Even if procedures are effective and safe doesn't mean there aren't alternatives that work better and are cheaper.
The abstract above compares $11-40K stent procedures to placebo, with identical outcomes. Identical. If an equally effective treatment for heart disease is a placebo, then the original treatment is ineffective...
Of course, US insurance companies don't pay for unproven treatments, and almost every stent procedure in the US is covered by health insurance, so I find HUGE fault in this story.
So the Russians influenced Democrat voters in several key states - states the Clinton campaign ignored in the general election - to not turn out for their candidate?
The Russians coerced Clinton into having no clearly articulable vision for America other than her 'superiority' over her opponent?
The Russians convinced Clinton to call all republicans 'deplorables', hurting her chances to win-over reluctant Republican voters?
The Russians advised Trump to have a message that resonated with millions of Americans in so-called 'fly-over' country discussing pocketbook issues?
Did the Russians contrive the Electoral College to thwart Clinton's lopsided vote advantage in certain states?
Are these the ways Russians 'rigged' the election?
The recent news that stents inserted in patients with heart disease to keep arteries open work no better than a placebo ought to be shocking.
So we will suspend all stent treatments, save tremendous amounts of money AND survival rates will be EXACTLY the same?
Sounds great - one question though, why are insurance companies reimbursing for these expensive, ineffective treatments? Perhaps there is evidence they are effective after all?
The people that pay the fines have their fines going towards subsidizing other people's premiums, and when the uninsured fine payers get sick they rely on charity care (something cut by PPACA, since 'everyone will be insured') OR they pay for their care out of pocket.
Imagine the healthcare market was like a movie theater, and imagine the theater charged every patron that did not buy food at the concession stand a 'fine' to make popcorn, candy and snacks for more affordable for those that do buy them from the concession stand. That is essentially what the individual mandate was/is.
When did masturbation become illegal in your own home?
Why pick on the pope for the moral aspect? There are much larger religions than Catholicism with similar positions in masturbation - what is the Muslim position on masturbation, for instance?
You just want to blame an octogenarian in the Vatican for societies problems.
They owe about $120 billion - for work already done, and hadn't set anything aside to pay it. Most "every other business in the country" funds your 401K or other retirement by sending their contribution to a third-party investment bank every time you get a paycheck. You work this month, they pay for it this month, including the retirement part.
So every other private (non-public) retirement/pension plan EXCEPT the USPS plan is fully-funded? I'd like to see proof of that!
The post office has the best-funded pension/retirement plan of ANY federal program:
Besides, even if the USPS charged more, how many of you would bet that Amazon wouldn't just simply pass the rate hike on to consumers? Any businessman worth half his salt would do that.
Every business passes on every regulatory and other cost on to it's customers, because that is where 100% of their revenue comes from - the only money a company has is the money it collects from it's customers.
I remember years ago when the gov't passed a new tax to be applied to every telephone account - the idea was to soak the rich telecos, but the telcos simply added a line item to everyone's phone bill and directly passed that new tax on to their customers.
Gov't tried to force the telcos to stop itemizing the taxes imposed on them, the telcos went to court and won the right to itemize pass-thru expenses like taxes.
A thousand out f 200,000 is a tiny percentage, and a number of them are being offered other jobs within the company.
GE famously cut the bottom 1% of employee's each year, twice as many (by percentage) as this one-time AT&T cut - I don't remember the economy collapsing after those ANNUAL terminations.
the Republicans are more interested in borrowing another trillion dollars to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy
The previous administration borrowed over $1TN/year in average for each of the previous 8 years and never cut taxes. The current administration signed into law a $1TN increase in the debt over the next TEN YEARS.
No. I am saying that the state should honor the tickets, and if the state has a problem they should sue the manufacturer of the tickets. Two sentences!
The state lottery machines 'manufactured' the tickets, putting the taxpayers back on the hook for the 'winnings'...
Schools that train doctors, radiologists and the whole associated ecosystem would be in peril.
Right, because once a dog 'detects' cancer in a person, there's no need for trained medical professionals (AKA doctors, radiologists, etc) - you just open a book that decodes the dog barks into a treatment plan then have Amazon drop-ship you a complete med kit to combat the cancer...
Slashdot Mirror
Even if procedures are effective and safe doesn't mean there aren't alternatives that work better and are cheaper.
The abstract above compares $11-40K stent procedures to placebo, with identical outcomes. Identical. If an equally effective treatment for heart disease is a placebo, then the original treatment is ineffective...
Of course, US insurance companies don't pay for unproven treatments, and almost every stent procedure in the US is covered by health insurance, so I find HUGE fault in this story.
So the Russians influenced Democrat voters in several key states - states the Clinton campaign ignored in the general election - to not turn out for their candidate?
The Russians coerced Clinton into having no clearly articulable vision for America other than her 'superiority' over her opponent?
The Russians convinced Clinton to call all republicans 'deplorables', hurting her chances to win-over reluctant Republican voters?
The Russians advised Trump to have a message that resonated with millions of Americans in so-called 'fly-over' country discussing pocketbook issues?
Did the Russians contrive the Electoral College to thwart Clinton's lopsided vote advantage in certain states?
Are these the ways Russians 'rigged' the election?
The recent news that stents inserted in patients with heart disease to keep arteries open work no better than a placebo ought to be shocking.
So we will suspend all stent treatments, save tremendous amounts of money AND survival rates will be EXACTLY the same?
Sounds great - one question though, why are insurance companies reimbursing for these expensive, ineffective treatments? Perhaps there is evidence they are effective after all?
Remember when this famous politician claimed that doctors were cutting off limbs instead of employing more effective treatments to combat diabetics?
The people that pay the fines have their fines going towards subsidizing other people's premiums, and when the uninsured fine payers get sick they rely on charity care (something cut by PPACA, since 'everyone will be insured') OR they pay for their care out of pocket.
Imagine the healthcare market was like a movie theater, and imagine the theater charged every patron that did not buy food at the concession stand a 'fine' to make popcorn, candy and snacks for more affordable for those that do buy them from the concession stand. That is essentially what the individual mandate was/is.
Next up, oil workers in remote locations and wall street!
The connection? Lots of well-paid men and women that want to profit off them!
When did masturbation become illegal in your own home?
Why pick on the pope for the moral aspect? There are much larger religions than Catholicism with similar positions in masturbation - what is the Muslim position on masturbation, for instance?
You just want to blame an octogenarian in the Vatican for societies problems.
Reminds me of a pizza parlor in DC...
So the argument is, we'll subsidize every package shipped by charging less than the shipping actually costs, but we'll make it up n volume?
Brilliant. /sarcasm
They owe about $120 billion - for work already done, and hadn't set anything aside to pay it. Most "every other business in the country" funds your 401K or other retirement by sending their contribution to a third-party investment bank every time you get a paycheck. You work this month, they pay for it this month, including the retirement part.
So every other private (non-public) retirement/pension plan EXCEPT the USPS plan is fully-funded? I'd like to see proof of that!
The post office has the best-funded pension/retirement plan of ANY federal program:
The Postal Service has set-aside cash totals of more than $335 billion for its pensions and retiree healthcare, exceeding 83 percent of estimated future payouts. Its pension plans are nearly completely funded and its retiree healthcare liability is 50 percent funded â" much better than the rest of the federal government.
That's from the USPS Inspector General, 2015
Besides, even if the USPS charged more, how many of you would bet that Amazon wouldn't just simply pass the rate hike on to consumers? Any businessman worth half his salt would do that.
Every business passes on every regulatory and other cost on to it's customers, because that is where 100% of their revenue comes from - the only money a company has is the money it collects from it's customers.
I remember years ago when the gov't passed a new tax to be applied to every telephone account - the idea was to soak the rich telecos, but the telcos simply added a line item to everyone's phone bill and directly passed that new tax on to their customers.
Gov't tried to force the telcos to stop itemizing the taxes imposed on them, the telcos went to court and won the right to itemize pass-thru expenses like taxes.
Jeff Bozo, who owns Amazon, also owns the NYT
Jeff Bezos does not own the New York Times, he owns the Washington Post, as I recall.
A thousand out f 200,000 is a tiny percentage, and a number of them are being offered other jobs within the company.
GE famously cut the bottom 1% of employee's each year, twice as many (by percentage) as this one-time AT&T cut - I don't remember the economy collapsing after those ANNUAL terminations.
Follow the link in the summary, AT&T is cutting 600 jobs, not 'thousands'.
They are 'firing' 3/10ths of one percent of the workforce (600 out of 200K) - is AT&T giving it's workers a 3/10th of one percent raise?
I think not.
besides being factual
Oh, if only it was...
AT&T is shedding 600 employees, not 'thousands' - does anyone at /. even read the title before publishing a post?
Six hundred employees out of 200,000 is what, about 3/10th of one percent of their workforce.
the Republicans are more interested in borrowing another trillion dollars to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy
The previous administration borrowed over $1TN/year in average for each of the previous 8 years and never cut taxes. The current administration signed into law a $1TN increase in the debt over the next TEN YEARS.
" 'And it was another winner and another winner. So I thought, "Well, maybe there is something wrong with their machine. This can't be real." '
She suspected something was wrong, yet she kept buying tickets - seems like a clear example of exploiting a malfunction in the lottery.
No. I am saying that the state should honor the tickets, and if the state has a problem they should sue the manufacturer of the tickets. Two sentences!
The state lottery machines 'manufactured' the tickets, putting the taxpayers back on the hook for the 'winnings'...
It's not free - look at the that summary and you'll see that labour is approximately 2.4% of cost price.
Seriously? So the labor to replace the battery only costs 12Â?
Because genius bar workers are all volunteers, they never break a phone, and phones never come back for warranty claims... Yep, $25 pure profit!
Meanwhile, around 6,000 Indian employees at Cognizant reportedly lost their jobs to automation.
So are there coding projects staffed by automation?
Did someone figure out how to make a voice-response system that replied in canned incomprehensible tech-speak?
"Several"? That's news, that there is four employees were let go?
Has Bangladesh been moved to China when I wasn't looking?
Schools that train doctors, radiologists and the whole associated ecosystem would be in peril.
Right, because once a dog 'detects' cancer in a person, there's no need for trained medical professionals (AKA doctors, radiologists, etc) - you just open a book that decodes the dog barks into a treatment plan then have Amazon drop-ship you a complete med kit to combat the cancer...
Detecting cancer =/= treating cancer.