Say Anything Blog

$54,000 for Stutent by Pfiizer there’s the insanity.

Coherency is your friend, poodle.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

preferable to a system where some bureaucrat arbitrarily determines how much your life is worth.

Shouldn’t use that in the absolute sense. Most deregulation policies under Reagan, for example, had to put a monetary value on life in order to do their cost-benefit calculations. There really isn’t another way to make value judgments on issues that affect people’s lives (which most government actions do).

http://www.filmeneutics.com

“Behind Communism, Fascism, behind all occupations and invasions lurks a more basic, pervasive evil… a parade of people marching by with raised fists and shouting identical syllables in unision.” - Milan Kundera

Well there’s a difference between saying “If we deregulate this the cost/benefit will be x-amount-of-dollars” and saying “We think this 85-year-old woman is only worth $32,000 to save.”

My grandmother, for instance, got breast cancer at the age of 85.  She beat it into remission.  At a cancer survivor’s group she was told by a woman from the British system that if she’d lived in Great Britain they’d have deemed her not worth saving.

Now my grandmother went on to die this year at 92.  During that time she spent seven additional years with my eight year old, seeing her grow up and go off to school and everything else, and also got to see my youngest daughter born.

Laying my baby daughter down on her death bed, and having some of her last words be “Oh precious” whispered into my baby girl’s ear, is one of my most treasured memories.

And I’m supposed to put a price on that?

We paid for my grandmother’s care.  If the government was paying for it, we’d have lost those years with her.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Aren’t these the same folks who think that junkies getting their smack is a ‘right’?
Maybe they could find a pusher who would give them a volume discount on heroin and use the savings for other [legal] drugs?

I think the argument you’re making is that the government should never be in the position to value your life for the purposes for denying/granting healthcare. I agree with that completely. Healthcare provision shouldn’t be the government’s business. Period.

But the government very often puts a monetary value on life in other instances (and I think legitimately). For example: Should we spent 40M hire 1000 new police officers? Well, that depends on whether they will save 40M worth of life/property, otherwise, that tax money is better spent on something else that saves 40M worth of life/property. You need to put a $ value on life to make that kind of a decision.

http://www.filmeneutics.com

“Behind Communism, Fascism, behind all occupations and invasions lurks a more basic, pervasive evil… a parade of people marching by with raised fists and shouting identical syllables in unision.” - Milan Kundera

Sure, I get what you’re saying Hairy, but in his post Ezra was basically saying that within the context of denying/approving health care Great Britain is right to assign dollars to a human life.  And he’s essentially asking America to set our own values.

I reject that, and think (as you do) that such a system if flawed at its very core.

I’m not making an emotional argument against cost/benefit analysis in general.  Just pointing out that allowing the government to determine how much we’re worth in health care is bad policy.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Stutent is the drug , Pfiizer the manufacturer 54k seems excessive. Read the articles you post.

Aren’t these the same folks who think that junkies getting their smack is a ‘right’?

There’s an ugly reality.  Heroin is an entitlement for jailed addicts, but if you get cancer you’re only worth $27,000.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

This is so the Liberals can put a price on repair for your broken parts. You could save the while thing by aborting in the first place. Cheapen life on the front end, cost benefit analysis—If it cost more for health-care than it’s worth, goodbye granny.

Wasn’t there a movie about how this all works out?

Gattaca, sort of? Not about abortion, but deals with science cheapening life (in a way).

http://www.filmeneutics.com

“Behind Communism, Fascism, behind all occupations and invasions lurks a more basic, pervasive evil… a parade of people marching by with raised fists and shouting identical syllables in unision.” - Milan Kundera

Wasn’t there an element of that in Demolition Man?

Or maybe I’m not remembering right.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Neh, I think Demo Man was more about good-intentioned busybodies ruining life for everyone by telling them how to live. It was actually a pretty good conservative movie—I wonder if that was the intention.

http://www.filmeneutics.com

“Behind Communism, Fascism, behind all occupations and invasions lurks a more basic, pervasive evil… a parade of people marching by with raised fists and shouting identical syllables in unision.” - Milan Kundera

I thought there was a bit about the worth of life in there too (somewhere around the three seashells ), but I’m probably wrong.

I’m guessing Demo man slipped through Hollywood’s censors.  It’s a very good film with a very good message.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

How Much Is Six Months Of Your Life Work?

Depends on whether your married or single.

Depends on whether you’re married or single.

That’s why I won’t buy life insurance.
I told my Wife I didn’t want to be worth more to her dead than alive…

Six months of my life is worth quite a bit.

Six months of some Liberal punk’s whose choices included whining and acting like a little bitch because he felt entitled and not saving for his own future?

Not so much.

Of course, he set the value of his life himself. It wasn’t worth enough for him to get off his lazy ass and take care of.

If WOOF thinks the cost of drugs is the problem (see above) then he should forgo treatment. Take two aspirins and call the hearse in the morning.

That’s the thing about medical research, WOOF.  The second pill costs 75 cents to manufacture.  The first pill costs $100 million.

"There is no distinctly native American criminal class save Congress.” - Mark Twain

Like I’ve said in prev. posts, I pay 32 thou a yr just for health care, then co-pays, 1500 for scripts. that’s for me and hubby. So, we are expensive. But, is this based on what you produce? How much you would cost the government if they paid for your ins? I think this would be an incentive to weed out some of the useless folks and then there’d be more care for you? I don’t think I get this at all.

The second pill costs 75 cents to manufacture.  The first pill costs $100 million.

The U.S. pharmaceutical industry is the most profitable domestic industry – by a long shot. Profits of the top 10 drug companies jumped 33 percent during the recent economic slowdown – climbing from $28 billion in 2001 to $37.3 billion in 2002. Over the last 32 years, Fortune 500 drug company profits have gone from 9 percent in 1970 to 18 percent in 2001; whereas, all Fortune 500 industries’ profits went from 4 percent in 1970 to 2 percent in 2002. Such extraordinary rates of return mean that prices can be significantly reduced. Companies would still get a healthy return with minimal affect on innovative R&D efforts.

http://www.citizen.org/congress/reform/drug_industry/r_d/articles.cfm?ID=7909

"How Much Is Six Months Of Your Life Work?”
Work or worth?  I think you meant worth there.

When your life is put under glass and it is determined that you are not worth saving by some distant person who knows not of your life at all, then we have digressed into a well that we will all drown in. Careful what you wish for because you may wind up on the receiving end of the bad end of the stick.

"Socialism is a disease”

The U.S. pharmaceutical industry is the most profitable domestic industry – by a long shot.

It also produces some of the most important products in our economy. Yea, yea, I know. HERESY.

How dare the companies that keep us alive longer make a profit? Blasphemy!

For the first time in my adult life, I am ashamed of my country.