I am first to admit that data is not pleural for antic-dote, but I would be interested in seeing the peer reviewed study that supports your statement.

Well, it might have helped if half the stimulus hadn’t been turned into non-stimulative tax cuts by the Congress.

And yet by every metric it beats the private sector. Funny how that works – how conservo-libs never allow their bad experiences with the private sector to sour them on the whole idea. No, that sort of reasoning is relegated to considerations of government, where one bad doctor means that 40 million Americans can’t be allowed to have health care.

First, Military medicine and VA medicine are very different systems, with only their inefficiency in common. Military physicians and post graduate support staff are generally competent and dedicated but somewhat inexperienced. The bulk of the military physicians, nurses, PT, OT… serve a four to seven year obligation to the military right out of their training or residency, and then separate for well paying positions on the outside. They are not rejects, they are often top students, and many are more mature having families which they had to support through medical school which led them to the military for support. I have high confidence in my military physicians, and military medicine has a strong dedication, an esprit de corps in taking care of the troops.

In contrast, the VA is filled with incompetence. The attitude of the nursing staff is dismal, the contract physicians are either older and looking to take it easy, foreign medical graduates who can’t find jobs, or physicians who have been unable to keep up anywhere else. When a patient codes at the VA, nurses don’t run to the patient’s bedside to offer help, they run to their computers to make sure they crossed all the T’s… Medical personnel are not fired from the VA for harming a patient or failing to properly care for a patient but for screwing up paperwork (and even that is rare). None of the VA shortcomings are due to a lack of funding. They have great equipment at the VA, the support staff are far better paid than the staff at the community hospital and have better benefits.

The community hospital is by far the most efficient and cost conscience of the three (And pairs in comparison to private hospitals in these measures). The competence of the physicians are on par with the military, however are generally more experienced. Nursing is generally caring although not quite as supportive as the military, but very efficient, knowledgeable and attentive.

In short, the VA is a miserable place in which I would never want to be a patient. The attitude of the employees, the care, and the bureaucracy disgust me.

I’m right here, reminding you that one bad apple in the system doesn’t indict government-run health care.

Damn great Dylan allusion.

I was hoping to hear from someone arguing for govt healthcare, not from someone I agree with! well said, though…

I would love to hear someone show me where ‘this idea is so good, it’ll work with automobiles, banking…’ oh, wait- that’s what they’re trying to do.

#20
All I want for Christmas is for someone to show me a business model that has worked under this socialist system.

Well, step one is to point guns at everyone who happens to be on your turf and demand a bunch of money, and step two is to then give them something resembling health care.

What’s that? It doesn’t work in places where it’s been tried? But you’d be wrong. It does work – for the people in charge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_trial

http://www.libraryindex.com/pages/2149/History-Human-Animal-Interaction-MEDIEVAL-PERIOD.html

DMV clerks with scalpels. Get used to it.

By the time they returned to the Rainbow, officers had already checked two nearby bars and arrested nine people. Neither of the other bars had a gay clientele.

Arresting people for being intoxicated in a friggin’ bar!

Nanny state, thy name is Texas.

I don’t know what people expect in these situations. It’s not like it’s at all possible to hire people who understand, or train (or fire) people who don’t, that even if someone calls you a name you don’t like, it’s not OK to hit him. It’s been awhile, but I don’t think I’ve heard that since elementary school, and we can’t believe that the police, with all the intense preparation required for them to perform their official duties, have time to reflect back on grade-school nonsense.

In all seriousness, though, when I read that sentence by the chief, for me it might as well have been an admission of guilt on several levels. Firstly, if the chief really thought that his officer had been assaulted by the bar patron, and that’s why the bar patron ended up with a brain injury, that would have been the focus of the statement. Not this weak-assed ” *sniff* People were teasin’ us! *sniff*”. When I was a child and got in trouble for hitting my brother, that was the kind of crap I said to justify it when I knew I shouldn’t have done what I did–if I had hit him back because he hit me, believe me, that would have been the first thing out of my mouth. Secondly, the chief is tacitly admitting that he thinks that teasing/taunting a cop is sufficient grounds for him to assault you. And this isn’t some private belief he is joking about around the water cooler with his colleagues–he obviously believes the general public ought to support him on this; otherwise why make that part of your statement to the press?