Beyond Labels

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Notes 8 May 2017

Dr. Otis Brawley (Wikipedia)

Comparison of Healthcare costs in Maine collected by Maine Health Data Organization

Colonoscopy from $1,248 to $5,094

Knee replacement $28K-$66K

Arthroscopy of knee $5,000 -> $13,000

 

Per Capita Healthcare costs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_health_expenditure_per_capita

 

Inline image 1Original source

How healthcare is financed

What happened in 1981?

Costs of Administration in the US

Direct to Consumer Advertising of Pharmaceutical

Costs of Drug

From here.

I also found a longer article that provides a lot more data about the financing of health care worldwide.
And this one on global health.

 

Offshore healthcare costs from here.

From BCBS here.

Kaiser Health costs

Kaiser Health Care Prescription cost

Medical costs were at 17.8% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2015 according to the USCenters for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in the National Health Expenditure Fact Sheet. They are almost certainly higher today.
The US economy has been growing at less than 2% per year over the past few decades. Here, from Kaiser Foundation, is the stark reality, in one graph,

Inline image 4

this talk by Dr. Otis Brawley (Wikipedia)

Notes 24 April 2017

“In God We Trust” appeared on coins in 1864, and was require, by Congressional resolution to appear on currency in 1956. (Ref).

The Pledge of Allegiance was composed in 1887 and formally adopted by Congress in 1942. The words “under God” were added in 1954.

Atheists are barred from holding public office in several states.

The investment theory of party politics.

Maine town tuitioning program. Proposal by LePage to allow let religious schools get public money.

Senate bill for regulation of small business.

Trump attended Church! For Easter.

$82 billion in tax deferrals to churches.

Infant mortality in Maine — mainly rural. Factors contributing to deaths.

Health comparison site.

Pew research on abortion. Summary report.

World fertility rankings:

 Millenials having less sex

Ayatolah is head of state in Iran

Notes: 10 April 2017

The Obama Doctrine and The Obama Doctrine RIP,  both in the Atlantic. PDF version updloaded.

Countries for and against the strikes in Syria 

An alternate map from a site trying to make a point.

National Security Council on Wikipedia

Poll on Air Strikes in Syria

A new HuffPost/YouGov survey shows that 51 percent of Americans back Trump’s recent action in Syria, while 32 percent oppose. Another 17 percent said they were uncertain.

With 83 percent, an overwhelming majority of Trump supporters agree with the president’s military action, just 11 percent disagree.

 

Dilbert on the Syrian Gas Attacks

Watch now as the world tries to guess where Trump is moving military assets, and what he might do to respond. The longer he drags things out, the less power the story will have on the public. We’ll be wondering for weeks when those bombs will start hitting Damascus, and Trump will continue to remind us that he doesn’t talk about military options.

Then he waits for something bad to happen to Assad’s family, or his generals, in the normal course of chaos over there. When that happens on its own, the media will wonder if it was Trump sending a strong message to Assad in a measured way. Confirmation bias will do the rest.

Blog post from Scott Adams after the attack

After telling us how smart Trump would be to do nothing, he tells us that Trump would appear weak if he did nothing, so he was brilliant to do what he did.

What’s an American President to do? If Trump does nothing, he appears weak, and it invites mischief from other countries. But if he launches 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian military air base base within a few days, which he did, the U.S. gets several benefits at low cost.

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