Comments by "Xyz Same" (@xyzsame4081) on "The Humanist Report"
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Tiny VT cannot go against the trend - some ? 300,000 people vs. the dysfunctional practices of powerful industries "serving" 325 million people. - CA would be a game changer but the propsoal was undermined - the budget being the PRETEXT.
I live in a European country (Austria, neighbour of Germany) with single payer (in reality there is not ONE public non-profit insurance company (they adminstrate also retirement and disability pensions). There are about 15 - 20 (for the 9 states and certain professions like farmers, teachers, gov. employees, etc.) Some of these do not have risk pools of more than 100.000. That is enough - if the risk pool is not cherry picked (no one is "sorted" out because of age, risk, status of the family who also have insurance).
But of course each of those sub insurance agencies profits from the central drug price negotiations, the fees that are paid to the doctors or the hospitals with a contract are all within a reasonable price range (and they communicate about that). I would estimate that 80 % of familiy doctors, dentists etc. do have a contract (and there are hardly any for-profit hospitals). So it is not like the doctors flee from one region because they can charge more otherwise.
Some doctors offer specialities - and then they may be private. But most (also) accept the modest price structure of the public insurance agency. For that they get a regional quote. In a smaller town there will be only a certain number of doctors. Citizens can go to any doctor with a contract w/o any payment (usually in the city for practical reasons, but they could keep their doctor outside as well). That means they have a predictable income, a suffucient case load and even little rural towns will be attractive for starting out in the profession - if there is no other free slot with a contract.
They are not going to consume the (free) university education and then flee the country. The systems here (8,7 million) is the same as with large neighbour Germany (82 million people). So there will be enough doctors available.
It is entirely possible that doctors have less income here than in the U.S. (university is free though, and low income people get subsidies for the cost of living during their education), they are still doing very nicely.
Switzerland pays excellent wages, doctors here COULD go there (same language, and the Swiss like the level of training and the similar culture), but usually they stay in the country. -
In Vermont on the other hand if a public agency (singley payer) offered more streamlined contracts there is a chance the doctors would just go to another state. If the whole country switiches to a more European style system, most U.S. doctors would need the additional patients to have enough revenue (and they still would do fine) - and have much, much less hassle.
And from what I heard Vermont could not negotiate drug prices (that was forbidden on the federal level) nor can they import drugs from Canada. So the costs were too high - in that setting.
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William Binney (NSA technical director for 24/7 spy programs turned government critic): IF that was a HACK (remote access by an unauthorized person) as opposed to a LEAK (insider) there is no way the NSA would not have TRACKS (they have EVERYTHING that travels over the net). AND: it would be SAFE to SHOW the PROOF - it does not reveal sources, methods etc. - Since they chose not to show it, they may not have anything (nor do they allege to proof in the report). Moreover the CIA depends on the NSA for intercepting. - That is what the NSA mastermind says on the technicalities.
The official "report" has as attachment the "Golden Shower document", it does not make firm statements - no "it is alleged ...", they make a psychological profil of Putin and his supposed desire for revenge - and they obsess with Russia Today TV = RT. Can you imagine, RT tries to stir up dissatisfaction, they reported negatively on Wallstreet greed, fracking and hosted Third Party Candidate debates. (In Nazi Germany and under Stalin there was a crime called "subversion" - I wouldn't be surprised to hear that term soon.)
Back to the official report of the agencies on fake news and the "hacking": Disclaimer of confidence. NSA (the experts on hacking on which the other agencies depend when it comes to surveillance and interception) has only MEDIUM confidence that "Russia did it" (whereas all other agencies claim hight confidence). Wikileak's Julian Assange said about the embarrassing EMAILS of Clinton and DNC (and it was never about anyhting else than these emails) : "It was a leak of a disgusted insider". Craig Murray former British Diplomat, now working with Wikileaks, also recently confirmed that he received the data in a park in Washington on a physical device - well then of course the NSA will not have any tracks - the data did not travel over the web.
Trump might have peace talks with Russia (Ukraine, Syria) reduce or end sanctions, reducing nuclear weapons - Obama signed a new excessively expensive nuclear program not long ago), end the politics of regime change.
To me it looks like a POWER STRUGGLE - would not be the first time the agencies undermine elected politicians, presidents, Congress (Carter, Iran/Contra) or LIE to the public (in hearings) or yield to political power to come up with desired "evidence" (WMD's in Iraq)
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Please don't donate if your are not an US citizen. I read comments of non-citizens from time to time: Can I donoate ? No ! It is a good sign that foreigners want to chime in, but they are not doing the campaign any favors. On the contrary. - It is not legal, and all campaigns have to sort through all donations. ALSO for citizens and legal residents from within the U.S.:
- whether they give beyond the limit of USD 2,800 (or whatever it is, in that range). They have to return that (but monitoring the sum of what a person has given so far can be automated).
The Sanders campaign has much more donations to check than other campaigns. and they likely will return the 20 USD if you are not a citizen.
I am certain they use software for that (at least filtering the harmless and obviously legal donations) but if the data around a donations shows it might not be legal, then it might need the attention of a staffer. They pay the fees of the banks anyway, and with the extra attention the legally required handling and returning of such donations requires, well meaning people unintentionally CAUSE the campaign costs and hassle.
In 2016 they got over 2000 donations of foreigners, they had to return them. I found that on a blog of Hillary fans who were "incensed" about it. Many donations came from Canada, but also from Europe, Australia.
The amounts were modest, most in the range of 10 - 50 bucks, hardly some over 200 bucks, so it could not be weaponized against Sanders and mainstream media did not run with the story.
But it could be used to bring the campaign into disrepute if it happens more often this time. (Evil foreigners financing Sanders campaing. Who knows if it is a Russian ploy ? Stroking of a white cat and musings about world dominance is involved).
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