The 2016 Presidential Election Trainwreck

[Pelado]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/john-kas...7007?mg=id-wsj

I am glad he is staying in so there is one candidate for whom I can happily cast my vote.

I, along with 16,516 others in Idaho, cast a vote for the remaining candidate best prepared to actually govern.

[Moliere]

I, along with 16,516 others in Idaho, cast a vote for the remaining candidate best prepared to actually govern.

With Rubio out, Kasich is the only shot at beating Hillary in November. Trump will get steamrolled and Cruz is gonna get beat as well. In fact, Cruz is such an ass that he might lose worse than Trump.

[frank ryan]

When did SU become possessed by the spirit on Ayn Rand?

[SeattleUte]

I think it's pretty clear that the US is the best country in the world when it comes to two types of health care for those with the financial and cognitive means to navigate the system:

1. Rescue/emergency care. You are more likely to survive a comparable car accident, heart attack, or stroke in an urban/suburban US setting than anywhere else in the world.

2. Sophisticated specialty health care (cancer, orthopedics, cardiovascular, neonatal, intensive care unit care, etc.).

There have been pretty strong financial incentives in the US that have prioritized those two aspects of health care above preventive/primary care. Don't kid yourself, access to primary care (e.g. blood pressure, cholesterol treatment) is way too time-consuming and expensive for a lot of urban and rural Americans and that's where we need to improve.

Obviously the majority of "health care outcomes" have nothing to do with the "health care system." We all know plenty of 90+ year olds who have not really interacted with the health care system and have amazing health and plenty of people with self-inflicted terrible health who die in their 50s or 60s despite really amazing, high-quality medical care.

This makes sense and is what I understand to be true. The "better outcomes" line is one we hear repeated all the time by single payor advocates and just isn't true. As for our health care costing so much more, obviously at least your second category and probably both cost a lot more than preventive care, and the statistic cited by PAC's sources don't account for that.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

I think it's pretty clear that the US is the best country in the world when it comes to two types of health care for those with the financial and cognitive means to navigate the system:

1. Rescue/emergency care. You are more likely to survive a comparable car accident, heart attack, or stroke in an urban/suburban US setting than anywhere else in the world.

2. Sophisticated specialty health care (cancer, orthopedics, cardiovascular, neonatal, intensive care unit care, etc.).

There have been pretty strong financial incentives in the US that have prioritized those two aspects of health care above preventive/primary care. Don't kid yourself, access to primary care (e.g. blood pressure, cholesterol treatment) is way too time-consuming and expensive for a lot of urban and rural Americans and that's where we need to improve.

Obviously the majority of "health care outcomes" have nothing to do with the "health care system." We all know plenty of 90+ year olds who have not really interacted with the health care system and have amazing health and plenty of people with self-inflicted terrible health who die in their 50s or 60s despite really amazing, high-quality medical care.

Any adult recipients of medicaid should have to submit to a monthly test that detects levels of nicotine, illegal drugs and Oreo lard in their systems. Cover the kids by all means, but I see a shitload of people that are on medicaid that smoke and/or are extremely overweight.

[YOhio]

KSL gets in on the Trump action.

https://twitter.com/davemccannksl/st...70635049050113

[Topper]

Years ago, I would have thought physicians would be the most strident opponents of single payer, but among the few (maybe no more than 10) docs I've discussed this with, most of them support the idea, although with varying levels of enthusiasm. Of course, my sample is meaninglessly small, but my sense is the actual health care providers are more supportive of the idea than those outside the field.

It depends upon the age of the physician. The older the physician the more likely a physician is to oppose single payer systems. These younger guys think, mistakenly, it will make their lives easier because they won't have to work the billing systems. In short, a single payer system will reduce their income and increase the hassle factor. It is a function of naivete that advocates for a single payer system.

The sites you cite are inaccurate because they do not accurately aggregate the true costs in other countries. If you compare apples for apples, our costs are reasonable. However, in many aspects we foot the bill for research that other countries rely upon for their medical technologies.

Our system is not as costly and not as outcome deficient as the popular media would have you believe. We have many factors that dictate health outcomes. We have the most diverse ethnic population mix with the most diverse cultural practices leading to the biggest variety of unhealthy lifestyles. This diversity is harmful in terms of health outcomes.

Our population is healthy if you extract the indigent poor with poor habits. There is no reason to jettison a system that works well except when government gets involved a la the ACA.

[SeattleUte]

When did SU become possessed by the spirit on Ayn Rand?

An ugly ad hominem response. Come on. You used to be better than this.

[SeattleUte]

Years ago, I would have thought physicians would be the most strident opponents of single payer, but among the few (maybe no more than 10) docs I've discussed this with, most of them support the idea, although with varying levels of enthusiasm. Of course, my sample is meaninglessly small, but my sense is the actual health care providers are more supportive of the idea than those outside the field.

This should sound alarm bells in your head, as all doctors care about is filthy lucre.

[creekster]

An ugly ad hominem response. Come on. You used to be better than this.

You're related to Ayn?

[frank ryan]

An ugly ad hominem response. Come on. You used to be better than this.

I'm honestly surprised because you seem much further rightist, politically than I remember you being.

[beefytee]

Answered 2 phone surveys tonight. Go Kasich!

[Pelado]

Answered 2 phone surveys tonight. Go Kasich!

Should know better than to answer the phone this close to an election.

[USUC]

Answered 2 phone surveys tonight. Go Kasich!

I got one as well. I thought is was a general polling call but it turns out it was an internal poll for Kasich.

[Omaha 680]

What the hell is wrong with New Yorkers? There was a primary poll released a couple days ago. Hillary is up by 48 points and Trump is up by 52. Kasich barely registers with 1%. Even more shocking to me was that the voters in each party actually seem to like Trump and Clinton:

Clinton and Sanders have similar favorability numbers with likely Democratic primary voters. Her favorable/unfavorable ratio is 82%/15% (+67); his is 63%/26% (+37). However Clinton garners far more loyalty: 85% of those who view her favorably plan to vote for her in the primary, while only 31% who have a favorable view of Sanders intend to vote for him.

Trump has the highest favorable ratings with GOP voters, 71%/23%, followed by Cruz at 52%/44% and Kasich at 54%/34%. Consistent with other primaries, Trump supporters are the most loyal, with 89% of those who see him favorably planning to cast their ballot for him. In contrast, only 21% of Republicans who have a favorable opinion of Cruz say they will vote for him.

http://media.wix.com/ugd/3bebb2_e6ef...d88762c6f3.pdf