I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

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  • AnneW
    AnneW Member Posts: 4,050
    edited February 2011

    I think that's a good article. They list their evaluation criteria, and where countries rank based on them. I can't derive any inherent bias (either scientifically or politically)

  • molly52
    molly52 Member Posts: 389
    edited February 2011

    I was surprised when Barbara  pointed out Canada was no. 6 on the commonwealth study.  I looked it over - and at first thought why would we be so low.  Then after further reflection thought that my experience in a major city in Ontario, might be quite different from that of another living in a remote area where good drinking water is not readily available. 

    And then the UK, where everything is paid for, including all drugs when you have cancer, and the cost of living is so high, yet their costs were so low. Intersting piece of information on breast cancer and the UK.  The mortality rate for BC patients in Australia is better than that for the UK.  However, even if a person moves from the UK to Australia - statistically they keep the UK mortality rate. 

    The reports are interesting and they made me think. They are useful in that they provide pointers on where to dig further.

  • BarbaraA
    BarbaraA Member Posts: 7,378
    edited February 2011

    I read a very interesting article this morning while searching for info (thanks lewing!).

    The article is from September but explained a lot of what I had always believed about KFF.

    http://www.wellsphere.com/healthcare-industry-policy-article/the-kaiser-family-foundation-takes-up-the-cause-of-obamacare-once-again-finance-and-bureaucracy-triumph-over-medicine-and-hea/1228863

  • bluedahlia
    bluedahlia Member Posts: 6,944
    edited February 2011

    What a tough life!

  • BarbaraA
    BarbaraA Member Posts: 7,378
    edited February 2011

    Adorable, Blue. They yours?

  • bluedahlia
    bluedahlia Member Posts: 6,944
    edited February 2011

    Yes, the lazy bums!

  • BarbaraA
    BarbaraA Member Posts: 7,378
    edited February 2011

    When I am reincarnated, I want to come back as a dog. All they do is sleep, eat, play, get petted, sleep. eat, get petted.

  • River_Rat
    River_Rat Member Posts: 1,724
    edited February 2011

    Two newer interesting articles.



    Opposition to healthcare law eases, poll finds

    Only about 1 in 4 poll respondents favors repealing Obama's healthcare law:





    http://www.latimes.com/health/la-na-0117-healthcare-poll-20110117,0,632289.story





    Americans oppose yanking healthcare law funds: poll





    http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/25/us-usa-healthcare-congress-idUSTRE70O62D20110125

    How do you make a link active here? I hit return twice, I tried editing and putting in paragraph breaks in place of line breaks, then gave up.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited February 2011

    Those are interpretations of poll results without links to the actual polls.  What was the exact wording of the questions?   How a question is worded can substantially affect the answer. 

    The LA Times poll seems to indicate less that people are suddenly in favor of the bill and more that people have grown weary of dealing with it, and aren't wasting any more energy on something they feel powerless to correct. 

  • River_Rat
    River_Rat Member Posts: 1,724
    edited February 2011

    Ah, so here's another poll, the actual poll so you can judge for yourself:



    http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/Jan11_healthcare.pdf



    Also for those who don't want to read the poll here's an article summarizing this one:



    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20029123-503544.html



    And I love this question:



    Which Part of Health Care Law Would You Most Like to See Repealed?

    (Among those who want health care repealed)

    Insurance mandate for individuals 27%

    Higher premiums 2

    Funding abortions 2

    Higher taxes 2

    Everything 21

    Don’t know 36

  • BarbaraA
    BarbaraA Member Posts: 7,378
    edited February 2011

    RR - I prefer to check polls of pollsters such as Rasmussen, as they post the questions they ask the people. The majority of people still do not want this health care bill as it stands. 58% to 38%.

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited February 2011

    Elizabeth, (you know I LOVE YA), did your bf ask to see a social worker?  Many times if someone does not make enough money they will get care whether it's considered "charity" or not.  What I'm asking is...did he try to get help financially?

  • River_Rat
    River_Rat Member Posts: 1,724
    edited February 2011

    BarbaraA scroll down at that last link. The questions are there.

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited February 2011

    IronJaw, you said that you would not go back to Komen for help getting a mammo.  Why not?  Why do you think people donate to that organization? 

  • BarbaraA
    BarbaraA Member Posts: 7,378
    edited February 2011

    Interesting how vastly different the numbers are between CBS, a 'news' organization with a decidedly left wing bias, and a poll taking organization in busines since 2003 with no bias.

  • otter
    otter Member Posts: 6,099
    edited February 2011

    Re:  How to make a link active (otter's version, anyway)

    River_Rat (love the name!), try this:  1) copy-and-paste the target web address into the "compose" window where you are creating your post; 2) highlight the web address with your cursor, then copy it (or maybe it's still in your, um, ... clipboard?); 3) click on the little "link" (chain) icon that's in the menu bar at the top of the compose window; 4) when the insert/edit window opens up, paste the target web address into the "Link URL" blank; 5) click the "Insert" button; 6) submit your post; and ...Voila!:

    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20029123-503544.html

    otter

  • konakat
    konakat Member Posts: 6,085
    edited February 2011

    Shirley --- he's as stubborn as a mule and some things he won't discuss, just gets angry.  I know he went to the state health office (whatever it's called) a couple of times but didn't get insurance. 

    On a much more pleasant topic, when I was flying over NC and into Charlotte last week I kept looking out the airplane window wondering how you were.  Too bad Charlotte's was too far inland  and I couldn't wave.  You're a lucky duck living so close to the coast!

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited February 2011

    Elizabeth, I waived to you and you didn't see me?  I'm glad that you enjoyed your vacation.  I do not like the beach...I don't like the sand...I don't swim and am afraid of the water..my kids used to laugh their butts off at me.  If the waves hit me above my waste..I WAS OUTTA THERE.  And I'd feel stuff touch my foot or lower leg and wonder what WAS THAT??  My birth place is San Antonio and there sure as heck aren't any beaches near by.  I lived there until I was around 20 or 21.

    As far as your bf, sometimes the hospital will help with paying the bills.  As far as by-passes are concerned, I thought stents were the way to go now.  Of course I realize some people need a by-pass.

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited February 2011

    I think that many of the hospitals have funds for the uninsured .  The religious one near me does, and has lots of fundraisers during the year for their foundation. 

    Blue - we do have something in common - my lazy mutts look similiar to yours

  • ananda8
    ananda8 Member Posts: 2,755
    edited February 2011

    The following is from the Pew Research Center, a highly respected research and polling organization.

    http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1865/poll-public-top-policy-priorities-2011-health-care-reform-repeal-expand

    "This also is true for policy goals related to health care, whether reducing health care costs (61% top priority) or revising last year's health care law (56%). The public continues to be divided over what it wants to see done with the health care law -- 37% favor its repeal, while nearly as many (35%) want the law expanded, and 20% would leave it as it is...

    One of the biggest partisan gaps is over the goal of reducing health care costs -- 76% of Democrats rate this as a top priority compared with 48% of Republicans. By contrast, there is very little partisan difference in opinions about the importance of revising the health care legislation passed last year -- though it is clear that Republicans and Democrats have very different ideas about how to revise the legislation."

  • bluedahlia
    bluedahlia Member Posts: 6,944
    edited February 2011

    Erica, I don't know what I'd do without my lazy muts.  They make the worse days bearable.

  • BarbaraA
    BarbaraA Member Posts: 7,378
    edited February 2011

    Yes, pets bring great joy to us humans.

  • BarbaraA
    BarbaraA Member Posts: 7,378
    edited February 2011
    Here is a poll published today. This one says '

    Fifty-four percent (54%) of voters now say individual states should have the right to opt out of the entire health care plan, up from 47% in December 2009. Thirty percent (30%) disagree and say states should not be able to do that. Fifteen percent (15%) are not sure. '

    http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/february_2011/54_say_states_should_have_right_to_opt_out_of_health_care_law

    Another interesting poll is that voters now trust republicans more than democrats on 10 key issues.

    http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/trust_on_issues

    Personally I don't trust any of them.

    edited for typos.

  • otter
    otter Member Posts: 6,099
    edited February 2011

    Re:  vacations

    This topic might have been discussed last year, but I thought I'd resurrect it.  I found this article on CNN's website today:  "Why more Americans don’t travel abroad."  (http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/02/04/americans.travel.domestically/)

    Apparently, fewer than 30% of U.S. citizens have passports.  That's even after taking into account the people who recently got passports because they're now needed for travel to Canada and Mexico.  It seems the 30% figure is much lower than is true in other Western countries, including Canada.

    The writer says, "Tourism experts and avid travelers attribute Americans' lack of interest in international travel to a few key factors, including: the United States' own rich cultural and geographic diversity, an American skepticism and/or ignorance about international destinations, a work culture that prevents Americans from taking long vacations abroad and the prohibitive cost and logistics of going overseas."

    I'll confess that I don't have a passport -- I've never had one -- and I've never been to Mexico, but I did spend a week at a Holiday Inn Express ... no, I mean, a week in El Paso, a few years ago.  I have visited Canada at least a dozen times, but not since the Feds made that way more complicated by requiring a passport.  And I've been to a few places in the Caribbean for dive trips.  But, my "Places I've Been" map on FB is boring.

    Where would you like to go on vacation?

    otter

  • 2z54
    2z54 Member Posts: 261
    edited February 2011

    interesting posts. thanks for letting me drop in!  (I just had to see if KK had a nice vacation. Glad to see you did! Cool)

    in response to someone's question a few pages back, Barry Sotero is what people like Alex Jones (a true Libertarian, and what some would call a complete wack job!) say is Barak Obama's real name. In essence, he was never really a US citizen, born in Indonesia or something, changed his name from Sotero to Obama along the way, and consequently can't really be our president.  

    To that I say.... well, George W. never really won the general election in 2000, but HE was president.  Where I do agree with Alex Jones is that he believes both parties and our whole political system are messed up. The fact is, corporations have more political clout /influence than people do. 

    I'm not going to get into a whole thing about what needs fixing in America, but I will ask this: if we were a capitalist society anymore, would we have bailed out the banks?  It's OK for me to go bankrupt, but the banks who charge me 20% interest on a credit card, can't?  I never saw a dime of the bailout or stimulus money, did you?  

    And if we really cared about creating jobs and making the US competitive on the world stage, wouldn't it make the most sense to take health care OUT of the hands of employers? How can our corporations compete with companies all over the world whose healthcare is state-run? '

    There are so many questions to ask, but people are so busy being partisan that they totally miss the fact that both parties are negligent; maybe even worse - accomplices in the status quo.  And the status quo is very broken! 

    Party on KonaKat!  It's time to add ice cream!!!

  • bluedahlia
    bluedahlia Member Posts: 6,944
    edited February 2011

    WOW....excellent post.  Welcome!

  • shokk
    shokk Member Posts: 1,763
    edited February 2011

    Well 2z looks like you have your information wrong....................

     Alex Jones did not state that Barry Soetoro is "Obama's real name.........he said that Barry Soetoro is "Obamas" LEGAL name......that is a big difference..........

    Barry was legally adopted by his step father and his name was changed to Barry Soetoro........

    there is no birth certificate for the name Barak Obama......but there is a birth certificate for the name Barry Soetoro..........as stated by the newly elected Governor of Hawaii a close personal friend of President Soetoro.........

    so you might want to get your facts straight before you post or get all your information from Huffington Post or Daily Cuss........

    Even now the birthers are beginning to understand that it wasn't that Soetoro wasn't born in Hawaii he just goes by a name that is not his legal name......that's all.......just so you know.......shokk

  • Bren-2007
    Bren-2007 Member Posts: 6,241
    edited February 2011

    Welcome 2z!

    Otter .. re vacation, I would go back to southern Utah.  The best place I've ever been.  I have no desire to travel abroad, except maybe to visit Blue!

    hugs,

    Bren

  • 3monstmama
    3monstmama Member Posts: 1,447
    edited February 2011

    otter, very interesting article.  I would say that lack of knowledge about the "outside" world is the biggest reason americans don't travel.  As for the increase in the number of Americans with passports, if they had understood they could have gotten away with the ID card that lets you into Canada and Mexico, I bet the number would have been lower.

    In our family, we all have passports and pretty much view any excuse to travel as a good one.  By the time I was 22, I had been to Japan [well, born there ;-)], Canada, England, Wales, Scotland, capitals of 3 Scandinavian countries, Athens, Rome, East Berlin, West Germany, Iceland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain.  I see my travel as every bit as worthwhile as owning things.  My monsters are much more traveled than I was at their age--the oldest is 13 and has already been to Sweden, Iceland, Paris [2x], Canada and China [5x].

    Next trip:  Paris!  We will all be there 2 weeks from today.  Its a celebration of the end of all the stupidbreastcancer stuff plus my 10th wedding anniversary plus my upcoming half century birthday this year!

    I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • bluedahlia
    bluedahlia Member Posts: 6,944
    edited February 2011

    I'd love that Bren!

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