The thing is, Canadians do have statistically similar or better outcomes to the US, they just get it cheaper and everyone gets it. You should check out my comment here.
It certainly is cheaper. In 2002, the US spent $5267 per capita vs Canada's $2931 (GDP: US 14.6, CA 9.6). Despite some Canadians' perceptions of their system, the outcomes are statistically the same or better in almost every area. In terms of waiting time, you should look at "Table 4: Practising physicians, Density per 1000 population" in the OECD link to understand why Americans and Canadians both experience ridiculous amounts of waiting time for routine procedures. Compared to other countries, we both have a doctor (not to mention nursing) shortage. So, whereas the US has a cost AND waiting time problem, Canada only has the waiting time problem.
http://www.usembassycanada.gov/content/can_usa/h ea lth_comparisonreport.pdf http://www.nationmaster. com/graph-T/hea_hea_car_fu n_tot_per_cap http://www.oecd.org/document/16/0,2 340,en_2649_374 07_2085200_1_1_1_37407,00.html
Life is a prerequisite for Liberty. "Give me Liberty or give me Death" really means "Give me a Life with Liberty or give me Death". You cannot have choice without life and neither can anyone else. As Life is a prerequisite for Liberty, people must be sustained at a certain quality of Life or they, by definition, will not by sufficiently afforded Liberty due to their poor Lives. As Libertarians support equal Liberty, which is social justice by definition, they must support a minimum quality of Life for all so that all may enjoy equal Liberty. This is not to say everyone deserves free Snickers bars, but rather that one is not properly free if one is bedridden, incapable of work or play, spreading contagions, etc. when a cure is but a phone call and a very hefty check away.
I actually think of it as a tree, with life splitting into the other two. I'm already beginning to enjoy this "logic" game you're playing as it seems to attribute that it is the government's responsibility to keep the citizen's alive.
You have no liberty and no happiness without life. It's no wonder even Libertarians believe government should provide for the common defense, even though technically I shouldn't give a rat's ass about your life, liberty, or property according to you and that you are stealing from me to defend your own property.
Couldn't be any more incorrect. I don't go to the doctor every time I cut myself, but you can be rest assured that if I had the time and was a worry-wart, like so many in this "modern age" are, then I'd be going. Hell, I'd go every time after sex to make sure I wasn't infected with something. If it's free, why not?
It's not free. You still have copays and coinsurance and taxes. You really don't know anything about how single payer health care systems, much less health insurance, work do you?
It is well known the US health care system is the best in the world. World leaders come *here* for their problems. Canada has lines and piss-poor health care and they aren't even radically socialized.
Typically they go to fancy School hospitals in part paid for by US taxpayer money. Hell, even private, for-profit hospitals get funding from the government. But wait -- we're talking about health insurance which is not the same as medical service. Medical service is top notch in the United States for a variety of factors that have nothing to do with insurance, except costs.
Furthermore, Canadian after Canadian has debunked the "lines" myth right here on Slashdot. Rural America has exactly the same problems as rural Canada in terms of medical service.
GOOGLE TERM: "countries without universal health care" (Very first link, in fact. If I was puking blood and the nurse brushed me off, I'd be pissed. Thank god I don't live in a country with universal health care.)
You ignore the guy who relates his horror experience in a States-side hospital in the same thread.
Is it actually surprising that people are paying the minimums?
Of course not. The nice thing about non-profit insurance is that when everyone pays in, it's cheaper overall.
Also, where are your stats on these increased rates? My insurance provider just created a new bracket specifically for a single male(ie, Me).
1) I don't need stats, it's in the news every week, dude. Anecdotally, even my rates have gone up well above inflation. 2) Your insurance company did that to attract more people like you specifically because they want more low risk people in the risk pool.
I'll be honest, I'm not a health care genius. But let me ask you this: At what point in your life did you determine that it was okay for other people to tell you what to do with your property, your body, and your life?
When I decided I liked the USA enough to stay, even with its warts.
You have a very misguided view of Libertarians. It's not a government that "allows" you to do things, it's what you allow the government to control in your life. When the Declaration of Independence said, "inalienable", it meant they were rights that were inherently there and a government would have to justify any attempts to encroach upon them.
I don't have a misguided view. I'm arguing that based on Libertarian first principles, Libertarians should support government health insurance.
Allow me to phrase myself more carefully:
If Libertarians believe in efficient government that does not infringe upon rights of people -- which are expressed through Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness -- wherein it is acknowledged that without Life, there can be no Liberty and no Happiness, why is it that they don't support that right to Life in the form of a single payer health insurance system that is demonstrably cheaper and more effective at preserving Life than the current or a deregulated system?
You have no claim to what is mine to try to provide for yourself.
As an individual, no, but as a member of the democratic republic of the United States of America under whose rules we both agree to live, I certainly do. If you don't like that, you can try to gather support for your rules or you can leave. I have chosen the former.
Ever stop to think that the reason health care is getting more expensive, causing many healthy people to bail out of the system, which causes it to get even more expensive yet - is precisely because the gov't is regulating it and mandating coverage? The problem of the third-party payer is well-known. If costs are not coming out of your own pocket, you'll use the service frivolously, which drives up the cost for everyone else. Tragedy of the commons, my friend - "things are getting bad, so I better get my cut while I can!" And you accelerate the death spiral.
Insurance policy rules mitigate the effects of the tragedy of the commons. The principle of insurance is that you can reduce your risk enough, through policy rules, while still charging enough money to turn a profit. Government insurance operates the same, except it doesn't need to charge more to make a profit. Copays, coinsurance on some things, ensuring appropriate preventative and prenatal care to mitigate emergency care costs, etc. are all ways to reduce overall cost... and I'm totally ignoring the largely healthy American populace. We need more healthy 16 - 22yr olds paying into the system to minimize risk, while maximizing return.
That's why Canadians wait 4-5 weeks to get approved for the kind of surgery that Clinton just had scheduled and performed in less than 4 days.
Canadian after Canadian has debunked this myth right here on Slashdot. Rural Canada and rural America are just as lacking in local medical providers which is an orthogonal problem to health insurance as the grotesque failure of medical malpractice tort reform here in Texas (and formerly in California) demonstrates.
To engage in "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness", one must have, above all, Life
To adequately sustain one's Life in the modern age, one must visit the doctor, hospital, emergency room, etc. regardless of whether one can afford it, regardless of whether the problems were self-initiated or happened through no fault of one's own, and regardless of one's age
More and more healthy people are avoiding expensive health insurance which increases the amount of risk in insurance pools, increasing rates, as well as hospital expenses for more emergency visits by the uninsured
The Cato Institute said on CSPAN last August that in order for private health insurance to work, we must accept as a society that there will be people who die because they cannot afford the care they need
By definition, a government risk pool would be far wider than any private, competing insurance company
If Libertarians believe in efficient government that allows the rights of people to be expressed -- through Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness -- why is it that they don't support a right to health care in the form of a single payer system that is demonstrably cheaper and more effective than the current or a deregulated system?
It's not BBI's job to pick their new non-infringing name.
It's not BBI's job to pick their new name, but they have to agree that the new one is noninfringing. Since "Mr. Sinus Theater 3000" wanted a new name that was still recognizably them, they probably wanted to include words such as "Mr.", "Sinus", "Theatre", or "3000", so as to be recognizable by long-term fans. BBI could've saved a lot of trouble by saying "Yes, 'Mr. Sinus' doesn't mean anything -- go ahead and use it".
Regardless, they changed their name to "Mr. Sinus", whose acronym is "MS" and conjures nothing of the thought of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" or "MST3K" no matter how hard BBI wants to think it does. Since no one ever called MST3K "Mystery Science", there's no way their trademark is being diluted. (Though, there is a cool children's science program called "Mystery Science" where kids do experiments and stuff... that's totally unrelated to the "movie parody theater" racket).
Since you seem to know more details than what is printed in TFA maybe you can help me out. From what I can piece together, some local performance group was doing the MST3K schtick live under a name which is phonetically identical to "Mystery Science Theater 3000" which is a registered trademark.
And after attempting to license the name, shortened it to Mr. Sinus, and also sent a letter with a list of alternatives. Instead of BBI replying with a "yay" on one of the names, or suggesting an alternative, they replied with a lawsuit.
Yes, I have read 3 different articles on this very issue so far, in Austin Business Journal, The Daily Texan, and Austin American Statesman, as well as submitting the item to mst3kinfo.com.
And no, I don't think there's any similarity between "Mr. Sinus @ Alamo Drafthouse tonight" and "Mystery Science Theatre 3000 DVDs now available".
I did RTFA and I was responding to the idiotic slashdotters decrying copyright infringement. Maybe you should RTFC?
Mr. Sinus shortened its name already from Mr. Sinus Theatre 3000 and sent off a list of names to Best Brains to see if they could satisfy them. Instead of Best Brains replying nicely, they filed a lawsuit. Real nice of them. Best Brains certainly does NOT have to license the trademark, but a reply to the letter from Mr. Sinus might've settled the issue once and for all.
And no, if you saw "Mr. Sinus Show @ Alamo Drafthouse" in the paper you would have no clue it had anything anything to do with MST3K. If you heard that on the radio, your likely response would be "What's that?" Rather than "Oh, that's an MST3K show!"
They did. They shortened it to Mr. Sinus. Furthermore, they mailed Best Brains a list of possible alternatives and received NO response... except for this lawsuit. Real fucking friendly on Best Brains' part.
They tried to license the NAME which was the only thing they needed to license. The format for MST3K was certainly not very original... merely the implementation.
In fact, the Mr. Sinus guys mailed off a list of possible name changes and never got a response from Best Brains, Inc. and then, poof, lawsuit. Not very classy of Best Brains, either, especially toward a group that sees itself as a tribute to MST3K in a lot of ways (ever heard their theme song?).
Mr. Sinus vaguely follows the format of 3 individuals making fun of a movie. Making fun of movies in public has been done since, what, probably the 1890s? Another poster mentioned Rocky Horror.
Mr. Sinus uses no characters from MST3K. If MST3K thought the idea of making fun of movies was original, they should have filed a business method patent. So, MST3K's only real problem is a possible confusion of names, thus, Mr. Sinus' dropping the "Theatre 3000". Consequently, while Mr. Sinus is a partial tribute to MST3K, as is evident from their theme song, it doesn't violate any of MST3K's rights.
Frankly, I'm highly disappointed in Best Brains, Inc. Apparently, they're not using their namesake.
Well... in the US' defense, they have broken ground, though getting the light water reactors built and in place has taken an inordinant amount of time.
Heh, they'll be the good guys till profits level off and the board forces out the founders, bringing in soulless bloodsucking corporate old boys to ramp up short-term profits to make the day traders happy.
I have to agree with a previous AC poster that further experimentation should test if the tribe does accurate matching for things of great value versus things of little value. (I suppose batteries might be of great importance, but I have no idea). That would help differentiate between apathy and actual not knowing how to conceptualize the relation in a memorable way.
I think it only runs on Power Macintosh, and it's the only flavor of Linux that will work on NuBus (first generation) Power Macs.
FYI, you can run with nubus patches to the standard linux kernel, these days. Not as many devices are supported and you need an installation of MacOS to get it to work, but it does work.
Slashdot Mirror
The thing is, Canadians do have statistically similar or better outcomes to the US, they just get it cheaper and everyone gets it. You should check out my comment here.
-l
It certainly is cheaper. In 2002, the US spent $5267 per capita vs Canada's $2931 (GDP: US 14.6, CA 9.6). Despite some Canadians' perceptions of their system, the outcomes are statistically the same or better in almost every area. In terms of waiting time, you should look at "Table 4: Practising physicians, Density per 1000 population" in the OECD link to understand why Americans and Canadians both experience ridiculous amounts of waiting time for routine procedures. Compared to other countries, we both have a doctor (not to mention nursing) shortage. So, whereas the US has a cost AND waiting time problem, Canada only has the waiting time problem.
h ea lth_comparisonreport.pdf. com/graph-T/hea_hea_car_fu n_tot_per_cap2 340,en_2649_374 07_2085200_1_1_1_37407,00.html
http://www.usembassycanada.gov/content/can_usa/
http://www.nationmaster
http://www.oecd.org/document/16/0,
-l
Life is a prerequisite for Liberty. "Give me Liberty or give me Death" really means "Give me a Life with Liberty or give me Death". You cannot have choice without life and neither can anyone else. As Life is a prerequisite for Liberty, people must be sustained at a certain quality of Life or they, by definition, will not by sufficiently afforded Liberty due to their poor Lives. As Libertarians support equal Liberty, which is social justice by definition, they must support a minimum quality of Life for all so that all may enjoy equal Liberty. This is not to say everyone deserves free Snickers bars, but rather that one is not properly free if one is bedridden, incapable of work or play, spreading contagions, etc. when a cure is but a phone call and a very hefty check away.
Even one man unfree impoverishes all.
-l
The provision for the common defense proves you wrong.
-l
You have no liberty and no happiness without life. It's no wonder even Libertarians believe government should provide for the common defense, even though technically I shouldn't give a rat's ass about your life, liberty, or property according to you and that you are stealing from me to defend your own property.
It's not free. You still have copays and coinsurance and taxes. You really don't know anything about how single payer health care systems, much less health insurance, work do you?Typically they go to fancy School hospitals in part paid for by US taxpayer money. Hell, even private, for-profit hospitals get funding from the government. But wait -- we're talking about health insurance which is not the same as medical service. Medical service is top notch in the United States for a variety of factors that have nothing to do with insurance, except costs.
Furthermore, Canadian after Canadian has debunked the "lines" myth right here on Slashdot. Rural America has exactly the same problems as rural Canada in terms of medical service.
You ignore the guy who relates his horror experience in a States-side hospital in the same thread.
Of course not. The nice thing about non-profit insurance is that when everyone pays in, it's cheaper overall.
1) I don't need stats, it's in the news every week, dude. Anecdotally, even my rates have gone up well above inflation. 2) Your insurance company did that to attract more people like you specifically because they want more low risk people in the risk pool.
When I decided I liked the USA enough to stay, even with its warts.
I don't have a misguided view. I'm arguing that based on Libertarian first principles, Libertarians should support government health insurance.
Allow me to phrase myself more carefully:
If Libertarians believe in efficient government that does not infringe upon rights of people -- which are expressed through Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness -- wherein it is acknowledged that without Life, there can be no Liberty and no Happiness, why is it that they don't support that right to Life in the form of a single payer health insurance system that is demonstrably cheaper and more effective at preserving Life than the current or a deregulated system?
-l
As an individual, no, but as a member of the democratic republic of the United States of America under whose rules we both agree to live, I certainly do. If you don't like that, you can try to gather support for your rules or you can leave. I have chosen the former.
Insurance policy rules mitigate the effects of the tragedy of the commons. The principle of insurance is that you can reduce your risk enough, through policy rules, while still charging enough money to turn a profit. Government insurance operates the same, except it doesn't need to charge more to make a profit. Copays, coinsurance on some things, ensuring appropriate preventative and prenatal care to mitigate emergency care costs, etc. are all ways to reduce overall cost... and I'm totally ignoring the largely healthy American populace. We need more healthy 16 - 22yr olds paying into the system to minimize risk, while maximizing return.
Canadian after Canadian has debunked this myth right here on Slashdot. Rural Canada and rural America are just as lacking in local medical providers which is an orthogonal problem to health insurance as the grotesque failure of medical malpractice tort reform here in Texas (and formerly in California) demonstrates.
-l
If Libertarians believe in efficient government that allows the rights of people to be expressed -- through Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness -- why is it that they don't support a right to health care in the form of a single payer system that is demonstrably cheaper and more effective than the current or a deregulated system?
Cheers,
-l
Agreed. She's all skanked out now. She used to be hot back in Gia and Hackers, but she's really worn herself out since then...
-l
It's not illegal to ask for ID at polls... not in Texas anyway. They ask you for your registration card or gov't ID or you don't get a ballot.
-l
It's not BBI's job to pick their new name, but they have to agree that the new one is noninfringing. Since "Mr. Sinus Theater 3000" wanted a new name that was still recognizably them, they probably wanted to include words such as "Mr.", "Sinus", "Theatre", or "3000", so as to be recognizable by long-term fans. BBI could've saved a lot of trouble by saying "Yes, 'Mr. Sinus' doesn't mean anything -- go ahead and use it".
Regardless, they changed their name to "Mr. Sinus", whose acronym is "MS" and conjures nothing of the thought of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" or "MST3K" no matter how hard BBI wants to think it does. Since no one ever called MST3K "Mystery Science", there's no way their trademark is being diluted. (Though, there is a cool children's science program called "Mystery Science" where kids do experiments and stuff... that's totally unrelated to the "movie parody theater" racket).
-l
And after attempting to license the name, shortened it to Mr. Sinus, and also sent a letter with a list of alternatives. Instead of BBI replying with a "yay" on one of the names, or suggesting an alternative, they replied with a lawsuit.
Yes, I have read 3 different articles on this very issue so far, in Austin Business Journal, The Daily Texan, and Austin American Statesman, as well as submitting the item to mst3kinfo.com.
And no, I don't think there's any similarity between "Mr. Sinus @ Alamo Drafthouse tonight" and "Mystery Science Theatre 3000 DVDs now available".
-l
I did RTFA and I was responding to the idiotic slashdotters decrying copyright infringement. Maybe you should RTFC?
Mr. Sinus shortened its name already from Mr. Sinus Theatre 3000 and sent off a list of names to Best Brains to see if they could satisfy them. Instead of Best Brains replying nicely, they filed a lawsuit. Real nice of them. Best Brains certainly does NOT have to license the trademark, but a reply to the letter from Mr. Sinus might've settled the issue once and for all.
And no, if you saw "Mr. Sinus Show @ Alamo Drafthouse" in the paper you would have no clue it had anything anything to do with MST3K. If you heard that on the radio, your likely response would be "What's that?" Rather than "Oh, that's an MST3K show!"
-l
They did. They shortened it to Mr. Sinus. Furthermore, they mailed Best Brains a list of possible alternatives and received NO response... except for this lawsuit. Real fucking friendly on Best Brains' part.
-l
They tried to license the NAME which was the only thing they needed to license. The format for MST3K was certainly not very original... merely the implementation.
In fact, the Mr. Sinus guys mailed off a list of possible name changes and never got a response from Best Brains, Inc. and then, poof, lawsuit. Not very classy of Best Brains, either, especially toward a group that sees itself as a tribute to MST3K in a lot of ways (ever heard their theme song?).
-l
long-time John Erler fan
Mr. Sinus vaguely follows the format of 3 individuals making fun of a movie. Making fun of movies in public has been done since, what, probably the 1890s? Another poster mentioned Rocky Horror.
Mr. Sinus uses no characters from MST3K. If MST3K thought the idea of making fun of movies was original, they should have filed a business method patent. So, MST3K's only real problem is a possible confusion of names, thus, Mr. Sinus' dropping the "Theatre 3000". Consequently, while Mr. Sinus is a partial tribute to MST3K, as is evident from their theme song, it doesn't violate any of MST3K's rights.
Frankly, I'm highly disappointed in Best Brains, Inc. Apparently, they're not using their namesake.
-l
You saw Anonymous Coward at OLS? SWEET! That dude posts like MAD around here!
-l
Interestingly, Phoenix is now home to mosquitoes and West Nile virus due to a bunch of old stagnant swimming pools. Heard it on the radio.
-l
Well... in the US' defense, they have broken ground, though getting the light water reactors built and in place has taken an inordinant amount of time.
-l
Heh, they'll be the good guys till profits level off and the board forces out the founders, bringing in soulless bloodsucking corporate old boys to ramp up short-term profits to make the day traders happy.
Sad, really,
-l
I have to agree with a previous AC poster that further experimentation should test if the tribe does accurate matching for things of great value versus things of little value. (I suppose batteries might be of great importance, but I have no idea). That would help differentiate between apathy and actual not knowing how to conceptualize the relation in a memorable way.
Cheers,
-l
Which is good in the long-term, but in the short-term, we're all dead.
-l
FYI, you can run with nubus patches to the standard linux kernel, these days. Not as many devices are supported and you need an installation of MacOS to get it to work, but it does work.
Cheers,
-l
-l