Fighting For Freedom One Mind At A Time
Nick Gillespie (his black leather jacket & full head of hair) tackle the libertarian view of the "aughts." Certainly the worst decade of this millenium OR the nineties!
Since the 1960s, the percentage of total healthcare cost paid directly by the end consumer, aka patient, has dropped drastically, but out of pocket costs have risen and the cost of healthcare has risen drastically over that same period.
What has happened between then and now? The intervention of government into the marketplace. Insurance regulations, government mandates about what MUST be covered, Medicare/caid, and inflation make costs skyrocket, but the opacity of the prices keeps patients from seeing what each visit, prescription, and procedure actually costs. With that opacity, there is no competitive pricing, because the prices paid by patients are merely co-pays and the withholding from their paycheck for employer-sponsored health plans, insurance companies, and government programs that pay negotiated rates. Without competition and price transparency, prices will continue to rise.
In addition, patients largest out of pocket expense is their insurance coverage, which does not fluctuate to accommodate the amount of healthcare services consumed. The patient knows they only pay $10-$50 for each office visit, but the overall costs of those visits can be thousands of dollars. The patient rarely, if ever, sees the actual cost... Usually only if their insurance claim is denied.
Without seeing the ACTUAL cost of their visit, the out of pocket expense is the only one considered when choosing if a doctor's visit is in order. For the uninsured, a trip to the doctor for the sniffles is wasteful, but the insured do not think twice about scheduling an appointment... After all, it COULD be the Swine Flu (whose death rate is smaller than the regular annual flu virus).
Contrary to popular belief, this is NOT a free market system for healthcare. This is a shell game where the doctors charge whatever they want, insurers and the government negotiate it down to a generalized "one size fits all" pricing schedule, rewarding those that overcharge to be negotiated down while paying claims in full for doctors with lower costs who charge less than the deemed "acceptable standard."
Aside from their horrible commercials screaming prices at you like it's a car dealership and the extraordinarily tight space in which they expect you to maneuver, I saw these two signs at the Brandsmart nearest my home. Before I continue, I should note that I respect a business's right to dictate policies for their store, just as I expect that they respect my right never to shop there. Along with their right to dictate store policy, I also expect that they take criticism for their policies. Also, I appreciate that they provide the information prior to entering the store, rather than try to force it on me at some point during my visit.
I offer this video as a greeting of grand times this holiday season, whether you celebrate Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Epiphany, or Festivus. I'll likely not be tweeting or posting much until Saturday at the earliest.
I am not sure why the rap is necessary, or who it's intended for, but this is certainly an "entertaining" way discuss economic theory. Not my method, but I'm not one to discount innovation. If it means one more mind interested in economics, the world is a better place.
NOT GUILTY! As James Bain's t-shirt exclaims, he is found not guilty of raping a 9 year old boy in 1974 thanks to DNA testing. He is the 12th person exonerated in Florida and 248th nationwide due to evidence using DNA to prove their innocence.
On a related side-note: Did you know that people who take a plea bargaining deal in a federal case are unable to use DNA evidence, even if it proves that they are innocent? Further, are you aware that federal prosecutors tout a conviction rate of higher than 95%, but less than one-half of their cases (the conviction rate stats are based on the number of defendants that are found guilty or plead guilty over the total number of cases they take to a grand jury) actually make it to trial? Tommy Chong found out the hard way.
So, people can't be trusted to notice an obvious change like a different person wearing a different color of shirt, but we should rely on eyewitness testimony to find a defendant guilty?
***Note: I apologize for the quality of this video. If anyone know where I can find a better version of it, please let me know.
Obviously, this is an older story, but its relevance holds today. These environmental protesters were tortured for their civil disobedience passively. The Humboldt County Sheriff's Office found them to be dangerous enough to use pepper spray to disperse them. They didn't use it in the normal way though. At about six minutes into the video, you will see the deputies put pepper spray on cotton swabs (Q-Tips) and insert that swab along the eyelid to cause the most intense and concentrated reaction from these civilly disobedient, yet peaceful protesters.
After this occurred, the Sheriff's Office was sued by the protesters in the video for their torturous methods. The protesters won their lawsuit.
Moral of the story: Remain peaceful, assert your rights, but most importantly, video record the event to prove your story.
Do you think that during a snowstorm, a snowball striking your vehicle is a life-threatening situation where you are in the right to pull your gun on a likely unarmed civilian? Detective Baylor (sp?) with the DC police does.
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