Adventures in Bureaucracy
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
 
Ann Coulter has written about something I've been thinking about for quite some time:

The whole idea of insurance is to insure against catastrophes: You buy insurance in case your house burns down -- not so you can force other people in your plan to pay for your maid. You buy car insurance in case you're in a major accident, not so everyone in the plan shares the cost of gas. ... Insurance plans that force everyone in the plan to pay for everyone else's Viagra and anti-anxiety pills are already completely unfair to people who rarely go to the doctor. It's like being forced to share gas bills with a long-haul trucker or a restaurant bill with Michael Moore. On the other hand, it's a great deal for any lonely hypochondriacs in the plan.

It reminds me of an altogether less funny article from Jonathan Kellerman, saying that the insurance system is a big part of what's wrong with health care in America today:

Some of us are old enough to remember visiting the doctor and paying him/her directly by check or cash. You had a pretty good idea going in what the service was going to cost. And because the doctor had to look you in the eye – and didn't need to share a rising chunk of his profits with an insurer – the cost was likely to be reasonable. The same went for hospitals: no $20 aspirins due to insurance-company delay tactics and other shenanigans. Few physicians became millionaires, but they lived comfortably, took responsibility for their own business model, and enjoyed their work more.

Maybe the people in Congress will think about some of these issues before cramming through another massive piece of legislation. Or possibly just take the time to read it before voting on it.
  21:49
Saturday, July 11, 2009
 
Tragedy strikes Los Angeles as a brush fire narrowly misses the Getty Museum. ... Next time!
  12:55
Sunday, July 05, 2009
 
Mark Steyn talks about "America the Beautiful", which we belted out in church today. The hymnal said the tune was called "Materna".
  21:17
 
Note to self: do not fly through Charles de Gaulle Airport.
  21:17
 
Here's a potentially interesting issue: the Canadians may reinstitute the visa requirement for Czech nationals because of a surge in refugee claims by Czech Gypsies. However, the United States followed the Canadian example and dropped the entry visa requirement for Czech nationals in November 2008 by putting them in the Visa Waiver Program. Has there been a similar increase in Czech Gypsies asking for asylum in the United States since then? And what will happen to those numbers if the front door to Canada is closed to them?
  21:05
 
Glad someone else is saying it, even if it was said several months ago:

I am indeed saying something, and it is this: I hate Facebook and everyone on it, including my friends, who I like. My wife just joined it, and I dearly love her. But scratch that. I hate her too. After all, right is right. Sometimes, we courageous few must make a stand. ... The hardest to watch fall, however, has been my wife. I'll call her "Alana," since that's her name ... .A few months back, she became a hardcore Facebook addict, as our late 30s age group has become the fastest-growing Facebook segment ... . There are worse things she could become, I suppose: a Meth dealer, a UPS delivery-man groupie, a Twitterer.
  20:51
Personal comments, opinions and observations from someone stuck inside the Capital Beltway.

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