The Atheist Communist Caliphate Made Flesh, Spread the Clusterfuck Around Thread

[Eli]

Sorry TJ, I find your movie pitch of Barney Frank, Gay Internet Hitler Photoshop Detective to be totally unrealistic.

What about Barney Frank, Gay Internet Hitler Puncher?

[Quality Start Machine]

I love me some Big Gay Barney.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYlZiWK2Iy8

I can't defend an Obama-Hitler comparison, but I appreciate Frank confronting everyone who did the same the previous eight years.

Comparing a black Liberal to a Fascist who believed in White supremacy is a bit of a stretch.

Comparing Conservatives to Fascists and Liberals to Communists are at least keeping everything on the same side of center.

[R-V]

I love me some Big Gay Barney.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYlZiWK2Iy8

I can't defend an Obama-Hitler comparison, but I appreciate Frank confronting everyone who did the same the previous eight years.

Comparing a black Liberal to a Fascist who believed in White supremacy is a bit of a stretch.

Comparing Conservatives to Fascists and Liberals to Communists are at least keeping everything on the same side of center.

Fork, you ignorant slut.

[Quality Start Machine]

I love me some Big Gay Barney.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYlZiWK2Iy8

I can't defend an Obama-Hitler comparison, but I appreciate Frank confronting everyone who did the same the previous eight years.

Comparing a black Liberal to a Fascist who believed in White supremacy is a bit of a stretch.

Comparing Conservatives to Fascists and Liberals to Communists are at least keeping everything on the same side of center.

Fork, you ignorant slut.

I call bullshit. There no Liberal on the planet who can make trains run on time.

[CBStew]

I love me some Big Gay Barney.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYlZiWK2Iy8

I can't defend an Obama-Hitler comparison, but I appreciate Frank confronting everyone who did the same the previous eight years.

Thanks for showing us those images, I had never seen them before.  I have never compared Bush to Hitler, but had I thought of it I would have compared him to a dining room table.

[Chuck to Chuck]

This sounds correct to me:

http://agenda.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWQxNGQzNTUyODI0Y2M1OGU5MWJlMzZkZmY1OGM5YmM=

(D)o private insurers have the right incentives?
...
Like the United States, Switzerland used to have a lot of for-profit health insurance firms. After the reform, insurers were obligated to offer health insurance plans on a non-profit basis. They can offer other insurance policies on a for-profit basis, and offering supplemental coverage has been a big source of growth for them. The vast majority of universal health systems built around private insurers have a similar non-profit requirement. The United States is definitely the outlier here.
...
The case for co-ops is simple: we don't have enough non-profit insurers. Let's encourage the creation of more of them. This might be wrong. But the potential upside is considerable and the potential downside is negligible. Bitter opposition to the idea suggests that the right is needlessly hostile to reform.

[Ghost of Dave Rosello]

I'd be interested to know how much supplemental coverage would cost an individual citizen and how necessary it would be.

If the government plan we'll be forced into covers less than a current employer health plan and you're forced to spend several thousands of dollars on supplemental coverage then it's not an improvement over what we have now.

[R-V]

I'd be interested to know how much supplemental coverage would cost an individual citizen and how necessary it would be.

If the government plan we'll be forced into covers less than a current employer health plan and you're forced to spend several thousands of dollars on supplemental coverage then it's not an improvement over what we have now.

Are you talking about a hypothetical single-payer plan? Because none of the current proposed legislation forces anyone onto a government plan, which we all know that would be truly, truly awful.

"We're dramatically increasing funding for veterans health care," the president told a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention.

This includes hundreds of millions of dollars to serve veterans in rural areas, as well as the unique needs of our growing number of women veterans. We're restoring access to V.A. health care for a half-million veterans who lost their eligibility in recent years—our Priority 8 veterans.

You want to know what really burns my butt? The health care these veterans will receive has been certified by the New England Journal of Medicine, the Rand Corp., and the National Committee for Quality Assurance to exceed in quality the care available to paying customers in more authentically American private-sector fee-for-service hospitals. The VA hospital system's mere existence is an affront to everything true patriots hold dear. That it manages to offer an emphatically successful model for socialized medicine in the United States insults the very principles on which our republic was founded.

In their report, Davis and coauthors find that elderly Medicare beneficiaries are more likely than enrollees in employer-sponsored plans to rate their health insurance as excellent (32% vs. 20%) and less likely to report negative experiences with their insurance plans (43% vs. 61%). Medicare beneficiaries are also less likely than those with private insurance to go without needed care owing to costs (18% vs. 22%). The survey also finds that elderly Medicare beneficiaries are more likely to report being very satisfied with the care they received compared with those with private insurance (62% vs. 51%).

[Jon]

Sorry TJ, I find your movie pitch of Barney Frank, Gay Internet Hitler Photoshop Detective to be totally unrealistic.

What about Barney Frank, Gay Internet Hitler Puncher?

Go on...I'm intrigued.

[Eli]

Sorry TJ, I find your movie pitch of Barney Frank, Gay Internet Hitler Photoshop Detective to be totally unrealistic.

What about Barney Frank, Gay Internet Hitler Puncher?

Go on...I'm intrigued.

I thought you might be.

[Quality Start Machine]

I'd be interested to know how much supplemental coverage would cost an individual citizen and how necessary it would be.

If the government plan we'll be forced into covers less than a current employer health plan and you're forced to spend several thousands of dollars on supplemental coverage then it's not an improvement over what we have now.

Are you talking about a hypothetical single-payer plan? Because none of the current proposed legislation forces anyone onto a government plan, which we all know that would be truly, truly awful.

"We're dramatically increasing funding for veterans health care," the president told a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention.

This includes hundreds of millions of dollars to serve veterans in rural areas, as well as the unique needs of our growing number of women veterans. We're restoring access to V.A. health care for a half-million veterans who lost their eligibility in recent years—our Priority 8 veterans.

You want to know what really burns my butt? The health care these veterans will receive has been certified by the New England Journal of Medicine, the Rand Corp., and the National Committee for Quality Assurance to exceed in quality the care available to paying customers in more authentically American private-sector fee-for-service hospitals. The VA hospital system's mere existence is an affront to everything true patriots hold dear. That it manages to offer an emphatically successful model for socialized medicine in the United States insults the very principles on which our republic was founded.

In their report, Davis and coauthors find that elderly Medicare beneficiaries are more likely than enrollees in employer-sponsored plans to rate their health insurance as excellent (32% vs. 20%) and less likely to report negative experiences with their insurance plans (43% vs. 61%). Medicare beneficiaries are also less likely than those with private insurance to go without needed care owing to costs (18% vs. 22%). The survey also finds that elderly Medicare beneficiaries are more likely to report being very satisfied with the care they received compared with those with private insurance (62% vs. 51%).

Kristol's interview with Jon Stewart a couple weeks ago, where he said the Gubment was incapable of providing health care, then acknowledged the health care provided to our armed services is the best anyone could have, before being reminded it's run by said Gubment, is steak.

[Gil Gunderson]

I'd be interested to know how much supplemental coverage would cost an individual citizen and how necessary it would be.

If the government plan we'll be forced into covers less than a current employer health plan and you're forced to spend several thousands of dollars on supplemental coverage then it's not an improvement over what we have now.

Are you talking about a hypothetical single-payer plan? Because none of the current proposed legislation forces anyone onto a government plan, which we all know that would be truly, truly awful.

"We're dramatically increasing funding for veterans health care," the president told a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention.

This includes hundreds of millions of dollars to serve veterans in rural areas, as well as the unique needs of our growing number of women veterans. We're restoring access to V.A. health care for a half-million veterans who lost their eligibility in recent years—our Priority 8 veterans.

You want to know what really burns my butt? The health care these veterans will receive has been certified by the New England Journal of Medicine, the Rand Corp., and the National Committee for Quality Assurance to exceed in quality the care available to paying customers in more authentically American private-sector fee-for-service hospitals. The VA hospital system's mere existence is an affront to everything true patriots hold dear. That it manages to offer an emphatically successful model for socialized medicine in the United States insults the very principles on which our republic was founded.

In their report, Davis and coauthors find that elderly Medicare beneficiaries are more likely than enrollees in employer-sponsored plans to rate their health insurance as excellent (32% vs. 20%) and less likely to report negative experiences with their insurance plans (43% vs. 61%). Medicare beneficiaries are also less likely than those with private insurance to go without needed care owing to costs (18% vs. 22%). The survey also finds that elderly Medicare beneficiaries are more likely to report being very satisfied with the care they received compared with those with private insurance (62% vs. 51%).

Kristol's interview with Jon Stewart a couple weeks ago, where he said the Gubment was incapable of providing health care, then acknowledged the health care provided to our armed services is the best anyone could have, before being reminded it's run by said Gubment, is steak.

That was one of the longest appositives I've ever read.

[MikeC]

But healthcare to the Armed Forces/Veterans isnt the best anyone could have. They are underfunded, understaffed and rocked by scandal in recent years.

If you remember the best hospital in the entire Armed Forces is pretty much a piece of crap...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/17/AR2007021701172.html

Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan's room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.

Disengaged clerks, unqualified platoon sergeants and overworked case managers fumble with simple needs: feeding soldiers' families who are close to poverty, replacing a uniform ripped off by medics in the desert sand or helping a brain-damaged soldier remember his next appointment

And it wasn't just a GWB problem because of Iraq, this has been going on for decades during many administrations. And its just not isolated at Walter Reed, military hospitals from coast to coast are in similar dire shape.

The Philidelphia VA Scandal....

http://www.veteranstoday.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7939

NRC spokeswoman Viktoria Mitlyng said the agency was responsible for the lax care only to the degree that it misplaced its trust in the VA. When the brachytherapy program was created in 2002, she explained, the NRC allowed the VA to create the National Health Physics Program, which was supposed to monitor treatment and report any problems to the NRC. In effect, the VA was its own watchdog.

The article explains this is common in the VA system, that they watch themselves.

http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/7090

Last week at a hearing before a House VA committee, the VA was roundly criticized for not increasing safeguards and improving procedures at VA health facilities after it was found that shoddy procedures were potentially linked to the spread of hepatitis and HIV. Despite a nationwide scare, media attention, and suspected links to HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C, less than half of all VA facilities were operating under appropriate procedures based on surprise investigations spurred by the scandal, which broke months earlier, noted the AP. According to the VA, six veterans have tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS; 34 have tested positive for hepatitis C, and 13 have tested positive for hepatitis B, said the AP previously.

The VA system and the Indian Tribal health care systems are pretty much the lowest of the low for health care in the United States and they are both free and fully funded by the government.

[Quality Start Machine]

Which of you fucks said "Beetlejuice"?

[R-V]

A couple things, Mike.

First of all:

Walter Reed is an army hospital, not a veteran's hospital. The two systems have nothing to do with one another. That's why the problems at Walter Reed led to the resignation of the Secretary of the Army and not the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

Second, there are anecdotal instances of bad care in any system. It's a lot more useful to look at the system as a whole.

Yet here's a curious fact that few conservatives or liberals know. Who do you think receives higher-quality health care. Medicare patients who are free to pick their own doctors and specialists? Or aging veterans stuck in those presumably filthy VA hospitals with their antiquated equipment, uncaring administrators, and incompetent staff? An answer came in 2003, when the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine published a study that compared veterans health facilities on 11 measures of quality with fee-for-service Medicare. On all 11 measures, the quality of care in veterans facilities proved to be "significantly better."

Here's another curious fact. The Annals of Internal Medicine recently published a study that compared veterans health facilities with commercial managed-care systems in their treatment of diabetes patients. In seven out of seven measures of quality, the VA provided better care.

It gets stranger. Pushed by large employers who are eager to know what they are buying when they purchase health care for their employees, an outfit called the National Committee for Quality Assurance today ranks health-care plans on 17 different performance measures. These include how well the plans manage high blood pressure or how precisely they adhere to standard protocols of evidence-based medicine such as prescribing beta blockers for patients recovering from a heart attack. Winning NCQA's seal of approval is the gold standard in the health-care industry. And who do you suppose this year's winner is: Johns Hopkins? Mayo Clinic? Massachusetts General? Nope. In every single category, the VHA system outperforms the highest rated non-VHA hospitals.

Veterans groups tenaciously defend the VHA and applaud its turnaround. "The quality of care is outstanding," says Peter Gayton, deputy director for veterans affairs and rehabilitation at the American Legion. In the latest independent survey, 81 percent of VHA hospital patients express satisfaction with the care they receive, compared to 77 percent of Medicare and Medicaid patients.

I don't know anything about the Indian Tribal Health system, but on the whole, I don't see how the private healthcare market is markedly better or more efficient than the VA system.