PeakOil is You
Socialist medicine is here, death panels and all.
Re: Socialist medicine is here, death panels and all.
by eastbay » Sat 25 Sep 2010, 02:25:39
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrestonSturges', 'I')t's not a solution...
In an era of declining everything one can in general expect medical care to decline as well. That's simple enough to understand. Blaming declining medical care on Obama is wrong and pure silly partisan politics. Instead blame rising medical costs and declining care on ridiculously inflated personal growth expectations.
How can one expect constantly improving medical care in a declining economy? Plus, as the demographics shift to an increasingly aging and costlier health care intensive population we can expect even less care.
So place the blame where it belongs. Blame it on the epidemic of obesity. Blame it on two solid generations of junk food diet and poor exercise. Blame it on peak oil. Blame it on the green revolution which led to gross overshoot and overpopulation. But in this case, Obama is not the culprit.
I've been trying to explain to all of you here (and elsewhere) that as resource availability declines expect the ever-dwindling remains to be socialized. It's a process that is now getting underway. In a few years as scarcities develop gasoline distribution too will be socialized (rationed). Will that process be blamed on whomever is the sitting president? Probably. And probably by members of the opposing party. But the right or wrong of it all is irrelevant. It's just a natural process and one we must learn to accept. Just like we accept a wilting flower.
Got Dharma?
Everything is Impermanent. Shakyamuni Buddha
Everything is Impermanent. Shakyamuni Buddha
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Re: Socialist medicine is here, death panels and all.
by Pops » Sat 25 Sep 2010, 08:58:18
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', 'C')over kids with pre-existing conditions:
This would have been a big one for me, my stepdaughter developed type 1 diabetes at age 4 before I had a decent job with insurance. When I did get coverage on a new job a few months later the Insurance co wouldn't cover her. It just happened that my employer changed carriers soon after. Through paperwork confusion the new insurance co somehow thought the old insurance co had been carrying my daughter so she was not excluded! HA!
However, I was basically locked into keeping that job or going on welfare because we would have never been able to afford the cost, insurance wasn't "portable" until HIPPA in '95 - when I started my own business.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', 'S')o really Pops these are weak reforms, and come at the high cost of government-mandated purchasing of private policies. Insurers make out like bandits compared to the few crumbs of reform they've thrown our way.
Yea, I have no idea how it will turn out when fully enacted - we may be in such a world of hurt by '15 that is makes no difference. Like I said I would have rather trashed the whole thing and started from scratch, maybe this is sorta like the 'pubs idea of cutting taxes to starve government except you just let healthcare bloat till it eats itself to death.
The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities.
-- Abraham Lincoln, Fragment on Government (July 1, 1854)
-- Abraham Lincoln, Fragment on Government (July 1, 1854)
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Re: Socialist medicine is here, death panels and all.
by Windmills » Sat 25 Sep 2010, 11:36:36
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('diemos', 'H')ow can a democracy work when the vast majority is incapable of critical thought and their brains just regurgitate slogans and soundbites.
Precisely. Which is why real educational reform should be focused on curricular reform. Students learn a great deal of interesting but largely useless facts in our educational system. It's hard for me to honestly say to my students that they'll be using more than a fraction of what they've learned in school in their adult lives. We can all think of many courses we were required to take that we've forgotten almost completely, yet we still function quite well as adults.
I think a better approach would include a K-12 curriculum core built around teaching students how to think, logically, rationally, critically, to debate, to analyze. There should be a continuous set of courses based on studying philosophy and how to learn, for example. We don't teach students enough about how to think for themselves, how to spot false arguments, notice lack of context for facts, root out weak evidence, or rank the elements of a speech in terms of argumental strength. However, empowering people's minds is probably the last thing those in power would like to see. We're so easy to manipulate now in such simple ways.
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