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Switching Hospital Systems to Linux
jcatcw writes "Health care software vendor McKesson Provider Technologies is focusing on ways to cut IT costs for customers, including hospitals and medical offices. The cure is moving many of McKesson's medical software applications to Linux, which can then be used on less expensive commodity hardware instead of expensive mainframes. A deal with Red Hat allows McKesson to offer its software in a top-to-bottom package for mission-critical hospital IT systems."
Linux as a server/mainframe OS is quite capable of competing in a situation like this, and already does in many cases, whereas Gnome and KDE can barely compete with each other most of the time.
Property is theft.
I'm glad you put free in quotes because quite obviously your x-ray and cast were not free. You, and the millions of your countryfolk, paid for those things from the higher tax rates you pay.
In other words, you're living a true socialist dream by having someone else subsidize or pay for your medical bills. Redistribution of wealth and all that.
But let's turn it around. Let us say for the sake of argument that from the age of five until the age of 70, you never needed medical care. You never broke anything, never had any serious illness, etc. Now, based on those 65 years of healthy bliss, do you think it is fair that you paid what probably amounted to well over $250K in taxes to subsidize someone else? In other words, you paid for something but got no benefit from your spent money.
I know people like to think that socialized medicine is a panacea but I don't like the idea of being forced to pay for something and not getting something in return. By the same token, I don't think paying huge premiums for medical insurance and then having the insurance company tell me they won't cover me for X procedure unless I cough up more money is the way to go either. Either you're going to cover me or you're not. That's why I'm paying you the premiums.
To see how really screwed up medical insurance coverage can be, read this story from MarketWatch.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
How is it selfish if I don't feel I should have to pay for my next door neighbors health problems due to his smoking two packs of cigarettes a day? Why is his health my concern? It's his life, not mine.
And yes, I do know how much people have to pay for employer health insurance. I did a calculation in one of my journals where I discussed my recent (and only) use of my health insurance and how much it has cost both me and the taxpayer for my one time use (I work for state government).
Further, yes I do know that the taxpayers have to pay for people who wander into a hospital without insurance but require medical attention. My sister-in-law works at a hospital and we've had this discussion. I'm very familiar with what is going on in the health care industry. My suggestion is that those who have no insurance be put on some form of payment plan so the hospital can recoup at least a portion of what it cost them.
Even if the person can't pay for everything, they should be made aware of the costs associated with not making an effort to take care of themselves to try and prevent getting sick or injured in the first place. Certainly there are those exceptions where injury is unavoidable (geting hit by a car which runs a red light) but when the person comes into the hospital with an illness they've had for days and days, instead of having the hospital choke down the cost, they should have gone to a doctor for treatment, even if they have pay out of their own pocket. It is much cheaper to see a doctor and get treatment than it is to go to a hospital.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Hillary-care (or pick-your-socialist-idiot-care) is going to somehow be BETTER than my private insurance? Could every dipstick out there agitating for socialized medicine just turn on their brain for 20 seconds?
Do you REALLY want health care that offers the efficiency of the DMV, the bedside manner of the IRS, privacy managed by the NSA, and the cost overruns of the DOD? Is that REALLY what you want? Because that's what you're going to get. Everything that the government touches turns to crap, without exception. Socialize medicine and you'll have substandard care, the death of innovation, long waits for "non-emergency" procedures, and a tax burden that will make you long for the days when the government only took 1/2 your income.
Thanks, but no thanks.
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