[geeks] nVidia 8800GT for Apple Mac Pro

[Shannon Hendrix]

On May 22, 2008, at 14:22 , Mike Meredith wrote:

> On Thu, 22 May 2008 11:43:12 -0400, Shannon Hendrix wrote:
>> That's not a valid comparison.
>
> No it's perfectly valid.

No, it isn't, because that is not what it meant by rationed health care.

You might claim the effect is sometimes the same, but it's still not  
remotely the same thing.

> It's just standard supply and demand; in a
> monetised health-care system you use ability to pay to "ration"  
> limited
> health-care resources. In a socialised health care system other  
> means are used to ration limited resources.

In other words, socialized medicine is rationed, the US system is not.

Both require money so they both have that limit.

The socialized system imposes additional limitations, which is why it  
is properly called a rationed system.

> A monetised health-care system may be better at increasing those
> limited resources, but it's also better at producing "unnecessary"
> profits.

Actually no, it was socialized elements that led to that, namely  
insurance beginning to pay for non-emergencies, which is a form of  
socialized medicine.

> Many people find the thought of people profiting from ill-health  
> distasteful.

That's pretty silly, given that it is impossible not to profit unless  
medical personnel work for free.

Socialized medical care is just as for-profit as the market systems,  
and in some cases more profitable since so many of them are heavily  
gamed.

> And most socialised health care systems manage to obtain enough
> resources to operate a reasonable health-care system.

So do most market based systems, and if they avoid socialized  
elements, they are usually cheaper.

The US system was far cheaper before it started socializing.

> You prefer a monetised health-care system ? Fine as long as you don't
> insist that my country must switch. Just don't claim it isn't  
> rationed.

It isn't.

>> That's why people in socialized medicine countries often travel to
>> non- socialized medicine countries to get medical care.
>
> Really? Funnily enough, moving people to places where certain
> procedures are available quicker (or available at all) is to some
> extent included in my country's socialised health-care system.

You just agreed with me but phrased it as a contradiction.  Interesting.

> And
> nobody here has to travel outside this country to get into the
> monetised health care.

No, but some UK residents do come to Norfolk, Virginia to get  
healthcare for some reason.  It was in one of the newsletters they put  
out last year.

Of course, Norfolk also is an R&D facility, so there are things here  
not available elsewhere, so that's part of the draw.

> And of course you spent a similar amount of time hanging around
> Canadian hospitals to make sure US citizens weren't making similar use
> of Canadian hospitals ?

There is no need for me to do that, it's well covered in the news.  I  
didn't "hang around", I just happened to pick up on one guy who was in  
town for that reason.

I'd already heard it in the news and local area newspapers for years  
before that.

It's been happening for a long time now.

I've never read anything which says people go to Canada, and people I  
know in Canada are not aware of that happening either, so I seriously  
doubt it is.

Besides, this has been a commonly covered news item for a long time.   
A lot of US doctors also work in other countries, and they also  
comment on how many people go outside of socialized healthcare to find  
what they need, and so do foreign medical personnel that work here.

There are some US hospitals or individual wards that treat more non- 
resident patients than US residents because of their proximity to  
airports or the Canadian border.

Old news.

One new thing that is happening is people going to India to get  
medical care.  It's supposed to be cheaper for some procedures even  
accounting for travel expenses.

No idea where that is going, but it's obvious that not all of the  
"care" in India is top-rate: lot's of people are either never coming  
back alive, or pretty severely screwed up.

Other people report it was the best thing to happen to them.

Should be interesting to see how that turns out.

There is also a smaller medical industry in South America doing  
various medical procedures that are illegal in most of the western  
nations.  Not the same drive, but interesting anyway.

-- 
"Where some they sell their dreams for small desires."