From: Howard Brazee on
The interesting thing about Massachusetts is that it already has
pretty much the Health Care bill Congress is working on - and the
voters there keep saying they're happy with it.

As with most elections, people vote for the person, but elect the
party. (Or vote *against* the other person).


--
"In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found,
than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace
to the legislature, and not to the executive department."

- James Madison
From: Howard Brazee on
On Sun, 31 Jan 2010 08:15:37 -0800 (PST), Dinosaur_Sr
<frostback2002(a)att.net> wrote:

>Only in the same was as Americans do, through the emergency room.
>Americans have choices Canadians do not have, especially Americans who
>work for a living.

Lots of Americans who work have a choice between companies subsidized
by their employers. And they and others with money have a choice to
buy whatever insurance they want.

Of course, if you have money, you don't need health-care, all you need
is disaster insurance. Except insurance companies have enough
lawyers that they don't have to pay nearly as much as gets charged by
hospitals.

People without money have the choice between going to the hospitals
that will charge the rest of us, or of not getting treated.


The Health Care Bill looks like it will change two things:

1. People without money will now have the option of going to cheaper
clinics.

2. Abortion will no longer be paid for by insurance companies.

So obviously fiscally and religiously conservatives who think must be
supporting this bill.

--
"In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found,
than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace
to the legislature, and not to the executive department."

- James Madison
From: Howard Brazee on
On Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:16:33 -0500, William Clark
<wclark2(a)colnospamumbus.rr.com> wrote:

>> It's interesting that East Africa produces world class long distance
>> runners, and West Africa produces world class sprinters. Even when
>> those people have lived in American countries for generations.
>>
>> I wonder what characteristics would be best for golfing.
>
>I think you will find that it is because it is East Africa that is more
>mountainous (at least where people live) so running at altitude trains
>those slow twitch muscles and aerobic capacity. I don't think it has as
>much to do with genetics, as it does with tradition.

I wonder how many Americans are genetically primarily East African,
and whether they are better at long distance running.

Most of the slaves came from West Africa.

--
"In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found,
than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace
to the legislature, and not to the executive department."

- James Madison
From: Howard Brazee on
On Sat, 30 Jan 2010 23:43:05 -0600, Jim Lovejoy <nospam(a)devnull.spam>
wrote:

>> It's interesting that East Africa produces world class long distance
>> runners, and West Africa produces world class sprinters. Even when
>> those people have lived in American countries for generations.
>>
>> I wonder what characteristics would be best for golfing.
>>
>Just at a guess a mix of African American, Native American, Thai, Dutch and
>Chinese.

I don't know of any evidence that would go counter to your guess.

--
"In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found,
than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace
to the legislature, and not to the executive department."

- James Madison
From: BAR on
In article <wclark2-DAA3A1.12163831012010(a)charm.magnus.acs.ohio-
state.edu>, wclark2(a)colnospamumbus.rr.com says...
>
> In article <MPG.25cf4f20b9b45579989aef(a)news.giganews.com>,
> BAR <screw(a)you.com> wrote:
>
> > In article <wclark2-C43E1D.17084630012010(a)charm.magnus.acs.ohio-
> > state.edu>, wclark2(a)colnospamumbus.rr.com says...
> > > Well, Spain, Portugal, and Puerto Rica are above the US, Mexico below.
> > > So it can be genetic - it must be socio-economic. So it simply proves
> > > the point that the poor, who can not afford health insurance, have their
> > > life expectancy drastically reduced by living under the US health
> > > insurance system.
> > >
> > > Thank you for pointing that out.
> > >
> >
> > I hate to point this out to you Billy but the people of Puerto Rico are
> > US citizens.
>
> But they have a different health care system, that most importantly
> specifically provides for the poor. Here read about it:
>
> "The Puerto Rico Health Reform (Reforma de Salud de Puerto Rico in
> Spanish), locally referred to simply as the Reform (la Reforma in
> Spanish) is a government-run program which provides medical and
> healthcare services to indigent and impoverished citizens of Puerto Rico
> by means of contracting private health insurance companies, as opposed
> to the traditional system of government-owned hospitals and emergency
> centers. The Reform is administered by the Puerto Rico Health Insurance
> Administration and, as of December 31, 2005, provides healthcare
> coverage to over 1.5 million Puerto Ricans,[1] equal to 37.5% of the
> island population. The life expectancy of Puerto Rico is higher than
> that of the United States."
>
> Note the final sentence in particular :-)

I'll give you a hint the Spanish are a mix of European and African
people.

And, you forgot to include quite a bit from your Wikipedia cut and
paste.

I don't know why you are holding up the Puerto Rican system as a model.
It is suffering from the same thing as all forced government systems, it
is being crushed by the weight of rising costs.

The three largest insurance companies operating in Puerto Rico are
currently the only ones participating in the Reform. These are Triple-S,
Inc. with 40.4% of the Reform beneficiaries, Medical Card Systems (MCS)
with 33.5%, and Humana with 26.1%.[1]

The Reform has faced criticism from different sectors[who?] because of
the increasing costs associated with the system. Under the
administration of Gov. Sila Calder�n, the government tried to cut back
on services and eliminated many participants from the program in an
effort to curtail expenditures. However, the program still requires a
substantial amount of funds to cover its $1.4 billion annual
expenditures (2005).[2] In 2005 alone, only $400 million was generated
from participant deductibles and charges for services to cover program
expenses, while the remaining $1 billion in expenses was covered by a
subsidy provided by the state government.[2] Since medical costs are
expected to increase, experts have expressed serious concerns over the
future funding of the program.

These criticisms and fallbacks have led the government to implement more
stringent controls over the operations of the Reform as well as to
diversify the way it provides services to beneficiaries. A pilot project
began in 2003 whereby the government contracted the services of one area
directly to a medical healthcare provider instead of contracting an
insurance company, and the government has stated that this and other
programs may be implemented and expanded in the future in order to
reduce costs.[1] However, some politicians, including former Gov. Pedro
Rossell�, are campaigning to create a universal health care system by
expanding the reform program to all citizens that lack a private
insurance plan.