US Politics Mega-thread - Page 5791

On October 28 2016 08:38 IgnE wrote:
The Twisted Business of Donating Plasma



It does seem a bit cruel to suggest to a minimum wage worker that donating plasma twice a week is the road to financial security when that worker has to replace the plasma being siphoned off on his or her ramen diet and lack of sleep.

A bit like Vampire: The Masquerade. No?

On October 28 2016 08:39 farvacola wrote:
If you believe that the government has an essential role to play in providing access to education, you aren't a conservative in US terms.

On October 28 2016 08:40 KwarK wrote:

Yeah, I've not only read that article, I've actually been to that specific plasma location. It's sanctimonious bullshit that converts people trying to improve their lives into a faceless exploited mass who must be protected from their own ignorant choices. Hell, there's a fair chance I've met some of the people he spoke to about that article. Fuck that guy. Seriously.

On October 28 2016 08:42 IgnE wrote:


So would you say the same thing if people were donating their kidneys . . . or do you just think donating blood plasma twice a week for 45 years is totally harmless?

On October 28 2016 08:48 IgnE wrote:
I wasn't asking whether you would donate a kidney for some undisclosed price. I was asking whether you think requiring a donation at market-price is an acceptable solution to poverty.

*edited for clarity

On October 28 2016 09:39 Plansix wrote:
https://twitter.com/NickKristof/status/791790348007792642

Apparently terrorism is cool if your white. I can't even right now.

On October 28 2016 06:21 KwarK wrote:
Bullshit. I refuse to believe that I'm as exceptionally gifted as you guys are insisting that I am.

On October 28 2016 09:39 Plansix wrote:
https://twitter.com/NickKristof/status/791790348007792642

Apparently terrorism is cool if your white. I can't even right now.

On October 28 2016 09:42 Danglars wrote:

The death count was atrocious.

On October 28 2016 09:42 GreenHorizons wrote:


Aww come on, it was just some good ol' boys enjoying a month+ long armed occupation of a government building. What's criminal about that?

On October 28 2016 04:08 LegalLord wrote:
Obamacare is strictly worse than single payer socialized healthcare as far as I'm concerned, but it's a large step in the right direction and it's the only healthcare overhaul that had a chance of passing.

On October 28 2016 09:00 KwarK wrote:

I think organs represent a moral hazard but I don't know that I'd rule kidneys out. A lot of people die waiting for them and a lot of people in great health have spares. It's a tricky one. Both parties benefit greatly from the transaction.

Oddly enough kidney donors have better long term health outcomes than the general population (selection bias). I looked into it quite a lot a while back, I was considering non directed kidney donation (you donate it to whoever needs it without knowing who). With appropriate safeguards I may lean kidney sale legalization. But we're a long way from plasma at this point.

Voters care more about Congress and the next president controlling the price of prescription drugs than they do about changes to President Barack Obama's health care law, shows a poll released Thursday by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

But that doesn't mean voters aren't interested in the future of the health care law as well: The poll found 60 percent of Republicans and 40 percent of Independents believe Obamacare should be repealed, and 17 percent of Democrats said the same.

About an equal share of people – one third – want to see the next president and Congress repeal the entire law as want to see them expand what the law does.

The poll comes less than two weeks before Election Day and finds that health care isn't a top issue for voters – it falls behind other issues like the economy, foreign policy and even the candidates themselves.

Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump has vowed to repeal Obamacare if elected and has presented various conservative measures to reform health care, while his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, has put forward proposals to strengthen the Affordable Care Act. More voters reported that they feel they have a good understanding of Clinton's proposal than they do of Trump's, but they also feel the candidates' positions are "very different."

Clinton's plan includes a public option, a proposal Obama also says would improve the law. Overall, about two-thirds of voters say they favor a public health insurance option to compete with private health insurance plans in the Obamacare exchanges, but how the proposal is described – whether as a "public health insurance option" or a "government-administered public health insurance option" – affects people's level of support.

The views of those surveyed also shift when they hear arguments against the public option, including that doctors or hospitals would be paid less under a public option or when they hear that the government would have an unfair advantage over private insurers.

The candidates have similar positions on how to rein in the cost of prescription drugs. Both have proposed allowing Medicare to set drug prices. On average, 74 percent of surveyed voters said drugs should be made affordable to people with chronic conditions who need them.