birdog1960

and you started off so very well...the aca is more like the ideal system i envision. it insures more people. it ends some off the truly immoral insurance policies that previously existed. it prioritizes primary care. but ideal and perfect almost never happen. so, you compromise and in this case there certainly are many flaws. the roll out mess was humiliating and totally unnecessary. the lack of flexibility with groups such as the sisters of the poor and parochial schools and hospitals is small minded, counter productive and petty (not to mention, just plain wrong). but in total, it's a step forward for a system that was unsustainable, unjust and ineeficient in it's previous iteration. fixing it is a huge job and the aca is a start. it will be amended and changed many, many more times.

fortunately, so far i've been pretty healthy. last er visit was in residency after spraining my ankle in a softball game playing for the hospital team. got great care. almost no wait. wait times in the er in my current hospital are almost always less than 1 hour. wait times like those you mentioned in poor urban areas should improve somewhat with more universal access to primary care.

look up EMTALA...please. unstable patients can't now or for the last 10 years or so be dumped...for any reason but especially for ability to pay. seems a few conservatives are convinced it's wolflike socialism in sheeps hospital gowns. i agree. they're wrong. that would be single payer and would be a much better option.

there's at least one more option: the water itself (hydration) helped. pretty certain there's no known correlation between homosexuality and milk thistle. is pissing rainbows thought to be a sign of health in some cultures?

many doctors and hospitals already dole out care with no gaurantee of reimbursement. hospitals are required to in many instances. it's the law and has been for a long time. it's called EMTALA.

it's too early to know if they are the exception and not the rule. i'm quite sure better, more comprehensive data will be available in 6 months and even better in 18 months. then if it looks good for the aca (and it likely will) you can all argue statistics as a reason for disbelief. the real issue here for most of you is "forcing you to purchase a product" as you stated. get over it. it's been judged constitutional. the aca is taking flak for every pre-existing condition in the existing health care mess plus those inherent in it's own design. today, drudge links to an article about a doctors office waiting on hold 2 hours for procedure preapproval before giving up. the company they were trying to talk to was BLUE CROSS. news flash: they've been foot dragging approvals for years. it's part of their strategy and has nothing to do with the aca. but now everytime there's a glitch in the very inefficient existing medical system it's blamed on the aca as if the problems never existed before it. a business owner complained to me about his employees inability to get a similar policy at the same pricing through the aca to what he had provid3ed him. on further questioning, that policy limited yearly benefits to 25K. when i posited that this was grossly inadequate, the guy said it was adequate "most of the time, for most people". the moral: much of what you're hearing described as terrible failings of the aca is exagerrated, incomplete and biased based on preconceived opposition to the ideals inherent in the bill.

i don't see why using a fans quote to summate many other fans feelings is unprofessional.now, what haslam allegedly did at triple j is likely worthy of a B word slap. unfortunately, he'll likely get a fine instead. then maybe the nba will offer him a franchise.

i think this reporter http://sports.yahoo....09972--nfl.html gets it right. the quotes from the unnamed browns players are priceless as well: "these billionaires need to pick somebody and stay with them". the natives are past restless re the browns and the nfl, in general.

the reporter presented a typical fan response to this years browns and prefaced it as such. would you argue it"s imprecise? would you argue it's irrelevant? haslam looked surprised. i'm guessing he's pretty aware of fans unhappiness. i think he was responding to the audacity of the reporter in directly confronting him with it. i agree with the op: bravo to the reporter. it's fair to assume he works for a local media source. do not the local taxpayers have a right to comment on the browns and its ownership? most telling is that it's linked to the nfl site. teams like the bills and browns are hurting the brand. this, to me, is evidence that the nfl publicly acknowledges that fact.

irrefutable evidence that our corrupt system is not working. this must have been written by insiders in the vitamin and supplement industry (just like many of the recently passed banking regulations). i wonder what the payment was and to whom it was given for this piece of shiet. it helps absolutely no one except the hucksters. and a directorship in the nih? yet the definitive paper on the subject gets published by a group completely divorced from that office in a similarly separate publication. this shameful piece of legislation calls for at least a couple of immediate changes imo: first an expert governmental medical board like that used in the uk and envisioned by tom daschle to oversee and write legislation on such issues and to set healthcare policy. second and more importantly, campaign finance reform.

agreed. but if he doesn't, how many fans will excuse it? i won't but i'll still likely watch the games i can although not likely renew sunday ticket. the most telling part of the press conference was brandon's comment that he talks to wilson daily, appraising him of developments. with that in mind, i think we can safely conclude that if the toronto series goes on, it's not solely brandon's decision. i think that would reveal the persistence of the man behind the curtain.

i think he's already shown part of his hand: he's gonna dangle the "present" of stopping the toronto game in front of fans eyes for months...then just before we're set to kick the ball, he'll pull a lucy and move it. you'd think removing the game if he felt it was detrimental to the team would mean it would be gone by now. his quotes in the "bills brass" article suggest otherwise. i see only 2 possible conclusions: he's a liar or he's stupid and can't see simple logic. of course, they both may well be true. if he reneges on the toronto game, we're pretty much assured of the same old same old noncommittment to winning with continued consistent losing. if he trashes it, i see some hope.

ya mean the ones we never, ever get? bill belichick begs to differ. anyone else notice a striking correlation between the haves and havenots and the top and bottom of the coaching pay scale? btw, forbes has andy reid tied for 2nd at kc at 7.5 mil.

the authors are academic internists and pharm D's. they're generally not stellar business folks and generally not uberwealthy, although there are rare exceptions. the guys making the big bucks here are the vitamin- supplement hucksters. internists and legitimate drug co's aren't getting rich on a problem that has no ready and profitable true alternative solution. moreover, very few, if any, of this group would knowingly defraud people.. wouldn't you expect the hucksters to do double blinded placebo studies proving the worth of their products if they knew they worked? why not market them as drugs and go through the vigorous scrutiny required to become fda approved? become big leaguers... i once called a vitamin manufacturer after isolating a hepatitis case and attributing it to his co's "muscle building supplement". asked what safety studies had been done and had other cases been discovered, he told me that a large study done at the "University of Canada" had proven it's safety.. when asked exactly where that imaginary institution was, he pleaded ignorance - the first and only honest exchange we had at a time where he should have been very concerned for his customer's health.. this was several years ago before many such even more serious and deadly cases came to light.. the papers cited in the annals are good science and had negative results for vitamins. almost all of the many proceeding studies have had negative or equivocal results. you all provide fine examples of the nonscience of wishful thinking. and placebo effect should not be underestimated. with psych drugs, it sometimes approaches 50% in the control arm of a study. follow the money for motive, as you implied, and it leads exclusively to the hucksters. what the investigators and editorialists in the annals sought and found, was the answer to the question. and it financially benefits them not at all. i'll wager that many of the investigators would have been happier if they found real benefit from some of the stuff. it would represent another weapon in the arsenal of wellness techniques. the fact that you here, and undoubtedly many others worldwide, choose to believe the hucksters and your own personal anecdotes above overwhelming, massive, rigorous and irrefutable evidence shouldn't be surprising. it's happened repeatedly throughout history as has the occurrence of truth- tellers being attacked. it's the basis for many continued examples of quackery such as homeopathic medicine and chelation therapy, to name just two. common or not, it's always a disappointing phenomenon to witness.

feminine hygeine products? i'll bet you shampoo your hair twice everyday like it says on the bottle, too. wanna buy some vitamins?

why isn't every retail investor screaming about stuff like this? - http://www.thestreet.com/story/12158776/1/bill-ackmans-herbalife-tumble-continues.html?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO. this is exactly why the fundamentals don't much matter.

different argument on the question of the bigger fool.i get that many of the people buying their products aren't reading the annals. but some are. and this story has made the national media's A list. it's going to have a measurable negative effect. that's not being reflected in the market and that's far from unique. there are certainly financial experts that argue that market manipulation is very prevelant and fundamentals are becoming less important. that's my point and it's far from novel.i go out of my way to avoid adding to wilson's coffers. i'm sure he got a piece of my sunday ticket purchase indirectly but that is a necessary evil expended for nostalgia. tradition and rituals are imnportant.

the studies are absolutely, directly correlated to both of those companies business models. perhaps what you mean to say is that deception is their predominant business model. that may be true but a statement from a highly respected medical journal calling for an end to the use of almost all of their products by almost everyone would be expected to have a significant impact on sales and therefore profits, no? do you really need an mba to analyze that? yet, the stock market yawns. traders were much more excited about the shenanigans of the masters of the universe playing around with herbalife's power structure than in the fundamentals of the business. smoke and mirrors...

wanna explain to me this observation? how can that be rationalized?

this assumes there's some connection betwen wall st and main st. i don't think there is. this am herbalife is up 1% and gnc is flat, 1 day after the entire basis for their existence was buried. house of cards, smoke and mirrors etc...whatever you want to call it, the market is often not based on truth

just waiting for herbalife to sue. oh wait, they don't have a case.

finally, someone http://annals.org/ar...ticleid=1789253 with the guts to say what we've known for years: http://annals.org/ar...ticleid=1789253. sorry, flintstones chewables.

you forgot the marlboro man. impotence, heart disease and lung cancer...the very definition of macho.

http://www.indeed.co...ceptionist.html. that's an avg of $12.50 nationally. we started at $10 with full benefits and that was a few years back. maybe an office in manhattan is paying $30 but i doubt any in wny are paying anywhere near that.

B-Man, something else i think we can agree on: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/like-pope-francis-youll-love-jesus/2013/12/11/cf2d4fd8-610d-11e3-8beb-3f9a9942850f_story.html.