Hope and Change for Health Care

There is hope and change coming to our health care systems. That hope and change will happen when the ruling gentry of our country seize control of all our medical industry. There is a precedent for government control over health care. Ask our veterans how that has been working out for them.

First off, ask them how far they have to go to get their VA medical care. All the veterans in my hometown have to drive three hours to go to their doctor. The GAO reports that 25% of veterans live more than 60 minutes from their service locations.

Secondly, ask them how long they have to wait for treatment. I don't just mean how long they have to wait in line once they are there. Also how long they wait for a necessary procedure. This has been a problem for decades and hasn't yet been solved. According to the GAO, even after spending $400,000,000 to gather data to assess waiting times, the VA administration has even failed at gathering the data. That's right, they spend hundreds of millions of dollars trying to identify the problem and even failed at that. The GAO's recommendation? Hiring a PRIVATE FIRM to gather the data to identify the problem.

Third, ask them how about the quality of the facilities and care. Again, the VA hasn't been able to even collect the data about inadequate treatment. Again, the GAO recommended hiring a PRIVATE FIRM to gather the data to identify the problem. During an inspection of 1400 facilities nationwide, over 1000 instances of substandard conditions were recorded, including pest infestations, broken beds, and abusive staff. Unable compete with the wages offered by private health care providers, VA hospitals are poorly staffed, both in quantity and quality.

To further complicate things, the annual budget is decided by politicians. This is a key problem. Politicians take money away from sections of the budget that are functioning well to put more funding into sexier political projects. If a problem isn't reported in the news, it doesn't get funded. But once the Washington Post or New York Times reports a problem, politicians immediately want to appear to take action. Once the appearance of action is reported in the media, the funding disappears. Couple that with earmarks and pet projects, Congressional oversight and appropriation is inconsistent at best. Mostly Congress is just incompetent and crooked.

So, this is hope and change. The ruling gentry wants to take this model and force it on everyone in the whole country. It may or may not happen overnight, but it is their goal. And it will crush all innovation and place medical decisions in the hands of the ruling gentry.

A perfect example of the ruling gentry crushing innovation happened recently. While they promise to magically make health care more affordable and accesible, a doctor in New York City really did make it affordable and accessible. Dr. John Muney offers all his medical services (including ulimited office visits and minor surgeries) to memebers who pay $79 per month. Isn't it bizarre that paying someone directly for services seems like a foreign concept in America? Well, Dr. Muney started this crazy little scam last year. On Groundhog Day this year, Dr. Muney was ordered by the New York Insurance Department to shut it down because they defined his system as an insurance plan. Deputy superintendent for health of the insurance department Troy Oechsner stated, "It's not just a technical requirement to bust his chops -- it's to protect consumers. I applaud innovation, but we also have got to do it in a way that protects consumers."

How does this plan put consumers at risk? The ruling gentry says that it might reduce the number of primary care physicians available to the big insurance programs, which they plan on buying out and taking over. So, tell me what you think about the ruling gentry's promise of lowering health care costs and increasing accessiblity to health care, especially for the uninsured. Does it seem like a genuine concern? Or does it seem like a justification to seize more power? Now do you know why this makes me hostile?

Skeet Surfing on the Kondratiev Waves

I wish I could say that things have changed since my last post almost two months ago. In fact, I wish I could say that things have changed since my posts last summer. Since nothing has really changed, I would like to talk about surfing instead. I've never been surfing, and it looks like something I would never have the desire or ability to do. I'm more interested in it from a physics perspective. Normal waves on a body of water are caused by wind. When offshore winds blow harder, the waves get larger. There's a lot of force in a wave. Each gallon of water weighs about 8.33 lbs. Think of how many pounds of water roll onto the shore in each wave. It may be liquid, but that's a lot of weight. And surfers grab their surfboards and shotguns to harness the force of the wave to go skeet surfing. Imagine a phalanx of 300 Spartan warriors charging into a wave trying to stop it. They raise their shields and dig their boots into the ground bracing to stop the flow of water. How effective would that be? I'm sure they could decrease the force of the water, but they would never stop the wave entirely. And that would be just in the one tiny little sector of the entire coastline. Then after that wave hits, another one comes just seconds later. So the greatest efforts of some of the mightiest people would only be able to mildly affect one tiny little wave. Now imagine that same phalanx standing on Maikhao beach in northern Phuket, Thailand on December 26, 2004. On that day, an earthquake occurred in the Indian Ocean, causing a massive tsunami that was one the worst natural disasters ever recorded. How would that mighty phalanx stand against waves that stood 100 feet high? How many lives could have been spared? Doesn't it seem absurd to think that the actions of a few hundred highly trained and mighty men could stop a 100 ft. wall of water with shields and capes? It would be even more absurd for the Spartan king drag men, women and children out of their homes on higher ground and handing them shields at the beach so they could all unite against the wave. You know, there are other kinds of waves too. Lately, I've been studying Kondratiev waves. They were first brought to international attention in 1925 by Nikolai Kondratiev. He wasn't a physicist. He wasn't a scientist. He wasn't even a surfer. No, he was a Soviet economist. The Kondratiev wave is a massive business cycle that naturally occurs approximately every fifty years. Economists commonly refer to the phases of the cycle by the four seasons. In spring there is improvement, in summer prosperity, in fall recession, and in winter depression. This process takes place over a period of forty to fifty years. We are in the middle of fall right now. And the ruling gentry of our country is trying like hell to stop this wave. They have gathered together some of the (allegedly) most brilliant experts and tax cheats to spend trillions of dollars trying to stop it. Ordinary business cycles are the small waves that normally hit the shore. But the Kondratiev wave is a 100 ft. tsunami. How have our ruling gentry reacted to this tsunami? They've started dragging down those evil wealthy people who where smart enough to build their houses on higher ground. Besides, it's about time those people on higher ground get some skin in the game. It's not right for just those unfortunates who live on the beach to suffer alone. I know I'm not much for offering answers, but maybe we could look to what actually happened on Maikhao beach during the tsunami as inspiration. You see, nobody died at that beach. There was no high-tech tsunami warning system. There was no government intervention. There was just one ten-year-old little girl named Tilly Smith, a British tourist. People had noticed that the ocean had receded significantly for no apparent reason. Most people around the region heard about this and went to the beaches to see what was happening. But little Tilly Smith remembered her lesson on tsunamis in her geography class back home and knew that the receding ocean was a sign of a tsunami. She told her parents and the beach was quickly evacuated to higher ground. I guess that makes me like a ten-year-old girl. I'm telling you that you need to get to higher ground. And you need to get there right now. That means leaving what you can't carry with you behind. Burn your credit cards. Get rid of that house you can't afford. Get rid of cell phones, cable/satellite TV, and any other monthly cash drain. Take colder, quicker showers, let your house be colder in the winter and hotter in the summer, dry your clothes on a line. Sell everything you can. That means TVs, cars, computers, blood plasma, heirlooms, tools, furniture, clothes, purses, firewood, everything. Eat beans and rice for every meal. Don't eat at resturaunts. Learn some thrift. Pay off your debts and live within your means. Learn the value of hard work and honesty. Live the principles and values that made America great before and it will be great again. You can choose to learn this lesson now, or you will learn it in the future at a much higher personal cost to you.