"No one should stand between you and quality health care..."

Except us, the insurance companies. We're an enormous corporation, so we're, like, really down with your heath... 'n stuff.

Seriously man, you're smoking something. First, let's touch on social security. You say:

Social security is healthcare, what else do you call money thats used for food, clothing, shelter, medicine, and disabilities?

It's a government pension program. You may as well take everyone's 401k's and call that private heath care spending. Why not add in all food sales, all clothing sales, Food Stamps, defense spending, plus all housing sales, and call those health care spending too? Seriously, doesn't that strike you as perhaps being more than a touch dishonest, especially since just that one line item more than doubled the number you thought was being spent?

As for the cost per person for Medicare, it's mostly a non-sequitor since we're not talking about giving any additional people Medicare. If we were, it might cost less than what the bill will do, in absolute share of the total economy, but people who're squeamish about converting a huge segment of private spending into public spending will prevent that from happening.

As for statistics on how many people fall into each category, it's on the first page of the CBO analysis, though it's expressed in terms of the projected number of people in each category under current law, with a delta based on projected effects of HR 3200.

By 2013 it's expected to reduce the number of uninsured by 23 million, only 6 million of which would be receiving direct government coverage via Medicaid, at a predicted cost of $29 billion, or approximately $4,833/person (which is about half what the cheapest plan available through my employer costs, incidentally). Another 11 million people would be covered by the exchange, whose costs would primarily be borne by the individual, but the government will provide $33 billion in subsidies to individuals purchasing plans from the exchange, which averages out to $3,000/person (but it won't be evenly distributed). Another 10 million are expected to be covered by employer mandates, while 3 million are expected to give up their existing individual plan in order to participate in one of the aforementioned groups.

Like I said, I don't have estimates of the private cost. I also haven't read a modern study of a Medicare-for-all plan that took a real look at the cost, rather than your approach of taking the current per-capita cost and assuming it scales linearly (which is dishonest, and lazy!).

As for your two bolded questions, they're both more or less moot, but I'll answer a version of the first one: Why does every man, woman, and child need health care?

Because it should be a basic human right. Once you're willing to take the step of saying that you're willing to tell Emergency Rooms to save people, even if they have no means of payment, you're acknowledging that. This is mostly an effort to say that the ER isn't the humane or cost-effective way to service that basic right. There is plenty of room to debate what kind of care one should be able receive via government assistance alone, but the way we do things now is both expensive and immoral, and has to stop.

Controlling costs is a whole other kettle of fish. If your chief objection to the plan is that it does not do enough to control the growth of cost, I think that's fair. But I don't think your fears of some sort of government-induced problem with runaway costs is justified.

I have just come across this Mattel snub nose 38 still in original box unopened and shrink wrapped. It comes with the holster and everything. I am wondering if anyone is interested in buying it? let me know. heath

Tags for this video have been changed from 'The, Imaginarium, of, Doctor, Parnassus, Trailer, Heath, Ledger' to 'The, Imaginarium, of, Doctor, Parnassus, Trailer, Heath, Ledger, Tom Waits' - edited by schmawy

>> ^fford:
audio disabled


Oh good, I thought it was just me.

Don't feel pressured to sift anything. You've posted enough for the both of us. In the meantime don't let the man get you down. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to finish watching this Heath Ledger movie with my hand down my pants...

In reply to this comment by kronosposeidon:
I prefer Karamel Sutra, but thanks for thinking of me.

Eh, just kind of been bored with videos these days. I find fewer of them appealing to me lately. And rather than crying that quality has gone down here like some people like to do (you know whom I'm talking about), I think it's better to lay low and try to hang on to the few shreds of dignity I have left.

I'll still be around, and maybe I'll post some videos if I find a few that are completely half-assed. Quarter-assed is my limit.

In reply to this comment by rottenseed:
You sure are quiet these days. Are you wallowing in your own self-pity again? It's ok, have a pint of "Chunky-Monkey" and call me in the morning

^The Bayer incident was international news. I would have never heard about it if it wasn't for having a friend who is a hemophiliac. I would have quoted a more "reliable source" but reliable sources are hard to come by for stories which involve negative PR of billion dollar companies...

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

http://ww2.aegis.com/news/sc/2003/SC030603.html

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/11/business/blood-money-aids-hemophiliacs-are-split-liability-cases-bogged-down-disputes.html?sec=health&&n=Top%2fNews%
2fHealth%2fDiseases%2c%20Conditions%2c%20and%20Health%20Topics%2fAIDS

"Contaminated haemophilia blood products were a serious public heath problem in the late 1970s and early 1980s. These products caused large numbers of hemophiliacs to became infected with HIV and hepatitis C. Companies involved included Armour Pharmaceutical Company, Bayer Corporation and its Cutter Biological division, Baxter International and its Hyland Pharmaceutical division and Alpha Therapeutic Corporation.[1] Estimates range from 6,000 to 10,000 hemophiliacs in the United States becoming infected with HIV.[1][2]"

Hey look Baxter again. So thats twice in the last 20 years that they shipped or tried to ship contaminated products. And thats just what they were caught or what I've heard about. Conspiracy, carelessness, coincidence, or conniving? What would you guess?

Hehe, thats like asking a dog which part of his dog-house he lives in.

I live in the part that's technically Burlington, on the western side, south of the I40. Very suburban, these days.

In reply to this comment by blankfist:
Get out of here. No way. Seriously? Which part?

In reply to this comment by KnivesOut:
Hilarious. Also, I live in Graham currently. Coincidence? Perhaps.

In reply to this comment by blankfist:
I'm happy to see you finally came out of the gun cabinet, there, gunner. We all had our suspicions.

I'm Heaficus Coillcumhann Weorthmerlow Esquire the Third, but everyone just calls me Harasshole... or Heath. To make money, I work as a freelance Flash Developer. I live in Los Angeles, right now, but I'm originally from a little speck on the map called Graham, North Carolina. I just finished a film, which some of you already know about, and I'm currently showing it around trying to get some buzz behind it. I hope to someday move to Wilmington, NC and get out of LA.

I speak eighty different languages; twenty three of them dead. I have a Guiness World Record for most jumps on a pogo stick: current record is 56,381 jumps. I invented Gobots and Al Gore, so that kind of makes me the original creator of the internets, don't it? I also invented Life cereal. You're welcome. Rottenseed is my sock puppet. I buy batteries in bulk. Let's see, what else? Oh! The answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything is NOT 42. That's preposterous. It's 42.3728. Use this knowledge gingerly and sparingly.

And, lastly, when gwiz665 is around at night, I tend to dance with the devil in the pale moonlight. Just saying.

Hilarious. Also, I live in Graham currently. Coincidence? Perhaps.

In reply to this comment by blankfist:
I'm happy to see you finally came out of the gun cabinet, there, gunner. We all had our suspicions.

I'm Heaficus Coillcumhann Weorthmerlow Esquire the Third, but everyone just calls me Harasshole... or Heath. To make money, I work as a freelance Flash Developer. I live in Los Angeles, right now, but I'm originally from a little speck on the map called Graham, North Carolina. I just finished a film, which some of you already know about, and I'm currently showing it around trying to get some buzz behind it. I hope to someday move to Wilmington, NC and get out of LA.

I speak eighty different languages; twenty three of them dead. I have a Guiness World Record for most jumps on a pogo stick: current record is 56,381 jumps. I invented Gobots and Al Gore, so that kind of makes me the original creator of the internets, don't it? I also invented Life cereal. You're welcome. Rottenseed is my sock puppet. I buy batteries in bulk. Let's see, what else? Oh! The answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything is NOT 42. That's preposterous. It's 42.3728. Use this knowledge gingerly and sparingly.

And, lastly, when gwiz665 is around at night, I tend to dance with the devil in the pale moonlight. Just saying.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Crazy, Christain, Heath Ledger, Going, Hell, Shirley Phelps, Roper' to 'Crazy, Christian, Heath Ledger, Going, Hell, Shirley Phelps, Roper, WBC' - edited by oohahh

I think I'm pretty in my pretty pink dress when I look in the mirror.

Other than my enormous narcissistic ego, there are many sifters who I'd like to consider friends, or you know as much friends as you can be on a website (that's not adultfriendfinder).

alien_concept is my long lost love, stoved away in her British castle somewhere, and some times when I lean in to the wind, I think I can hear her rocking out to Muse, hair down and horns up. Also she's a terrific sifter and awesome person.

schmawy is a guy I wanna give a hug and buy a beer. He's just so damn friendly - there's gotta be an angle!

I miss UsesProzac, because we were always pretty chummy (we were stalking each other secretly, or not so secretly). I have a feeling she'll be back one day once her spawn arrives, and hopefully she'll be friendlier to her otherwise sworn enemies. (Lord knows mommies are less ferocious than nonnies.. right? Right??)

Which brings me to thepinky, who I'm glad to have around just to stir up some shit and to have an earnest discussion with once in a while. Also, she's the baby, gotta love her.

The norwegian boys, haldaug and ornothoron, with their gum-drop smiles and marzipan houses have been presences on the sift lately.

Their otherwise troll-like kinsman Rasch187 is a huge pillar of the sift and is our resident necromancer, reviving dead videos everywhere. And even if we butt heads once in a while, he great around here.

Peggedbea is a gal with spunk, who says what on her mind - we need more of this in the comments and talks. She's also adorable. And I'm going to visit her in TX this summer, which can only end in tragedy.

The usual suspects, Kronosposeidon, Blankfist and Rottenseed are also impossible to miss around here. They are the easy targets for our thread jacking (and other jacking) jokes, but they are formidable presences around here too. They all give and take a lot of ass gravy, and I would drink a beer with any one of them. John, Heath and Jive Mittens, I salute you.

DFT and issy are always around when miaws are heard. Furries both, I'm sure of it.

arvana's our kind-hearted nature guy. I don't think I've ever seen an angry comment from this dude. I suppose he's become a reasonable adult now that he's cut his hippie hair (yeah, I remember).

Netrunner and mintbbb are also excellent people. NR is our primary source of politico stuffs and mint is all over the place - prolific is a good label.

Oh, Berticus is pretty much identical to myself, which is AWESOME. You all need to learn interests from this man - Arrested Development is the best live-action comedy show on the planet.

I'm forgetting people, but I want to save my Canadian sweetheart for last - NicoleBee is my nerdly counterpart who first really caught my attention, when she tried to summon an elder god on my profile. Those are some serious nerd-points right there, and I would give her my heart, if I didn't know she'd use it for some sort ritual in the Canadian woods. ♥

Hehe. I salute you, Heath. You are a pillar of the sift (even if that pillar is suspiciously stained by ass gravy).

Tags for this video have been changed from 'heath ledger, oscar, academy awards, the joker, the dark knight' to 'heath ledger, oscar, academy awards, the joker, the dark knight, kevin kline' - edited by alien_concept

Tags for this video have been changed from 'horny, old, bald, men, are, horny' to 'horny, old, bald, men, are, horny, sex, heath, guru, drive, testosterone' - edited by burdturgler

1. my music tastes vary widely. ipod contents include death metal, reggae, swing, ska, punk, pop, hardcore rap, funk, and christian. enjoy it.

2. i've had strong feelings for a lot of girls, but it's hard for me to say i love anyone. last time i said that, something bad happened.

3. my dog shares a death-day with heath ledger.

4. i have a few shows that i watch religiously, 24 and LOST spring to mind.

5. i'm friends with my own mother on facebook. is that weird?

6. I got accepted to two different colleges by the grace of God, and i have no idea which one i want to go to.

7. I'm more religious than i let on. i go to church every sunday.

8. i have done e-brake turns in my car, and it's sooo much fun.

9. Ricky Jay is my idol.

10. I think everyone should know at least one card trick.

11. I have a twin brother, and we're really close. we do almost everything together.

12. I'm not a vegetarian, nor could i ever be. but somehow, every time i've ever made a vegetarian joke, there's been one in the room.

13. i have a lot of good friends, but i feel like i don't have any "best" friends.

14. btw, my friends are as varied as my music.

15. I'll try anything once, whether it be food or activity.

16. i plan on becoming an english teacher, so i'm a grammar nazi. i will correct your grammar, all the time.

17. Top 5 movies: Snatch, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Fight Club, Sin City.

18. i consider myself lucky, compared to others. my house is a nice size, my parents are still together, i have my own computer and tv, and a ps2 and xbox, not to mention a ton of books, movies, and misc. games.

19. I love ska. I’m kind of in a ska band, but we need to practice soon. We haven’t practiced since November.

20. I’m friendly and nice and not ugly at least. But for god’s sake, I can’t hold onto a girlfriend to save my life. Idk what it is.

21. Sometimes I feel like the only reason I’m here is to help other people. So that’s what I say. “I’m here to help.”

22. If I find a song I like, I will generally play it until I’m sick of it. This happens a lot.

23. I broke my hand in 4th grade after getting hit by a car. Worst pain I’ve ever felt.

24. I have the strangest friends. I will openly admit to hating one of my friend’s guts. With a straight face. He’s probably my best friend.

25. i once shot a man, just to watch him die.

26. One of the above statements is a lie.