I get your point, I really do. That said, I have worked in the industry and I guarantee you without patents the R&D will stop cold in the present climate. It is much more complicated than I have time for here but maybe they can be more closely monitored in how it happens but pharma needs to cover costs of research all the way to bringing it to market. There are certainly flaws but no patents whatsoever is not going to make it.

As an aside, if you look into why all the pharma companies have merged, been bought or sold in the last 20 years it is likely solely to gain drugs the company acquired had in its research or FDA approval pipeline.

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Elections have consequences.

Why do you feel children are more important than adults?

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Those places have limited beds so how do you deal with scarsity?

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

HSA are just another way of Health Care companies limiting your healthcare. So now you makes the decisions if you should go to the doctor. If you penny pinch, you are probably gonna use the doctor less.

It is a double edged sword.


And I think you are going through this with Martin Shkreli and that drug everyone got upset about.

I am not going to argue with you as you have your beliefs and there is nothing wrong with that. What I will say though when I see these sorts of ideas though is it is one sided. Many people like to point out the flaws of capitalism and democracy. Many times they are right. I never see it balanced out however with the positives and there are many.

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Elections have consequences.

True.

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Elections have consequences.

The argument would be, what is better? And I would say, nothing.

My concern on capitalism is automation. I saw a report that said 40 percent of jobs will be automated by 2030. And with Google's work on AI really no job is safe. With that percentage of the population out of work there is going to be a revolution of some sorts.

Now I know that people will say that the markets will figure it out, but I have my doubts on that. Machines will do our work far better than us. As this message board is a testament to.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

My HSA is a bank account with a check book and debit card. I put money in through a payroll deduction, and I get a company match up to the Federal allowable amount (about $46 per paycheck). It is simply saving in advance for health care costs. There is nothing about it that restricts its usage for health care costs.

It's a great feeling that when a medical bills comes, we just bill pay through our HSA. And boy have we had a lot of medical bills lately. I have probably paid $4,000+ in the past six months. We had one year where I didn't have a single bill.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

How many people used to work on farms? It was the majority. Now it is 3%. Automation resulted in vast food supplies with us wanting nothing. New jobs will appear. Creative destruction and progress. Don't worry.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

JoeOrr is Billy Zane from the Titanic.

That dope definitely exposed a flaw in the system.

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Elections have consequences.

Once again, he only could do that because of his FDA granted monopoly.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

We have to admit my friend that as it is right now many do not have access or resources for this set up.

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Elections have consequences.

But there is a problem with this theory. The goal is to have more educated people for the positions. An example is Coal industry. Are those people going to be acquiring degrees to work in solar energy? And you have Governors and El Presidente cutting or not taking education seriously. So how is that gonna work out?

This is exactly what happened with us. Now we don't take the kids to the Dr except for yearly checkups and when they are really really sick. That's probably how it should be though. They don't need a trip to the doc every time they have a little cough. I've got several lingering minor issues that I'm not checking out because I don't want to deal with the costs. If they get to be major issues, I'll go to the doc.

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The problem with that drug is, it is only used by a fraction of aids patents. Not sure there is a ton of money to be made from it.

Small coughs, I get it. I have a 1 and 3yr old. But the other part is the opposite of what should be happening. Preventative care not reactionary.

I find that to be overly optimistic. If you have general intelligence in a computer then you will not need labor. What are truck drivers going to do? Become IT experts?

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

Exactly. This is why I don't follow this logic.

Well I think quite clearly they are not.

It's worth reminding folks, as I had to be reminded as well, of the actual full name of the so-called "Obamacare" deal:
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010

Nobody ever mentions that first bit - 'Patient Protection', which, interestingly enough, is the part that succeeded the most, I believe. One can ascribe their own theories as to why that first part is left out.

One can argue about the affordability - it worked for some, it didn't work for others. Theoretically, this new nonsense is supposed to actually make things affordable. That's horseshit on a stick, but that claim has been plainly made. I like whatever House member it was saying that "he knew" this deal would be better. When asked how he knew that, his brilliant response was, "I just know it." Okay pal.

What one can't argue - at least not well - is how this bologna protects patients ... the re-introduction of 'pre-existing conditions' concept immediately halts any debate on that.

And to those still trying to equivocate this to any other type of insurance, take a moment to read (I'd say re-read but I doubt that'd be the case) leash's lengthy post (and members of leash's lengthy post) and then think of, say, Scooter's daughter - should she pull through all of this, unless she started shitting gold at a rate of $10k a day for life, she couldn't buy insurance to (literally) save her life under the old and, presumably, the new rules. There's also more than a little concern about how this new BS will affect those afflicted with autism. I think we all know there are quite a few posters who this would affect directly.

Additionally one will of course recall that prior to the vote yesterday how quickly the House acted to assure they remained covered under the terrible ACA. I mean, if you don't think that all but clears the whole matter up, then frankly you're a dunce.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

The HSA thing is misunderstood to some degree. It is a product of the private employer system. With a high deductible plan, the employee is picking up first dollar costs and effectively only has stop loss coverage. There is no real insurance coverage until you hit the cap. In return for that, you get much lower premiums, $170 per paycheck less in my case, and my employer has that same benefit. You take those savings and put them in an HSA account. Now the money is mine, which makes me accountable for my dollar spend.

You could make this work in the government world, if you wanted. Instead of Medicaid paying the full load, why not give poor people accounts with money used for healthcare costs? That way they control the dollars and spend.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

My 3yr old twisted her ankle really bad and was not putting any weight on it. We elevated it and put ice on it but after a day she still didn't feel any better. We took her to the doc and he said it looks like its just a sprain but he wanted an xray to be safe. That set us back $700.

This is the problem that I have. The Dr knew that foot/ankle was fine but he sent us out to waste money on a CYA errand.

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That's not insurance. Having a life threatening illness that will cost $10k per day, and then going to some company and saying I will pay you $10k per year and you cover $10k per day will not work. No one will take the other side of it.

Insurance is something you buy before an "accident". Once you've had an "accident", you can't then go buy insurance. If we allow that, then the entire insurance system collapses. That's why you buy home, auto and life before an accident/death.

Imagine going to MetLife and saying I'd like to buy a policy for my dead grandfather.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Well your company is just aces. No one else I know that moved to a high deductible plan with an HSA saw their premiums go down. They all increased and we got worse coverage.

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Than something is really wrong with the ankle that cannot be determined without an x-ray and you sue the doctor.

Cant blame the doctor for sending out for the xray.

Medicaid is for less fortunate people who have kids?

If this is the case, and the parent has $300 a month to spend, but the kid needs $400 worth, what do you do?

This is a great example of something that neither the ACA or AHCA will address, and what I believe to be the root cause to this issue.

Right. I know why it had to be done but there needs to be a better way. I paid $700 so that I wouldn't be able to sue the doctor at a later date.

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