Thog's Science Masterclass #6

[realthog]

Jason Roberson writes in yesterday's Dallas Morning News:  

Texas once again led the nation with the highest percentage of residents without health insurance, a U.S. Census Bureau report showed Tuesday . . . 

But the numbers are misleading, said John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, a right-leaning Dallas-based think tank. Mr. Goodman, who helped craft Sen. John McCain's health care policy, said anyone with access to an emergency room effectively has insurance, albeit the government acts as the payer of last resort. (Hospital emergency rooms by law cannot turn away a patient in need of immediate care.)

"So I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime," Mr. Goodman said. "The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American – even illegal aliens – as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care.

"So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved."

Seems logical. ER won't check your breast for tumours, which means you get cancer. Neither will ER offer you chemotherapy or a lumpectomy when those become necessary, so you die. And this way you're no longer counted as one of the uninsured.

So that nice Mr Goodman's absolutely right! Whoopee! Let's all party!

(By the way, anyone got a bridge to sell? The one I bought on eBay a few weeks ago has never arrived and they won't answer my e-mails . . .)

Comments

[hutch0.livejournal.com]

I can let you have the Albert Bridge for a very competitive price. But you have to convince me it'd be going to a good home because it has special dietary needs and I can't bear to think of someone mistreating it.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't the shipping cost from the UK be prohibitive?

[hutch0.livejournal.com]

Not my problem. Buyer does the shipping, right? I'll throw in all the bulbs as well, if that'll make you happy.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

No use to me, mate -- they're the wrong wattage!

(An' some people say I'm gubbubble.)

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

As a former resident of Battersea, I have a sentimental attachment to the Albert Bridge. I would suggest the Vauxhall Bridge as an alternative.

[hutch0.livejournal.com]

Okay, agreed. The Vauxhall Bridge isn't as pretty as the Albert Bridge and the view from it is fairly ordinary. Nobody'll miss it apart from the workers at MI6 HQ.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"Nobody'll miss it apart from the workers at MI6 HQ."

And, judging by their track record, it'd be some time before they noticed.

[hutch0.livejournal.com]

If at all.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

A benefit I hadn't thought of.

[hutch0.livejournal.com]

It might not inconvenience them all that much; I've always thought of MI6 as being staffed entirely by people who live in Surrey.