Rubes

Dude, Hamdan was on fire in that video. I'm looking for him to make a play for the starting spot in training camp.

According to NFL Network Was this posted already? Couldn't find it anywhere. A pretty good video, although I had to turn off the part where they show the...well, you'll know.

Sounds about right for a Bills fan.

Blaming Lynch for his poor receiving numbers out of the backfield? Yeah, right.

Thanks for the recap!

Somebody got cut and I've heard of him. Git 'er done!

Football season can't get here fast enough.

Everybody needs a Turtle.

If you watch the Frontline special at the link, one of the countries highlighted is Switzerland. Like America, Switzerland was dominated by powerful pharmaceutical and insurance companies, and yet they have managed to change. At the time of the change, only half the country supported it; now, about a decade later, the vast majority of people agree with it. Somehow the pharmaceutical and insurance companies went along with it, and somehow they are okay with it now. You'll have to watch it to see how. Although the situation in Switzerland is a bit different than the U.S., it still gives me hope that a country can change and emerge from under the powerful control of Big Pharma and Big Insurance. Yeah, sorry. Should really move this to another forum. No union plumbers in Utah, as far as I know.

With all due respect, did you even look at the program? Let's take one of the examples highlighted in the program, Japan. The Japanese have better health than us and spend half as much as us, only 8% GDP. Certainly, their better health is due in part to lifestyle issues, but they do have the highest life expectancy and lowest infant mortality rates in the world. Their healthcare system has a lot to do with that. In Japan, they utillize a "social insurance" program. All citizens are required to have health insurance. Usually, it is provided (at least in part) by their employer. If they don't have insurance through their employer, they must purchase it from a non-profit, community-based plan. If they can't afford to buy it, the government helps pay the premiums. Not really all that different from the U.S., except for the fact that the insurers there are all non-profit. Insurance companies cannot make a profit, and they cannot turn anyone down for any reason. But before you go railing against Japan's "socialized medicine", note that Japan's healthcare is NOT socialist. 80% of the hospitals in Japan are private, which is more than in this country. And virtually all doctors offices are private businesses. As for your pride in getting an MRI the same day a doctor prescribes it (which, of course, is not necessarily true for everybody in this country), in Japan there are no gatekeepers, which means you can see any doctor or any specialist you want at any time. And you don't need an appointment -- ever. There is no wait. None. You can see a doctor of any kind and get whatever testing you want whenever you want. The Japanese get twice as many MRIs per capita as Americans. They love them. They get them all the time. And they're incredibly cheap: in the United States, an MRI can run you somewhere around $1200. In Japan, it's $98. Ninety-eight freaking dollars. What about a night in the hospital? If you want a private room, a night in the hospital will cost you a mere $90. If you don't mind a multi-occupancy room (4 per room), you pay just $10 per night. Anybody have any idea how much a night in the hospital here is? And the Japanese are extremely satisfied with their healthcare. Are there problems with this system? Of course. Doctors and hospitals are extremely underpaid, due to price controls instituted by the government. Some hospitals find it hard to stay in business with these prices. Some people believe Japan doesn't spend enough on healthcare. Imagine that. Does the government "run" their healthcare? Of course not. They control prices and they provide assistance for the poor. This is just Japan. Four other countries are highlighted in that documentary. All four provide universal coverage. Most utilize private, not socialist or government-run healthcare. All have excellent healthcare -- at least comparable to America. None require you to wait 9 months for an MRI. All spend considerably less on healthcare than we do. The conversation runs far deeper than "My healthcare is better than yours and I don't have to wait 9 months for an MRI."

Good response, I appreciate it. I think there's a lot more to the story, of course -- plenty of stories like my wife's patient who probably has cancer but refuses to get testing done because he has no insurance anymore, because he had it through his wife but lost it when she developed brain cancer and lost her job. It would make a good discussion over on OTW or PPP, I agree, and perhaps I'll get around to doing that. I do urge you (and everyone) to watch that Frontline special online. You don't have to wait 9 months for an MRI everywhere else.

My next door neighbor is a self-employed plumber with a wife and two young daughters. He has a nice boat, a number of ATVs, two trucks and an SUV, a satellite dish, and certainly a number of other goodies. Didn't have any healthcare insurance of any kind until just recently, when the wife took a job at the county jail for the benefits.

Regardless of whether or not you think it's a right, as I've said, there are plenty of countries out there who provide universal coverage with a system that is NOT socialized medicine, and they do a pretty good job of it. People really need to understand that universal coverage DOES NOT EQUAL socialized medicine. At least, most Americans' idea of what socialized medicine is. Once we get past the knee-jerk responses, maybe this country can have a real dialogue.

Many medical device and pharmaceutical companies are not U.S. companies. Many studies demonstrating the efficacy of these devices and drugs are performed in other countries. I'm pretty sure it's to just take care of whatever problem they have, and no matter what, don't even think of making a mistake.

Count de Money! de MoNAY, de MoNAY!

AKC, I know you're a very strong-minded individual, and you have very firm opinions about many things, particularly this country. I don't expect I will have much luck convincing you otherwise. All that I ask is that you try to look at the huge problem we have with an open mind rather than strong emotions. I don't fully understand why you mix the concepts of universal coverage and high quality care. The fact that your friend went to a relatively poor country and got poor quality healthcare is entirely unrelated to the fact that the country has universal coverage. I have no illusions that, if I were in a relatively poor country, the quality of care I would receive there is necessarily any good, regardless of whether it's free. But the conclusion that the lousy quality care she received is somehow related to the fact that they have universal coverage is dubious at best, as is the notion that if this country adopted universal healthcare, the quality would somehow drop. If you truly believe our nation's healthcare system is second to none, I ask only that you look at the information out there that suggests this is far from reality. Regardless, there is no possible way we can sustain the current model. We can't go on keeping our heads in the sand. Universal coverage does not equal socialized medicine, nor does it necessarily spell the end of high quality healthcare. Michael Moore's crap aside, there was an excellent program on Frontline recently which looked at five different nations around the world that offer universal coverage, excellent quality healthcare, short wait times, high patient satisfaction, and much much lower expenditures than the US. No system is without its issues, of course, but these are systems that work, and they work well. You can watch the whole thing online if you like, just click the "Watch Online" link. I'll leave you with the final words of the program. You can decide for yourself if you just want to continue to ignore the problem.

Not to hijack this thread, but it should be pointed out that universal health care does not automatically equate to waiting months for your procedure. There are a number of countries that have universal health care with little to no waiting times, or waiting times that equal that we see in this country.

Seems he forgot about that little pre-season spat against Pittsburgh in August. Regardless, I hope it's right. And I think Promo's probably got it...if the Bills don't relocate, I would expect probably a 50-50 split of games at some point in the future.

Nevertheless, as I posted in OTW... HGH and Athletic Performance: the data

Well played, sir. Well played.

Talk about a day late and a dollar short...

If that don't make it worthwhile, I don't know what would.