Thank you for the 47 percent increase in my health care rate

[Obamanation]

By law, a hospital must stabilize a patient with an emergency, regardless of whether he has insurance or not. This means that your taxes are already paying for the uninsured. The only thing that ACA is going to do is to shift the cost of this care from the taxes, to the private sector. There will be some increses in costs, because under the present law, a hospital is not required to give you a heart bypass or chemo treratment, since that is not "stabilization". however, in most cases, the uninsured manage to get this done under Medicaid, or other government programs. If all else fails, they simply write it off, and mark up the cost to your insurance comapny, instead, which simply passes it on to you. So, for the most part, all ACA is doing is "cost shifting", "not cost increasing".

The only thing you are wrong about here is that unisured people without govt' programs will still get bypass surgery. If you show at the ER with chest pain and no coverage you will be sent to the cath lab for a CABG (coronary arterial bypass graft) and spend a week (miniminum) the hospital recovering. Should you contract a pneumonia you will continue to stay in the hospital... You are what we call Private Pay --- and usually the hospital will receive very little, if any, payment for ANY of your bills...

The ACA does NOTHING to address the cost of healthcare in the US. The cost problems have NOTHING to do with the gov't taking over the biggest industry in the Country. That is just socialism -- and it will not fix the cost problem!!!

As I said, ACA is not going to reduce costs, so we agree. A single payer Medicare like universal health care WOULD have reduced costs, and so would the alternative Universal health care through private insureds, like Medicare Advantage.

Even if it would... I would be against it. A legitimate free market is ALWAYS a better solution than gov't run ANYTHING. Look at all the failing gov't programs we have now. Even the ones people like aren't solvent. If you really want to see something screwed up, put the gov't in charge!

 

[Synthaholic]

Thank you for the 47 percent increase in my health care rate

Always with the 47 percent! Don't you people ever learn?

I've been waiting for this post.





And the very rich did very well during those years. A great example is George Romney. H. Ross Perot. Warren Buffett. T. Boone Pickens. Lee Iaccoca. Elvis Presley.

They all had the means to live a very luxury lifestyle, from cars to houses to travel to banking money. That's the American Dream. Not making $108 million in bonuses for running a failed financial institution that has only taken from the American taxpayer. And continues to take $85 billion per year, with no return.

And I never heard any of them bitch about their tax rates. It would have been seen as ungrateful, and gauche. The rich had manners, and more importantly, perspective.

Your just being silly now. I have no control over how the insurance system works. Neither do you. Can't change it and neither can you. Nothing hypocritical about it. It is what it is.

I don't agree with you so I'm wrong and your're right. Got it.

I will never agree with you and you won't agree with me. No sweat. I sure as shit don't need your approval for anything.

I live a pretty good life. Have a great job that I'm damned good at.

Don't owe anyone a dime and I do as I please. That personal responsibility you seem to abhorr pays dividends down the road. It sure has for me.

Hope you can say the same.

You are extremely confident that this bolded situation will continue indefinitely. Shit happens, Claudette. You, hubby, son, daughter, could get an illness, then be dropped from your coverage. You could het blindsided in your car and be confined to a wheelchair, while being dropped from your insurance coverage. You could have a few of the common situations that are described in that Time article (HAVE YOU READ IT?) and all of a sudden be looking at an $83,900 hospital bill.

You cannot predict the future, and you cannot negotiate cost, and you can not 'shop'. As it says in the article, the medical industry is the "ultimate seller's market".

You can't predict the future there either Syn.

Your saying that Obamacare, ACA, will be cheaper and better??

I really hope your right but I also really, really doubt it.

Anytime the govt sticks its fat nose in you have problems and loads of unintended consequences. You should know that if you've been around amy length of time.

I don't agree. Medicare, Social Security, the Rural Electrification/Tennessee Valley Authority, the Hoover Dam, the Interstate Highway System, the New York City Subway System, and a bunch of others.

The problem is that government has stopped doing those types of things.

We will see come 2014. I really hope your right.

As for my situation in bolded letters?? I really don't owe anyone a dime. My house, cars, everything is payed for because hey, I watched my money, payed extra when I could and so I don't owe a dime.

Now does shit happen?? You bet it does so I hope it never happens to me but if it should I'm in a lot better place than loads of folks.

Well, continued good luck. Just remember the old "if not for the grace of God go I", because life situations can change at any time.

A functioning society needs a degree of empathy.

 

[Synthaholic]

like when Bush lift the president offshore drilling ban, and obama m,ade anothe ban?

Go be stupid somewhere else.

Truth hurt your feelings dumb ass?

No, just not interested in your trolling and derail attempts.

Now fuck off.

 

[Synthaholic]

if you threw away your vote on a third party non-entity

the way i look at it Joe YOU are throwing YOUR vote away by voting for the same old shit....and getting the same old shit for it....

Ahh, but we got the beginnings of health care reform. That's new shit!

i said this a while back......each Election cycle the people get thrown a bone.....that was the bone this time.....and we have yet to see if it lives up to its billing.....and all in all Synth, if the same old people are there.....you are going to get basically the same old shit....you know it and i know it.....the 2 parties act like the tax dollars they control are their personal funds from their own pockets and it seems they only want to spend it if they are going to get something back....

You see health care as a privilege for those who can afford it (or who have employers currently paying for it, even when it's taxpayer dollars).

I see basic health care as a right of every citizen of the United States Of America.

 

[Synthaholic]

Niacin Tablet
Patient was charged $24 per 500-mg tablet of niacin. In drugstores, the pills go for about a nickel each


CT Scans
Patient was charged $6,538 for three ct scans. Medicare would have paid a total of about $825 for all three


Chest X-Ray
Patient was charged $333. the national rate paid by Medicare is $23.83


Acetaminophen $1.50
Charge for one 325-mg tablet, the first of 344 lines in an eight-page hospital bill. You can buy 100 tablets on Amazon for $1.49


Sodium Chloride $84
Hospital charge for standard saline solution. Online, a liter bag costs $5.16

You are darn right about one thing. Medicare reimbursement is HORRIBLE!!! It's a wonder hospitals can keep their doors open only getting $24 for a chest x-ray and less than $300.00 for a CT - the ionated contrast alone for a CT costs facilities $100 per patient.

Perhaps reforming the executive pay would be a start to being able to charge real-world costs:


The president of MD Anderson is paid like someone running a prosperous business. Ronald DePinho’s total compensation last year was $1,845,000. That does not count outside earnings derived from a much publicized waiver he received from the university that, according to the Houston Chronicle, allows him to maintain unspecified “financial ties with his three principal pharmaceutical companies.”


DePinho’s salary is nearly two and a half times the $750,000 paid to Francisco Cigarroa, the chancellor of entire University of Texas system, of which MD Anderson is a part. This pay structure is emblematic of American medical economics and is reflected on campuses across the U.S., where the president of a hospital or hospital system associated with a university — whether it’s Texas, Stanford, Duke or Yale — is invariably paid much more than the person in charge of the university.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

Thank you for the 47 percent increase in my health care rate

Obviously conservatives know only how to whine.

 

[Obamanation]

Niacin Tablet
Patient was charged $24 per 500-mg tablet of niacin. In drugstores, the pills go for about a nickel each


CT Scans
Patient was charged $6,538 for three ct scans. Medicare would have paid a total of about $825 for all three


Chest X-Ray
Patient was charged $333. the national rate paid by Medicare is $23.83


Acetaminophen $1.50
Charge for one 325-mg tablet, the first of 344 lines in an eight-page hospital bill. You can buy 100 tablets on Amazon for $1.49


Sodium Chloride $84
Hospital charge for standard saline solution. Online, a liter bag costs $5.16

You are darn right about one thing. Medicare reimbursement is HORRIBLE!!! It's a wonder hospitals can keep their doors open only getting $24 for a chest x-ray and less than $300.00 for a CT - the ionated contrast alone for a CT costs facilities $100 per patient.

Perhaps reforming the executive pay would be a start to being able to charge real-world costs:


The president of MD Anderson is paid like someone running a prosperous business. Ronald DePinho’s total compensation last year was $1,845,000. That does not count outside earnings derived from a much publicized waiver he received from the university that, according to the Houston Chronicle, allows him to maintain unspecified “financial ties with his three principal pharmaceutical companies.”


DePinho’s salary is nearly two and a half times the $750,000 paid to Francisco Cigarroa, the chancellor of entire University of Texas system, of which MD Anderson is a part. This pay structure is emblematic of American medical economics and is reflected on campuses across the U.S., where the president of a hospital or hospital system associated with a university — whether it’s Texas, Stanford, Duke or Yale — is invariably paid much more than the person in charge of the university.

You have to be kidding me. You don't think one of the best oncologists in medicine is worth 2 million a year???

DePinho's laboratory has produced an array of discoveries leading to better methods of early cancer detection, improved cancer patient care and new cancer drug development. The range of his research includes cancer drug and biomarker development, cancer gene discovery, stem cell biology and development of genetically engineered mouse models to study cancer in humans.

DePinho was the first to show that the Myc family of oncogenes (cancer-causing genes) function through common cell signaling pathways to transform “normal” cells into malignant ones.

In a series of key experiments, DePinho established the concept of “tumor maintenance” to address the question of whether an original cancer-causing oncogene can remain active in maintaining a tumor despite the accumulation of many alterations in DNA during the malignant transformation process. This concept has contributed to cancer drug development by guiding identification of new therapeutic points of attack, as well as novel biomarkers that measure a patient’s response to a drug during a course of treatment.

His research also provided some of the first evidence that the p53 gene can suppress the development of some cancers by stimulating apoptosis, a process by which the majority of cancer cells die naturally. DePinho and Robert Eisenman discovered a co-repressor complex (known as mSin3/HDAC) that links a transcription factor and chromatin regulation in suppressing cancers. His lab also provided the first genetic evidence that a familial melanoma gene serves as a potent tumor suppressor in melanoma and many other cancer types.

With about 78% of all cancers diagnosed in people older than 55, perhaps DePinho’s most notable contributions concern the link between advancing age and increasing risk of cancer. He convincingly established that three factors — telomere dysfunction, an impaired ability of a cell to repair DNA damage and the continued renewal of the epithelial layer of tissue that covers organs — all unite to cause rearrangements in the DNA that drive the genesis of many common cancers.

Telomeres are sections of DNA at the ends of chromosomes. Each time a cell divides, telomeres lose a small amount of DNA and become shorter. In cancer cells, however, the telomeres are maintained by activation of a special enzyme, telomerase. Cancer cells usually have more telomerase than most normal cells, which contributes to their immortality and ability to spread.

Beyond cancer, DePinho’s work on telomeres has established the role of telomere dysfunction in acquired and inherited degenerative disorders, such as end-stage liver failure. His findings even suggest that there may be a “point of return” in which medicines might help severely aged organs recover a youthful state.

DePinho has created many faithful mouse models of human cancer. Most recently, he has developed the first metastatic prostate cancer model in mice, which he has used to identify tumor biomarkers that can stratify men into either high risk or low risk for spread of their disease. Using this approach, his laboratory has discovered prostate cancer markers that predict how lethal a cancer may be, which will better direct the course of therapy for men with this common cancer.

In addition to his presidential duties at MD Anderson, DePinho remains an active scientist in his laboratory and in the new Institute for Applied Cancer Science. His lab focuses mainly on basic-to-translational research programs for brain, colorectal, pancreas and prostate cancers, as well as aging and neuro-degeneration.

Honors
DePinho is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has received numerous other honors and awards including:

American Italian Cancer Foundation Prize for Scientific Excellence in Medicine, 2012
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research, 2009
Helsinki Medal, 2007
Albert Einstein College of Medicine Distinguished Alumnus Award, 2004
American Association for Cancer Research Clowes Memorial Award, 2003
American Society for Clinical Investigation Award, 2002

 

[JoeB131]

You are darn right about one thing. Medicare reimbursement is HORRIBLE!!! It's a wonder hospitals can keep their doors open only getting $24 for a chest x-ray and less than $300.00 for a CT - the ionated contrast alone for a CT costs facilities $100 per patient.

Actually, it sounds like we could solve all our problems by just expanding medicare to EVERYONE and calling it a day.

Oh, the doctors won't like it. They'll have to buy a 25 foot yacht instead of a 40 footer...

 

[JoeB131]

Nope. I just don't like being forced to pay for others people responsibilities.

Neither do I - so you should make sure you have health insurance.

Health insurance IS paying for other peoples responsibilities --- whether it's provided by the gov't or private insurers. People who won't use medical treatment buy insurance and their money is used to pay for people who do use treatment....

Do you not even understand that basic concept?

We understand that perfectly well.

The problem is, no one can budget for a major medical problem. So if you aren't going to do what every other industrialized nation has done and make it a public service, making everyone buy insurance is the only other option.

 

[JoeB131]

if you threw away your vote on a third party non-entity

the way i look at it Joe YOU are throwing YOUR vote away by voting for the same old shit....and getting the same old shit for it....

Dude you are entitled to that opinion, but the reality is, our presidents will always be either Democrats or Republicans. This is just the reality.

Now, frankly, I liked Gary Johnson. He was a Libertarian who wasn't completely batshit out of his mind, unlike the Paul family. But he had absolutely no chance of winning a single electoral vote.

and as long as everyone has that opinion.....we will have the same old shit.....until people decide that these too trees have got to be shaken and have the balls to do some shaking....nothing is going to change...we will get a bone thrown at us every now and then.....if thats what you want.....keep voting for the so called...."lessor of two evils"....

You can shake the trees all day.. but the fact is, third party movements last all of two cycles.

Since 1900, you've had-

The Prohibition Party
The Progressive Party
The Socialist Party
The Communist Party
The States Rights Party
The Independent Party
The Reform Party
The Green Party
The Libertarian Party...

Guess what, they never go anywhere. There's a reason for that.

 

[Synthaholic]

You are darn right about one thing. Medicare reimbursement is HORRIBLE!!! It's a wonder hospitals can keep their doors open only getting $24 for a chest x-ray and less than $300.00 for a CT - the ionated contrast alone for a CT costs facilities $100 per patient.

Perhaps reforming the executive pay would be a start to being able to charge real-world costs:


The president of MD Anderson is paid like someone running a prosperous business. Ronald DePinho’s total compensation last year was $1,845,000. That does not count outside earnings derived from a much publicized waiver he received from the university that, according to the Houston Chronicle, allows him to maintain unspecified “financial ties with his three principal pharmaceutical companies.”


DePinho’s salary is nearly two and a half times the $750,000 paid to Francisco Cigarroa, the chancellor of entire University of Texas system, of which MD Anderson is a part. This pay structure is emblematic of American medical economics and is reflected on campuses across the U.S., where the president of a hospital or hospital system associated with a university — whether it’s Texas, Stanford, Duke or Yale — is invariably paid much more than the person in charge of the university.

You have to be kidding me. You don't think one of the best oncologists in medicine is worth 2 million a year???

DePinho's laboratory has produced an array of discoveries leading to better methods of early cancer detection, improved cancer patient care and new cancer drug development. The range of his research includes cancer drug and biomarker development, cancer gene discovery, stem cell biology and development of genetically engineered mouse models to study cancer in humans.

DePinho was the first to show that the Myc family of oncogenes (cancer-causing genes) function through common cell signaling pathways to transform “normal” cells into malignant ones.

In a series of key experiments, DePinho established the concept of “tumor maintenance” to address the question of whether an original cancer-causing oncogene can remain active in maintaining a tumor despite the accumulation of many alterations in DNA during the malignant transformation process. This concept has contributed to cancer drug development by guiding identification of new therapeutic points of attack, as well as novel biomarkers that measure a patient’s response to a drug during a course of treatment.

His research also provided some of the first evidence that the p53 gene can suppress the development of some cancers by stimulating apoptosis, a process by which the majority of cancer cells die naturally. DePinho and Robert Eisenman discovered a co-repressor complex (known as mSin3/HDAC) that links a transcription factor and chromatin regulation in suppressing cancers. His lab also provided the first genetic evidence that a familial melanoma gene serves as a potent tumor suppressor in melanoma and many other cancer types.

With about 78% of all cancers diagnosed in people older than 55, perhaps DePinho’s most notable contributions concern the link between advancing age and increasing risk of cancer. He convincingly established that three factors — telomere dysfunction, an impaired ability of a cell to repair DNA damage and the continued renewal of the epithelial layer of tissue that covers organs — all unite to cause rearrangements in the DNA that drive the genesis of many common cancers.

Telomeres are sections of DNA at the ends of chromosomes. Each time a cell divides, telomeres lose a small amount of DNA and become shorter. In cancer cells, however, the telomeres are maintained by activation of a special enzyme, telomerase. Cancer cells usually have more telomerase than most normal cells, which contributes to their immortality and ability to spread.

Beyond cancer, DePinho’s work on telomeres has established the role of telomere dysfunction in acquired and inherited degenerative disorders, such as end-stage liver failure. His findings even suggest that there may be a “point of return” in which medicines might help severely aged organs recover a youthful state.

DePinho has created many faithful mouse models of human cancer. Most recently, he has developed the first metastatic prostate cancer model in mice, which he has used to identify tumor biomarkers that can stratify men into either high risk or low risk for spread of their disease. Using this approach, his laboratory has discovered prostate cancer markers that predict how lethal a cancer may be, which will better direct the course of therapy for men with this common cancer.

In addition to his presidential duties at MD Anderson, DePinho remains an active scientist in his laboratory and in the new Institute for Applied Cancer Science. His lab focuses mainly on basic-to-translational research programs for brain, colorectal, pancreas and prostate cancers, as well as aging and neuro-degeneration.

Honors
DePinho is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has received numerous other honors and awards including:

American Italian Cancer Foundation Prize for Scientific Excellence in Medicine, 2012
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research, 2009
Helsinki Medal, 2007
Albert Einstein College of Medicine Distinguished Alumnus Award, 2004
American Association for Cancer Research Clowes Memorial Award, 2003
American Society for Clinical Investigation Award, 2002

Not when he's running a non-profit, I don't.

 

[Trajan]

I've been waiting for this post.





And the very rich did very well during those years. A great example is George Romney. H. Ross Perot. Warren Buffett. T. Boone Pickens. Lee Iaccoca. Elvis Presley.

They all had the means to live a very luxury lifestyle, from cars to houses to travel to banking money. That's the American Dream. Not making $108 million in bonuses for running a failed financial institution that has only taken from the American taxpayer. And continues to take $85 billion per year, with no return.

And I never heard any of them bitch about their tax rates. It would have been seen as ungrateful, and gauche. The rich had manners, and more importantly, perspective.






You are extremely confident that this bolded situation will continue indefinitely. Shit happens, Claudette. You, hubby, son, daughter, could get an illness, then be dropped from your coverage. You could het blindsided in your car and be confined to a wheelchair, while being dropped from your insurance coverage. You could have a few of the common situations that are described in that Time article (HAVE YOU READ IT?) and all of a sudden be looking at an $83,900 hospital bill.

You cannot predict the future, and you cannot negotiate cost, and you can not 'shop'. As it says in the article, the medical industry is the "ultimate seller's market".

You can't predict the future there either Syn.

Your saying that Obamacare, ACA, will be cheaper and better??

I really hope your right but I also really, really doubt it.

Anytime the govt sticks its fat nose in you have problems and loads of unintended consequences. You should know that if you've been around amy length of time.

I don't agree. Medicare, Social Security, the Rural Electrification/Tennessee Valley Authority, the Hoover Dam, the Interstate Highway System, the New York City Subway System, and a bunch of others.

The problem is that government has stopped doing those types of things.

We will see come 2014. I really hope your right.

As for my situation in bolded letters?? I really don't owe anyone a dime. My house, cars, everything is payed for because hey, I watched my money, payed extra when I could and so I don't owe a dime.

Now does shit happen?? You bet it does so I hope it never happens to me but if it should I'm in a lot better place than loads of folks.

Well, continued good luck. Just remember the old "if not for the grace of God go I", because life situations can change at any time.

A functioning society needs a degree of empathy.

I don't agree. Medicare, Social Security, the Rural Electrification/Tennessee Valley Authority, the Hoover Dam, the Interstate Highway System, the New York City Subway System, and a bunch of others.

Medicare and social security are programs you would count as proof the government can manage 300 million peoples finances, health etc.? wow....

The TVA ( a concentrated REGIONAL project) turned out well, but if you asked say Wendell Willkie , he'd tell you that private industry could have got that done ( and have) , the feds had one thing they didn't unfettered access they granted themselves to do much of that work.

The Hoover Dam was built by a private co., Six Companies, Inc.....the feds gave them access to building materials and cleared the way via states rights issues over the land and power sharing generated there after.

Interstate Highway System, was built at the impetus opf the feds ( going back to early in the century) but Dwight certainly owns the honor. The states (own) and managed the building via private co's, they were provided funding by the feds via Highway Revenue Act in 1956, and Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956.

Uhm, perhaps a history of the New York City Subway System might be in order. The city got on board a going private venture which was already proven and had laid much track ( considering the times, 1900's) and eventually sucked them up as city municipal utilities.

bzxh11

I am not sure what these examples are supposed to prove. They have very little to provide as virtuous examples of [the] requirements for dealing with the machinations and management of a complex system like health access, treatments and fund manipulation, or that the federal gov. can direct and manage an entity ( like uhm Medicare? the DOD?) that will affect and effect over 300 million people with individual needs, in a very technical field?
The first clue, to their cluelessness, should have been the excise tax they slapped on medical device makers..... thats like slapping an excise tax on steel or concrete used for construction of the Hoover dam

 

[boedicca]

You are darn right about one thing. Medicare reimbursement is HORRIBLE!!! It's a wonder hospitals can keep their doors open only getting $24 for a chest x-ray and less than $300.00 for a CT - the ionated contrast alone for a CT costs facilities $100 per patient.

Perhaps reforming the executive pay would be a start to being able to charge real-world costs:


The president of MD Anderson is paid like someone running a prosperous business. Ronald DePinho’s total compensation last year was $1,845,000. That does not count outside earnings derived from a much publicized waiver he received from the university that, according to the Houston Chronicle, allows him to maintain unspecified “financial ties with his three principal pharmaceutical companies.”


DePinho’s salary is nearly two and a half times the $750,000 paid to Francisco Cigarroa, the chancellor of entire University of Texas system, of which MD Anderson is a part. This pay structure is emblematic of American medical economics and is reflected on campuses across the U.S., where the president of a hospital or hospital system associated with a university — whether it’s Texas, Stanford, Duke or Yale — is invariably paid much more than the person in charge of the university.

You have to be kidding me. You don't think one of the best oncologists in medicine is worth 2 million a year???

DePinho's laboratory has produced an array of discoveries leading to better methods of early cancer detection, improved cancer patient care and new cancer drug development. The range of his research includes cancer drug and biomarker development, cancer gene discovery, stem cell biology and development of genetically engineered mouse models to study cancer in humans.

DePinho was the first to show that the Myc family of oncogenes (cancer-causing genes) function through common cell signaling pathways to transform “normal” cells into malignant ones.

In a series of key experiments, DePinho established the concept of “tumor maintenance” to address the question of whether an original cancer-causing oncogene can remain active in maintaining a tumor despite the accumulation of many alterations in DNA during the malignant transformation process. This concept has contributed to cancer drug development by guiding identification of new therapeutic points of attack, as well as novel biomarkers that measure a patient’s response to a drug during a course of treatment.

His research also provided some of the first evidence that the p53 gene can suppress the development of some cancers by stimulating apoptosis, a process by which the majority of cancer cells die naturally. DePinho and Robert Eisenman discovered a co-repressor complex (known as mSin3/HDAC) that links a transcription factor and chromatin regulation in suppressing cancers. His lab also provided the first genetic evidence that a familial melanoma gene serves as a potent tumor suppressor in melanoma and many other cancer types.

With about 78% of all cancers diagnosed in people older than 55, perhaps DePinho’s most notable contributions concern the link between advancing age and increasing risk of cancer. He convincingly established that three factors — telomere dysfunction, an impaired ability of a cell to repair DNA damage and the continued renewal of the epithelial layer of tissue that covers organs — all unite to cause rearrangements in the DNA that drive the genesis of many common cancers.

Telomeres are sections of DNA at the ends of chromosomes. Each time a cell divides, telomeres lose a small amount of DNA and become shorter. In cancer cells, however, the telomeres are maintained by activation of a special enzyme, telomerase. Cancer cells usually have more telomerase than most normal cells, which contributes to their immortality and ability to spread.

Beyond cancer, DePinho’s work on telomeres has established the role of telomere dysfunction in acquired and inherited degenerative disorders, such as end-stage liver failure. His findings even suggest that there may be a “point of return” in which medicines might help severely aged organs recover a youthful state.

DePinho has created many faithful mouse models of human cancer. Most recently, he has developed the first metastatic prostate cancer model in mice, which he has used to identify tumor biomarkers that can stratify men into either high risk or low risk for spread of their disease. Using this approach, his laboratory has discovered prostate cancer markers that predict how lethal a cancer may be, which will better direct the course of therapy for men with this common cancer.

In addition to his presidential duties at MD Anderson, DePinho remains an active scientist in his laboratory and in the new Institute for Applied Cancer Science. His lab focuses mainly on basic-to-translational research programs for brain, colorectal, pancreas and prostate cancers, as well as aging and neuro-degeneration.

Honors
DePinho is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has received numerous other honors and awards including:

American Italian Cancer Foundation Prize for Scientific Excellence in Medicine, 2012
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research, 2009
Helsinki Medal, 2007
Albert Einstein College of Medicine Distinguished Alumnus Award, 2004
American Association for Cancer Research Clowes Memorial Award, 2003
American Society for Clinical Investigation Award, 2002

Justin Bieber made $23 million last year. How many lives did he save?

 

[Synthaholic]

Perhaps reforming the executive pay would be a start to being able to charge real-world costs:


The president of MD Anderson is paid like someone running a prosperous business. Ronald DePinho’s total compensation last year was $1,845,000. That does not count outside earnings derived from a much publicized waiver he received from the university that, according to the Houston Chronicle, allows him to maintain unspecified “financial ties with his three principal pharmaceutical companies.”


DePinho’s salary is nearly two and a half times the $750,000 paid to Francisco Cigarroa, the chancellor of entire University of Texas system, of which MD Anderson is a part. This pay structure is emblematic of American medical economics and is reflected on campuses across the U.S., where the president of a hospital or hospital system associated with a university — whether it’s Texas, Stanford, Duke or Yale — is invariably paid much more than the person in charge of the university.

You have to be kidding me. You don't think one of the best oncologists in medicine is worth 2 million a year???

DePinho's laboratory has produced an array of discoveries leading to better methods of early cancer detection, improved cancer patient care and new cancer drug development. The range of his research includes cancer drug and biomarker development, cancer gene discovery, stem cell biology and development of genetically engineered mouse models to study cancer in humans.

DePinho was the first to show that the Myc family of oncogenes (cancer-causing genes) function through common cell signaling pathways to transform “normal” cells into malignant ones.

In a series of key experiments, DePinho established the concept of “tumor maintenance” to address the question of whether an original cancer-causing oncogene can remain active in maintaining a tumor despite the accumulation of many alterations in DNA during the malignant transformation process. This concept has contributed to cancer drug development by guiding identification of new therapeutic points of attack, as well as novel biomarkers that measure a patient’s response to a drug during a course of treatment.

His research also provided some of the first evidence that the p53 gene can suppress the development of some cancers by stimulating apoptosis, a process by which the majority of cancer cells die naturally. DePinho and Robert Eisenman discovered a co-repressor complex (known as mSin3/HDAC) that links a transcription factor and chromatin regulation in suppressing cancers. His lab also provided the first genetic evidence that a familial melanoma gene serves as a potent tumor suppressor in melanoma and many other cancer types.

With about 78% of all cancers diagnosed in people older than 55, perhaps DePinho’s most notable contributions concern the link between advancing age and increasing risk of cancer. He convincingly established that three factors — telomere dysfunction, an impaired ability of a cell to repair DNA damage and the continued renewal of the epithelial layer of tissue that covers organs — all unite to cause rearrangements in the DNA that drive the genesis of many common cancers.

Telomeres are sections of DNA at the ends of chromosomes. Each time a cell divides, telomeres lose a small amount of DNA and become shorter. In cancer cells, however, the telomeres are maintained by activation of a special enzyme, telomerase. Cancer cells usually have more telomerase than most normal cells, which contributes to their immortality and ability to spread.

Beyond cancer, DePinho’s work on telomeres has established the role of telomere dysfunction in acquired and inherited degenerative disorders, such as end-stage liver failure. His findings even suggest that there may be a “point of return” in which medicines might help severely aged organs recover a youthful state.

DePinho has created many faithful mouse models of human cancer. Most recently, he has developed the first metastatic prostate cancer model in mice, which he has used to identify tumor biomarkers that can stratify men into either high risk or low risk for spread of their disease. Using this approach, his laboratory has discovered prostate cancer markers that predict how lethal a cancer may be, which will better direct the course of therapy for men with this common cancer.

In addition to his presidential duties at MD Anderson, DePinho remains an active scientist in his laboratory and in the new Institute for Applied Cancer Science. His lab focuses mainly on basic-to-translational research programs for brain, colorectal, pancreas and prostate cancers, as well as aging and neuro-degeneration.

Honors
DePinho is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has received numerous other honors and awards including:

American Italian Cancer Foundation Prize for Scientific Excellence in Medicine, 2012
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research, 2009
Helsinki Medal, 2007
Albert Einstein College of Medicine Distinguished Alumnus Award, 2004
American Association for Cancer Research Clowes Memorial Award, 2003
American Society for Clinical Investigation Award, 2002

Justin Bieber made $23 million last year. How many lives did he save?

No one is forced to buy Justin Beiber. If you are in an accident you are forced to buy services which you have no negotiation on price.

Rightwingers only believe in the free market when it's convenient.

 

[Synthaholic]

You can't predict the future there either Syn.

Your saying that Obamacare, ACA, will be cheaper and better??

I really hope your right but I also really, really doubt it.

Anytime the govt sticks its fat nose in you have problems and loads of unintended consequences. You should know that if you've been around amy length of time.

I don't agree. Medicare, Social Security, the Rural Electrification/Tennessee Valley Authority, the Hoover Dam, the Interstate Highway System, the New York City Subway System, and a bunch of others.

The problem is that government has stopped doing those types of things.





Well, continued good luck. Just remember the old "if not for the grace of God go I", because life situations can change at any time.

A functioning society needs a degree of empathy.

I don't agree. Medicare, Social Security, the Rural Electrification/Tennessee Valley Authority, the Hoover Dam, the Interstate Highway System, the New York City Subway System, and a bunch of others.

Medicare and social security are programs you would count as proof the government can manage 300 million peoples finances, health etc.? wow....

Definitely. SS is solvent through 2032. Medicare is being harmed by out of control costs, which is the concern of this thread.

The TVA ( a concentrated REGIONAL project) turned out well, but if you asked say Wendell Willkie , he'd tell you that private industry could have got that done ( and have) , the feds had one thing they didn't unfettered access they granted themselves to do much of that work.

The Hoover Dam was built by a private co., Six Companies, Inc.....the feds gave them access to building materials and cleared the way via states rights issues over the land and power sharing generated there after.

Interstate Highway System, was built at the impetus opf the feds ( going back to early in the century) but Dwight certainly owns the honor. The states (own) and managed the building via private co's, they were provided funding by the feds via Highway Revenue Act in 1956, and Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956.

Uhm, perhaps a history of the New York City Subway System might be in order. The city got on board a going private venture which was already proven and had laid much track ( considering the times, 1900's) and eventually sucked them up as city municipal utilities.


I am not sure what these examples are supposed to prove. They have very little to provide as virtuous examples of [the] requirements for dealing with the machinations and management of a complex system like health access, treatments and fund manipulation, or that the federal gov. can direct and manage an entity ( like uhm Medicare? the DOD?) that will affect and effect over 300 million people with individual needs, in a very technical field?
The first clue, to their cluelessness, should have been the excise tax they slapped on medical device makers..... thats like slapping an excise tax on steel or concrete used for construction of the Hoover dam

Well, if Wendle Wilkie says it . . .

 

[Trajan]

whatever........you're more comfortable with rex tugwell I am sure sorry I wasted your time....(and mine)

 

[Harry Dresden]

Dude you are entitled to that opinion, but the reality is, our presidents will always be either Democrats or Republicans. This is just the reality.

Now, frankly, I liked Gary Johnson. He was a Libertarian who wasn't completely batshit out of his mind, unlike the Paul family. But he had absolutely no chance of winning a single electoral vote.

and as long as everyone has that opinion.....we will have the same old shit.....until people decide that these too trees have got to be shaken and have the balls to do some shaking....nothing is going to change...we will get a bone thrown at us every now and then.....if thats what you want.....keep voting for the so called...."lessor of two evils"....

I like Gary Johnson too. A Libertarian who doesn't have totally wacko foreign affairs positions. That is my single big issue thith libertarians!

and i have seen many say they like the guy too......but a lot of them also said they will still vote for one of the 2 front runners.....if you want REAL change you are going to have to vote for it and it wont be from the 2 big guys......there is no reason for them to change,they know their hangers on are to scared to cut the cord.....

 

[Harry Dresden]

Ahh, but we got the beginnings of health care reform. That's new shit!

i said this a while back......each Election cycle the people get thrown a bone.....that was the bone this time.....and we have yet to see if it lives up to its billing.....and all in all Synth, if the same old people are there.....you are going to get basically the same old shit....you know it and i know it.....the 2 parties act like the tax dollars they control are their personal funds from their own pockets and it seems they only want to spend it if they are going to get something back....

You see health care as a privilege for those who can afford it (or who have employers currently paying for it, even when it's taxpayer dollars).

I see basic health care as a right of every citizen of the United States Of America.

no i don't.....i just think Obama and Company are taking on way too much right now the way things are.....i felt he should have addressed those who right now are without Ins. and need it ......me and many other have Ins.....for right now he doesn't have to worry about us.....take care of those millions who don't, but need it right now.....it would have been easier and less expensive for everyone involved to try and get 25 million insured compared to 300 million plus.....and he would have had less resistance......and when things settled down they could look at the bigger picture......

 

[Harry Dresden]

Thank you for the 47 percent increase in my health care rate

Obviously conservatives know only how to whine.

yea they are standing right next to the Liberals whining just as loud....if you were not such a hack you would be able to see that....

 

[Harry Dresden]

Dude you are entitled to that opinion, but the reality is, our presidents will always be either Democrats or Republicans. This is just the reality.

Now, frankly, I liked Gary Johnson. He was a Libertarian who wasn't completely batshit out of his mind, unlike the Paul family. But he had absolutely no chance of winning a single electoral vote.

and as long as everyone has that opinion.....we will have the same old shit.....until people decide that these too trees have got to be shaken and have the balls to do some shaking....nothing is going to change...we will get a bone thrown at us every now and then.....if thats what you want.....keep voting for the so called...."lessor of two evils"....

You can shake the trees all day.. but the fact is, third party movements last all of two cycles.

Since 1900, you've had-

The Prohibition Party
The Progressive Party
The Socialist Party
The Communist Party
The States Rights Party
The Independent Party
The Reform Party
The Green Party
The Libertarian Party...

Guess what, they never go anywhere. There's a reason for that.

yea....no one has enough balls to vote outside of the 2 parties.....even all these so called"Independents" i see STILL say they will vote Democrat or Republican....if you want the same old shit Joe....keep voting for the...."lessor of 2 evils"....as many call it.....i have to put up with the same old shit,but i dont have to support that shit....