It’s About Death Not Health Care
Over at Corrente Hipparchia has a must read on the Dartmouth Atlas Project. If you have any interest in the current debate on health care and insurance it is important to understand what this document really is, because everyone and their Aunt Martha is citing it as a basis for controlling costs in what is coming out of Congress.
This is a study of the amount of money spent on people during the last six-months of their lives. Everyone studied is dead. All off their health care resulted in death. This is being used to judge the efficiency of various health care systems, when all of the systems failed the subjects of the study.
All you can factually derive from this study is the cost of failure in various locations. It doesn’t tell you how many people receiving the same level of treatment didn’t die, because it is limited to those who did. What they are doing is basing reforms and reimbursements on the relative cost of failure.
4 comments
Yes… I guess I have a very jaded view (with very good reason) of the entire concept of privatised *health care* in any form. ehhh… *shrug*
OT: I was going through my bookmarks (I get to the point now and then when I decide it’s time to prune them)… and I came across this from about a year ago. I forgot all about it actuallt. 🙂 It was interesting because I view it quite differently than i did a year ago, though I have to admit, I kept it because I had a strong feeling he was (partly at least) right. Sadly. I don’t know if you know about this and the person behind this site, I haven’t looked into it much to be honest. 🙂
Barack Obama: The Naked Emperor
Be interested in your views, of course. 🙂
ah well… back to studies! I have a full day in class on Sat, 8:30AM-5:30 PM, with 1 hour at the pretty decent local pub/bistro for lunch! It’s a bribe they developed to make us attend on school on a Sat.! Works too… kinda. Of course, anyone smart knows it was paid for out of our course fees. 😉 There really is NO such thing as a *free lunch*! 😆
yeah… I’m definitely jaded. 🙂
No one in Congress reads the footnotes. They are so used to reading the Beatrix Potter version of bills presented by their staff, that they don’t have a clue what they are voting for or against. This report reinforces their personal view of the world, so they make it the gospel.
When the purpose of an enterprise is profit, the product always suffers. The days of value for your money are gone. “Buy cheap and sell dear” is the only thing MBA CEOs understand. The people currently getting millions in pay and benefits are only qualified to manage a Wal-Mart, and not even a big one.
As for the link, he understands much of the reality of Obama, but he lacks a firm base in the real world. He sees conspiracy, where I see the standard human failings, and much of what occurred during the primary is pretty standard Chicago machine politics – work the refs, fiddle the rules, and don’t say anything that forces people to think or question. If you limit yourself to Obama’s meager voting record, he is a moderate to conservative Republican, and he hasn’t done anything that makes me change my evaluation.
Actually, it becomes a very expensive lunch if you don’t show up to eat it. Have fun in school…
He sees conspiracy, where I see the standard human failings, and much of what occurred during the primary is pretty standard Chicago machine politics…
Yes… that was my take also. 🙂 Though, in a sense, he is correct. It is a conspiracy. They did deliberately set out to deceive the voters, and are continuing to do so. The entire *health care debate* (though, I have seen little if any actual *debate* so far!) is (IMHO) a conspiracy (by definition) to defraud the public. I saw many real conspiracies around the World during my MilInt time, and the Obama campaign was ringing bells by mid 2008, I even commented as much on various blogs. You could tell by the way Obama behaved in public early on, he was not very comfortable speaking openly early on and stumbled on occasion, and his body language told me he was talking about something he didn’t actually believe or feel comfortable with. But that changed and he became more confident as time wore on. He was obviously being coached. I suspect that the only reall diference between Obama and Bush is that Obama is more intelligent and eloquent, when he is confident, and has a lower chance of slipping the leash. That and the constant foot-in-mouth were a perennial problem for the Bush handlers. 🙂 And yet… Bush lasted 8 years. I see no reason to think Obama won’t last two terms either.
I think Icke was certainly correct in saying that Obama is FAR more dangerous. Bush was an amiable and likable buffoon. Obama is a charming, intelligent, and personable confidence trickster. 🙂
I already wish Bush was still Prez. At least he was good for a laugh. 😆
The Obama “honeymoon” is over, as more and more people notice he isn’t following through, and he hasn’t dismantled the “imperial presidency” that Bush set-up.
I’ve never seen him speak, so I don’t know what he sounds like. I’m working from transcripts. I know agitprop when I read it. I recognize too many of the people he has surrounded himself with to trust anything coming out of White House. When all your friends are jerks, it is a pretty good bet that you’re a jerk too.
It’s too bad we don’t have a parliamentary system, as he would be a very acceptable “head of state” to open shopping centers and make speeches, while the hard work is done by the professionals.
Trudeau is starting to make Obama just as good for a laugh as Bush was in Doonesbury. Old line liberals want substance, to hell with appearances.