I was amused when a friend went to a special clinic in another state for a new outpatient knee repair procedure. They told him up front the cost depends on your insurance as low as $17,000 for Medicare, but if you were paying yourself it was $50,000.
Medicare pays a small fraction of the list price, and insurance companies pay a larger fraction of the list price. And people with no insurance who don't request a discount prior to accepting services are the only ones that actually get charged list price.
The insurance companies always bargain very hard and use all the pressure they can to pay as little of list price as possible.
If a hospital only had Medicare patients, it would go out of business.
The list price is set so that between all sources of payment, the hospital makes a small profit, maybe 5% or so.
On the other hand, I read in the news that the British National Health Service is struggling to get by with insufficient funding.
The insurance companies always bargain very hard and use all the pressure they can to pay as little of list price as possible.
If a hospital only had Medicare patients, it would go out of business.
The list price is set so that between all sources of payment, the hospital makes a small profit, maybe 5% or so.
On the other hand, I read in the news that the British National Health Service is struggling to get by with insufficient funding.
Last edited:
I have a lot of respect for Benchmark, I've been using their amps for a while. I have to say I have two favorite DACs for two different purposes: For home listening I really like the absolute smoothness and lack of trouble reproducing differing formats I get from the Auralic Vega, it just seems to be effortless and offers a choice of filter and PLL topologies from the front panel...a nice piece of engineering. For portable use I love the PonoPlayer. While the whole Pono scheme was open to debate, Charles Hansen knocked it out of the park with the audio performance of that player. It is within spitting distance of some very expensive DACs I've listened to at 1/10th the price, even offering a balanced output mode that makes HPs like the Senn HD800s sound fantastic..
Just my $0.02 worth...
Howie
Regarding DACs, a very new one is Crane Song Solaris. I am aware that a couple of major mastering labs recently each bought one.
Also, I heard Crane Song is talking about making the new DAC available as a retrofit module for my old Crane Song HEDD, and also for Avocet. If they every manage to do it, the upgrade sounds like a no-brainer, if the price isn't too crazy that is.
Also, I heard Crane Song is talking about making the new DAC available as a retrofit module for my old Crane Song HEDD, and also for Avocet. If they every manage to do it, the upgrade sounds like a no-brainer, if the price isn't too crazy that is.
JN
Here is the picture. Interesting to note that with the zoble the ringing stays the same but the level does go down. I would have expected with the greater mismatch for some other change.
(Again 100M WPW225 into JBL 2413 1 Hz square wave high passed 10 uF into 5 ohms, looking at load.)
Here is the picture. Interesting to note that with the zoble the ringing stays the same but the level does go down. I would have expected with the greater mismatch for some other change.
(Again 100M WPW225 into JBL 2413 1 Hz square wave high passed 10 uF into 5 ohms, looking at load.)
Attachments
Last edited:
This is part of what is broken and no party is addressing this. Like the cost of a cat scan varies. If the cost of an oil change varied ten to one people would probably care more.
The entangled regulatory/reimbursement nature of US healthcare is beyond ridiculous, which is why you get cost schedules like that. Sigh, short of a nuclear bomb dropped on the entire system, I struggle to see a good way towards cost containment. This is quickly becoming political, though, so I'll cut myself off here.
Also, I heard a full blown advertisement for testosterone therapy from a "men's health" clinic on the radio at the gym this morning. It upsets me so much to know that medical advertising to the public at large is legal in this country. It's patently negligent--I'll stop there.
Also, I heard a full blown advertisement for testosterone therapy from a "men's health" clinic on the radio at the gym this morning. It upsets me so much to know that medical advertising to the public at large is legal in this country. It's patently negligent--I'll stop there.
Yes. people in other countries assume we USA people make a lot of money.... but expenses are thru the roof. I was developing cataracks in one eye.... and a tiny bit starting in the other. Insurance wont pay until you are 'legally' blind by some insurance definition. never the less, I got quote of 10,000 per eye if I didn't wait until blind.... and still need eye glasses. about 40K usd if you wanted corrected lens. per eye.
So, I went to Bangkok and got eyes lens replaced with german made lens which corrected for all issues.... no eye glasses needed afterwards. Laser surgery. SOTA. Total out of pocket cost to me.... 10K both eyes. If I was a Thai citizen, it would all be free/no cost to patient.
Yes, money matters !
-RNMarsh
Last edited:
I also have Pono and HD800. Plus some others.
Nice to offer selection of filters and PLL topologies..... good feature set.
What got you to buy the Benchmark amps?
THx- Richard
And in certain states you pay income federal tax only (11% IIRC). And you are ready to defend this absurdity with your cold dead hands, you don't want (or care) to make any personal health care savings, you don't want to get insured when young and healthy, but never forget to complain about the health care (and other) expenses when in need. Hypocrisy, or what?
Flash news, you can't have the cake and eat it too. You made an option, live with it and STFU.
BTW, I'm sure each and every yankee has the option of a trip to Bangkok to address cataract surgery, you don't have to be rich and connected for that.
Interesting biased and highly subjective view point. In Thailand, a nice blend of 1st,2nd and 3rd world mixture..... with help from friends there I now have a retirement visa.... stay forever/come and go as I please. So I wont have to sell my home in California to pay the outrageous costs/fees when I get ill. I do all my check-up and prescriptions over there now.
And, no property tax, unlike California. I sold a property in calif (lost money) and I bought a nice new condo over there.
Don't have to be rich to do that either. Yes, you can have your cake and eat it also.
-RM
Last edited:
Interesting biased and highly subjective view point. In Thailand, a nice blend of 1st,2nd and 3rd world mixture..... with help from friends there I now have a retirement visa.... stay forever/come and go as I please. So I wont have to sell my home in California to pay the outrageous costs/fees when I get ill. I do all my check-up and prescriptions over there now.
And, no property tax, unlike California. I sold a property in calif (lost money) and I bought a nice new condo over there.
Yes, you can have your cake and eat it also.
As I said, yes, I'm sure each and every yankee has these options, only they are not, as yourself, smart and poor enough to realize.
I'm done here.
Yes in fact folks also go to India and Costa Rica for uncovered/expensive medical procedures.
I don't get not having major disaster emergency medical coverage. My wife and daughter both had life threatening emergencies with $100,000's in costs and we never paid more than the $1000 or whatever deductible. I haven't met a single person in 40yr. that had to sell everything to pay medical expenses.
I might add we availed ourselves of our choice of care, and in Boston that is not equaled easily. Dick, you have your own eccentric views on these matters and you are certainly welcome to them. They are not "the only way" that works for everyone. In fact for a larger family the educational expense issue is even bigger, if that is someone's choice there are very different answers.
Last edited:
Guys there really is enough silly stuff here without getting into economics.
Now to completely reverse what I just wrote, try the CIA world fact book. Lowest national income taxes run around 10% for Afghanistan and Myanmar. Funny thing both are opium based economies. Also look at where your country compares to the rest of the world.
My conclusion has always been that the minimum tax folks really like the poppy flowers.
Now to completely reverse what I just wrote, try the CIA world fact book. Lowest national income taxes run around 10% for Afghanistan and Myanmar. Funny thing both are opium based economies. Also look at where your country compares to the rest of the world.
My conclusion has always been that the minimum tax folks really like the poppy flowers.
So, lets see. You run a step function (at this timebase) from a cable that I assume is about 150 ohm characteristic impedance into a non-high speed termination.
Your waveform looks like a t-line feeding a load with parasitic inductance. You just change the inductance slightly when you added the zobel. You are seeing the loop inductance.
100 meters, 330 feet one way, 660 round trip.... 2 nsec per foot, 1.32 usec per double length..757 kHz at half c. 400khz would be 2.5usec round trip, or about .25 c. I don't think the cable is that slow, of course the vendor gives no L or C. So I'd suspect simple loop ringing at the load after the initial inductance.
You didn't use a wirewound did you???
John
As I currently have 2 members of my family in hospital and have experienced us medical care as well (one of my daughters is American by birth) yes the NHS is struggling, but has done for decades. BUT it is the largest and most complex single healthcare organisation in the world, so has unique problems. Whilst remaining non-political, the main difference across the pond is that in USA intervention is almost encouraged as doctors can charge for it, whereas here the focus is on chosing care paths that reduce or remove the need for intervention in the first place. Very different viewpoints. We of course also have private healthcare here. Recently both my parents (divorced) had to have cataracts done. my mother on NHS had them done one at a time 3 months apart and it all went fine. My father chose to go private and go for the latest all singing focussing implants, both at the same time (about £6000). He was in bed for 2 weeks afterwards. No correlation just saying.
But I think we can all agree that the focus should be on stopping people getting ill where at all possible.
- Status
- Not open for further replies.