The little fascist has Tourret syndrome. It is his own type of repetitive, stereotyped, coordinated vocalizations which are automatic responses to environmental triggers.

Quite possibly, his Tourret syndrome stores up and makes him antsy crazy until he comes here and lets fly. When he finally feels relief, he disappears into his loons and moonbat world to get all agitated again.

Or, maybe not.

All I said was that we’re spending lots of money on healthcare in this country, is that disputable? I’ve said that other countries, with different healthcare systems, seem to be able to get better results in certain metrics compared to the US, is that disputable?

Oh. I thought this is what you said:

Healthcare costs are so high right now because of the profit motive – companies make money by not paying for treatments. We can look all around the world and find healthcare systems that are less expensive and produce better results, and they’re all run by the government. We’ve given our system over to corporations, who’ve used their leverage and political influence to gather themselves a number of lucrative laws and policies.

Wiki is using WHO and OECD lists which are popular with socialists, so I chose this link.

Lets just assume the numbers are easily obtained and correct. There is not a lot of dispute concerning what constitutes health care expenditure. That is the easy one.

But you insist that universal health care provided by the government gets more bang for the buck and in 2000 the WHO ranked the US at 38 in the world.

But note: It was the organization’s first ever analysis of the world’s health systems. The WHO abandoned ranking processes due to academic criticism regarding the methodology and validity of rankings.

Ooops. You see, when it comes to “quality” there is a whole ocean of disagreement. If the US has a high infant mortality rate (and it does) is it because of lousy healthcare? The US rate is 6 per live births and 1.8 in Monaco. It is 4.49 for the European Union, 4.85 in Canada and 5.94 in the Faroe Islands. You can check for yourself.

So, there must be something behind these cold numbers. Is is lousy healthcare? Is it “universal health care”?

Here is a nugget from an extensive CDC paper:

Infant mortality rates were above the U.S. average for non-Hispanic black, Puerto Rican (8.30), and American Indian or Alaska Native (8.06) women.

These differences may relate in part to differences in risk factors for infant mortality such as preterm and low birthweight delivery, socioeconomic status, access to medical care, etc. However, many of the racial and ethnic differences in infant mortality remain unexplained.

One can look to see what the infant mortality rate is county by county in the US and time and again the problem is connected to race, the age of the mother, the family and other sociological indicators.

(Should I commend Progressives for their single-minded efforts to get black girls to abort babies before before they become a premie or infant death statistic.)

Nowhere that I can find in the research does anyone think that US healthcare is backwards, incomplete and to blame. The CDC can not explain it in simple terms like “we need universal health care.”

Our permissive society has whole groups of welfare supported individuals breeding and neglecting and shooting each other and doing drugs and living in STD high risk and filling prisons and dropping out of education and generally mucking up the statistics. We even tried giving them houses they could never, ever have a chance to pay for.

And, how do we confront the social collapse of some among us? Obamacare.

So I ask the little fascist again why he favors killing them in the womb and lathering other people’s money on them and legalizing drugs for them and imagining that their “concerned” vote is equal to that of a dumb stiff who works for a living and pays taxes?

The answer is plain. Egalitarianism. Just like the TSA treats every single soul who isn’t wearing a burka like a terrorist, it is important to let the homeless person crap on the sidewalk.

We have bred a party of extra-sensitive people who are out raged at those who profile problems by stats and accomplishments or lack thereof. And when Charles Murray wrote The Bell Curve he was pilloried for daring to think that …….

And yet, statistically, across the United States we struggle with why the lowest quintile in school district after school district is made up of people who have nearly the same profile.

And, when we sort out who is in prison and who comes back to prison and who procreates and runs and who this and who that, the same sociological profiles keep popping up.

Either we do what the CDC does and winnow the disease down to the cause and treat it or we look the other way and throw money into the wind and let it do good sometimes and buy more of the same most times.

The damn fool who went ballistic because she couldn’t “buy” an iPad with food stamps is the poster child for Progressive tolerance.

The little fascist knows no other cure than to spend other people’s money on the poor, misguided creatures who didn’t get the “good luck” gene.

But, like the great Progressive War on Poverty, the little fascist is totally invested in absolutely knowing that universal health care run by the state socialism Politburo will move us to the top of the WHO charts. Yessiree.

You took that little journey on your own, buddy. All I said was that we’re spending lots of money on healthcare in this country, is that disputable? I’ve said that other countries, with different healthcare systems, seem to be able to get better results in certain metrics compared to the US, is that disputable? Your irrelevant personal anecdotes notwithstanding, you do understand that we’re lagging way behind when it comes to national health statistics, don’t you? That sucks, and I see no reason to be complacent about these terrible results that the status quo is producing.

And Levi, as was pointed out, all of these are the results of irresponsible and lazy behavior on the part of Obama supporters.

You are fat because you use food stamps to purchase bad food. You drive up health care costs because you use the emergency room rather than a physician. You require more health care because you and your fellow Occupy rapists refuse to wear condoms and thus spread disease.

In short, Levi, if you and your fellow Obama supporters changed your behavior, we wouldn’t have a problem. It’s the fact that worthless Obama liberals like you won’t make wise choices and demand that the rest of us cover your bills that drives up costs.

And this was hilarious:

You’ve got some kind of personal experience and that’s great, but you’re imagining things if you believe I’ve ever suggested that doctors and hospital administrators are doing anything other than saving people’s lives.

Comment by Levi — January 5, 2013 @ 12:53 am – January 5, 2013

Nope. Your Barack Obama, your Obama Party and you have shrieked and screamed that doctors are performing unnecessary amputations for money.

You’re a liar, Levi. Once again, simple research has caught you in your lies, proving that conservatives are more educated, more rational, and more moral than “progressives” like yourself.

You have succeeded in pissing me off. That is not easy. Usually, I give idiots a couple of passes. But you really do not have a clue. You seem to be hooked on perfection first and anything less is nasty, old conservative mean-spiritedness.

You took that little journey on your own, buddy. All I said was that we’re spending lots of money on healthcare in this country, is that disputable? I’ve said that other countries, with different healthcare systems, seem to be able to get better results in certain metrics compared to the US, is that disputable? Your irrelevant personal anecdotes notwithstanding, you do understand that we’re lagging way behind when it comes to national health statistics, don’t you? That sucks, and I see no reason to be complacent about these terrible results that the status quo is producing.

You’ve got some kind of personal experience and that’s great, but you’re imagining things if you believe I’ve ever suggested that doctors and hospital administrators are doing anything other than saving people’s lives.

Hospitals love cash. Cash means less paperwork, means no waiting. Means no chance of human error coding the claim (or human error readin the coding) No worries about which contract applied. No worries about if the insurance information is good.

There’s a reason hospitals offer prompt pay discounts. It’s because any reduction of bureaucracy is a force multiplier on profit.

It’s also why smaller companies hate working in California. They need lawyers to figure out what they can cover. And those cost money that isn’t being used to pay for claims.

The problem with healthcare in this country is that it’s taking up a bigger and bigger percentage of our GDP, and that these costs are driven by sicknesses and ailments that are preventable. People are eating themselves to death, and that’s really expensive. We’re devoting a huge amount of our resources and output to completely avoidable problems.

There he goes again.

The little fascist can not help but murder his claims by coating them in superlatives such as “completely” and “primary” and “totally” and blah, blah, blah.

So, our society is so pampered and stupid that we are forced to devote a huge amount of our resources and output to completely avoidable problems.

Well, little limp-synapse fascist, why do we let them vote?

Why do we bitch that they can’t get insurance?

Why do they get a free pass for pre-existing conditions?

Why don’t you and your Politburo just round them up and break them of their addictions and habits?

You kill babies without much concern. Hell, you have billboards inviting the process. You have the state workers delivering the girls right out of the schools.

Why don’t you shackle the big mommas on the subway and haul them in for gastric by-passes? Why piddle away valuable time by banning food for everyone?

Drugs really mess people up. Why not cage them up in communes and feed them their drugs until they rot in place?

STD’s? Shoot them before they spread it. Or cut things off and sew things shut so they can’t penetrate.

Damn, little fascist, you sure are weak-spined for a statist.

But, of course, we’re devoting a huge amount of our resources and output to completely avoidable problems is just boiler plate demagoguery.

However, I will back you up to a small extent. My wife had an MRI and lots of IV’s and medicine for five days in a hospital in Denpasar, Bali. Including the emergency room, I paid $760 for the whole treatment and testing regime. Wow!

Here is how it worked. I rented the room from the hospital. I stayed in the room with her and took care of her. Every time I needed a nurse, I paid cash for the service. I went to the hospital pharmacy and bought the IV bag. I went to the kitchen and bought the food. I cleaned the room. I summoned the doctor and paid for each consultation. I rented the wheel chair. I sterilized the wheelchair and all eating utensils and I chased the birds and lizards out of the open-to-air windows. The President of the hospital was highly concerned that my wife receive the best of treatment and he encouraged a specialist from the medical college in Bali to treat her. I did not file for insurance when I got home, because, frankly, I considered $760 to be worth every penny in exchange for the forms and crap I would have to go through to get some piddling little bit of it back.

[Livewire: agree?]

Now, I was in England when my wife had another occurrence of this same condition. We went to Queen’s Hospital as they had a specialty center for the problem. I had to bull our way in by waving fists full of pounds in order to by-pass the national health bureaucracy.

What we encountered was a filthy room with nasty equipment. The poor nurses were overwhelmed with cases and no time to be thorough, precise or even pleasant. I don’t blame them as people, they were literally overwhelmed. I quickly arranged to have my wife moved to a priority suite for which I paid 1,500 pounds per day and I rented a private nurse for an additional 200 pounds per day. Luckily, we were in and out in four days.

This time, I used my travel insurance company and they reimbursed me the “regular” hospital rates at Queens and I lowered the bill to around 4,000 pounds out of pocket. I was darn glad to get the relief.

I served for a number of years on the board of a non-profit doctor’s hospital. I am always open to hearing new thoughts and theories, but Progressives whining and opining are a dime a dozen.

Understand, this is not “an appeal to authority” fallacy in logic. I hang out around the medical community and have done so around the world. Talk is cheap. The vast majority of healthcare providers are dedicated to healing and, usually, money is the farthest thing from their minds.

People like you and me head off for hospitals on Thursday nights and early morning (the most dangerous night of the week) to handle people with wounds spurting blood and on the verge of dying. They do incredible work in saving human bodies entirely divorced from what caused their traumas. Maybe the guy is the shooter who is sent a dozen kids dying to other hospitals. That is not the point. Healing is the point.

If you have facts of hospitals turning away the critical or dying patient, bring it on.

If you have facts of hospitals padding the bills of patients, bring it on.

If you have evidence of people getting into bad drugs, gunfights, stabbings, overdosing, overeating, etc. in order to run up medical costs, bring it on.

You have succeeded in pissing me off. That is not easy. Usually, I give idiots a couple of passes. But you really do not have a clue. You seem to be hooked on perfection first and anything less is nasty, old conservative mean-spiritedness.

[Here is how conservatives think: I was visiting Royal Perth Hospital in Western Australia and it occurred to "us" that we could have our hospitals exchange MRI and CT-scan readings done in the dead of night for each other. Their beds and our beds were nearly equivalent and it seemed like a great match. When our people were in off for the night, theirs were on for the peak of the day and vice versa. You can not begin to imagine how much we helped each other out at no "cost" to either system. That is at the heart of medicine. Not dollars, but efficient and effective care.]

We’ve been boosting government’s role in it, for six decades. That is WHY the sector is now a bloated mess. If we actually want to shrink the bloat and make medical care efficient and affordable again for ordinary Americans, then we must reverse everything we’ve done since the early 1960s, including a repeal of Obamacare, Medicaid and Medicare.

But Levi, of course, isn’t interested in any of that: As a fascist, a worshipper of the State, all he cares about is growing government at every excuse.

Idiotic.

The problem with healthcare in this country is that it’s taking up a bigger and bigger percentage of our GDP, and that these costs are driven by sicknesses and ailments that are preventable. People are eating themselves to death, and that’s really expensive.

Comment by Levi — January 4, 2013 @ 2:22 pm – January 4, 2013

Actually, Levi, the people who are eating themselves to death in this country are you and your fellow Obama supporters.

And you know who’s using the most expensive health care in this country? That’s right; you and your fellow Obama supporters.

And guess where the rate of STDs is a) highest and b) increasing? You got it: you and your fellow Obama supporters.

So screaming and pissing Levi, when are you going to demand that you and your fellow Obama supporters stop eating bad food, stop strolling into emergency rooms, and stop having promiscuous unprotected sex?

The short answer: Never. Your parents were stupid enough to subsidize you, and now you’re screaming and crying and pissing that society should subsidize you and your incredibly-bad choices.

You are the problem, Levi. Facts prove it. Your lies only demonstrate what worthless, irresponsible moochers and looters Obama supporters like you are.

NDT… Are you a complete idiot, or do you just play one here? Your link is California, not England. As I have stated on numerous occasions, there has been no attempt at real budget reduction at all here in CA. The government jobs referred to in your link should be cut, austerity or not, as should the train to nowhere..

Comment by Sonicfrog — January 4, 2013 @ 1:46 am – January 4, 2013

Ah, but you see, Sonicfrog, we can’t do that, as you laid out:

When we are in a recession, there are fewer private sector jobs.

Austerity = cutting government jobs, which equals more unemployment.

Implementing austerity during a recession, when there are fewer private sector jobs = much higher unemployment.

What happens when there is more unemployment?

More people go on the government dole via unemployment bennies, welfare, foodstamps, etc.

Your basic problem is that you reverted to your Obama Party mentality of “every government job is absolutely essential” and tried to play the “unemployment will rise” card to rationalize it.

I simply pointed out the utter stupidity and wastefulness of your argument, and now have you cornered using your own words.

The problem with healthcare in this country is that it’s taking up a bigger and bigger percentage of our GDP, and that these costs are driven by sicknesses and ailments that are preventable. People are eating themselves to death, and that’s really expensive. We’re devoting a huge amount of our resources and output to completely avoidable problems.

Levi thinks that people should be told what to eat and how much, he feels sex should be banned, to keep down those pesky ‘avoidable’ STDs, and illegal drug use should be banned as well. Clearly he feels that this would enhance freedom.

(Well except he’s on record not wanting to deal with the result of sex, and wanting to do drugs. Once again, Levi shows he’s the master of the double standard. “You can’t do the things I want to do, and you should pay for me doing those things!”)

Used to be a time when people could recognize the value of investing in research and technology.

Ah yes, remeber those ancient times of the X-prize? IF only such a private organization existed…. Oh wait, facts again. No wonder Levi doesn’t know of it.

Levi’s ranting are as fictional as ‘Star Trek’. The difference of course is that Star Trek inspired many of our modern technologies. Instead of looking forward like Star Trek, Levi takes us backwards to Eugenics and Fascisim.

If we had a world of Levi’s Star Trek, and all the tech it inspired, would never have existed.

So no art, no wonder, no great works. If it doesn’t serve the state, it doesn’t belong in Leviland. I believe that is called North Korea here in reality.

Really, that is a non-statement except for the pure communist attack on profit.

What are “healthcare costs” in the aggregate? Aspirin, sinus relief, generic drugs, bandaids, iodine, crutches, cold remedies, toothpaste, dandruff shampoos, dental floss, glasses, Tums, vitamins, tampons, condoms, tweezers, nail clippers, peroxide, etc.????

No, the little fascist is all wound up over strokes, diabetes, cancer, heart attacks, organ transplants, tooth implants, exotic medicines, and major health problems in general.

Enter the typical group practice doctor’s office and count the number of employees running around taking appointments, retrieving files, prepping the patient for the doctor’s time, and filing the mountains of paperwork. These people are working for the payment limits set by the government and the insurance companies. Is the doctor’s share after expenses this evil profit of which the little fascist speaks?

Screw insurance. The little fascist can’t understand the concept. How much “profit” is the insurance company making off of a policy that never has a claim? 100%. How much security does the homeowner get for never having a tree fall on his house or a tornado strike or a flood roll through or fire to consume the place? Why do mortgage companies demand homeowner’s insurance?

The little fascist owns his body and he can smoke dope to his heart’s content and then roll into the emergency room and claim indigence. No insurance, no cash, no nothing. What happens to him? Really, what happens?

Where are all of these people lying along the roads needing medical treatment? Where are the people dying of diseases they can’t get treated? Where are the hospitals forcing people onto the streets as they take all their possessions? (Where is the MSM in reporting all of this mean spirited driven misery?)

The problem with healthcare in this country is that it’s taking up a bigger and bigger percentage of our GDP, and that these costs are driven by sicknesses and ailments that are preventable. People are eating themselves to death, and that’s really expensive. We’re devoting a huge amount of our resources and output to completely avoidable problems. I shouldn’t have to explain to you why this is a tremendous disadvantage, should I? Every other advanced economy in the world does healthcare better than we do if you judge on the basis of things like cost, life expectancy, infant death, and obesity. These are our competitors, and while they’re trying to solve new problems and while they’re exploring new economic opportunities, we’re going to be lagging behind because we can’t stop eating Big Macs and because health insurance companies’ profit margins must be protected.

Your baseless accusations about my health and whether or not I have coverage are beside the point. What matters is that we have a fairly unique problem among the developed world in that our healthcare system is incredibly expensive and yet fails to serve many of our citizens. This isn’t about what I want or need or expect from the government because I’m lazy, it’s about the long-term stability of our economy and the fact that we’re compromising our ability to compete.

How flat-footed stupid can you get? How on God’s green earth is someone going to discover an effective alternative and keep it from the rest of the world? Are there major groups of people still burning whale oil for light at night because other things like fossil fuel lanterns and electricity are kept from them?

When you invest in solving big problems, the big solution is not the only outcome. You also get a little of spin-off technology and you leave behind an infrastructure that continues to confer benefits for generations. This is why the Space Program was such a great investment. Tell me heliotrope, was it not a big deal that the United States was the first to the moon? I keep using the example of GPS because it’s absolutely perfect and applies to this situation too. We decided to be the first to the moon, and as a result of that, forty years later we have GPS, which continues to give big economic advantages to American companies.

Hey, maybe we should have let somebody else dig the Panama Canal? What’s the big deal so long as whoever it was let us use it?

Used to be a time when people could recognize the value of investing in research and technology. Used to be a time when people in this country were proud to tackle big challenges, and we were proud of being able to do these challenging things before anybody else. This wasn’t just a way to boost our egos, it was a way of building a huge, durable economy. Now? You’re fine to let somebody else do it. Let somebody else lead the free world for awhile, huh? Let somebody else don the mantle of scientific progress, that sits well with you?

How stupid indeed.

Partially obscured in the little fascist’s rants against profit and insurance is an attack on big pharma. The bit about importing drugs from Canada is a canard. That whole thing is based on Canada buying its population size order from big pharma at a high discount and then having US users muscle in on the supply. One way to stop that is for big pharma to stop selling at a discount.

Why does it happen in the first place. Greed. Big pharma prices breakthrough medicines to pay for its enormous on-going R & D of even more breakthrough medicines. Meds for rare diseases can’t begin to pay for the R & D because there are not enough users to cover the costs. So, this is spread across the spectrum of patented drugs that have high demand and the result is even higher prices for those drugs. So, Canada comes along and wants a firm order of XXXX pills and the big pharma decides to sell that limited order for actual manufacturing costs plus added profit. Meanwhile, everyone outside of the deal pays the full cost of ingredients and manufacture plus profit plus R & D surplus charge so that the big pharma can continue to do R & D and keep the business rolling.

What the little fascist does not know and can not comprehend is that the US has a lot of big pharma making enormous medical breakthroughs based on R & D and it leads the world in doing so.

Sure. The point remains that the rules regarding drug importation and other industry-friendly laws and regulations combine to make our healthcare system extremely expensive Yes, pharmaceutical companies need to make enough profit to cover R&D costs. But we can’t just ignore the trend of skyrocketing healthcare costs.

And the little fascist has zero interest or tolerance when it comes to discussing the costs that John Edwards and his band of charlatans add to the cost of healthcare. Why don’t they work for no profit? Why doesn’t the little fascist have any heartburn over their billable hours in researching and scheming out ways to drive healthcare costs through the roof?

Einstein said that “things should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

The little fascist is no Einstein. He even violates Einstein’s admonition with regularity. He is the very model of a modern Progressive simpleton.

So it’s everyone’s fault except the corporations’, right? Either the government is involved too much, or the lazy illegal immigrant comes strolling into the emergency room with her half dozen kids, or the lawyers are suing everyone into the poorhouse. Anything except the private sector companies who make a killing by collecting premiums and denying treatment. Once again, conservatives completely fail to follow the money, just like they’re trained to do, and can assign every social ill or troubling statistic to anybody, except the people who are getting rich off the status quo.

The main non-Fed buyers for new Treasury debt issues are (0) buyers of inflation-protection as heliotrope says, (1) the very nimble, who hope to make a few bucks on front-running the Fed’s trades, and (2) idiots who don’t understand these things, often leftists.

There are still a lot of holders of Treasury debt – people who bought in the past, haven’t sold yet. Holders are mainly (3) people who are under orders from regulators to play along (the banks, insurance companies and pension funds here), and (4) the terrified: people who see the Treasury train wreck speeding at them, but don’t know what else to do. Include Japan and China, there.