T.R. Reid Quotes

The Universal Laws of Health Care Systems:

1. "No matter how good the health care in a particular country, people will complain about it"
2. "No matter how much money is spent on health care, the doctors and hospitas will argue that it is not enough"
3. "The last reform always failed

One reason (though not the main one) is that American health care "providers" - doctors, nurses, hospitals, drug companies - make more money for what they do than their counterparts overseas do.

When Americans fill a prescription, the price is routinely twice as much - sometimes ten times as much - as a Briton or a German would pay for precisely the same pills made in the same factory.

It's one of the finest highway networks in the world - and nobody seems to care that the basic idea was copied from the Nazis.6 EISENHOWER,

For the mass prevention of disease, mass education is a key weapon.

A lot of what we "know" about other nations' approach to health care is simply myth.

All the watchmaker needs is a mechanism to count the back-and-forth oscillations - and counting is one of the simple tasks that binary logic gates can perform. In the digital watch a logic gate called a JK flip-flop counts the vibrations of the crystal.

Believe me," Dr. Tamalet summed up, "if you wanted that operation in France, you could get it"

Which is, of course, the boon and the bane of France's health care system. It offers a maximum of free choice among skillful doctors and well-equipped hospitals, with little or not waiting, at bargain-basement prices [in out-of-pocket terms to the consumer]. It's a system that enables the French to live longer and healthier lives, with zero risk of financial loss due to illness. But somebody has to pay for all that high-quality, ready-when-you-need-it care--and the patients, so far, have not been willing to do so. As a result, the major health insurance funds are all operating at a deficit, and the costs of the health care system are increasing significantly faster than the economy as a whole. That's why the doctors keep striking and the sickness funds keep negotiating and the government keeps going back to the drawing board, with a new 'major health care reform' every few years. So far, the saving grace for France's system has been the high level of efficiency, as exemplified by the 'carte vitale,' that keeps administrative costs low--much lower than in the United States.

The warmth and the soft glow of the tubes also attracted moths, which would fly through ENIAC's innards and cause short circuits. Ever since, the process of fixing computer problems has been known as debugging.