Could you tell us more about dad?
[QUOTE=Tiny12;434945]Real, balanced news just isn't as compelling. I watch / listen to MSNBC, but not because I think they are credible. I find them curiously entertaining, and enjoy following their efforts at mass programming, like a cult. And Ed Shultz makes me really horny. I'm pissed they kicked him to the sidelines to showcase Chris Hayes. Nobody seems to appreciate a hot, older JAILF these days. For me he's particularly intriguing because my first exposure to sex was when my father took me to a donkey show in Nuevo Laredo when I was 8 years old. It must be something Freudian.[/QUOTE]Interesting story, what else did he expose you to. For me, as schoolboys, we would make the detour to the football stadium via the red light alleys. Peering at the sitted women through the doorways, we would be yelled and hissed at. Sometimes, we would be brave enough to even approach a loitering woman to enquire the pricing, curses would fly and we would scamper. Also, the punters that were jostling around did not like us in our school uniforms making them feel like perverts. All this with only a dollar and change in our pockets, the dollar for the game and the rest for the bus and some snacks.
An interview excerpt with Patick Soon-Shiong
Who is this guy? He is reported the richest man in Los Angeles, and no, he is not from China. He is from South Africa and now an American, the new kind of American. Posted on 4/18/2013 from the Los Angeles Magazine.
[quote]You pledged $100 million to help reopen Martin Luther King Jr. hospital in South LA. Shut down in 2007 because of severe mismanagement, it’s a place that many others had given up on. Why did you want to get involved?
Martin Luther King said that medical care is actually a human right and that the greatest insult to humanity is to not provide care to people who really need it. When Martin Luther King hospital was shut down, it just bothered me. I read in the newspaper that this Hispanic lady went to the hospital and ended up having to call 911 from the emergency room and later died. So I went down there afterward to talk to the doctor and walk the halls, and I said, “Show me, just show me what happened.” This was a little island that was ignored in our own community. Here there is wealth and knowledge and information, and nobody wanted to take this on. So I went to UCLA leadership and said we must help them. Working with [CountySupervisor] Mark Ridley-Thomas, we took on this fight. We tried to shame institutions into helping. It emerged that there was this big financial risk that no one wanted to take. So I said, “I’ll take the risk.” Hopefully the hospital will open again soon.[/quote]
Conservative desperation is in the air
The recent posts and arguments from conservatives here are among the weakest and delusional I've seen in a long time. What's up guys? I don't know whether to feel sad or laugh.
- Word substitutions to flip arguments around (how unoriginal).
- Claims that all healthcare is now delivered through the tertiary level (large hospitals). I guess those physician clinics I drive by are all imaginary.
- Comparing low-cost healthcare plans with ACA-level coverage, to low-cost plans with flimsy coverage (apples to oranges).
- Considering the idea of people determining the role of their government to be "disgusting" and nazi-esque.
- Claims that high healthcare costs are driven by lazy government bureaucrats.
- Calls for personal responsibility and paying for your own health insurance, while ignoring the fact the ACA has an [u]individual mandate[/u], a concept that has a long history of Republican support for these very reasons.
Man, you guys are a mess.
ACA has many private insurers
There's a (structured) profit motive built into the Affordable Care Act to support private insurer participation. But not every insurer is necessarily going to participate in every state. Aetna for example, is not participating in the exchanges in three states. One of them being California where Aetna never planned to participate in the first place.
Is California stuck without Aetna? Not at all, there are 12 private insurers with plans that meet ACA standards (Ref. www.coveredca.com):
Alameda Alliance for Health
Anthem Blue Cross of California
Blue Shield of California
Chinese Community Health Plan
Contra Costa Health Plan
Health Net
Kaiser Permanente
L.A. Care Health Plan
Molina Healthcare
Sharp Health Plan
Valley Health Plan
Western Health Advantage
The entire US healthcare system has been and continues to prepare for ACA. The myopic propaganda from Republicans and right-wing media (Faux News, Investors Business Daily, Breitbart, etc) is a tiny sliver of what's going on -- and not to be trusted or taken as representative.
Just like going to Blacks
[QUOTE=Jackson;435013]That's all bullshit.
First, the American people did not have a health crisis before ObamaCare as 85% of American citizens were covered by a medical plan, including every person under the age of 18 and every person over the age of 65.
Second, many Americans were ready "[I]to explore new avenues[/I]" like tort reform and allowing insurers to compete across state lines, but the liberals weren't interested in improving the health care delivery system as their actual goal was to foster more government dependency for their own political aggrandizement.
Thanks,
Jax.[/QUOTE]That is what going to a hospital in America is if you do not have insurance. Yeah, it might work for a few people, but it's a rip-off. And health care in America is a rip off. You know it, and everybody's grandmother knows it.
Health Care & Education should be basic citizen rights. Most GOP reform plans do not touch private insurers. Obama did something, workable or not, we will find out. But doing nothing, and trying to defeat it by calling it socialism is just selfish. We already know how Congresss work, they are not for the people. And too many of Americans are like sheep, easily sway by fear and right-wing jihardists.
It is better to give than to receive.
[QUOTE=Jackson;435026]How noble, except your plan requires a system wherein money is taken at gunpoint from people who earned it for themselves, to be used to buy medical services for strangers who do not wish to pay for their own medical needs.
That's morally repugnant.
Thanks,
Jax[/QUOTE]But you earned your money, you earned the right to spent it anyway you like, or even hide it. So where can you go where you don't have to pay taxes. Monaco, Luxembourg, Cayman Islands, Argentina? Perhaps, only you know.
But there is one thing we know. The powerful will always oppress the powerless, and the rich will earn it on the backs of the poor. And they will do all they can to preserve that advantage. Why are we proud to be Americans? We advocate human dignity. Otherwise, we are no better than Zimbabwe.
It comes down to governments and societies.
[QUOTE=Tiny12;435045]Esten, Black Shirt and WT69, Singapore spends 4.5% and people live longer:[/QUOTE]As you know, Singapore has been under 1-party rule since independence. So you can say that Singapore have an authoritarian government, albeit elected within democratic guidelines. Fortunately, it is under "good governance" because the elected government is honest, dedicated, innovative, and planning within a very big picture. Social engineering is very vital to its core everyday message as well as in its long term planning. In other word, Big Brother is not only behind you, but all around you. Not really a problem for industrious, family oriented, law abiding citizens. American society today hardly fit that description.
So, can Americans tolerate that? No way, not even if they promise that every citizen can be a millionaire if you follow the rules. You want to pack a gun. No problem, $500,000 just to obtain a license to buy. Then another $25,000 per year to renew. That's how it works there. Just google their car purchasing process. So you want to smoke pot? Ahhh, you don't want to go there.
As for their living longer, well, you figured that one out. Really, not too hard.
P.S. The gun stuff, I made it up. Just an example of how government regulates activity and everyday life.
