Slashdot Mirror
Steve Jobs Had a Liver Transplant Two Months Ago
evw writes "The Wall Street Journal reports that Steve Jobs had a liver transplant two months ago (subscription required, alternative coverage is available based on the WSJ's report). He is on track to return to work at the end of June. 'William Hawkins, a doctor specializing in pancreatic and gastrointestinal surgery at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., said that the type of slow-growing pancreatic tumor Mr. Jobs had will commonly metastasize in another organ during a patient's lifetime, and that the organ is usually the liver. ... Having the procedure done in Tennessee makes sense because its list of patients waiting for transplants is shorter than in many other states.' There are no residency requirements for transplants."
I never wrote that I am against socialized medicine. I wrote that socialized medicine won't work in the US as it's being sold.
So there's the case of the same health benefits. You're confusing people that 'do' with so called middle class, possibly. I never wrote that the poor should be punished. Being poor or wealthy is a matter of choice and personal decisions. You can be a producer no matter what income bracket you fall in. People that 'do' are people that contribute positively to society. Whether you're a factory worker in a chicken farm or some lazy, wealthy, trust fund kid that just exists, there is a contribution from those people.
The 'do nots' can also be called the 'will nots'. If you've ever spent time at a homeless shelter like I have, you are fully aware that there are some people that really need a hand (which is perfectly fine in my book in today's society) and there are people that work the system. The latter people are the 'do nots' that will never contribute positively to society where their debt is ever repaid. Those are the people that do not deserve to be on any organ transplant waiting list unless they're donating. It appears that you would give them a liver transplant first ahead of you if they were in line first.
And like I said, if you have to explain it, you'll never get it. It's like religion and politics. The vegetable garden analogy is very literal and very ancient.
You are growing a vegetable garden for you and your family or community. If you don't stop the 'vermin' from eating the developing plants, the fruit will never be produced.
You'll never benefit from the hard work you've put into it while the 'vermin' has reaped all the rewards. Analogies are very popular in eastern countries with rich histories. I never would think of China as a 'silly' country.
While a rabbit will decimate a vegetable garden, a leaf cutter bee will not decimate your plants foliage as it knows that if it needs more building materials, it will let it's favorite leaf grow.
And again, why are you assuming that I am against socialized medicine? Our current system is broken. I say remove 3rd party payment and the cost goes down. The problem is that the cost is fueling a giant bureaucracy that will only get larger with socialized medicine. So I'm not against socialized medicine, I'm against the path we're headed.
I know it sounds like "you say you're not against socialized medicine but you're against socializing medicine?" but that's not the case.
Currently, it costs $10,000 to give birth in a hospital to a healthy baby. To stay on that path and approach a monopolized payment structure, that cost will elevate to $30,000 knowing what we know about government.
Eliminate the 3rd party cost of the so called 'health insurance' and the cost is about $3,000 including the epidural. I have a friend that had complications and that bill came to $65,000. When she itemized the list and just went on hospital charges a la carte, it was something like $20,000.
The thought there is that "whew, I'm glad all I had to to was just pay my premium" and that's a personal response because YOU didn't have to pay the $65,000. The crime is that $65,000 was paid when $20,000 could have been paid.
Lower the cost and I'm on board. Keep this insanity and I'll fight it.
If you want to see opportunistic people at work, I seriously urge you to visit the closest public clinic near any Martin Luther King Drive in any city.
if you steal from one source, that is plagiarism, if you steal from many, well, that's just research.
I think it's interesting that you assume a birth in the public system will cost triple what it does in your already ludicrously expensive private system; in fact, the cost of a birth in Ontario is ~CDN$5000, and that's if you're Jane Texan and you just show up. I don't have numbers, but I suspect the actual cost to the healthcare system (i.e. the taxpayers) is lower (as I can't believe we give a better deal to non-Canadians than we do ourselves). I just don't understand where the fiction about the public system costing so much comes from. I suppose the private insurance companies are doing a great job with the negative campaigning.