I just caught this and it's very interesting: The Plural of Anecdote: Stories about healthcare It started on another forum (somethingawful) which doesn't have any specific political leanings, and quickly ballooned into hundreds of stories from actual verifiable people. Anyone who is interested in how different kinds of health care actually work should want to see this.
Wow, it seems that everywhere in the world except America has amazing health care! I didn't see a single positive experience with American health care, and didn't see a single complaint from any of the other countries. These results can only mean one thing; The website is censored. One US guy supposedly paid $134 dollars for a strep-test, when you can get them at CVS for $2.00 a piece! What a dumbass.
Or it could be that US health care really does suck that badly, despite what you try to convince yourself.
And some Americans pay over 300 dollars a month to insurance salesmen, for the right to see doctors that are more loyal to their drug reps and keeping you ill, than to actual healthcare! What a nation of idiots! And they still pay huge deductibles, and have unqualified strangers, with profit motives, denying them any serious care! Hooboy, what a bunch of RUBES! (Oh, and good luck with getting the lab results of your test for 2 bucks!) Maybe, we can fight MRSA with 2 dollar test kits?
Or maybe if you read "the point" of the website you would see the author had a bias and obviously acted on it to prove her point, that anectdotal evidence is worthless. I think America has one of the most poorly managed bureaucratic mess of a health care system in the world, and it is not private by any means. No, we elect people to pay the insurance companies with our money. Weren't you alive for the Nixon/Kaiser deal? Doctors can only keep you ill because you are forced to have insurance, thus the third party payer distorts their provision of services, and especially the price of their services. We are idiots for continuing to think even more government is the only solution to our problems. And if consumers don't care to educate themselves then they deserve to be ripped off. At the very least you can get a $45 dollar electronic strep test. I only mentioned that one because I don't believe someone would be stupid enough to pay that much for a throat culture.
What year was that again? It's possible, but I was still sucking toothlessly on the maternal socialist tit at that time...(infant) Ask Ron Paul, he's a republican, right? Maybe he knew Nixon! They are in the same party...AREN'T THEY? aaronman, have you ever studied microbiology and immunology? Do you know how many forms of streptococcus bacteria there are? Are you suggesting we simply take inferior substitutes for a reason? Your over the counter test kit, like America's healthcare, is a sham, useless to diagnose anything, without proper lab support. Any more science you need to learn? http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/groupastreptococcal_g.htm
So this must mean that universal heath care in the US would be great since every story on that site is either a bad US experience or a super experience in another country Since all the bad stories of waiting lines and rationing were not on this site, those stories must be made up...surely they could never happen. And the people who leave their countries to get US medical procedures must just like to travel...ya, thats it. I could probably find some great stories about guys who meet crack whores and end up with a happy family of 4 and a dog.....doesn't mean I would recommend that as a dating strategy.
Did you even read "the point"? 1971? [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QkgUkM0o6Q]YouTube - Nixon Launches the HMO's - What a SICKO[/ame] No, I haven't studied microbiology or immunology. According to wikipedia there are 5 groups, and only 1 pertains to what is known as "strep throat". B-G have different symptoms and would require a different course of action. Inferior substitutes? Please explain. I do not see any evidence that these Rapid A Strep tests are a sham in the link you provided. I've used these tests several times in my life without ever getting a false positive. That's my real story of health care.
aaronman it's funny how you get all up an arms over something being biased when someone posts something that doesn't agree with your point of view. Yet half the shit you post on here is just as one sided.
You aren't a med student? Yet you argue against these other stories, as if they are not true? Why? Wikipedia? So your basing your diagnosis of my post on wikipedia? At least I gave you a quality government sponsored source of research, the Center for Disease Control...did you read the entire page on that site, or visit any of it's links to other research? Sheesh dude, diagnosis wikipedia? You speak out on this issue as if you have some training in the area, and give a personal testimonial that tells me you are a potential hypochondriac, more than anything else. Yeah, I hate Nixon, and I don't like Kaiser. So what does that have to do with anything? I'm the one who wants the system altered radically, aren't I? You now sound as if you are in agreement of the need to change the system radically? Hmmmm? The product you mention is not a true diagnostic tool, and is fallable. True diagnosis requires access to a lab, ask any medical professional if they will trust results from a home kit, over a spectrograph.
I'd take wikipedia over any government sponsored source any day. Especially the CDC! LOL. You don't have to have training on administering health care to know about receiving it. Neither do you you need to be formally trained (med school) to know about medicine. Not to mention the same drug companies that you mentioned as having the loyalty of doctors (which I agree they do when they bribe them with paid vacations and other incentives) also have a huge say in what gets taught in med school. I'm pretty sure Aaronman has made it painfully clear that he is dissatisfied with the current system, has stated that the majority of the problems with the current system are a result of the government intervention in it, thinks it needs drastic reform, and thinks that further socializing health care is totally counterproductive to improving the system. I'm fairly positive that most people here are in agreement of the need to change the system radically, it's how to change it that we passionately disagree on.
It has to be biased. Testimonials are good for what? Have you ever taken a statistics class? Do you know what happens when you allow the sample subject to testing to select itself? Are you expecting real data? You need a random sample and I'm sorry but an internet forum is not a random sample, especially if it is compiled by some loony with a point to make. When did wikipedia become unacceptable? http://forum.grasscity.com/spirituality-philosophy/438977-what-orbs.html#post5270291 http://forum.grasscity.com/politics/420824-declare-war-solar-energy-2.html#post5063196 http://forum.grasscity.com/music-hall/382051-what-kind-drum-within-you-without-you.html#post4513509 http://forum.grasscity.com/politics...jumped-off-obama-bandwagon-5.html#post2911933 I guess none of those are examples of you using wikipedia, are they? How dare he! Who does he think he is, using wikipedia.... pshhh! Get real, girl. I'm pretty sure aaronman has been an advocate of reform just as long as anyone else here, but he has a real change to suggest. GET THE FUCK OUT OF PRIVATE INDUSTRY! Correct me if I am wrong aaronman, I don't like putting my words in other peoples' mouths.
Somehow Mr. Dink never struck me as a libertarian "Ya see Douglas, some might say objectivism only works from a privileged standpoint, but I worked hard to pay my mortgage and put food on the table. Don't listen to those whack-a-doodles whining about 'income disparity' and 'classism'. Now take this nickel and go buy yerself a honker-burger, uh ha haw."
I never did either? What the fuck does that have to do with fucking health care? What does that have to do with my post? Why the fuck are you attacking my online avatar as if that has some sort of validity? I really can't do much but laugh in your fucking face for having such a fail post.
Let me remind you of the OP: I am one sided because I am principled, and I am a person. This is a poll that is presenting itself as non-biased and "grass roots". But it is just an admitted Obamacare proponent on the computer taking people's stories,reviewing them, and posting them. Do you think the town hall mobs don't use the internet? Where are all the people talking about their positive experiences with US health care, or negative experiences with other? She even admits her agenda on the site. For him to come in here with "Real" stories of health care, as if they were actually real, is ironic because the whole point of the site was to expose the illegitimacy of anecdotal evidence (like I said?). I did manage to take several classes on statistics. I read the site, didn't see anything on Rapid A Strep Tests being a sham. Here's what I said in context: "No, we elect people to pay the insurance companies with our money. Weren't you alive for the Nixon/Kaiser deal?" My point was that this Obamacare bill, and anything proposed by this corporate run government, has the hands of industry all over it. It is essentially a subsidy boost of our dying Social Security program feeders. ie more of the same. Even I would agree with that, but that's not what you originally argued; that it was a "sham" and "useless". From my personal experience, and your lack of evidence, I'm going to have to still say that it is not a sham, nor useless.
The forum thread it came from (found here) was started by a Canadian guy chaffed at the claims of death panels and such being thrown about. Over the last couple weeks more and more people shared their own health care stories, and the health care reform proponents over there were heartened to find out that most of the stories ended up reinforcing their calls for reform--even though that's one of the largest forums on the internet and contains people from every conceivable viewpoint. That led to the above-posted site being created. The stories uploaded are moderated for the same reason any site (including this one) would do it, but it's inconsequential anyway since many of them were simply copied over from that original thread, which means either hundreds of people made up bs stories (which goes against okham's razor), or maybe... just maaaaaybe lots of people have had awful experiences with American health care--I should know, I'm one of them.
Maybe, just maybe people are more likely to remember, and therefore write about their awful experiences. It's basic psychology. Either way, no one is debating that the system doesn't need reform.
But apparently, that rule of basic psychology only applies to Americans and not those from the other nations that overwhelmingly remember the positives? Curious, I never realized there was a separate field of psychology with rules pertaining only to Americans.