Recent content by green_cactus_IHB

I feel like I'm getting foreclosed on ... metaphorically.

I was posing the ethical dilemma that a free market approach to health care poses. By not having access to affordable health care, no matter what life style choices are made, the mortality rate of poorer people will be directly related to their income.

I pictured BK more like Master Pai Mei from Kill Bill. An old sage with big white eyebrows who is fond of his fish heads (or fermented shrimp paste) but who will go all Five Point Palm Exploding Heart on you (albeit only verbally) if you tee him off. Now I'm disappointed ...

An oligopoly brings more cost in health care as well - or can the current health insurance system better be described as a cartel??? Having a "free market" solution to health care presents an ethical challenge as well. Having less money would necessarily mean less coverage. Should mortality...

Not to mention the toll your body will take for an unnecessary procedure. Another problem with your quote for $28K is that it is very hard to know a priori what your out of pocket expense will be. For example, if the anesthesiologist is out of network and charges beyond the reasonable and...

I wish it would be that easy. I certainly would like to see a strong regulatory body rather than absolute government intervention. I would also like to see a decoupling of employment and insurance. I would like to see an end to the collusion of local hospitals and medical providers. I would like...

I didn't say the bill made any sense - just that jail time as penalty was not in the language of the bill. For this scheme to work it has to be a public option. Without the public option and "forcing" people to be covered, it just becomes a godsend to insurance companies.

Just read the bill. There's a difference between civil penalties and criminal penalties. In the senate finance committee revision of the bill it states: 10 ‘‘(1) WAIVER OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL PEN 11 ALTIES AND INTEREST.—In the case of any failure 12 by a taxpayer to timely pay any tax imposed...

The language of the bill has been modified to not include jail time for failure of paying the tax. Wesley Snipes got nothing to do with this. The irony in your hypothetical, though, is that you'd get free health care in jail. I guess at the end of the day the government WILL get their way of...

You certainly have a source to backup your claim of what sounds like mandatory jail time for not being covered. The bill as of 10/19/2009 (S.1796) states: (a) REQUIREMENT TO MAINTAIN ESSENTIAL HEALTH BENEFITS COVERAGE. -- If an individual is an applicable individual for any month beginning...

By law they are required to transmit your local channels in HD. If your TV has a QAM-256 tuner in it you should be able to get them (I'm not with COX but have a similar setup).

You mean the same way the pharmaceutical companies are over-charging the government for prescription drugs? Oh wait!! Because of price negotiations they are actually paying substantially less - 41-53% of the average wholesale price according to a CBO study.

I need to correct myself. Sharing drinks is not a direct mechanism to transmit any of the forms of Hepatitis. Hep A is in poop, B & C in the blood and bodily fluids. Saliva does not contain the virus.

Well, never say never but the chances are rather slim; especially for Hep C. The one you get from sharing drinks is most likely Hep A. B and C are usually transmitted through needle sharing or as an STD.

You don't get Hep B and C from sharing a drink.