Comments Posted By Chuck Tucson
Displaying 141 To 150 Of 536 Comments
IT'S PAST TIME TO INOCULATE CONSERVATISM AGAINST THE BIRTHERS
Right on busboy, right on.
Comment Posted By Chuck Tucson On 22.07.2009 @ 12:35
HOW MUCH IS A HUMAN BEING WORTH?
You may trust government - I don’t and I see it everyday - I work within the government.
How's this; I trust the federal government exactly as much as I trust private industry.
Lastly, if all of these wonderful state run health care systems are so good, why do so many foreigners come to the US for treatment - at their own expense.
Your generalization doesn't hold water. US Citizens go to other countries all the time for various treatments. Likewise people come here. Just because a hospital in the US has some treatment options that a foreign country doesn't have, does not mean that our health care system is better. It just means that that particular hospital does something better.
Seems like a discrepancy to me to emulate a system that forces people to go elsewhere to be treated.
Correlation does not equal causation. Furthermore, they're not trying to emulate, they're trying to create something better in the face of massive corporate pushback via campaign donations and lobbying.
I've experienced the hell of private insurance first hand. I wouldn't wish my experiences on anyone. What's even more troubling is that my insurance is pretty much the best deal money can buy right now. Not to mention that as my costs have risen, so has my deductible, and the pathetic joke that is called "co-pay".
Congrats on your system. It's great that you're happy with it. I think it sucks, and the fact that we're even having the discussion pretty much confirms that paying for health care via private insurance is an awful way of doing things.
The people's support for a public option is overwhelming. The fact that it hasn't happened yet is a testament to the power and influence of private corporations throwing millions of dollars at congress.
Comment Posted By Chuck Tucson On 22.07.2009 @ 09:56
I did not say “hours on the phone” I said “time on the phone”.
Sorry. I interjected my own personal experience. Apologies.
Just because private insurance companies are motivated by profit doesn't mean that they'll give a shit if you complain. In fact, the opposite is almost always true because the insurance is employer sponsored.
Employer based health care is quite possibly the worst conceivable way of managing health care costs ever. It's an assault on the American Dream.
And while I'm on it, why, WHY should you need to go through all that bullshit just to get a TEST for genetic predisposition? Why wouldn't that be preventive maintenance? What is the reasoning behind you going through all of that just to get the test? Why do you need to write letters, involve three different doctors, make calls, and basically BEG some company to let you test your loved one for cancer? That's absurd, and yet you make it sound like you're happy to be a part of the system.
That's awesome for you, I guess. The current system, with a great deal of effort on your part, works great for you. Congratulations.
For a great deal of the rest of us, the private health insurance industry is the very definition of nightmare.
Comment Posted By Chuck Tucson On 21.07.2009 @ 16:09
Alarm1201 said:
If we have a bureaucrat drone making these decisions you can forget about something like this.
Wait, so what you're saying is that you'd rather spend hours on the phone, get three different doctors involved with trying to persuade, then pay out of your own pocket, write a bunch of letters, then hope that the company is convinced to pay out. You'd rather do all that, then worry about some fictitious nonsense scenario with a "bureaucrat drone". Your logic confuses me.
Private insurance is a horrible way to go about paying for medical treatment. Especially employer sponsored insurance. Absolutely horrible. If it weren't, we wouldn't be having this discussion in the first place. People seem to think that there's an insurance "market". There isn't. All insurance companies use the dame database to set rates and drive down physician compensation.
Comment Posted By Chuck Tucson On 21.07.2009 @ 14:33
PERSONAL REFLECTIONS ON APOLLO 11 AND MAN'S PLACE IN THE COSMOS
Rick said:
Yeah, NASA does great science as long as they don’t have man involved in the equation.
Totally agree. That's precisely why the Mars rover missions were so amazingly successful. While humans traveling around the solar system seems cool, letting robots do the work is just as beneficial at only a tiny fraction of the cost.
Comment Posted By Chuck Tucson On 20.07.2009 @ 15:16
Wramblin' Wreck,
But lately (the past decade?) NASA has devolved into a purely bureaucratic morass where nothing new is accomplished.
Totally disagree. NASA is doing newer and better science now than ever before. The problem is that many of the discoveries made, and feats achieved, are not on the scale needed to captivate a very distracted public.
NASA has its issues for sure, but the work they do is solid, and good, and will improve lives far out into the future.
You are correct - as far as it goes.No one does basic science better than NASA - no private lab or government in the world. The astonishing discoveries in the last decade using our unmanned robots have revolutionized astronomy, physics, high energy disciplines, optics, exo-biology and other sciences even more than the extraordinary breakthroughs that occurred in the two decades immediately after Sputnik.
But we suck at launching people into space. The shuttle is a dinosaur that was supposed to be replaced already. The Space Station is a joke. And going back to the future in order to go back to the moon by building a slightly bigger Apollo and a new heavy lift booster - both of which are way over budget already and there is a question of safety - is typical of the no-imagination, no innovation agency that NASA has become.Yeah, NASA does great science as long as they don't have man involved in the equation.
ed.
Comment Posted By Chuck Tucson On 20.07.2009 @ 14:03
NO, AMERICA -- YOU CAN'T KEEP THE HEALTH INSURANCE YOU HAVE NOW
We should let the private insurance industry fix the nightmare created by, the private insurance industry. Capitalism's ability to self regulate is the stuff of legends.
Now, if you'll excuse me I'm going to go read some gloom and doom flowcharts created by the health insurance industry that tell me how bad socialized medicine is.
Then, when I'm done, I'm going to go study the Frank Luntz Republican health care talking points so I know what to say the next time some idiot Obama supporter tries to tell me single payer will be better.
Comment Posted By Chuck Tucson On 17.07.2009 @ 09:47
WHAT'S THE RUSH TO MARS, BUZZ? IT'S NOT LIKE IT'S GOING ANYWHERE
Watching the free market propel humans to Mars is very exciting. If we're lucky, we'll find something valuable there and we'll fight wars over who gets it.
Maybe that's what Iraq is all about? We're actually preparing for the future battles over martian resources. That's some serious foresight on the part of our leaders. Bravo leaders!
Comment Posted By Chuck Tucson On 16.07.2009 @ 13:10
PROSECUTING TORTURE AS A DISTRACTION FROM THE ECONOMY
busboy33 said:
What in the hell does that have to do with what yoyo said?
Heh. It's amazing how often I've asked myself that same question.
Comment Posted By Chuck Tucson On 13.07.2009 @ 00:02
The idea that a prophet could receive revelation through a seer stone is no more techologically unbelieveable than your receiving a text message on your cell phone, or God hearing your prayers at dinner time. It is just new to you, so you are curious. However, being curious does not make you informed.
No, actually, it is infinitely more technologically unbelievable. That's the point. It is - literally - impossible. Text messages don't rely on faith.
Comment Posted By Chuck Tucson On 13.07.2009 @ 12:28
