It always struck me visiting East Berlin in 1983, how empty the stores were, full of employees with nothing to sell, and no interest... the capitol city...

oh, and how some of the buildings 40 years later were still shells without their upper stories...

On the whole o-care thing, I won't ascribe malice, where stupidity fits, or just lack of care. If you are an elite, you know you'll get yours.

Everyone who is not you, is just an idea, just a theory.

It's easy to play with a theory. And to write a hashtag on a piece of paper when you actually need to feign sympathy for some-actual-person.

"We have to break people away from the choice habit that everyone has"

So speaks the voice of totalitarianism. There is always a choice -- the question is, do you get to make that choice, or does the government impose their choice on you?

"On the whole o-care thing, I won't ascribe malice, where stupidity fits, or just lack of care. "

I would. Cousin Dave's Electric Shaver: Never attribute to ignorance that which can be explained by narcissism. These people are not stupid. They know what they're doing, and the desire to do it fills every cell of their bodies. It is their substance. Without it, they would not be able to exist. They are thought zombies -- they eat philosophy, they eat reason, and ultimately they eat civilization.

This is what government run health care looks like...

With regard to the empty stores, I recall reading stories from Soviet defectors who were brought to the USofA thinking that the grocery store was a CIA ruse. Surely not all American groceries were fully stocked? until they realized that, yes, the were and it was not a CIA trick.

Is that quote from Merz real? It sounds like something Ayn Rand would have put in the mouth of Wesley Mouch in Atlas Shrugged.

re. IRA Darth Aggie's VA article:
It has to be systemic, and a problem with the leadership. It wasn't just the one office in Arizona that was altering appointment books; a few days later a VA clinic in Colorado was exposed, and last week a whistleblower who worked in both the Austin and San Antonio offices claimed the same thing was/is happening there. It's very, very difficult to believe Gates' assertion that this is an issue caused by "middle management" when the problem is so widespread- I wonder how many more of these situations will come to light over the next few weeks. The idea of single payer/government healthcare terrified me BEFORE this all came out. This is just further evidence of how screwed up it could be. I don't know if the current situation will help change the mind of the True Believers, though. They'll find a way to write it off.

ahw, I've also seen reports that it was happening in the Birmingham office. These days the health care industry in Birmingham is big, and everyone in town knows what everyone else is doing, so I'm waiting to hear more info come out.

And Rex, that does read like something from Rand's pen, doesn't it? But it appears to be legit. Here's another article that talks about PreferredOne's marketing strategy. It's the revenge of the HMO!

It's very, very difficult to believe Gates' assertion that this is an issue caused by "middle management" when the problem is so widespread

Not necessarily. Middle management was offered bonuses.

I have friends living in Australia right now and they said everyone is all up in arms about having to pay essentially a copay for medical care now because the country is so broke.

BunnyGirl touches on the essential problem: For the past half-century, the Western nations have been spending the wealth built up by the generations that preceded them. Now it's nearly gone, and with it, all free rides will be coming to an end. At this point a substantial downturn in standards of living is inevitable by about 2050. The best possible outcome I foresee is that general living conditions will revert back to 19th-century standards for most people. The worst possible outcome is a second Dark Age.