kgambit

GD is clearly settling in for the duration. I can't decide who to root for now that the Rangers are out.

That's essentially what I meant, yes, with the addition below. It's certainly a matter of perspective as to whether the ~15% is 'large' or not, from my perspective it's more than 10x our total population and we do have pretty much 100%/ universal health care here, so it certainly looks large. The other part of it is that as I understand it there are also problems with underinsurance/ exclusions and cutting of insurance to high risk/ high cost people which results in extra costs and extra unnecessary use of emergency systems. I guess in effect what I'm saying is that it appears that the US system is inefficient as it does not provide enough incentive for cheaper prevention over expensive treatment. Since there's no money to be made here from people getting sick and indeed it's always an economic cost to everyone involved there's a lot more emphasis on preventative tests and the like, which minimises costs in the longer term. In contrast, the US's more capitalist approach has various groups wanting to make money at every step, inevitably including groups who will make more money if someone actually gets sick than if they don't. I thought that's where you were coming from on the % - so fair enough. 48 million is a LOT of people. Hurlshot's video hits the nail on the head. It's a total overrun on costs that makes our healthcare per capita costs the highest in the world. So yes, it's totally inefficient. And Obama's law really does **** all to fix that. Heck it doesn't even achieve universal care. The ONLY decent thing that the law provided was to prevent insurance companies from denying coverage on pre-existing conditions. That was a significant accomplishment. Honestly I don't know if our system can be fixed or how it should be fixed. Details regarding the 70% figure. No. Hurlshot and I were discussing what % of US Population is currently covered by health care, not what public opinion thinks of it.

Started watching season 3 of Walking Dead. Finished Episode 3 - Governor is super creepy. He needs to be put down .....

No. I've checked multiple sources. They all agree within a couple of million on 48 million currently uninsured out of 314 million total (+/-) The reason that only 18 million new insured are added is because the tax bill is full of exemptions that excuse people from being forced into the individual mandate. I can dig up sources if you want. NY Times had a full breakdown iirc, Edit: There is a little bit of wiggle room in the final numbers because some aspects are difficult to project - such as how many people will lose employer coverage and be forced to choose between paying for their own or paying fines. Edit 2: NYTimes http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/18/us/percentage-of-americans-lacking-health-coverage-falls-again.html Edit 3: That 70% figure might be from the 19-25 yo group.

some things never change

Totally agree with the first part. I don't see a total public takeover of the health care system as being workable. Not trying to be argumentative, but could you please define what you mean by "large proportion" because last time I checked over 85% of all Americans had health care coverage. (48 million is a lot of people, yes. And ~15% is fairly high so if that's what you meant we're good) Obama's health care package is going to provide coverage for about 18 million people or less than half of the uncovered 48 million. So it's not UHC by any stretch of the imagination. And the latest budget estimate was that the net cost was ~ 1.4 trillion dollars over 10 years. And they do the same thing here, but drugs cost more in the US than elsewhere. And you're wrong about there always being a generic alternative. Sometimes a drug holds a virtual monopoly on the market and there is NO cheap alternative.

Ouch. I'm not disputing that there are some drugs with astronomical costs associated with them. Soliris (which is used to treat a very rare blood disorder) goes for about 400000 $ dollars a year. I'm just saying that anyone paying that price for Lipitor is getting gouged big time. Pfizer offered to reimburse patients for up to 50$ per prescription leaving a 4$ co-pay and then volunteered to boost that to 75$. Several large prescription houses had reduced their co-pays for brand name Lipitor to 14$. And that was all for the brand name. 124$ a month is a rip-off

124$ a month is just freaking ludicrous if that's a one month charge for Lipitor. My wife was on Lipitor for a while. We paid 95$ for 3 months for brand then reduced that to 15$ for 3 months for generic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF43P-FJrFo

That was one of five fights in the game, and the second between Parros and Orr. The new helmet rule is not going to stop it. If the league wants it out, they need to stiffen the suspensions and have them start from the first offense (not the third aggressor/instigator penalty). I can't find it now but there was a video of a pre-season game that showed how easy it was for players to get around the helmet rule. One of the teams was the Devils iirc.

and this immediately comes to mind ..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_prsgZnPMQg

And the Canadiens and Maple Leafs get the hockey season into full gear ...... and Parros goes off on a stretcher

LOL And that is even creepier, but then we are talking about ARoid

Now I know how a fly drawn to an electronic bug zapper feels .......

Just zoom your browser - it's readable on my desktop at 1920 x 1080 at 200% zoom

I'm voting for disturbing ......

chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, and green peas

And I've only posted a fraction of the strange stuff that happened to me during the past couple of months. Next thing you know your weapons will start speaking in tongues .....

Stars are still rebuilding but Valeri Nichushkin looks like a winner.

Even the duct tape? You can't reject duct tape.

LOL Caffeine is your friend .....

Now You See Me - really enjoyed this one. Great effects, good plot, good cast - well worth watching.

The Seahawks are a completely different team on the road than at home, that's why it's imperative for the rest of the NFC not to let them get the #1 seed. Come December and January, if they have to go into, for example, Green Bay, yeah I can see them potentially losing. If the Packers, or whoever, has to go into Seattle, that's a completely different story. Obviously anything can happen, to break out the tired, worn out cliche, that's why they play the games, but for a team to go into Seattle to play the NFC Championship game and beat the Seahawks there with a rabid crowd dropping some 130 decibels on them? Good luck with that. I'm not entirely sold on Seattle after the Houston game either. Schaub's pick six cost the Texan's the game imo. But Seattle is a tough home crowd. I think Seattle has some OL issues they need to work out as well. Game to watch: Monday December 2 New Orleans @ Seattle

You can get digital downloads from these locations: amc.com iTunes Amazon Netflix XBOX Live Amazon want's 2$ an episode so Netflix is much cheaper. We broke down and bought the DVDs (Amazon had them on sale) and are waiting for the dvd release on the last half of the final season.