Guest Jules Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 F, Marry, Kill? Sarah PalinHilary ClintonNancy Pelosi I'm banging Palin, marrying Clinton and killing Pelosi. Thoughts? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dude Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 I'd: F LeiaKill LukeMarry Han Quote Link to post Share on other sites
OOO Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 I'd: F LeiaKill LukeMarry Han I can't imagine a straight male choosing any other combination but this. Though killing luke might be difficult, and his force tricks would be helpful around the house... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
M. (hristine Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 This thread has gone rogue. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
OOO Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 I think Rogue Squadron would be pretty insulted to have itself compared to this thread. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ikol Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 Time for a classic ikol post: Take wait times for specialists. We live in a country where 18 percent of the population lacks health insurance. This means that right from the start at least 46 million people have been cut out of the waiting line. Certainly this shortens the wait time for those of us with insurance, but at what cost in human life and health? That is a gross oversimplification. A large percentage of that 18% involves people that are transiently between plans and another big chunk is healthy people that can afford insurance but choose not to purchase it. And if you want to go on anecdotal evidence, how do you explain the six-week wait I was told I had when I tried to make an appointment with an orthopedist for back pain? The orthopedist probably realized that you were a drug seeker and didn't want to deal with you. How about the bureaucratic demons that are plaguing our doctors and patients now? Wait, aren’t these just called HMOs? Private health insurance in the U.S. interferes with the doctor-patient relationship all the time. Pre-approval for procedures, denial of payment, and pharmaceutical formularies — all of these are par for the course in the American health system. Interesting that you left off the biggest 2 demons of them all: Medicare and Medicaid. Not only are you unable to set your price when dealing with these entities (which incidentally means that insurance companies get charged higher prices to make up the difference), but there are certain things that they will not pay for at all. For example, if a patient gets pneumonia while in the hospital, it gets deemed hospital-acquired pneumonia, and the government refuses to pay for the treatment on the rationale that it's an avoidable infection (even though a certain percentage will get these infections even with the maximum precautions). According to the Commonwealth Fund, American doctors spend on average 142 hours annually interacting with health plans, at an estimated annual cost to physician practices of $31 billion, or $68,274 per physician. This works out to be about three hours per week. For primary care physicians the time is about three and a half hours/week. How much time do they spend interacting with Medicare? Now, Dr. Palmisano, if we divide this number by the average appointment time of 18.7 minutes, we see that doctors would be able to see an extra 11 patients per week if we did not have the administrative waste of our current system. Or get in an extra 18 holes of golf, which is what I'd do, and I don't even play golf. However, our country spent $2.4 trillion in 2008 on health care, with 46 percent coming from government money. This accounted for 17 percent of our GDP. The world’s second-largest spender was Switzerland, and they covered everyone by spending only 10.8 percent. We are already paying more for what we don’t get in the first place. So that is a result of the amount of privatization that we have? It seems like the areas of medicine that are the most privatized (cosmetic surgery and LASIK surgery for example) are the areas where prices are rising the slowest or even falling. The people there have free choice of physician, and the only thing that causes a wait time is the demand for the particular doctor. This is no different than trying to get an appointment with a high-end neurosurgeon here in the U.S. Also the fact that Taiwan has a low number of physicians per capita doesn't help. Their system is publicly financed, but privately run. Were we to adopt such an approach here, very little would change in the work of our doctors except to lift from their shoulders the enormous paperwork burden that they presently carry. They wouldn’t have to worry about becoming government employees, for example, or told they can’t work in a given area. This would also probably lift the burden of an enormous paycheck off their shoulders. At the end of Dr. Palmisano’s article he asked, “Will we have a system that puts the patient in control with the doctor as trusted adviser, or a government-run system … ?” My only response is: Why can’t we have both? Wait, I thought you just said the system you advocate is privately run. Shouldn't you at least wait until it gets passed before springing that one on us? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Moss Posted July 14, 2009 Share Posted July 14, 2009 Latest Time, that's all MILF right there. Her thighs are sublime. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jenbobblehead Posted July 14, 2009 Share Posted July 14, 2009 Rogue Squadron .now that is a good name for a cat. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Winston Legthigh Posted July 14, 2009 Share Posted July 14, 2009 Latest Time, that's all MILF right there. Her thighs are sublime. That reminds me of another TIME cover...Hopefully her career, post-TIME-cover, turns out better than Wendell Anderson's.His career imploded after he appointed himself to be the senator to replace Walter "where's the beef?" Mondale when WM became VP.I had the opportunity to meet Anderson in 2004 - a friend invited me to his house to watch one of the 2004 presidential debates. What a poonhound. He was plastered and was making VERY overt passes at previously mentioned friend. I was entertained. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Central Scrutinizer Posted July 14, 2009 Share Posted July 14, 2009 I thought that by combining all the all-caps words, I’d maybe CRACK some sort of secret code - but when distilled, all I got for my trouble was: DESTROYING AMERICA ACORN WELL HUSSAIN GOVERNMENT PALIN TRUE AMERICAN COUNTRYS LIBERTY AND FREEDOM HAVE A NICE DAY JAMES. Which, makes about as much sense as the orignal post - oh well.It's easier to spit vitriol than it is to spell it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
plasticeyeball Posted July 14, 2009 Share Posted July 14, 2009 Latest Time, that's all MILF right there. Her thighs are sublime. this Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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