Speaking of health care reform...
03/22/2010
...yesterday I re-read what I wrote on this subject last summer, and it stands as my basic view on the subject. The only thing that's changed is that the CBO has evaluated the current plan more approvingly than whatever was under consideration in August. And from what I've read this approval depends on a lot of finagling to the timing to keep some costs out of the CBO's picture, excessively rosy assumptions, and promises made by Congress which it is very unlikely to keep.
I did finally read David Goldhill's piece in The Atlantic. It's very good, and I think points in the direction we ought to be going. It's not a cure-all, but that's part of a reasonable approach: there is no cure-all, nothing that will give everybody perfect health care at a cost to no one.
I could almost prefer the more leftward "single-payer" solution to what just passed. Those who wish to see the insurance companies suffer for their sins will be disappointed; it appears that the industry will be well provided for, as the fundamental irrationality of third-party payment for everything is preserved. I predict that this bill will greatly empower all sorts of parasitic entities that have nothing much to do with actually delivering health care.
But, you know, it's...change. I see the president is quoted in the paper this morning saying "This is what change looks like." You just want to say "Dude. Change can look like almost anything, many of them far from attractive."
You said "dude"! You *are* hip!
Posted by: antiaphrodite | 03/22/2010 at 09:06 AM
Arguably, yes, I suppose. Either that or just an old dingbat.
Either way, not young. I think I would rather be young than hip. Though not if I had to go through being a young fool again...:-)
Posted by: Mac | 03/22/2010 at 09:24 AM
:-)
Posted by: antiaphrodite | 03/22/2010 at 09:58 AM
But then again I would rather be a young fool than an old fool, like which, as we know, there is no fool.
I fully expect my generation to provide a rich panoply of old fools. I hope I'm not going to be one of them.
Posted by: Mac | 03/22/2010 at 10:24 AM
I kind of think you won't be :-)
Posted by: antiaphrodite | 03/22/2010 at 11:06 AM
I hope you're right.
Stuff like this holds a lot of potential:
http://www.salon.com/news/2010/02/22/us_seniors_marijuana/index.html
Posted by: Mac | 03/22/2010 at 11:47 AM
I know "pot-smoking Granny" is supposed to be funny. I guess y'all had us younger folk believe you're going to live forever :-) Or die young and pretty.
Posted by: antiaphrodite | 03/22/2010 at 11:54 AM
I didn't get to be young and pretty, so now I'm shooting for old and dignified. Which, now that I think of it, may mean that I shouldn't say "dude." :-)
I think there's likely to be a lot of cringe-inducing stuff. There already is, really: old people talking about their sex lives, etc.
There are some who think they have a shot at living forever (and not in the right way):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Kurzweil
See the "nutrition" etc. section.
Posted by: Mac | 03/22/2010 at 12:20 PM
I'm sure there's a very dignified way to say "dude" :-D
Old people talking about their sex lives--on their own reality shows!
I'm curious about what they think is worth sticking around for forever.
Posted by: antiaphrodite | 03/22/2010 at 12:46 PM
"...on their own reality shows."
You really know how to twist the knife. :-)
If you think this life is all there is, and you have it pretty good, as Kurzweil does, you don't want to leave. Although I think *forever* in our current mode of existence would eventually become intolerable.
Posted by: Mac | 03/22/2010 at 12:57 PM
"You really know how to twist the knife. :-)"
That's how I roll. Dude :-D
Well, that's one thing, isn't it? "If you have it pretty good." If I don't have it pretty good, what then? What if I don't have *it*? What if I never can?
Posted by: antiaphrodite | 03/22/2010 at 01:26 PM
You know, anybody opening up this comment thread anticipating a lively discussion of health care reform...is probably new to the place. :-)
A few weeks ago we (wife & I) watched...oh heck what was the name of it?...The Hairdresser's Wife, by Patrice Leconte, who was interviewed in one of the dvd extras. He said, quite calmly and reasonably, that he really didn't think life worth living if one didn't have it pretty good. And then answered your question by saying, in effect, that such a person is better off dead. And if my memory is correct he suggested that this was true of most people in the world.
Posted by: Mac | 03/22/2010 at 01:36 PM
"You know, anybody opening up this comment thread..."
I know! But hey, it's still kind of related, yes? :-D
Yeah, which may be one reason why I think an infinite extension of this life is, at the very least, an inadequate solution, applicable to only a selective/ed few. (I'm not sure what escape there in being dead, but that's a slightly different topic.)
Posted by: antiaphrodite | 03/22/2010 at 02:02 PM
I'm hoping that I will be better off dead.
AMDG
Posted by: Janet Cupo | 03/22/2010 at 02:15 PM
Indeed. But of course Leconte meant **dead**.
Actually I think even someone with all this life can offer would go mad or something after...I don't know, a couple of hundred years or so? I guess that would vary from one person to another.
Posted by: Mac | 03/22/2010 at 02:19 PM
There are books and movies that deal with that subject and I can't remember one where the author thought that the immortals would be happy.
AMDG
Posted by: Janet Cupo | 03/22/2010 at 02:37 PM
And I was thinking this morning about how sad I am about some things that have changed or been destroyed. I mean places, buildings, roast beef sandwiches from Roy Rogers :-) --Stuff like that--not to mention people that you love. How could you bear the weight of all that loss--all that longing for the past.
AMDG
Posted by: Janet Cupo | 03/22/2010 at 02:42 PM
The sadness of the elves.
Posted by: Mac | 03/22/2010 at 03:39 PM
You're right!
AMDG
Posted by: Janet Cupo | 03/22/2010 at 03:48 PM
I have just dropped in briefly to commiserate with you that the USA will now have tax-payer funded abortions.
I'm not against gov'ts funding healthcare, but taxpayer funded abortion is another matter. We have it here in Oz. I hate it.
Posted by: Louise | 03/22/2010 at 05:18 PM
The real impact is not clear yet, but I think it's accurate to say the door has been opened.
Posted by: Mac | 03/22/2010 at 05:32 PM
Maybe so, but there is still overwhelming opposition among the electorate to fund abortions. The Hyde Ammendment passes with huge margins every year because of that opposition.
Posted by: Dave | 03/24/2010 at 02:06 AM
This post at First Things is probably a pretty accurate summary of the state of things:
http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2010/03/23/a-final-faq-on-healthcare-and-abortion/
Posted by: Mac | 03/24/2010 at 09:34 AM
oy
Posted by: Dave | 03/24/2010 at 06:55 PM