My prostate is better than yours

I think that study got shot down by the most recent study.....pay for it now or pay a lot more later Good Old ins company...........

 

David (Purg), I assure you, the lines I wrote about the all-volunteer force and an attitude of "let someone else's son or daughter do the dirty work" were in no way directed at you, or at anyone in particular.  You've mentioned your military service and that of your father.  But I do believe that one of the dangers of the all volunteer force is that fewer and fewer American families have any direct connection to our men and women in uniform, and over the long haul, that's not a good thing.

I hope you're right about the  A.C.A., but I don't think we're going to really know the consequences of it until a number of years roll by. I tend to be fearful that we may have destroyed a pretty good system that could have been streamlined and made less expensive without being so radically altered.

If it were just so simple. Regarding our wars, why in the world did our president simply not stop the wars immediately as he promised in the campaign. In the last 41 months would we have saved more than enough to insure all our citizens and 25% of our southern neighbor's? So why hasn't it happened? I am as anti-war as anyone, but I am strongly pro-defense to keep our freedom. The argument about health care or war is as old and as disingenouos as guns or butter. Great for textbooks but absolutely worthless in real life. The reality is that both are necessary and desired to maintain our freedom and well being.

JohnT's statements about balancing the budget are right on and important. Given the dire straights most countries in Europe are in because they ignored the needed balance, I fully believe that all their great free universal health care plans are in serious jeopardy. At some point the services and treatments will simply not be available as they have been promised. When will this happen?? In a country like Greece where more people work for the government than in the private sector, we could see this setting in before the next Olympics. It won't happen overnight, but will occur gradually. Just what do all of you think the real effect of ACA will be in the next few years if the required reduction of $500billion for Medicare actually occurs. Will it be the coverage many of you like now and look forward to? If you were running Medicare and had to reduce costs by 20 or 30% just what would you cut??? Would it be treatment for Prostate cancer for 70 year olds that probably doesn't have any significant affect on life spans? Fifteen years ago that would be our fathers....in the next ten to fifteen years that is us.

clock, honestly didnt think you directed it to me, jsut wanted to make it clear that i wasnt anti military or anti defense. to truly balance the budget, everything has to be on the table, including defense waste, think its only fair way to do it.

back to the a.c.a., my point is that its a good first step, something had to be done, nothing but talk the past 30 years and no action. someone had to step up the to plate

david

JNF:

Hey, I'm for freedom and a strong defense also.

So, you really think going into Iraq due to their so-called WMDs was for our freedom and defense. In fact, are you even convinced that we believed they had WMD.

I submit that we should think very long and very hard before we commit our men to war. The tragedies due to death and injury to these young people and their families is immeasurable.

Sometimes it is necessary. I wish we would think before acting.

Mel

I also thank the Mods for letting this thread run, but if it's going to turn into a "Bush lied, soldiers died" kinda thing,   maybe it's time to end it.  (by the way, let's not forget that President Obama has called Afghanistan "the right war." 

Just for the record, I had no idea Dr. Hsien is a "right wing surrogate," whatever that means or implies.  I simply found his perspective interesting....a peak behind the curtain of the new Affordable Care Act.  And also for the record, I am also not a right wing surrogate, just a ****who like everyone else here is dealing with the aftermath of a bout with prostate cancer.

What?  It won't let me call myself a s.c.h.m.u.c.k.?  Weird.

To David's (Purg) "back to the a.c.a., my point is that its a good first step, something had to be done, nothing but talk the past 30 years and no action. someone had to step up the to plate"

Something must be done! This is something. Therefore it must be done!

All - we have a problem with the healthcare. No questions here. Is government the answer? It can't even run the post office.

Davidg - not to be argumentative, but it is bankrupt, which was my point.

David, Obama promised to end the wars and for political reasons did not, don't blame that on Bush. Mel, the WMDs were confirmed and probably went to Syria and it sounds like they may be being used now by Assad. I did not support either war and I certainly do not think we should be in Afganastan 10 years later. There were far better ways to address these issues.

Raise taxes? Why?? Do we have an income problem or a spending problem? If you want to tank this non-recovery then raise taxes and watch rhe next recession take hold. Then more people will be laid off and we will have to spend even more on EBT and unemployment and so on. That is a viscious cycle that just must stop. For all my adult life wee were able to get through with 26 weeks of unemployment. Then in the last three years we quadruple the unemployment and double foodstamps in just a year. How has going to 2 years of unemployment solved anything?? As Newt said "in two years you can get an Associates degree, what are theese people doing". While I didn't support him, it is a great question.

We are on the same track as the failed European countryes as David G stated from personal experience. The answer is not to throw more money at the situation. Great advice is that when you are in a hole....stop digging.

David, I agree and would love to have a discussion with you, but not here.    Just to clarify, I choose not to talk politics or parties.   I choose to discuss policies, actions, behaviours and results.

My thanks to the moderators keeping this open and to those who obviously care a lot for our country and our well being.

My wife just came home from work (as an R.N.) with a sheaf of papers containing guidelines about the information that MUST now be maintained electronically for each patient they see (Meaningful Use Measures, they're called).  They have to track and electronically record, for each patient seen, information including:  current and previous medications, smoking history (for everyone over age 13), patient demographics (race, ethnicity, preferred language), up-to-date list of current diagnoses, allergy list...and much, much more.  All of this personal medical information will now be maintained electronically and available to the government.

So the federal government will now know your height, weight, smoking status, medications  you're on or have tried, diseases you've had and how you've been treated for them, just about every medical fact about you.

I don't know how others feel about that, and maybe I'm paranoid, but the possible mis-uses of that information are scary.  (e.g.,"We see you smoked until you were 27 years old....so, we're not going to cover your treatment for emphysema).  Or, "We've received your application for that government job, but our records show you've had gonorrhea and chlamydia, so......." 

Heretofore, access to these types of information has been severely limited.  Now it will be readily and entirely available to the government..and possibly to hackers as well.  Insurance companies and Medicare have always been able to spot check records, but this is every single record now available to the government.  Paper records may have had their limitations, but at least they were easy to safeguard and to protect privacy. We have guys on the forum who haven't told close relatives about their prostate cancer. 

A good thing?  You decide.

 

Post Edited (clocknut) : 8/2/2012 8:07:10 AM (GMT-6)