Letters to the Editor
-
Letters to the Editor
I would disagree with ProfessorEmeritusPeterB. I enjoy the back and forth. Just ignore the trolls!
-
Uh, your honor, I don't have any further questions for this witness...
Letters to editors
Salon:
Unfortunately, your Letters To Editors area is cluttered with one or two Trolls, whose means of self-entertainment is unlimited and manifest of their low level of taste. Either they are unengaged professionally, retired, or working from their offices at the expense of their employers, but will claim they are self-employed, if so, well one of them may soon be unemployed.
When people hide behind nom de guerre’ it is an attestation of cowardice. My name is my name, and true professionals don’t obscure their identities from the public like some of the sinus infected-quidnunc, ignoramuses who invade and Troll such sites as yours making their callowed, presence and obnoxious public, unintellectual, masturbation of ratiocination, a public spectacle, sans the realization that their inanity is plainly visible to all who read except the very limited number of sycophants who are their severely limited, smattering, of intellectual inferiors. They are so self-absorbed that they are clueless of their boorishness, but are so enamored of reading their own dribblemouthbabble, that they miss the drool running down their chins onto your Letters To Editors spaces, and gooing those spaces up with gunky globs of Gook.
I suggest that you clean up your LTE area and dump the elephantine egos with the flea cranium cavities and, deeply sloped, frontal lobe. Limit letters to editors writers to one or two comments per column, the dirty-dish ataxia of a single commenter interfering in each offering, is not bringing you more readers but less, including me.
-- ProfessorEmeritusPeterB
I rest my case.
-
She talked to the doctor on the phone?
Yeah, the doctor referred to in the intro is an arrogant SOB, but I can't quite get over the fact that he claims his patient was Googling while talking to him on the phone.
Wowza. That's a first for me. I've never talked to a doctor before making an appointment. Never. And I see a lot of doctors.
He's a rare breed indeed.
Naturally, I am always a-Google and I've come up wrong a few times, but my track record of self-diagnosis is still better than physicians overall. On top of that, I've learned a great deal more about procedures and medications than my doctors have told me, even when they're right.
So doctors need to accept that Google is breaking into their monopoly territory and either get with the program or free us from the grip of the AMA.
-
@ Elephantman
Oh dear, don't let false choices and evidence get in your way of an odiferous rant, when you write:
that "risk."
If you think big pharma is ripping you off, don't buy their products.
If you think big teaching hospitals are horrible, don't go to them.
If you think health insurance is a dangerous ripoff, don't buy it. Save your money, negotiate your own rates, pay cash, and make all the personal decisions that you want. (This is not such a facetious idea; this is the one sure-fire way to restrain rising health care costs.)
Otherwise, enjoy the fact that in 21st century America, we have the finest and most unimaginably advanced system of health care in the history of planet Earth.
The system of healthcare you find unimaginably advanced and the finest just cam in at 19 out of 19 countries for prevnetable deaths according to the Kaiser Network Daily Health Policy Report.
U.S. Has Highest Rate of Preventable Deaths Among Industrialized Nations
[Jan 09, 2008]
The U.S. has the highest rate of preventable deaths among 19 industrialized nations, and although the U.S. rate has declined over the past five years, it is doing so at a slower rate than other countries, according to a London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine analysis published on Thursday in the journal Health Affairs, Bloomberg News reports.
The study examined preventable deaths in people younger than age 75 caused by 30 conditions that could have been treated with medical or surgical interventions, including tuberculosis, thyroid disease, appendicitis, tetanus infections, abdominal hernia, colon cancer, measles and epilepsy. The analysis also included deaths in people younger than age 50 caused by leukemia, cervical cancer and diabetes. The report focused on people whose lives would have been extended with widely available medical treatment.
According to the study, if the rate of preventable deaths in the U.S. improved to the average of the top three countries -- France, Japan and Australia -- 101,000 fewer U.S. residents would die annually.
In 1997-1998, the U.S. rate of preventable deaths was 15th of the 19 countries, with 115 preventable deaths per 100,000 people, compared with 110 deaths per 100,000 people five years later, a 4.4% improvement. The largest improvements were seen in Ireland, the U.K. and Austria, all of which have reduced smoking, improved diets and increased access to care. Ireland also has improved access to some heart disease treatments, such as bypass surgery and anti-clotting drugs, study co-author Ellen Nolte said.
The other countries included in the study were Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. Of the countries examined, the U.S. is the only one without universal health care coverage.
When Big Pharma is the sole source of medications, there isn't a true choice in being able to use it or go elsewhere - you must be to young and unread to know about company stores. Might I suggest a trip to your local library or a Google tour?
And academic teaching hospitals are the sole sources of some treatments and procedures, so again - even if one is able to get in the line to receive healthcare, if there is only one source of that care, what is the viable option? Already, one third of the US population self-denies some or all health care due to the lack of financial means or access to the needed providers and services. That means shorter waits for others, but it still leaves millions out of the line altogether.
As for health insurance - it's a predatory industry which serves its shareholders and investors at the direct expense of the lives and well-being of those forced or coerced into buying policies which do not include any healthcare SERVICES or - ahem - health CARE. They only allow the policyholder to apply for reimbursement of some specific claims - and thse are entirely controlled by the insurer. Essentially, it's enforced mafia bribery to allow access - sometimes - at the whim of the thug.
Nice try, pachy male-factor. Didn't work, though.