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katied's comments:
on Jobless Recovery
Even the statement "jobless recovery" indicates that our system of evaluating the economy's health is seriously flawed.
What jobless recovery means to me, when I hear it, is that corporations, banks, and Wall Street are doing OK now. The rest of us can sink or swim without even being noticed.
posted 3 years, 8 months ago
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on Referendum Signatures
I have little sympathy since the "anti" groups have been publishing people's names, and sometimes even addresses, for quite a while now on a number of issues like abortion. I'm sure they would say that that was OK because their cause was righteous and the means justified the ends. I just think that they are reaping the whirlwind that they themselves created.
The petitions are public record. If you're willing to sign one, then you should be willing to have that known. If the law is changed so that these petitions are NOT public record, then everyone who signs every petition should be protected.
posted 3 years, 8 months ago
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on Rx: Responding to Obama
The thing is that most people DO want socialized medicine. They prove it all the time by what the expect --- adequate, even exceptional, health care that they do not have to pay for personally out of pocket.
The dirty little secret is that they DON'T want available to everyone and they want to limit who could get what. What people don't want to admit is that they only want socialized medicine for the "worthy." We just can't agree who qualifies as worthy and what they are worthy of --- everyone? only Americans? only the employed? only the wealthy? only my social/regional/ethnic group? only people "like" me? only "mine"? only ME? And what do they get --- preventive care? chronic care? emergency treatment? surgery? transplants? experimental care? alternative care? drugs? the works?
posted 3 years, 8 months ago
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on Rx: Responding to Obama
I also don't see how it will be possible to exclude illegals in many situations.
If a person is seriously injured in a car accident and comes into the emergency room, are they going to ask for proof of legality and if it isn't available then turn them out to die in the parking lot? Or more mundanely, if there really is a swine flu epidemic, are we only going to treat the legal citizens and/or visitors? If we are only vaccinating/treating legal people in any epidemic then we are, by definition, maintaining a pool of potential carriers and risking everyone. (I assume we won't deny medical treatment to legal immigrants or tourists.)
So we can deny them the cheap and useful basic/preventive care, but not the expensive emergency care? How does that help?
posted 3 years, 8 months ago
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on Red Light Cameras
Personally, I'd like to see ALL light controlled intersections have cameras. The rule is "don't go through red", and my understanding is that the cameras only take a picture if the light is red BEFORE you even enter the intersection. A clear infraction.
But then, I live near 28th & Broadway and 33rd & Broadway. At both of these intersections people ROUTINELY go through the red to make turns. At 33rd & Broadway the eastbound-to-northbound, and northbound-to-westbound, lights will often have 2 cars go through the red. Now that second car had plenty of time to stop, they just chose not to. It only works because the regulars KNOW that there is a good chance someone will go on red, so they hesitate before starting through on the green.
Another problem I see is that the yellow is not a standard length of time from light to light in Portland. It is adjusted for the width of the intersection and the supposed speed of the traffic. That can be a problem if the lights you meet routinely are long yellows. You subconsciously expect all of them to be the same and can be caught at streets where they are not as long
The biggest help lately has been those crosswalks that count down the green. I watch those when I'm in a vehicle as well and judge my time accordingly. If I don't have time, I'm already slowing when the yellow changes and can stop smoothly.
posted 3 years, 8 months ago
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on Getting Tough About Driving Drunk
I do think that, as a society, we are focussed on punishment rather than responsibility. Because of that we also seem to feel that, once the sentence is over, then the person should be allowed to move on, which effectively means, get over it.
Maybe we should focus more on responsibility for your actions. I think a sentence of "you caused perpanent damage, so you will be permanently responsible" is way more of a deterrent that what we have now.
posted 3 years, 8 months ago
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on Urban Turbines
BTW, I don't think it is cost effective NOW, but it could be moreso if the committment were citywide, and as the technology improves. It is the social change that that would be part of a citywide committment on a small scale to energy conservation and self-creation.
posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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on Urban Turbines
I have not considered wind turbines but I don't think I'm very well situated for wind. However, I always consider solar (right now - patio and path lighting), and I'd love to find micro water turbines for my downspouts. I don't think they'd add a lot of power to the grid, but they would be interesting to tinker with, could even be decorative, and I just think they would be fun.
I'm firmly in the camp of energy conservation and wise use, and I think offsetting off any amount of power on a small scale gets us closer, especially if a lot of people do it. Think how different Portland's power profile would be if EVERY roof and street light had solar and every tall power pole had a small wind turbine. (even the micro water turbines could be significant if there were thousands of them)
posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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on Rx: Personal Values
We seem to be trying to find the perfect solution for everyone and that just doesn't exist. What we might be able to find is the best compromise for the most number of people, but there are always going to be those that are not best served by whatever we come up with.
When we talk about other systems, or even our own, people invariable come up with individual, specific accounts that support what they want to say. Those are always going to be there for every possible system.
I would like it if we could step back and look for the system that "the most number of participants" are "the most satisfied" with and start from there. Or list the top 10 health care concerns in the country and address those first. Or something, anything, broader than the minutia of individual needs.
We might not end up with what "I" want, but (selfishly) "I" want what is best for me and mine.
posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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on Rx: Personal Values
I am lucky because I'm healthy and don't need a lot from my health care, but I know someone currently who had to take out a second mortgage on their house to cover the constant and ongoing costs of ovarian cancer that will NOT be covered by their health insurance. And I remember my father who was an independent contractor, so he was self insured. When he hit 60, his insurance costs trippled and he was given a whole list of things that would be disallowed, if they were to happen, basically, anything that he or my mom could reasonably expect. right up to anything to do with my mothers knee, since she broke her kneecap when she was a teenager.
posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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on Rx: Personal Values
I would take issue with using Barbara Wagner as an example.
The still experimental cancer treatment she was seeking was disapproved by the Oregon plan entirely independently of any other decision she chose to make because the cost vs the potential benefit did not balance out based on the money available and the people in need. In fact there is no other state health plan I know of that WOULD have covered that treatment, and I don't think many insurance plans would either. If we want to cover everyone for everything, that is fine, but we will need to come up with a lot more money first.
Once that decision was made, she was simply informed about the other things she still had available to her under the plan. Granted, it was not done in the most sensitive way possible, but she was never offered assisted suicide as THE alternative to treatment. She was given a range of options which included hospice and assisted suicide, which is legal in this state. And a minor point, assisted suicide and euthanasia are not the same thing. Euthanasis is not legal anywhere in this country, including Oregon.
posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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on Rx: Personal Values
As an individual, I'd like to see free clinics that would cover basic primary, preventive and wellness care with an nationwide information system. So, I could have a primary doctor at my clinic here that I see on a yearly or regular basis, but I would be able to go in for, say, lyme disease treatment in CT if I am there during an outbreak, which happened to me several years ago.
We would have to decide as a nation is what chronic conditions would be covered under primary care. But beyond that, THEN I'd be willing to go for the co-op or another option to get a high deductible insurance to cover me for the unexpected event, and however that would be managed to control costs and provide coverage.
posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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on Rx: Profiting from Sickness
Cost Transparency--
A couple of years ago I had a non-cancerous lump removed for comfort reasons. I had high deductible insurance at the time, so I knew I would be paying the whole thing myself. The procedure took 20 minutes, and a return visit to remove stitches.
First, nobody could tell me up front what the total cost would be, except that it would be more than I expected. After the procedure, I got a TOTAL of seven bills for it over a period of 13 MONTHS through the insurance company, that totalled close to $1,000. I started calling the doctor by the third one to find out what was going on. What I was told variously were things like: "We bill each item separately for clarity." "That test is required, even though we knew it would be negative." "That is a different lab cost. We have know control or knowledge about that."
posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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on Rx: Profiting from Sickness
I don't see why medical care couldn't and/or shouldn't be an effective for-profit professional comodity. The better you are AT YOUR JOB, the more you make.
The problem is that the majority of the profit is going to someone other than the health care provider -- a gatekeeper, if you will, whose primary motivation is solely profit, NOT health. Further what "profit" there is for our health care providers themselves is going for "services" and not for actually providing HEALTH.
The motivation on all sides is just wrong. And until the system actually rewards all players for the outcome we want, it isn' t going to work
I would PREFER that basic preventative and wellness care be publicly subsidized and provided for free to all, because it is a public benefit for the whole population to be as healthy as possible. But how does it benefit us as a nation for the government to be in, say, the transplant business? That is where we need insurance and maybe even for profit competition.
posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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on Rx: Role of Employers
First, I'm not sure how our employers became the people responsible for our full time health care.
Second, I'm just plain suspicious of being able to fix a system where a third party (insurance) functions as the gatekeeper between me and my own health care. I'm not opposed to for profit health care. I am opposed to a for profit middle man. Their primary goal is always going to be profit, not my best health care.
posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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on Worthington Trial: The Verdict Is In
Now that I'm reading the other posts I'm kind of disturbed by the vitriol aimed toward faith itself. I'm an atheist and I can still respect the health benefits that faith gives a person.
There is lots of hard scientific evidence that faith can work, be it faith in god, faith in medicine, or just faith in your doctor. Even the NIH admits that, "Integrating the spiritual and emotional well being of our patients, caregivers, family and friends, enhances the course of treatment, healing process."
posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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on Worthington Trial: The Verdict Is In
I also am disturbed by the assumption that western medicine is the indesputable solution to all our health issues. While I do not think that faith healing is a very effective treatment method, unless the doctors could have GUARANTEED that she would be cured by their treatment, I'm reluctant to impose one option over all others. Especially in this case. This is not an untreated broken bone, a burn, or something like a heart defect. It is an infection, which by it's very nature is open to variable treatments.
A friend of mine's adult daughter died of pneumonia because she was sent home from the emergency room with cold medicine. I doubt those doctors were prosecuted for having faith in the wrong medicine. But she put her faith in them.
Plus I'm just a cynic. Would this even have gone to court if they didn't take her to the doctor because they had no insurance and no money, rather than for reasons of faith?
posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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on Is Obama-Mania Over?
Sorry, I was not clear. I am not opposed to for profit health care. I am opposed to a for profit middle man that functions as a gatekeeper.
posted 3 years, 10 months ago
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on Is Obama-Mania Over?
BTW, I don't care if the President's popularity is slipping over this and I hope he doesn't either. Government should NOT be a short term popularity contest.
We elect our public officials to do the things we NEED even if they are hard, not to pander to our every whim or mood.
posted 3 years, 10 months ago
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on Is Obama-Mania Over?
I don't want my health care to go through a for profit insurance company. Certainly not my basic health care. The system we have now is insane and annoying
What fascinates me is that all the horrible possibilities that are being waved around are problems we have right now, except that it is somehow BAD when it is done by the govenment and GOOD (or at least OK) when it is done by an insurance company.
posted 3 years, 10 months ago
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