Health-care myths

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-05-30 10:22am

Sea Skimmer wrote:Your complaining about people overeating, and then knock liesure activities which are physically demanding?

I didn't get it first as well, but he's talking about the chances of killing yourself in these sports. Gym is perfectly fine.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-05-30 10:26am

Vympel wrote:
Sea Skimmer wrote:Your complaining about people overeating, and then knock liesure activities which are physically demanding?
I didn't get it first as well, but he's talking about the chances of killing yourself in these sports. Gym is perfectly fine.

Very few people die rock climbing and kayaking. I'd suspect your several times more likely to die driving to the gym.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-05-30 10:29am

Sea Skimmer wrote:
Very few people die rock climbing and kayaking. I'd suspect your several times more likely to die driving to the gym.

Probably true. But courting death in such an in-your-face way doesn't make me comfortable, nonetheless- there's so many things that can kill me, I wanna add a few more to the list when I can just do some boxing weights and cardio?

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-05-30 02:34pm

Vympel wrote:
Sea Skimmer wrote:
Very few people die rock climbing and kayaking. I'd suspect your several times more likely to die driving to the gym.
Probably true. But courting death in such an in-your-face way doesn't make me comfortable, nonetheless- there's so many things that can kill me, I wanna add a few more to the list when I can just do some boxing weights and cardio?

I'd hardly call rock climbing courting death, not the type 90% of people do anyway. Same for kayaking and rafting.

jegs2 · Post by **jegs2** » 2003-05-30 02:40pm

Knife wrote:I will not argue this particular item. Our health care is shit. Insurance corporate greed is fucking it up. There are doctors who can't even afford to practice general medicine or other more specialized medicine because of insurance costs. Millions of Americans can't afford health insurance. But god damnit, if you get jello instead of ice cream after a tonsalectomy, you can sue for millions and the lawyers get millions.

Scream Tort Reform. I know it doesn't solve everything, but alot of the cost in insurance is asshats abusing the system and making everyone else pay off settlements and judgments.

My uncle was forced out of private practice due to those insurance costs. He told me of baseless lawsuits leveled against him -- nine times out of ten, they were settled out of court, but in all instances, lawyers made money.

jegs2 · Post by **jegs2** » 2003-05-30 02:43pm

jegs2 wrote: He told me of baseless lawsuits leveled against him -- nine times out of ten, they were settled out of court, but in all instances, lawyers made money.

The cases were found to be quite bogus during discovery procedings, but the insurance company generally had to fork out tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees and related costs, even though the cases never made it to court. The suing lawyers would drop the case only if my uncle agreed not to countersue -- otherwise, they'd drag the baseless suit into court, incurring yet more costs and time.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-05-30 03:45pm

They're seriously debating tort reform in Pennsylvania right now, and you should see the response from the trial lawyers. Remember when that Mexican girl down at Duke died when her transplanted heart turned out to be the wrong blood type? There was a sobbing, wailing editorial in the Philadelphia Inquirer the next day crying that if tort reform was passed, that girl's mother wouldn't be able to "recieve justice"--meaning become a millionaire thanks to her daughter's death (and pay 30% to her lawyers). As if suing those doctors into bankrupcy was going to bring her daughter back, or "punish" doctors who clearly were already punishing themselves (watch tape of their press conferences and look into their eyes if you don't believe me), or somehow improve medical care for everyone else.

In the meantime, professional athletes in Philadelphia--people with all the money and access anyone could want--have to go out of state for orthopedic treatment because the specialists have already left. If you're Joe Schmoe who can't afford to fly to Houston for foot surgery, you get to limp around for a few months on a waiting list. But don't worry--the lawyers are still getting paid. Somebody argued in the same paper that the doctors were being greedy, that having to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for malpractice insurance only meant they'd have to drive Volvos instead of Lexuses. I wonder if that person thinks it's right that lawyers get to drive BMWs while people who drive Fords don't have access to medical treatment.