the BOSS's pockets. For what? MY WORK PRODUCTION, NOT HIS! Then it is compounded by the Boss STEALING from EVERYONE. When we need to collect our taxes to put them into social programs that really only exist at the scale they do because the Boss couldn't be bothered to pay a living wage. So when he doesn't, he is fully aware of the burden he places upon the social security nets. The BOSS steals the money from all of us, because now I'm just a dirty fucking poor person, with obviously bad character and habits, that can't make it, needs help, and the government now has to take care of me. Yet, I put in a full day's worth of work. The average American worker, does in fact, work much harder than the soft handed executives that never knew what work actually was.
They're fucking parasites, and they do steal from us. Every day. Billions upon billions per year, stolen from the American worker in shitty work offers in failing communities full of duress and an ever increasing homeless population. Those affordable places to live within the wages being currently proffered? GONE. Other rich hell bound avaricious fuckers swooped in and raised the prices. All of those fucks on AirBnb offering their places as 100% rentals should be flayed alive and dipped in salt.
It's from all sides dude. They raise the prices of commodities, they raise the prices of energy, they raise the prices of housing, but they NEVER raise the wages. They raise THEIR OWN wages, but they never raise OURS.
I'm not confused about anything. When I make less than a living wage and suffer material deprivation, while some MBA Ivy-league fucktard takes long lunches and does practically no fucking work, then yes, very much so, he has stolen from money that is rightfully mine. I don't give a fuck how much he makes, as long the company stays solvent, stays active, and continues to pay me a living wage.
The problem is not billionaires, but the billionaires stealing from the little guys to become billionaires.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday June 06 2017, @01:06AM (1 child)
I agree with your points starting at paragraph 3...
Yet I can't agree with:
It's like the stupid US habit of adding taxes at the register: You're seeing a number that doe not correspond to the reality, whether it's the paycheck's top line or the burger's cost...
What your employer pays vs what you pay isn't fucking relevant, because they are both numbers taken off the total cost to your employer (the one they care about), and the number that you care about is the one at the bottom. Someone artificially draws a line and says "that's the employer taxes for that employer cost, and this is the employee's taxes for that employer cost". It's gotta get paid, and if you got to chose between paying 0% (employer pays all charges and taxes, still pays you the same bottom line), or 100% (scumbag employer pays nothing, but pays you more, and you get tax-raped yet still arrive at the same bottom line), you'd choose 0% because evil.gov wouldn't steal from you, and your neighbor would choose 100% because he prefers the higher top line.
The bottom line is indeed your fucking money (or drug money, or booze money, let's not be vice-ist). You can't change the bottom line anymore than you can change the fact that you ain't paying the stupid pretax number for that burger.
It's a question of perception, but the result is the same. Feel free to chose to interpret it in the way which makes you angry.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by edIII on Tuesday June 06 2017, @03:19AM
Maybe, maybe not. This is really an accounting question. My view is that the total raw amount, is very very much, and indeed, MINE. If it wasn't, then it could never be counted as income towards me. Yet, I think if we both looked, the government would consider whatever garnished as part of MY income, and not a direct expense of the employer. With matching contributions, whatever I have matched, is still income towards me at the end of the year. Heck, you can discharge debt in such a way that it switches to income for the person that borrowed it. USAA was giving the big fuck you to people who defaulted on them by not even selling the debt. They FORGAVE it. Which is basically USAA reporting to the government that they gave you all of that money, inclusive of any interest or penalties. That's a real vindictive fucker for you :)
Plus, I think you've misconstrued tax withholdings with matched contributions. Whatever the employer garnishes from me (which is kind of the correct word here), is consensual, and 100% goes towards my tax bill at the end of the year. That is simply an accounting preference we all get to make, whether we want no withholding or max. There is no theft of any kind here, but the employer acting on my behalf in accordance with law.
Not angry, but I wholly disagree with you. Still, we're talking about accounting semantics at the moment and missing the overall point. Which is that the bosses (MBAs, board, and shareholders) are stealing from all of us, with the amount stolen being the difference between a living wage and the raw amount of one's check. All of the taxes and whatnot, are being paid by me direct with money given to me for work production. The employer does not pay my taxes for me, I do. So whatever taxes do exist, are they for me to satisfy, and are hence included in the living wage, and are treated as an expense by me. You can't treat something as an expense without the corresponding (double entry accounting) credit.
The original overall point again being, if the 1% were killed off, and the corresponding avarice removed from our society, you would see the cost of medical fall, while at the same time wages would raise to cover them. Eventually, we would look at each other, realize we live in wealth and abundance, and it's not even a thang to get your kids broken bone set at the hospital. No Soviet style bread lines to get seen, and no drama. Just an advanced society at work with sustainable practices and behavior. Nothing is more sustainable than paying people living wages, as that is a sustainable wage by definition.
Likewise, any wage that is not a living wage, is unsustainable. Until, and unless, we truly become comfortable with watching people die in the streets while existing in abject poverty (like India) we will continue to argue bitterly about our social programs.
We bring it all on ourselves by being so fucking weak and not engaging in extremely strong and persuasive group representation. By strong, I mean pre-American Revolution strength where we burned down the tax collectors house and ran them and their family out of town on a log so to speak.
That's why I'm so disappointed in the American coal miner. What fucking pussies they've become. They used to unionize and fight the hell out of the coal barons. Instead of taking the coal baron out back and beating the living fuck out him till he pays them well enough, they listen to the avarice and entitled whining of the dude.... and then vote for Trump. At the end, we share responsibility for accepting the unsustainable work offers, and then not fighting for something better. The time to start fighting again was over 20 years ago, and now we have no fight left. Too weak.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 05 2017, @07:14PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 05 2017, @08:32PM (1 child)
Money is the most efficient tool man has ever invented. It is probably 100x more instrumental to human progress than the wheel. Nothing you see today would be possible without money. Deny this if you want, but I doubt you could do better.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Monday June 05 2017, @11:48PM
You're a fucking dumbass then. We've come up with plenty of ways to do things better, without money even, and make sure that we prosper and thrive. Japanese researchers even modeled a resource distribution system that eliminated bias and corruption. That would be interesting to try out in a special economic zone.
Its a myth, that people addicted to money, tell the rest of us; You can't live without money!
Yes, you absolutely fucking can. Yet, you don't even have to do so in order to address the problems we have. Money is not exactly the problem, but what it engenders in our society, and that is avarice and the brutal exploitation of others to get more money. Money is intrinsically related to the evil actions man is capable of.
The human relationship to money is what has become toxic. You add a fuckton more humanity back to it, and create the checks and balances against the currently sociopathic elites, then maybe we could still do it with money. Like I said before, I don't care if somebody has 14 zeros in the bank account while the average is 5.
Just as long as that 5 is livable.
Ultimately, money is an economy based on fear. The fear of not having money, and then becoming without while everyone else watch's you die in the street. It's based on fear, not worthy of the human spirit, and I strongly believe that it would possible to live in an economy that doesn't fundamentally operate on fear.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday June 05 2017, @08:34PM (5 children)
The scenario described happened to me in first grade:
I broke my arm at school, school called my parents, parents came and picked me up and instead of taking me to the ER, they drove me directly to a specialist's office where he set my arm so well that the 4 break lines were virtually undetectable after the cast came off (some 6 months later...) Were we "wealthy"? Well, no deep family money, grandparents were a mechanic, bumper plating salesman, hairdresser and teacher, parents were public middle school teachers - so, no, I don't think we quite qualified as "wealthy," it's just how my parents chose to spend their money at that time.
I also broke my arm in 6th grade, dad dumped me at the local ER where the doc made a half-assed attempt at setting it, he did O.K., but anyone looking at x-rays to this day can see where the set was less than perfect. If anything, we had more money at that time, I guess that the "precious children" just didn't rate as highly anymore.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 05 2017, @11:23PM
Perhaps your father remembered his out of pocket cost from 5 years previous and wasn't going to do that again.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @12:25AM
Perhaps that bone-setting specialist was no longer available?
- joined a medical group
- became a salaried "hospitalman" MD
- system required a referral to go to a specialist
- retired early (possible from large earnings)
- ...
When I dislocated a small toe, the ER doc never even found the problem, only took an X-ray straight down. The swelling hid the problem from manipulation. Later I went to an independent doc who requested X-rays from the side that showed the little dislocated bone starting to knit onto its neighbor. Paid an osteo (very strong fingers) who tried and failed to rebreak it (huge pain, even with local numbing) and now I have a fused joint.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Tuesday June 06 2017, @12:44PM (1 child)
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday June 06 2017, @01:02PM
Your point is also true (double jointed, break prone), but the point is that you don't have to be "super wealthy" to go to a specialist when you want to, you just have to be willing to pay the extra price.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @01:24PM
The younger you are, the more easily and cleanly bones mend after fractures.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 06 2017, @10:42AM
This fantasy is stupid on several levels. First, this is the best humanity has ever been. And second, we got that way by expressly not eating the rich or anyone else for that matter. Third, why would you even think that eating the rich, metaphorically, is a thing that works? It never has in the past.
Moving on, what is supposed to be the problem with the story? Is it people breaking in line or is it the line itself? Sounds to me like the latter. People spend such huge amounts on medical care - why isn't there more of it?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by NewNic on Monday June 05 2017, @05:13PM (6 children)
Translation:
"You don't want that leg set by someone who does that all day long, you want it done by someone who does it occasionally."
Seriously, this is snake oil being sold to the wealthy. It's not like setting a broken limb requires some kind of rare special skill. They guy who does it all the time is probably better at it.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday June 05 2017, @05:21PM (1 child)
Yeah, but at the ER, you're going to have to sit around *gasp* waiting your turn among *bigger gasp* poor people! You might even end of conversing with one of them! The horror!
This is, however, one of the major reasons the rich don't want universal health care in the US: They don't get to go to the finest specialists for relatively minor problems while somebody else is dying of liver failure.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Informative) by isostatic on Monday June 05 2017, @07:10PM
This is, however, one of the major reasons the rich don't want universal health care in the US: They don't get to go to the finest specialists for relatively minor problems while somebody else is dying of liver failure.
You really think that the rich in the UK don't have access to the finest specialists? OK, if they get run over while out shopping they'll be treated by a world class healthcare system, at least until they are well enough to be transferred, however for anything they consciously decide they'll be off to private hospitals.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Monday June 05 2017, @06:05PM
I suppose that assumes
is the same as
I donno man, around here they spend a lot of time trying to avoid giving pills to addicts, all medical care of all kinds for all illegals, stabilize and admit trauma and heart condition patients, quite a few lacerations...
And the local ER is attached to a hospital, stabilize and admit would imply the local orthopedic would set a leg after the car accident bleeding stopped and the patient was admitted.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 05 2017, @07:26PM
I agree, rather than being upset about how life is unfair, all I see is "Rich people scammed even more by healthcare providers than poor people".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 05 2017, @08:12PM
That is what crossed my mind, at $80k a year it sounds like this doctor is taking his rich patients for a ride.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by kaszz on Monday June 05 2017, @11:21PM
Translation: You don't want a overworked medical student to do the job when a person that isn't sleep deprived and has experience can do it.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 05 2017, @05:14PM (13 children)
If you were the filthy rich guy, would you want to be denied special treatment though you were willing and able to pay for it ? No, you'd want the special treatment and you'd get it.
I'm not saying I like this, but the people who are going to whine about it have the maturity level of a young child. Life is NOT fair, and some people will always have advantages in various situations. To seek and desire an advantage is a core component of human nature. Only fools would try to remove all advantages and make everyone equal, because the truth is that all humans are NOT FUCKING EQUAL. Some are superior, some are inferior, and this is reality.
However, in the end, the grim reaper is even-handed in dealing with us all, whether we are homeless or billionaires. If you don't think this is true, just ask Steve Jobs.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Monday June 05 2017, @06:03PM (1 child)
Actually, if you're poor in this country, the grim reaper tends to visit you sooner.
As for the rest, wallow in the cesspool and call it a spa treatment if you want, but that's not how change happens.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday June 05 2017, @09:36PM
> if you're poor in this country, the grim reaper tends to visit you sooner.
"Nobody's ever died from not having access to healthcare" [cbsnews.com] - Some (R) elected dimwit.
(I know he meant ERs will take you in anyway, but it's so amazingly wrong in so many ways...)
(Score: 2) by Sulla on Monday June 05 2017, @07:37PM (4 children)
Can't wait to see this argument applied to private schools too. I am currently succeeding at life with my family bringing in 80k+/year, this is plenty enough to send my kids to good private school.
My city has a problem with transients and it is causing big problems with our wait times. My kid split his chin on pavement when playing and we waited four hours to get in and get stitches as he bled and screamed. Paying a little extra to not deal with this would be worth it if I thought it would happen more than one a year. For minor problems there is urgent care which is a plenty good option.
Really wishing there was some way to knock on internet wood right now.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 05 2017, @08:15PM
You must live in a really cheap area. $80k/yr is enough to live without fear / anxiety if you're single, but with a family private schooling would probably take all extra cash. Is the private school worth losing the money on savings? I have yet to see private school students excel beyond their public school counterparts, and the savings from would easily be enough to send them to college.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @02:11AM (2 children)
Split skin is a minor problem. ERs are when you're full of gunshot holes, had your clothing melt onto your skin when you were on fire, were poisoned, or had your body mangled in a car crash. ERs are for things that are going to kill you soon. The most life threatening thing about your kid's issue was if dirty dirt got into the wound and he developed an infection later on.
You wouldn't have had to deal with it if you had sought out the proper level of treatment for the injury. There you would have maintained your place in line rather than being constantly bumped down whenever someone dying came in. Most ERs are overworked because medical professionals are super idiots requiring way too long shifts and because the poor can get free treatment there for anything. Avoid ERs whenever you can.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @03:03AM (1 child)
Slow treatment causes worse scars. People with scars are seen as being less-attractive and lower class.
This has subtle effects throughout your life. It changes the probability of different outcomes every time people judge you, even for stuff that should be unrelated.
It affects: whether the cop arrests you or sets you free, whether the jury convicts you or not, whether you are hire or not, whether you are promoted or not, whether you get a date or not, whether the doctors put in much effort next time or not (hey, already ugly as fuck...), whether you are suspected of shoplifting or not, whether your spouse stays with you or not...
It's like having a facial tattoo, being a disfavored race, having a lazy eye, or being really fat. You might never know when the feature tips the balance against you, but sometimes it will.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday June 06 2017, @11:36AM
Bullshit. Chicks dig scars.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Monday June 05 2017, @11:14PM (4 children)
And some (many?) of the wealthiest 1% are inferior
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 05 2017, @11:50PM (1 child)
What a convincing argument! You must be right.
Kind of surprised you didn't go with the all-powerful "NUH UH" comeback.
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Tuesday June 06 2017, @04:45AM
It wasn't an argument, it was an unsolicited clarification.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @04:53AM (1 child)
"And some (many?) of the wealthiest 1% are inferior"
.
.
Have you ever seen some fat older bald guy with a beautiful woman who is half his age on his arm ?
Be sure to walk up and tell the woman that the guy is inferior, next time you see such a couple.
I'm sure you will leave with the beautiful woman. And then you will wake up and find you were dreaming and the old rich guy still has that woman and you don't have shit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @08:58AM
She knows it. But its not HIM she's after!
He knows it too. That's why he is so after money.
Without money, he probably ranks below a skid-row homeless in sexual attractiveness.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @05:11PM
Maybe we should quote this to one of those fucking rich billionaires just before we cut their head off and steal their stuff? Just sayin'.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday June 05 2017, @05:18PM (14 children)
The American health care system is broken. Obamacare did not fix it. The exact why's and wherefore's of that subject are huge and complex and I couldn't begin to do it justice, so I won't try.
I will say that emergency rooms are a special kind of nightmare. Even in big hospitals with a lot of throughput, it's like entering some Dantean hell with hysterical addicts chained to gurneys under police guard, screaming homeless, poor people with no insurance who are there for minor issues because they can't afford insurance, and on and on. Even if you're a person with insurance you will wait for tens of hours and get no resolution or intelligent assessment. The ER doctors are interns who frankly don't know what the heck they're doing.
If you can in fact afford to pay for the kind of service TFA is talking about, and it works as advertised, it's worth it. If it can get you past the internists and hacks to experienced doctors, it's worth it.
For everyone else, I would recommend looking up symptoms of the current infectious disease scare du jour and listing those when you get to the ER. They bump you to the front of the queue, because you could represent a public health menace.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Thexalon on Monday June 05 2017, @05:43PM (10 children)
That's total nonsense. My sister is an ER doctor, and has done just about all the jobs you can do in emergency medicine starting from driving the ambulance, and one reason she focused on ER is that it's actually the place where she can save the most lives. ER doctors focus on procedures where time is a critical factor, dealing with injuries, and also are the best in the business at triage. Generally, once you're an ER doc, you stay an ER doc throughout your career: The salaries are a bit lower than other specialties, but the big perk is that you show up at work, do your shift, solve some problems, and go home and don't have to worry about being on call or long-term care or any of that.
If you go into the ER for a broken wrist, don't expect prompt service, because the first thing the ER is going to do is take one look at you and see you aren't likely to die while you wait. If you go into the ER from an ambulance when you just had a bunch of bones broken and are bleeding profusely, you bet your butt you're going to be taken care of, quickly. Since most visits to an ER fall into the category of relatively minor problems, that's why you get the experience of the unresponsive ER.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday June 05 2017, @05:57PM (6 children)
I wonder how urgent care fits into this. I've gone there a couple times. There's generally no line and they don't seem flooded with illegals which makes me think urgent care isn't covered for illegals.
But I've been there for some pretty messed up stuff requiring xrays and hospitalization (not me, MiL, everything turned out fine)
I've heard if you're really Fed up and show up at urgent care they'll kick you out to an ER. I don't know if that's procedure or "just that one time". I have a coworker who had a heart attack get kicked out of urgent care... then again they didn't make him wait with the illegals in the ER when the ambulance rolled him into triage.
The way the flowcharts work AFAIK from observation:
"Not acutely sick but you have some kind of (preventative?) need" you make a primary care appointment in 3 weeks and get a referral or maybe not in 3 to 7 months to a specialist. They work a little faster for pregnancies, a little slower for stuff like "sports medicine"
"Sick but not gonna die today and have insurance" goto urgent care they'll either patch you up or kick you out to ER, usually not much waiting.
"Sick gonna die real soon, might make it if treated, and have insurance" goto ER triage room no waiting room
"Don't have insurance, just looking for a place to sleep or free pain pills or free meal" goto ER waiting room for 10-15 hours
(Score: 2) by sjames on Monday June 05 2017, @06:15PM (4 children)
It may not be this way everywhere, but where I am, urgent care can't actually seem to DO anything but tell you to go to the ER. I took my wife to one and they said she looked a bit dehydrated, so since they can't give an IV, we needed to go to the ER.
Of course, if you don't seem to be trying to die, most ERs are best called eventual care. If it's after 3 or 4 on Sunday, you'll probably be seen sooner by getting a GP to squeeze you in for an office visit on Monday.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday June 05 2017, @06:33PM (1 child)
I bet that's regulated at state level, much like physicians assistants.
One interesting problem with "federalizing" medical care is its already been done with old and disabled people but the regulation is still at state level so it must be hilarious fun trying to impose federal care standards on 50 states.
That might be an interesting strategy for fixing the medical system, start with the supply side and standardize the docs and licensing completely first.
Its not like the feds don't know how to license things. I have FCC licenses which were tested and approved at the local level and only issued by the feds, maybe they could license doctors that way, at least to start.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Monday June 05 2017, @06:48PM
It may just be crappy urgent care. I recieved an IV from the oral surgeon when I had my wisdom teeth out. Paramedics can give you an IV at the side of the road. When the Nats visit here, Strasburg gets an IV in the clubhouse before the game so he doesn't get heat stroke later.
So much for going to urgent care to relieve the strain on the ER.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday June 05 2017, @08:52PM (1 child)
Which, if it's the kind of problem your GP can handle, is exactly what you should be doing. The emergency room is intended to be where you go for, you guessed it, emergencies. The kinds of things that will get significantly worse if you wait for too long.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Monday June 05 2017, @10:08PM
Some non life threatening conditions cause blackout level pain. It would be nice if there was somewhere you could go that would help people manage that in under 12 hours. Urgent care won't touch that with a 10 foot pole and you can't get anything over the counter that will even make a difference.
Oddly, if it's tooth pain, you can probably get the dentist to call something in on Sunday night if you promise to come see him during office hours.
(Score: 2) by Sulla on Monday June 05 2017, @07:39PM
At my location if you call an ambulance you get kicked to the front of the line. So if your insurance covers it or have a small copay (mine is $100) it might be worth doing that. Personally I think its wrong to use that loophole for anything not actually serious so have never tried.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday June 05 2017, @08:37PM
It all depends... some ER docs are great, some are too f-ing tired and careless to bother cleaning broken glass out of a wound before they stitch it up.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday June 05 2017, @09:39PM (1 child)
If I think I need to check in to a psychiatric inpatient unit, I go to the emergency room. If they agree they'll set me up with such a unit. Sometimes I go for a ride in a special kind of limousine, from which escape is impossible.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday June 06 2017, @01:18PM
Lemme guess... they have hookers to keep you down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2, Touché) by slap on Monday June 05 2017, @06:04PM
Frankly, any type of health care system is broken. Because there are tradeoffs due to cost, availability, and coverage (among other things). Even in countries that have "model health care systems" there are wait times and limits on what treatments that will be offered.
In the US, the problems with health care reform is that there are many very powerful groups that have considerable sway over our government, that could be adversely affected by an effective health care system. These include the AMA, heath insurance industry, big Pharma, AARP, hospitals, etc. Add in inputs from businesses and unions, and it becomes a huge mess.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Monday June 05 2017, @06:54PM (1 child)
The US as a whole spends $9,451 per person per year on healthcare.
Canada spends $4,167
Germany spends $4,647
Frane spend $4,063
The UK spends $3,621
Whether this is private or public, whether the burden falls on the rich, the sick, or more evenly, is irrelevant. That's what is spent on healthcare - someone pays.
For what it's worth the US government funding of US health care (medicaid etc) is $4,600 - the same as Germany pays for everything, and $1k a year per person (or $350b a year) more than the UK pays for everything (NHS and private care)
P.S. there's nothing in the UK system that stops you from having a $40k a year concierge. Private health care in the UK for a typical 33 year old tends to cost in the $400/year area (for 70+ years old you're likely spending more like $1200 or even $1500 a year)
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday June 06 2017, @09:08AM
Around where I live are several massive buildings full of people, flitting from desk to desk, playing with papers.
There are huge signs on the buildings, associating them with the medical health care profession.
I went in one once just to see if I could find any sick people going in or out, or as much as a tongue depressor or anyone wearing a stethoscope.
No... the whole friggen building full of people were concerned with financial matters of who is authorized to care for who.
I am convinced that doctors and care givers probably net less than ten percent of my healthcare insurance dollar. The lion's share most likely goes to CEO's and lobbyists, with whats left over going to pay for legions of desk hens to pass papers back and forth... in expensive buildings.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday June 05 2017, @05:45PM (9 children)
How old is this story, 80s or something?
I'm just saying:
Not to drop the docs but once you're a "well paid contractor" and all the government cheese is taken away, paying $1K/month plus $8K/year (deductible) is about $20K going to the middlemen for both emergencies and regular scheduled maintenance.
If I or my family were sicker such that we need the service, I'd think about paying the extra $20K and join up. Sure $40K is a lot but it sounds like hell of a lot better service than I get for $20K. If I have to pay $20K for a shit sandwich, then paying $40K for caviar isn't so expensive.
So I'm guessing "conventional concierge practices" that only charge $4K/yr only cover non-emergency care. Or this doc that's on call, he doesn't handle the expenses like an insurer he's merely an advisor and they get billed in addition.
I'm probably not wealthy enough for the super-doc but if I could make all my paperwork and just general bullshit go away for $4K I'd think about that service.
Note that I'm not a cheap bastard. I'm already paying for our existing socialized medicine system for disabled and elderly people, AND I'm paying for the fake-socialized medicine system where poor folks and all illegals get free care that I pay for via my very high premiums, I'm actually super generous I'm just pointing out that since I already pay for a zillion people's free care, why can't I get tolerably decent care for myself and my family? I'm willing to pay even more to get decent care for my family.
(Score: 4, Touché) by meustrus on Monday June 05 2017, @06:31PM (6 children)
Never thought I'd see such a powerful message for single-payer health care come from one of our resident right wing jerks.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 05 2017, @07:07PM (4 children)
Having single payer is just such a no-brainer I don't know why we don't have it.
No wait, I do know why we don't have it. Too many people have been trained like good dogs to go OMG socialism! when asked about "single payer" and to pretend that somehow they're not paying for the disabled, the elderly, the poor, and (to some extent) the illegals. Or wouldn't be if not for that "Baraq Hussein Soetoro" guy. But whatever. There is no rational, logical, empirical, evidence-based reason we shouldn't have it (plenty of fantasy scenarios a.k.a. fairy stories out of the right for why they oppose it, and no, I've no idea how we get through to the right that fairy stories are not a good basis for policy... next thing you know we'll decide our leaders based on watery tarts lobbing scimitars at them, though that might be an improvement over the current system).
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday June 05 2017, @07:34PM (3 children)
AC has it, and with the alt-right / national socialist / whatever people on the rise, and the legacy neocon "OMG Socialism" folks on the dramatic decline in the R party...
Remember that incredibly hokey Star Trek Movie where Spock dropped some insightful line about "Only Nixon could have gone to China" and likewise the only hope the country has medically right now is Trump and the natsoc types on /pol/ to go single payer. "Only Trump could implement single payer". Honestly I think he's just biding his time till obamacare totally collapses, then he can drop some executive orders for national security emergency reasons etc.. which will get fought for purely political reasons until they reach the Supreme Court which he controls... Congress has proven beyond any reasonable doubt that they cannot fix the problem, that they're the cause of the problem, so its gotta come from the exec branch in "crisis mode" and then once Trump fixes everything, it can be codified by the legislative branch.
I don't see an alternative where the outcome is any better. It is the best case scenario. If he pulls that off, he's going to end up on friggin Mt Rushmore...
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 05 2017, @08:28PM (2 children)
The saddest part is that you think Trump is playing extra dimensional chess. He has repeatedly shown that he is only there for crony capitalism and he has zero regard for the general public, even his own supporters! Creating some crisis and then using powers that amount to a dictatorship... that is some pipe dream you've got. I guess there are a million ways to rationalize a bad choice, but this is getting silly.
"No no, THIS time Trump is really gonna stick it to the man!!"
"Wait, that was just a set up for the REAL reason he did that crap, now he's really gonna change things for the better!!"
And on and on and on. He is a con artist "strong man" who has made his money screwing other people over. All he's got is a stupid air of confidence and enough money to push his way around. Stop giving him the benefit of the doubt and actually listen to the shit he says.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday June 06 2017, @03:36PM (1 child)
I prefer reviewing what he's done, and I'm pretty happy so far.
I like what he says, mostly.
I've heard he's done a lot of awful stuff in a vague sense but in terms of concrete examples the conversation kinda dries up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @07:22PM
Oh, really? Tell us what he has done so far that you are pretty happy with. Be specific.
What has he said that appeals so much to you? Again, be specific.
I guess, if it hasn't been reported by Breitbart then it just doesn't cross your radar, eh?
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday June 06 2017, @06:13PM
Never thought I'd see such a powerful message for single-payer health care come from one of our resident right wing jerks.
Too bad they vote for the people that filibustered it out of the ACA.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday June 05 2017, @08:45PM
Here's a thought: what if we all paid for decent care for everyone - care "good enough" to meet your standards?
What if we did that in such a way that there wasn't a shite tonne of billing and coding work tacked on to every basic care activity?
Oh, wait, I know this one: then the super rich wouldn't have their super care that they can purchase because they don't have all the employed-insured in the country funding its development. The employed-insured wouldn't be led around by the leash of "can't quit this job because: healthcare benefits", and there would also be literally millions of insurance related jobs destroyed by the sudden lack of anything for them to do.
We can afford to provide decent care for everyone, we're already paying enough to do it, but there are too many screwups in the system for it to reach everyone. Kind of like food in Africa, healthcare in the US could reach everyone, but it doesn't seem likely to anytime soon.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by NewNic on Monday June 05 2017, @09:19PM
Just maybe, if your policies did not leave poor people with their only option to go to the most expensive form of healthcare (the ER), then your total costs might actually drop. Oh, and provide better overall care for the homeless, who cost society far more than actually housing and feeding them would cost.
You should direct your rage against those who suck all the resources out of society, to benefit only themselves while causing the rest of us to incur higher costs (the ultra-wealthy).
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory