Hey everyone.  I realize that the forum is basically dead, but just wanted to note that I'm back in the Bay Area for the time being.  If anyone wants to meet up and reminisce about the glory days over a beer or the like, lemme know.

The site is now available at http://irt.lupinia.us/

Technically, nothing's moved, but I added a script to make sure everyone gets the message between now and when the domain expires/is sold.

Because this site is pretty much dead, I won't be renewing its domain next spring, I have better things to spend money on besides domain renewal for a dead site.  Thus, at some point next year, ireadthis.org will no longer point to this site.

However, because I'm an archivist at heart, the site will continue to exist, accessible via a Lupinia subdomain.  Details will be posted here when the new address has propogated through worldwide DNS.

this looks like rather light card, what do you think?

I think the Forest fight is the best draw.  Dont get me wrong, Ill be watching the show just doesnt look like one of their better cards.

I'm very surprised.</sarcasm>

Insurers are forced to offer basic health insurance to everyone without asking questions. What the basic insurance covers is also regulated.

Switzerland also has price controls on medical services. In my opionion that's the only way of making sure patients aren't billed for made-up numbers.

Then again, Switzerland has the second-highest per-capita healthcare expenses in the world (guess who's number one).

Any thoughts about the G20?  Will it make any changes more significant than me having class canceled because of it?

Note that I said I've not seen any proposals that deal with the issue - while the Swiss may have regulations that deal effectively with it, I don't think anyone is pushing those here.  Granted, I've not read any of the draft bills in their entirety, but I've been otherwise watching the debate closely and I've not heard anyone talking about this issue which I deem a central problem with our system.  Do you know how Switzerland addresses this problem?

As for banning the "we're jerks to old people" plan, this can raise care to some bare minimum, but is regulatorily heavy and means competition will direct innovation at how a company can better get around the regulations rather than at how they can offer better care.

This is why I avoided that term, using "universal healthcare" to mean what you're meaning by "public health insurance". Switzerland has no public option (AFAIK) and multiple payers, but is still universal.

Why I think that single payer is a better idea than multiple payers is basically because of the same reason that DLT thinks competition is a bad idea in healthcare.