Comments on: Irrelevant http://www.mahablog.com/2006/04/04/irrelevant/ Exposing the ugly truths about the Bush Administration. Mon, 13 Oct 2008 17:59:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=1.5.1.3 by: The Mahablog » Speaking of Anger http://www.mahablog.com/2006/04/04/irrelevant/#comment-6584 Mon, 17 Apr 2006 15:05:59 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2006/04/04/irrelevant/#comment-6584 [...] I agree; the enormous majority of Americans don’t want to hear about Bush any more. They don’t care what he says. They don’t care what he thinks. He can trot around the Rose Garden and declare he supports Donald Rumsfeld and we’re winning in Iraq and Health Savings Accounts are just peachy all he likes; hardly anyone is listening. He has become irrelevant. [...] […] I agree; the enormous majority of Americans don’t want to hear about Bush any more. They don’t care what he says. They don’t care what he thinks. He can trot around the Rose Garden and declare he supports Donald Rumsfeld and we’re winning in Iraq and Health Savings Accounts are just peachy all he likes; hardly anyone is listening. He has become irrelevant. […]

]]> by: The Mahablog » Still Irrelevant http://www.mahablog.com/2006/04/04/irrelevant/#comment-6189 Fri, 07 Apr 2006 13:41:03 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2006/04/04/irrelevant/#comment-6189 [...] Remember what I said about Bush becoming irrelevant? [...] […] Remember what I said about Bush becoming irrelevant? […]

]]> by: Teresa Nielsen Hayden http://www.mahablog.com/2006/04/04/irrelevant/#comment-6166 Thu, 06 Apr 2006 16:59:54 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2006/04/04/irrelevant/#comment-6166 Thinking that the most worrisome problem with our health-care system is that it may give unnecessary treatment to well-heeled patients is a luxury reserved for people who are both well-off and in good health. Hint: that's <i>not</i> actually a big problem. If they're really concerned, they can go to another doctor and get a second opinion. In a pinch, they can Just Say No -- medical care is voluntary, and they're presumably grownups. Access to health care, that's an issue. Health care costs for people on low or fixed incomes, that's definitely an issue. Health insurance for people with low or fixed incomes, or who are self-employed, damned well ought to be a major issue. Thinking that the most worrisome problem with our health-care system is that it may give unnecessary treatment to well-heeled patients is a luxury reserved for people who are both well-off and in good health. Hint: that’s not actually a big problem. If they’re really concerned, they can go to another doctor and get a second opinion. In a pinch, they can Just Say No — medical care is voluntary, and they’re presumably grownups.

Access to health care, that’s an issue. Health care costs for people on low or fixed incomes, that’s definitely an issue. Health insurance for people with low or fixed incomes, or who are self-employed, damned well ought to be a major issue.

]]> by: Anonymous http://www.mahablog.com/2006/04/04/irrelevant/#comment-6096 Wed, 05 Apr 2006 14:36:32 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2006/04/04/irrelevant/#comment-6096 The sad part about bush is that he has brought so many of his enablers into government and positions of influence and they mean us no good. also there are the fanatics and leeches he has enabled to get megaphones and belly up to the trough he has provided. A self serving circle jerk The sad part about bush is that he has brought so many of his enablers into government and positions of influence and they mean us no good. also there are the fanatics and leeches he has enabled to get megaphones and belly up to the trough he has provided. A self serving circle jerk

]]> by: Donna http://www.mahablog.com/2006/04/04/irrelevant/#comment-6093 Wed, 05 Apr 2006 13:58:27 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2006/04/04/irrelevant/#comment-6093 Alyosha, your point is well taken. Imagine a health system where wellness clinics [not tied to the 'industry'] provide care for minor problems, much as wellness clinics for pregnant women have offered the same. Imagine a health system as in which care providers are paid only if the patient stays healthy, as was true of early Chinese medicine. Imagine an cultural milieu that accepts death as a natural event, just as pregnancy is a natural event [Maha recently posted on the subject]. Imagine end-of-life hospices set up in beautiful natural settings of woods, lakesides, mountain-tops....... Seems to me that the health industry has followed the projectory of 'consumerism' as a great cash cow that grows by creating demand for more and more stuff, even to the point of pretending that death itself is not natural and should be overcome with highly priced procedures that 'take' the dying person for all his/her remaining resources. I know that my 'imaginings' are very far from today's realities. But I do love to think and live outside the box. My only health insurance, which I have been paying into for thirty years with joyful labor, is my organic garden. Alyosha, your point is well taken.
Imagine a health system where wellness clinics [not tied to the ‘industry’] provide care for minor problems, much as wellness clinics for pregnant women have offered the same.
Imagine a health system as in which care providers are paid only if the patient stays healthy, as was true of early Chinese medicine.
Imagine an cultural milieu that accepts death as a natural event, just as pregnancy is a natural event [Maha recently posted on the subject].
Imagine end-of-life hospices set up in beautiful natural settings of woods, lakesides, mountain-tops…….
Seems to me that the health industry has followed the projectory of ‘consumerism’ as a great cash cow that grows by creating demand for more and more stuff, even to the point of pretending that death itself is not natural and should be overcome with highly priced procedures that ‘take’ the dying person for all his/her remaining resources.

I know that my ‘imaginings’ are very far from today’s realities. But I do love to think and live outside the box. My only health insurance, which I have been paying into for thirty years with joyful labor, is my organic garden.

]]> by: Zeus http://www.mahablog.com/2006/04/04/irrelevant/#comment-6086 Wed, 05 Apr 2006 04:13:07 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2006/04/04/irrelevant/#comment-6086 Are you OK maha? Are you OK maha?

]]> by: alyosha http://www.mahablog.com/2006/04/04/irrelevant/#comment-6084 Wed, 05 Apr 2006 04:01:14 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2006/04/04/irrelevant/#comment-6084 The full circle irony, Donna, is that we'll all be using our catastrophic plans to finally check in, at the last moment, to handle major problems, that could've been more easily handled when they were still minor, but weren't covered by the catastrophic plan. Either way, we lose. HSAs are like Social Security privatization, are like everything this mis-administration tries to foist on the public. After awhile you see this loser salesman coming up the driveway once again with this year's snake oil, and you shut the curtains and don't answer the door. Please, God. Make them go away. The full circle irony, Donna, is that we’ll all be using our catastrophic plans to finally check in, at the last moment, to handle major problems, that could’ve been more easily handled when they were still minor, but weren’t covered by the catastrophic plan. Either way, we lose.

HSAs are like Social Security privatization, are like everything this mis-administration tries to foist on the public. After awhile you see this loser salesman coming up the driveway once again with this year’s snake oil, and you shut the curtains and don’t answer the door.

Please, God. Make them go away.

]]> by: Donna http://www.mahablog.com/2006/04/04/irrelevant/#comment-6083 Wed, 05 Apr 2006 03:25:20 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2006/04/04/irrelevant/#comment-6083 Swami, I think there may be at least one blessing in disguise in not having health insurance. The medical care system has become a huge profit-making industry. Any profit-minded industry wants a steady stream of customers, repeat customers, and customers who 'need' lots of expensive 'services' and 'tests', customers who, by virtue of having insurance plans, are good for automatic payment. I have watched a number of people who have really good insurance get sucked into that system......to the detriment of their health and lives. I am saying that having insurance also carries risks! Too, I know many health service providers who are saying they are constrained by 'business policies' that frustrate their giving the best attention to the sick or injured. A friend of mine who is an MD laments that the health field has been turned upside down because, "some insurance clerk with a high school diploma, working within the designed programming of an MBA, effectively decides how long my patient can stay in the hospital..... that person, not I as the doctor, decides 'what the insurance will cover' which ties my hands as effectively as handcuffs." Catastrophic insurance makes more sense to me than 'full coverage' that would insidiously steer me and/or my doctor away from making individual decisions about my health. Swami, I think there may be at least one blessing in disguise in not having health insurance.
The medical care system has become a huge profit-making industry. Any profit-minded industry wants a steady stream of customers, repeat customers, and customers who ‘need’ lots of expensive ’services’ and ‘tests’, customers who, by virtue of having insurance plans, are good for automatic payment.
I have watched a number of people who have really good insurance get sucked into that system……to the detriment of their health and lives. I am saying that having insurance also carries risks!
Too, I know many health service providers who are saying they are constrained by ‘business policies’ that frustrate their giving the best attention to the sick or injured. A friend of mine who is an MD laments that the health field has been turned upside down because, “some insurance clerk with a high school diploma, working within the designed programming of an MBA, effectively decides how long my patient can stay in the hospital….. that person, not I as the doctor, decides ‘what the insurance will cover’ which ties my hands as effectively as handcuffs.”
Catastrophic insurance makes more sense to me than ‘full coverage’ that would insidiously steer me and/or my doctor away from making individual decisions about my health.

]]> by: carla http://www.mahablog.com/2006/04/04/irrelevant/#comment-6081 Wed, 05 Apr 2006 02:50:56 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2006/04/04/irrelevant/#comment-6081 You should put this in the "What Goes Around, Comes Around" files. Karma is hitting these assholes hard. Finally. You should put this in the “What Goes Around, Comes Around” files.

Karma is hitting these assholes hard. Finally.

]]> by: Britwit http://www.mahablog.com/2006/04/04/irrelevant/#comment-6080 Wed, 05 Apr 2006 02:41:35 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2006/04/04/irrelevant/#comment-6080 G.I. Joe Bush! - No one gives a flying ----! G.I. Joe Bush! - No one gives a flying —-!

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