tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post530831361694559035..comments2024-03-28T16:08:29.578-04:00Comments on Sardonicky: Here's Sand in Your Eye, AmericaKaren Garciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15612731479365562803noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-70950047288845637942014-03-28T10:44:46.024-04:002014-03-28T10:44:46.024-04:00If it were just the health care problem itself it ...If it were just the health care problem itself it wouldn't be that bad - but it's damn near everything. And yes, relative to us, Canada is a shining light. But, as truly feckless as we are, we are still the biggest economy in the world shakily holding up the second biggest, China. And if we go, everything goes, Canada included. And it damn sure looks like we're going to go, with a whimper or a bang, but go we will if we keep up business as usual. And that's just the economy.<br /><br />Then there's the climate business, an absolute bloody shambles and not from the scientific end.<br />Yeah, Zee, I know all about the politics and infighting of Science, but science at the low end has been doing its pain staking, bit by bit gathering of evidence and it sure looks like the model boys are pretty much on the money (much as I feel their grandstanding is a pain in the ass). But we still continue to ignore the evidence.<br /><br />Then there's this military crap. It's more than 80 years later and Smedley Butler is still right. And we're still not listening. This latest fiasco of trying to solve our problems by reinstitution of the Cold War is a perfect example. The media is simply awash in neocon, flag waving, democracy spreading bull shit. And the public is largely buying it.<br /><br />And yeah, Zee, I know all about unintended consequences, but I also know about planning yourself into immobility. In other words, Get off the fucking tracks, the train is coming!<br /><br />And I can't believe I've wasted my time like this, pissing into the wind. Well, I'm an old fart with not much else to do. In partial restitution, the lower reference is an interesting read from yesterday.<br /><br />http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/03/government-hack-trying-squash-discussion-government-corruption-cass-sunstein-doesnt-understand-basic-math-law.htmlJames F Traynornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-84962549696392188662014-03-28T10:13:52.054-04:002014-03-28T10:13:52.054-04:00@Pearl--
I would never ask you to apologize for a...@Pearl--<br /><br />I would never ask you to apologize for a lengthy post, nor would I expect you to do so.<br /><br />I usually find what you have to say to be interesting and informative--and often sad when you tell us younger Sardonickistas about your experience during the McCarthy era--and if it takes a longer post to say what you've got to say, well, I'm all for it.<br /><br />Better "long and clear" than "brief and obscure," I say. <br /><br />And besides, it's not <i> me </i> that you need to keep happy, but <i> Karen. </i>Zeenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-79687915463722991222014-03-27T22:40:45.734-04:002014-03-27T22:40:45.734-04:00Part 2
Doctors are over booked and spend little t...<br /><br />Part 2<br /><br />Doctors are over booked and spend little time with patients, they intimidate them and don't encourage questions and the results are catastrophic according to a thorough report in the New York Times a year or so ago of problems with patients who needn't have suffered or even died as a result of ignorance or neglect. This is true here and in the States and I can count on one hand how many doctors I can remember who knew what they were doing and diagnosed problems properly over the years. I do not hesitate to speak up when necessary and believe me there were instances when my health and the health of family members were jeopardized.<br /><br />We can figure out the problems if we think about it - who gets into medical school - how they are trained and are they interested in the money and prestige more than the patient. And in Canada, the doctors are not completely enamored of our health care<br />system feeling constrained in fees and requirements of rigid reports to the<br />government. They were completely opposed to instituting universal health care in the beginning but were over voted by the public, thank goodness. So my worship of doctors is now confined to the wonderful cancer research workers I have become acquainted with who are a different breed. There are<br />good and decent doctors around but this is a rarity unfortunately.<br /><br />So no matter what kind of health care we fight for, there will have to be some real changes in the education of future doctors which recent reports indicate are not that great.<br /><br /> I am writing all this to encourage those of you dealing with medical personnel, to use the internet to get all the nformation you can find,write down questions and don't leave until you get answers. It may help save your health and life. I can't tell you how many stories I have heard about people who have not been diagnosed or checked out properly with possible serious problems and frightening results. I know this from bitter experience of friends and family members. And it all ties in with getting a better health care system by getting better people in place all around.<br /><br />And Zee, if you are worried about your investments, it will be hopefully replaced with decent health care at minimum cost to you and you can save your money and invest it in less lousy companies. There are some good ones to help out. We as individuals can do a lot in speaking up to friends, to medical people, to educate people about health matters, especially you, Zee. as a scientist. There is a lot to be done all around to help others in this regard.<br /><br />I won't apologize for the length of my comment since I have to compete with <br />yoursPearlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-39616900987248565002014-03-27T22:40:01.334-04:002014-03-27T22:40:01.334-04:00Zee@ Your worries about releasing many insurance ...Zee@ Your worries about releasing many insurance workers without redress for jobs, etc. can be easily overcome. Most of the underlings are mainly doing clerical style work under supervision which can be changed to working for organizations doing some good in the world such as environmental, etc.Also, any change in health care will be gradual with every inch fought over and can allow for adjustments. As for the owners or CEOs of the insurance companies, train them to repair roads, infrastructures, or any useful occupation needed and pay them from our hopefully more progressive taxes.If all else fails they can empty bed pans in the hospitals. Let them learn what their perpetration of a lousy system does to people who cannot find work.<br /><br />Yes, even our wonderful health care system in Canada has its problems. A friend of mine who had serious 8 hour surgery on the veins of a leg was sent home and when I asked him what antibiotics he was on said none, without question. I was appalled but didn't want to frighten him and sure enough within 3 days he developed a dangerous infection that required massive doses of antibiotics and required a long while for his leg to heal. When I recently called his wife to find out how he was faring she told me he had been in the local hospital all week from a bloody nose they couldn't stop (and from which he fainted), had to be sent to the hospital in an ambulance and for 3 more days they were unable to stop the bleeding in the ICU despite several blood transfusions until finally it stopped. Why? He had been put on blood thinners many weeks before and neither he or his wife were told to have his blood checked regularly to test clotting, etc. which I immediately knew about. Their ignorance and the doctors' neglect almost cost him his life. I have found tremendous ignorance with doctors throughout my life and in the lives of my family and friends both here and in the United States and as a result have educated myself thoroughly regarding medications and procedures and prevented some real mishaps as a result.<br /><br />Pearlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-7408291620018711142014-03-27T18:02:46.188-04:002014-03-27T18:02:46.188-04:00@Karen--
Although I have said it before, I will s...@Karen--<br /><br />Although I have said it before, I will say it again just in case the memories of some here at Sardonicky are shorter than others: I support a Canadian-style, single-payer health care system here in the United States because health care is one of those issues that is now too large and too important to be left to the private sector.<br /><br />Still, scientist that I am, I am always curious about how things work. Or about how they were supposed to work, but didn't. Or how the latest plan was supposed to make things better, but wound up making things <i> worse. </i> <br /><br />After 30+ years of working in a dangerous laboratory, I've pretty much seen it all save for—Thank God—any mistakes that led to loss of life, limb or hugely expensive equipment. <br /><br />So a couple of thoughts about “Medicare For All” come immediately to my mind that perhaps need to be considered and dealt with before just jumping in with eyes closed and fingers crossed, <i> à la </i> ObamaCare.<br /><br />First, as of 2007, the health care insurance industry employed some 444,000 people:<br /><br />http://www.epi.org/publication/webfeatures_snapshots_20070919/<br /><br />I've tried to find some more recent and “official” figures which suggest that as of January,2014, “direct health and medical insurance carriers” employed some 482,000 employees. This is consistent with the growth that is likely since 2007, but I confess that I'm not exactly certain what I'm looking at:<br /><br />http://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/ceseeb1a.htm<br /><br />In any event, if we go with a single-payer system and do away with the entire health care insurance industry with a single stroke of the legislative pen, what happens to these close-to-half-a-million <i> private-sector </i> employees? Do we just put them out of work without any consideration, saying “Sorry about that?”<br /><br />And what happens to the <i> stockholders </i> in this almost-$1Trillion per year industry, of which, through my 401(k) retirement investments, I'm sure I'm one?<br /><br />And maybe some of you are, too?<br /><br />http://healthcareforamericanow.org/ourissues/health-insurance-industry/<br /><br />Do we—not all of us wealthy <i> rentiers, </i> mind you—bite the bullet for the public good as GM's bondholders were—IMHO, illegally—forced to do when GM was bailed out?<br /><br />In addition to overcoming the colossal lobbying effort that the health care insurance industry will exert to fend off single-payer as we have seen in the past, these are a couple of additional, more "grass-roots" issues that I have heard no one remark upon when talking about a transition to single-payer<br /><br />And I'm sure that there will be other surprises along the way that will impede the transition to single-payer.<br /><br />Murphy's Law—and its many correlaries—apply far beyond the laboratory, as ObamaCare supporters are now discovering to their chagrin. <br /><br />Forewarned is forearmed.Zeenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-59742923426456519202014-03-27T13:44:59.211-04:002014-03-27T13:44:59.211-04:00@Pearl,
Agreed, actual impending passage of Medic...@Pearl,<br /><br />Agreed, actual impending passage of Medicare for All would bring out armies of lobbyists the likes of which we have never seen. Just the part about how doctors get paid would cause a mass outbreak of conniption fits. However, since many docs are already being priced out of private practice and working for salary anyway, I have a feeling that only the big conservative guns of the AMA would truly raise a stink. <br /><br />The point is, the Dems never even tried. I like to write "what might have been" rants every now and again, especially now that the Dems are paying such a heavy political price for their fecklessness. And deservedly so.<br /><br />I have a feeling Obama will welcome a GOP super-majority so that he will be "forced" to become the Republican he already truly is. Fasten your seatbelts.Karen Garciahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15612731479365562803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-64409629013496442782014-03-27T13:14:17.454-04:002014-03-27T13:14:17.454-04:00@Pearl,
"Medicare for All" as a title i...@Pearl,<br /><br />"Medicare for All" as a title is actually kind of misleading, since there would be no 20% co-pay, no private insurance involved whatsoever. I added another link to my post explaining the legislation in greater detail. Medicare for All really would be single payer and not "Medicare as we currently know it."Karen Garciahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15612731479365562803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-55814653810168692702014-03-27T12:56:42.004-04:002014-03-27T12:56:42.004-04:00Even if you get a rocky foothold in Obamacare, the...<br />Even if you get a rocky foothold in Obamacare, there are no guarantees. The connections to the insurance companies who dole out the care and costs, are <br />still not in place with possibilities for changes down the line not in favor for patients. It is affecting the decisions of doctors whether or not to be <br />involved under these flexible circumstances and there is still no discipline for hospital costs. The projections of what will be coming down the road are <br />not favorable and continually shifting the regulations will create more chaos.<br /><br />No health care set up will be effective until it is removed from the private sectors, and made a single payer national coverage administered and <br />controlled by the government with no ties to jobs, or kinds of medical needs of a patient or freedom of hospitals to charge what they want. We have to <br />start with a really progressive tax system before a viable health care system is in place. Merely stretching Medicare to everyone eventually is also a problem since it presently only covers 80% or less of patients' needs <br />and is dependent on the private sector for purchases of equipment and with no regulation of costs for the salaries of medical personnel.<br /><br />As I have said before, in Canada it is a centralized set up with a fraction of the price for the paperwork alone, regulated salaries for medical personnel, hospital costs covered, drugs purchased in bulk, etc. This is how most of the other industrialized countries take care of their citizens and <br />nothing else will work. Obama has left us with an albatross for the future and in more areas than health care unfortunately. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Pearlnoreply@blogger.com