Pictured below is a young physician by the name of Dr. Starner Jones. His short two-paragraph letter to the White House accurately puts the blame on a "Culture Crisis" instead of a "Health Care Crisis". It's worth a quick read:
Dear Mr. President:
During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular musical ringtone.
While glancing over her patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as "Medicaid"! During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one costly pack of cigarettes every day and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer.
And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman's health care? I contend that our nation's "health care crisis" is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture", a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. It is a culture based in the irresponsible credo that "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me".
Once you fix this "culture crisis" that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly our nation's health care difficulties will disappear.
Respectfully,
STARNER JONES, MD
33 comments:
FILE AND FOLDER!
Hope you like paying for free loaders.
Anyone who goes to the hospital and can't pay because they don't have insurance is just added to the national debt, so we pay the bill anyway. Why not have everyone covered then, with a model based on preventative care, and get our monies worth? Culture arguments are capacious. But if you'd like me to entertain you, plenty of doctors fraudulently bill the government and HMO's. So what to do? Take out the profit incentive! Make someone's health a human right, not a commodity. Do you want the guy next to you sick? And when you're sick, do you want an HMO telling your doctor that you can't have a life saving treatment? It just doesn't make sense.
You fucking know who . . .
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_gawande
No dude I have insurance. I say don't treat them. Once a few die all the others will get off there asses and get jobs and insurance. Why go to school for 8 years and have the risk of people lives in your hands for no money? Should they do it out of the goodness of there hearts? People like you would still sue them. Why become a doctor? I want the best and brightest becoming doctors they should be paid well DICK. When you put on your big boy pants and get a job and stop being a leech you might think different. You wont though because you are a product of the system, march little boy. When you get back if you have a gold tooth let me be the first one to knock it out. Now go copy and paste something else and pawn it off as yours.
I'm not saying don't pay a doctor well. Doctors should be compensated well. What should be eliminated is the waste of bureaucracy, HMO profits and pharmaceutical profits. There is no reason an HMO CEO should be a billionaire. What are they doing to help society, big boy? And Ron, not every job offers health insurance. Moreover, many that do make it unaffordable. Again, it's all about the costs, they're too high and they don't need to be. You can come up with all of the right-wing propaganda in the world, you can call me whatever you want. I can become a millionaire one day or a pro-cyclist (cough, cough) but my views will never change. It has nothing to do with a job or anything else. We pick a side in this world, but before we do so we figure out what that side is about. I remember when Regan smashed PATCO and spoke of welfare queens in their Caddy's. The motherfucker left office with the lowest approval rating ever, now he's deified. Why? Because his class-war WAS winning: the rich are richer and the poor are poorer. But things are changing, Ron. From Cairo to Wisconsin, people will only tolerate so much. Where do you stand, with the teachers and machinists of Madison or with blow-job Walker? Do you stand with the drug company executive who is a billionaire or the elderly who have to choose between food and medicine AFTER a life-time of work? Oh, that's right, "let em die" you said. So be it.
bengay if you look at the poles more Americans are siding with the Governor of WI not the union. I believe 48 % - 38 % As far as Egypt lets see what comes from there revaluation? I bet it will be just as brutal and corrupt as the last government in 10 years. Lets put some parameter's on the system, if you paid in all your life or severed for your country then you should get a free ride. I'm talking about people that think they somehow are owed something. Yes not all jobs offer health insurance but its your choice to take the job. If it you think its to costly then you as an American citizen have the choice to pay it or not. Then you take on the responsibility of your bills. As far as the CEO's of the world, I believe in the trickle down theory. If he makes more money he will by my goods and services then I will make more money and so on. You don't see that though because you don't offer any goods or services. You are part of the problem. You are what I call a society sucker you make nothing pay in nothing. You only take bro its easy to have your Utopian dreams because you would be the one on the receiving end. I work for everything I have and wouldn't have it any other way. I hope you do become a millionaire someday dude because I will be there to remind you that you should spread it around to the society suckers. I bet you would change your views when its you hard earned money there taking. That's the rub ben to be a millionaire you have to work hard, people like you aren't capable of HARD work. You will do the bare minimum just to get by. Because you don't want to make money for the man right. Prove me wrong I will be the first to admit it. My farther told me one thing over and over when I was a kid. He said no matter what you do in life whether you are a street sweeper or an astronaut be the best one that ever lived. I know my job is not important in the grand scheme of things but I tell you this you will be hard pressed to find a better painter than me. In doing that ben I work when others get laid off.
Why did Rondo post this blog item when the previous blog item has 46 responses and it was truly funny?
We're bike riders, not politicians (except for the 70 year old - Pete J)
We need a NEW webmaster!
I've had the privilege ( or curse ) of knowing Ron for something like 15 years now...
FINALLY SOMETHING INTELLIGENT COMES FROM HIM! I knew it was in there somewhere. Robyn seems too smart to get tricked otherwise.
Once again, "Open up your heart and let the hate out"
Clayton Bigsby
I grew tired of the bable on the last post.
Rondo is not only the smartest man in the peleton, he is also the sexiest!!
OMG!!! I never thought there would be a day that I too would agree with Rondo. Not exactly sure who the socialist is, but the thought that healthcare is a "right" is not only stupid twisted but also spews of serious ignorance in democracy and a free market society. Our Drs, hosptials and drug companies have a right to charge whatever the market will bare. In it's simpliest form.... Of course we should all be driving safe cars and our children should be traveling safely on our highways, but Volvo ain't given their cars away. WTF! If people don't like the cost of healthcare then they should take the responsibility of their lifestyle for prevention and then of course find a j-o-b that will have corporate sponsored coverage.
Rondo, Rondo, Rondo,
That's where you and I really differ: What you do does matter. You don't produce things that actually generate wealth, but you finish the spaces of places that do, whether they be offices, factories, schools or homes. What do CEO's produce? Look at the CEO of Countrywide and Goldmansachs. They made billions bundling risky mortgages and other loans into derivatives that they then sold into the market knowing they were bad. In some cases they even hedged bets against the very same securities they sold because the knew they were toxic, making even more money. What did this produce aside from homelessness? The largest financial bailout in capital's history, all at the tax payers expense. This last bit doubled the federal deficit, which we are essentially paying for again by seeing essential services slashed at the state and federal levels. Though in the case of Wisconsin -- which by the way, the poll you are quoting is inaccurate (I'll source it at the bottom) -- Walker decided to give away billions in tax breaks to corporations, effectively bankrupting the state. Many other states, like New Mexico, which have strong public unions are running 10% deficits where as Arizona, a non-right-to-work state is at 30%. So you can't blame unions. When they were strongest in the 50's and 60's there was a more equitable, healthy, stable society. Today, the trickle-down theory of your demigod, Regan has proven failed. The rich buy Ferraris, yachts and things that aren't made in the US. I could go on and on about why it doesn't work, but look at the stats. 14% or 45 million people in the US live in poverty; children make up 25% of the population but make up 35% (One in four under the age of six!!) of those living in poverty. The middle-class in the US is the smallest in the industrialized world. All of the net growth from 2000-2007 went to the to 10% of income earners and the bottom 90% saw an actual decline in wealth. Americans work longer hours and retire later in life than in all other industrialized countries. Almost all new jobs in the US pay minimum wages. Our economy is 70% lead by consumerism because our jobs have been outsourced by the rich. So you tell me, when Walmart is the largest US employer, how have the rich helped us? How has trickle down economics worked? The answer is it hasn't.
As far as Egypt is concerned, in some ways you're right. Thanks to Wikileaks we know that the US endorsed VP Omar Suleiman was tortured Egyptians and was involved in renditions. So the US is trying to keep the state in tact by putting a different mask on an ugly face. But with strikes crippling the country and uprisings across the Arab world, I think you're wrong. Clearly, democracy and freedom are universals that all people love and cannot be brought about by the barrel of a gun.
I know you think I am a society sucker, but I prove you wrong every time you opine.
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/rasmussen-poll-on-wisconsin-dispute-may-be-biased/?partner=rss&emc=rss
Why hasn't Prof Jacob Hacker provided his views to this worthy blog item? I think his views may carry more weight than Sir Rondos.
A few years ago, I remember missing one of the Sunday winter rides, instead, I put on the TV and watched in amazement as Mr Hacker was being interviewed on Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt.
Then again, if Prof Hacker earns a future career assignment in the White House, an background investigation would uncover odd and strange friends with crazy views.
Enter Sir Rondo and Clayton Bigsby.
http://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/chefs/Hacker_Testimony_Education_and_Labor_06.23.09_Final.pdf
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http://www.law.berkeley.edu/
files/chefs/
Hacker_Testimony_Education_and
_Labor_06.23.09_Final.pdf
I'm sure for hacker talking about healthcare here is akin to talking to dan malloy about the strategies needed to win the bethel series
http://www.newhavenadvocate.com/peltos-point/make-taxation-fairer-now-042303/
Thank god in a few weeks Hunter takes over the blog.
http://monthlyreview.org/598einstein.php
Can we just have Hunter start writing the blog NOW?
Chris C.
There is so much BS in the socialist's posts it's hard to argue with just the volume of meaningless words but here is one.
'The TARP program is no more. The Treasury Department issued its final report on the cornerstone project meant to save the US financial system from failure. “In light of the recently announced AIG restructuring and when valued at current market prices, Treasury now estimates that the total cost of TARP will be about $50 billion,” the agency said.
Read more: Cost Of Financial Bailout Almost Too Good To Be True - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/2010/10/06/cost-of-financial-bail-out-almost-too-good-to-be-true/#ixzz1EhB92wTi
'
I think the key word there is "estimates." There is a good breakdown of where the money went that I'll provide, and a lot of smaller banks went under entirely. Others are still outstanding. But even if ALL loans are fully repaid the thing here is with cheap loans from the government, big banks restored profitability not through creating jobs and loaning money, but through the same speculative gambles that landed them in the original mess. The game hasn't changed. There is a massive divorce from the real economy, the one that manufactures goods and services and produces jobs, and the financial economy, which produces nothing. Even in the auto industry, where GM has been turning profits, all of the sales come from Asia. And so that's where all of the jobs GM is creating go. There is a market recovery but not a jobs recovery. In other words there is no recovery. And you watch, there are still three big bubbles out there yet to burst, housing, student loans and credit card; this is far from over.
http://www.propublica.org/ion/bailout
Somebody let me know when this goes back to a cycling blog.
E.
rondo- spend anymore time pandering to bengay and people will start to think your unemployed too....
any chance there will be a cat for ppl with not one but TWO (gasp) jobs at bethel?
THEN we would know who the hard men are.
as for Egypt... lets take the pyramids and fuck the rest of the country
The pyramids were the worst part
All I have to say is CT is in trouble with our new Gov. he said Alls we need to do this morning.
alls? Yikes
If anyone thinks good things are going to happen in Egypt and other places when new goverments come in has been riding in 10 degrees to long!
This is quite possibly the largest democracy movement the world has ever seen. I don't think people are gonna risk, and in many cases lose, their lives to topple US/EU supported dictators to install new ones. The reworking of the Egyptian constitution currently under way looks very promising.
Oh, and if Arabs are incapable of handling democracy, if nothing good can come from their courageous actions, then what are we in Iraq and Afghanistan for? Oh, yeah, oil.
Is this a FUCKING cycling log or a political think-tank blog?
It's all political
http://mediamatters.org/research/201102230006
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