Pointless? I wish I could back through history, and count how many times "experts" said certain ideas and endeavors were "pointless" just to have them become reality.

Just make sure you also tally up how many times they said 'pointless' and were proven right.

Spending time and resources on things that won't work (economically) does no one any good.

"They laughed at Einstein. They laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown."

-- Carl Sagan (paraphrased from memory)

Completely agree. Just another example of people over reacting. The other fun part is people trying to explain how it was okay back in '12, but now it's a tragedy.

While their intentions may not have changed, the power and influence they have accumulated has changed a lot. Face recognition and virtual assistants that seem to always be listening without your consent or knowledge bothers people.

You should look up the definition of "free market". We do not have a free market in healthcare.

Exactly. It's a non-free market and whenever reforms are enacted - see ACA - they make it a bit more like itself, which is to say a bit less free. And when that doesn't work what's the fix? - more reform. More like itself. More a bit less free.

What about a dermatologist? An appointment has a set fee. If you need treatment for something out of the ordinary, they give you options and prices. Then, you get to decide on how you proceed.

Seems pretty simple.

Have you seen a dermatology textbook? They're the thickest books on my shelf. And as a pathologist, I'm only seeing the stuff that merits "I'm not exactly sure what to do here, let's get a biopsy and see if that provides us more information."

Then I, as the pathologist, provide some hedgy answer that's not in the textbook, because the patient's disease didn't read the textbook. And we have to jam that all into CPT codes, SNOMED codes, LOINC codes, ICD9 and ICD10 codes, complete with conversions between major and minor releases of those code lists, etc, etc.

When you live in the country your concerns are a lot different that when you live in the city. It makes sense that each would have their own representative.

I'm sure the baker who made your croissant didn't go into work until 9am....

Your response sounds a lot more like propaganda than the article.

So is this testing how people adjust to facts, or how they respond once they know you have lied to them?

Yeah,

The test seems like "I will screw with your sense of reasoning a bit and call you irrational when you don't respond the way I think you should"

"so easy and transparent" Maybe for you, but perhaps not everyone has your experience. Unions have there place, even today.

yes exactly. the unions can be on the cloud.