Althouse: The anecdote you've been waiting for...

December 30, 2010

The anecdote you've been waiting for...

... to make your anti-Obamacare arguments complete.

49 comments:

KCFleming said...: (Link is messed up.)

I assume you mean the penis amputation surgery from Sweden, a delayed diagnosis resulting from queues and indifference.

It won't change a single mind of those who favor national health care, because it's power they seek, not better care.; 12/30/10, 1:04 PM
Anonymous said...: I was for Obamacare, but now I'm against it.; 12/30/10, 1:04 PM
coketown said...: Anecdote? Or metaphor? I'll let you decide...; 12/30/10, 1:05 PM
KCFleming said...: Hilarious, Tertium.; 12/30/10, 1:09 PM
KCFleming said...: Just wait until doctors join a union, and then do work slowdowns like the NYC snowplow/sanitation workers.; 12/30/10, 1:13 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Link is fixed.

It's to Memeorandum, on purpose. Look for the yellow-highlighted material.; 12/30/10, 1:19 PM
Kev said...: (the other kev)

They say it was a misdiagnosis, but we all know that Sweden is the Saudi Arabia of radical feminism, right?

w/v: deticlus, which sounds oddly appropriate; 12/30/10, 1:20 PM
paul a'barge said...: We don't need no steenking anecdotes.

We have Barack Hussein Obama.

That's enough to justify repeal of Obamacare.; 12/30/10, 1:27 PM
Lucien said...: There's got to be a Brett Favre joke in this somewhere . . . Sweden + Vikings?, surgeon vs. Sterger?, Fish bowl lens?

C'mon, who's with me?

(Did we quit when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?); 12/30/10, 1:35 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Is there misdiagnosis in America, with horrific results? Of course! It can be terrible.; 12/30/10, 1:42 PM
Phil 314 said...: FYI Professor there are no yellow highlights. Assuming my experience is the same any visitor will wonder if you're alluding to the penis complication or the Palin "Death Panel" commentary.; 12/30/10, 1:44 PM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Simon: What are you, a boy scout? No, no, no, think of it as playing a role as fantasy. I mean, you got to work on their dreams. Get them out of their daily surburban grind for a few hours.

Harry: But what about their husbands?

Simon: Dickless! I mean, let's face it, if they took care of business, I'd be out of business! You know what I mean?

True Lies, 1994; 12/30/10, 1:45 PM
SteveR said...: if you want to cut mine off there will be second, third, and fourth opinions, at least; 12/30/10, 1:58 PM
Rialby said...: Yes, but it was free!; 12/30/10, 1:58 PM
KCFleming said...: The misdiagnosis in America was 'What's wrong with US healthcare?'

We're in the leaches-and-bloodletting phase with Obamacare.; 12/30/10, 2:38 PM
Automatic_Wing said...: The good news is that he's now on a waiting list for a free, government-funded replacement cock.; 12/30/10, 2:49 PM
Hari said...: Sweeden really is "The Saudi Arabia of feminisn."; 12/30/10, 3:01 PM
Unknown said...: The feminists will be happy, though.; 12/30/10, 3:12 PM
jr565 said...: While one can certainly find anecdotes of horrible medical care under Obama and while I'm certianly not a fan of it, there have been horrible medical stories prior to Obamacare, so I'm not sure its fair to say this horrible medical care is in fact due to Obamacare and not doctors who don't pay attention.
After all we all know the story about the guy who had to get a leg amputated due to cancer and they then cut off the wrong leg so he ended up gettingboth legs cut off. That was prior to Obamacare.
Obamacare still sucks, but horrible medical error transcends Obamacare.; 12/30/10, 3:41 PM
Opus One Media said...: How about a New Year's resolution.

Let's wait for Obamacare to actually start before you begin to blame it for something. I know Ann has given in to the temptation to froth up the right wing on here but I gotta say that blaming something that hasn't happened yet is not even up to the low set bar of the GOP mongers.; 12/30/10, 4:06 PM
Lincolntf said...: Can't wait for the first "slow down" by doctors when the Gov't starts shafting them. That should be fun.; 12/30/10, 4:07 PM
Rialby said...: Maguro - it's true what they say about the "k" sound. No funnier word than cock.

Cock
Cock
Cock; 12/30/10, 4:07 PM
G Joubert said...: Let's wait for Obamacare to actually start

Yeah,well, here's hoping we never get there.; 12/30/10, 4:09 PM
Unknown said...: HDHouse said...

How about a New Year's resolution.

Let's wait for Obamacare to actually start before you begin to blame it for something.

Better yet. We all take a pass and have it repealed, except for HD. Let him see how he likes it.; 12/30/10, 4:37 PM
garage mahal said...: Let's wait for Obamacare to actually start before you begin to blame it for something

LOL!; 12/30/10, 5:23 PM
Kirby Olson said...: I had something the matter with my stomach and spent nine hours waiting to see a doctor with a piercing pain that felt worse than a bullet. It turned out to be a kidney stone. I cracked several teeth from grinding them for nine hours waiting for a doctor. Finally I started screaming. Finally a doctor appeared and gave me an aspirin and told me to walk it off.

In America, I spent about two minutes with a stone before they shot me up with morphine. Koyaanisquaatsi, or however you spell it.

The Finnish system works, but you have to know how to work it. I didn't, at the time. You have to scream as if you are dying, and you have to impress the doctors that you are on the point of death. Otherwise, they move someone else to the front of the line.

This of course can be overdone, and if you overdo it, next time, they'll make you wait for three years before they'll look at your symptom.

Sorry to hear about the man's penis.

But maybe he wants a gender change, and they do those in Sweden free of charge, so he could get a two-fer.; 12/30/10, 5:24 PM
Kirby Olson said...: Oh, that was in Finland. I forgot to say.; 12/30/10, 5:25 PM
dbp said...: Althouse: "Is there misdiagnosis in America, with horrific results? Of course! It can be terrible."

One misdiagnosis is terrible, but the million extra ones we will get from Obamacare will be only a statistic.; 12/30/10, 5:45 PM
traditionalguy said...: Nationalized health care treats statistcs rather than patients. The Panel Knows Best. If you object, then the monopoly status will crush all you gullible suckers.; 12/30/10, 6:13 PM
garage mahal said...: There are real Death Panels happening right now with BrewerCare, in AZ. Conservatives never seem to be concerned with real things though, just imaginary ones.; 12/30/10, 6:19 PM
virgil xenophon said...: This reminds me of the Vietnam "Hong Kong Dong" joke about the soldier who came back from R&R in Hong and a few weeks later his member began to swell and turn various colors from green to purple--not to mention the pus and the pain. At first consulting his AF Doc he is told amputation is the only solution. Horrified, he seeks a second, third and even fourth opinion with the Navy, Army and USMC Docs--all of whom concur that amputation is called for. Despairing, he seeks the counsel of a friend who advises that one should seek out a true "Hong Kong Doctor" as the sort best qualified to opine on a case of the "Hong Kong Dong." So our man hies himself back to Hong Kong and consults one of the most prestigious Chinese "Hong Kong Doctor" urologists in the city.
"Doc, all the American Docs say that they'll have to amputate!--Tell me that's not true!" The good Doctor spends some time examining his member and says: "Amputate, amputate, amputate!That's all those hi-tech American Docs know! No, we don't to amputate at all." "Really?" a much relived GI says as he wipes his brow. "Whew, I was really worried there for a while." The Doc continues: "No, no, we don't have to amputate at all. Give it another two weeks and it'll fall off all on it's own."

(As I slink quietly away after delivering my little joke/homily); 12/30/10, 6:33 PM
DADvocate said...: Blaming this on a misdiagnosis is stupid. The initial diagnosis was wrong, true, but after three weeks the patient was referred for further treatment at a hospital. It was FIVE MONTHS before he could be seen at the hospital and by then the cancer had progressed too far.

But it took five months before he was able to schedule an appointment at the hospital.

When he finally met with doctors at the hospital, the man was informed he had cancer and his penis would have to be removed.; 12/30/10, 6:40 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "FYI Professor there are no yellow highlights. Assuming my experience is the same any visitor will wonder if you're alluding to the penis complication or the Palin "Death Panel" commentary."

Well, it will come up at the top of the link. Are you really having trouble seeing what I'm pointing at? Here's the text, but you have to go there for the links:

The Local:
Man's penis amputated following misdiagnosis — Double click on a word to get a translation — A Swedish man was forced to have his penis amputated after waiting more than a year to learn he had cancer. — The man, who is in his sixties, first visited a local clinic in Blekinge …
+Discussion: Scared Monkeys, International Liberty, The Good Men Project Magazine and Left Coast Rebel; 12/30/10, 6:59 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "Let's wait for Obamacare to actually start before you begin to blame it for something. I know Ann has given in to the temptation to froth up the right wing on here but I gotta say that blaming something that hasn't happened yet is not even up to the low set bar of the GOP mongers."

Let's wait until we've lost what we've had to appreciate it?

I don't believe in drastic overhauls to see if they just might work.

And the phrase "that blaming something that hasn't happened yet" doesn't make sense. You blame people who do things, not the things that they do. Are you seriously saying that it's wrong to be against something until it goes into effect?

Remember that when you're against some proposed war or whatever it is you worry about.; 12/30/10, 7:03 PM
Anonymous said...: 35 comments and no mention yet of John Wayne Bobbitt. Did he emigrate to Scandinavia?; 12/30/10, 7:56 PM
YoungHegelian said...: This might be a good time to put in a good word for the now often maligned practice of circumcision.

Penis cancer is very rare among circumcised men.

Think about it. Most guys in the US post-WWII cohort are circumcised. You ever hear about some guy getting cancer of the knob (to use a "Beyond the Fringe" term)?; 12/30/10, 8:29 PM
Opus One Media said...: Ann Althouse said...
"I don't believe in drastic overhauls to see if they just might work."

Hmmm ok. I don't believe in trying to start a car that is out of gas or saddling up a horse that is dead.

Health care is fine and dandy for you as you, as a University employee are quite likely to have a good plan. It doesn't work well for the majority of US and for some it doesn't work at all.

Just opposing something with specifics serves no purpose. Are you against the pre-existing condition part? Are you against the keeping kids insured on their parents policy (on election of course) in a market where just over half of grads find immediate work and 1/2 of those find work without current health care access?

Are these the parts you don't like? Or maybe it is using emergency rooms - the highest cost per visit area of any hospital - for something that they aren't even remotely purposed to do - treat transient sicknesses and not emergencies...is that what you don't like or perhaps you think that is just fine and that is why you don't want to fix the current broken system.

How about our rankings in general population health? Infant mortality? Or perhaps you like and want to keep a system that makes us economically less competitive or that we are the last first world nation to address the issue?

Is it that you like being last and just supposing this might make it better because it simply can't get much worse...

Or perhaps you enjoy paying 40% more for drugs here than our neighbors to the north - the very same drugs - because we have a system that permits drug advertising (ask your doctor if viagra is right for meade) and low and behold 40 cents of every pharmaceutical dollar made in the US is spent on (drum roll please) advertising and marketing the drug....what a coincidence.

So next time you flippantly blow off a comment with a "don't like drastic overhauls on a plan to see if it might work" or whatever you said, the real question is why would you want to continue to pour the national treasure into a system that clearly doesn't work?

for every loopie anecdote in this discussion there is a counter argument based on fact and reality. Perhaps it would have been more in the common good to go there rather than just dump another log on the fire of misinformation.; 12/30/10, 8:48 PM
Opus One Media said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/30/10, 8:48 PM
Sprezzatura said...: "I don't believe in drastic overhauls to see if they just might work."

Folks here need to understand that Althouse doesn't want any changes to health care. She likes things the way they are. In the past, she's said that she could mary someone so that they could benefit from her health care coverage (presumably paid for by tax payers). So, the current system works just fine for her.

This sort of activity sounds like fraud to me (as I noted when she originally suggested it), but different strokes for different folks, I guess. Some folks (unlike me and Simpson) don't mind using manipulation to live off the teat of the government.; 12/30/10, 8:52 PM
KCFleming said...: 1jpb once again demonstrates that if you've got no argument at all, attack the arguer.

Well done, Fallacy Man!; 12/30/10, 9:16 PM
former law student said...: "The anecdote you've been waiting for..... to make your anti-Obamacare arguments complete.
"

Yay, Obamacare is single-payer tax-supported health care managed at the county level -- just like Sweden!!!; 12/30/10, 9:29 PM
Sprezzatura said...: ""The anecdote you've been waiting for..... to make your anti-Obamacare arguments complete.
"

Yay, Obamacare is single-payer tax-supported health care managed at the county level -- just like Sweden!!!"

Well done, Fallacy WoMan!; 12/30/10, 9:35 PM
Anonymous said...: "When Congress makes a law it's a joke, and when it makes a joke it's a law."

Will Rogers; 12/30/10, 9:46 PM
KCFleming said...: Yeah, yeah, yeah, fls/1jpb.

But most folks don't give a damn what flavor of socialism is given, because they all taste like shit.; 12/30/10, 10:22 PM
Kirby Olson said...: Pogo, that was great!

I will say that Finnish socialism works, I think, because of the Lutheran work ethic underwriting it.

That is, with the exception of a handful of foreigners, people want to work, and to help each other in Finland.

Plus, they hate foreigners.

So, this makes the place fairly habitable, unless you happen to be a foreigner (as I was) in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It's also weird in a huge public sauna to be the only person who's circumcized. You just hope nobody looks.; 12/30/10, 10:44 PM
KCFleming said...: Agreed. The only successful socialist efforts have been in monocultures, usually religious.

Few survive more than a few generations, however, due to the inevitable shirking that arises.; 12/30/10, 10:53 PM
Opus One Media said...: @kirby olsen

"Finns hate foreigners..."?

really? I didn't notice. I did notice the disdain many Swedes have for Finns and vice versa but that goes back to the war.

can you be more specific? I spent a lot of time in Helsinki and Turku and in the Karelia region and didn't see it. care to enlighten?; 12/30/10, 11:44 PM
Famous Original Mike said...: "It won't change a single mind of those who favor national health care, because it's power they seek, not better care."

This.; 12/31/10, 9:18 AM
mishu said...: This might be a good time to put in a good word for the now often maligned practice of circumcision.

Word. And a good one at that. ;)

Now that San Francisco has made them illegal, watch cancer rates go up there.; 12/31/10, 11:10 AM