#jim epstein

[thecryptoreport]

Video: “Cypherpunks Write Code” And The Precursors Of Bitcoin Listen To This Episode: In this episode of the Bitcoin Magazine Podcast, Technical Editor Aaron van Wirdum speaks with Jim Epstein, the executive editor of Reason TV.

[lenorestestblog]

5 Monitoring Devices that Promise to Give Parents “Peace of Mind” -- But Don’t

[surgerycenterofoklahoma]

Upcoming Talk in NYC

Several months ago I was invited by Gene Epstein (book editor for "Barrons Magazine" and father of Jim Epstein, the mastermind of this video about our facility) to speak to Victor Niederhoffer's New York City "Junto"at 8pm, February 6th.  "Junto" is a gathering of liberty-minded folks who often have a speaker and subsequent lively debate and discussion about the presented topic.  "Junto," is the gathering Benjamin Franklin called the most valuable thing he ever did in his life, meeting with a few close friends to discuss various issues and topics with the idea of bettering themselves.  

The list of past speakers can be seen here, and includes Donald Boudreaux, David Stockton, Andrew Napolitano, Richard Epstein, Robert Higgs and many other giants in the liberty world.  The admission is free and the address is:

General Society Library 20 West 44 St., between 5th and 6th Aves., NYC near the Grand Central Terminal

Gene Epstein as assured me that all are welcome.  I am not sure that any of you following this blog will be in range of this event but you are certainly welcome should you choose to attend.

G. Keith Smith, M.D.

[surgerycenterofoklahoma]

Is Accepting Bitcoin at our facility on the horizon?

Here is a portion of an interview I did today regarding acceptance of Bitcoin payment at our surgery center.  The staff at "Next News Network" is simply fabulous.  Thanks to them for having me on their show....again.

G. Keith Smith, M.D.

[surgerycenterofoklahoma]

Jim Epstein on Samaritan Health-Care Ministry

Jim Epstein once again displays his brilliance in this piece.  Remember than Jim was the writer/producer for this video about our surgery center.  He points out what few are saying, namely that the failure to address the cost of health care is ultimately what will limit its availability.  The focus on getting everyone "coverage" is deliberate and is meant to bring us all to government health care I believe, all the while lining the pockets of the cronies who obviously benefit from the mandated purchase of their "services." 

The prices we have posted online will become increasingly embarrassing for government bureaucrats and their very expensive health budgets for health plans that render little or no care.  Thomas Sowell has pointed out in the past that he has found it interesting that proponents of government health care never explain how this unaffordable care can somehow be more affordable by adding a layer of bureaucracy to it.  Jim's piece demonstrates this perfectly.

Kudos to Jim Epstein once again. 

G. Keith Smith, M.D.

[surgerycenterofoklahoma]

A Bit Confused & Still Missin' the Hippies

I am increasingly amazed that some of the most anti-private property minded people in this country are such supporters of the obscene profit taking of the giant corporate hospitals.  The evidence that the giant hospitals are raking in unfathomable profits is all around us with building projects, ad campaigns, purchases of competing hospitals systems, hostile takeovers of physician practices, sponsorships of sports franchises....I have written this all before...I could go on. 

How is it that collectivists/socialists find this rapacious profiteering excusable yet spew bile about the fact that our facility doesn't accept Medicare or Medicaid funds?  Is it OK to fleece and bankrupt the sick as long as you give lip service to caring for the indigent?  And how do you define indigent?  If the hospital is paid an end-of-the-year rebate from Uncle Sam for caring for those who don't pay them, can these folks still be considered indigent?  And can the hospital claim they gave them free care when they were paid after all was said and done? This is, after all, the uncompensated care scam in a nutshell.

Perhaps these same collectivists consider people "covered" by Medicare and Medicaid indigent.  But according to staffers in Washington with whom I have visited, Medicare pays the hospitals over twice the prices listed on our website.  Jim Epstein of Reason Magazine discovered during his research on his documentary about our facility that the hospitals are actually paid more by Medicaid than many of the prices on our website. 

The truth is that the hospitals have lobbied long and hard for the Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements they receive, their protests about these payments notwithstanding.  They have also lobbied long and hard to make sure that non-hospital facilities like mine are paid a fraction (usually below our costs) of what they receive by these same entitlement programs.  To say that the hospital lobby doesn't hesitate to enlist the legislator to protect them from competitors, indeed to hamstring their competitors, would be an understatement. Ever heard of "certificate of need?"  ("Certificates of need" don't apply to the hospitals apparently as two of the 11 operational proton therapy machines in the U.S. are here in Oklahoma City!)

These are the same types of vicious crony activities that the socialist supporters of hospitals deride while gleefully wishing for the quick death of free enterprise and capitalism. The very essence of the pursuit of self-interest at the expense of others (which many socialists mistake for the ethic of capitalism and free enterprise) is epitomized by these same hospitals whose pockets these same socialists want to line with more Medicaid money. 

I don't get it.  I am confused.  At the Surgery Center of Oklahoma we are cheaper.  We believe we provide care as good or better than anyone in the country. Our prices are sparing many people from bankruptcy.  The price war we have started will likely bring surgical health care within the price range of many who cannot afford it now.  I would think those who champion themselves the protectors of the poor would welcome these developments.  Perhaps they are brainwashed a bit with the hospital "take care of the indigent" propaganda.  Perhaps they are confused by the "not for profit" designation, which just means they don't pay tax.  Why aren't these hospitals seen as greedy tax-dodgers?  Where are the hippies, the folks who peacefully resisted the lies and the jerks in the "establishment?"  As I have written before, I miss them.

G. Keith Smith, M.D.

[surgerycenterofoklahoma]

A Window Into the Regime

Perhaps the most life-saving, peace-promoting and standard-of-living-increasing development in human history was the transition from the economic system of conquest, to one of mutually beneficial exchange.  Up until very recent human history, the only way to get ahead was to pillage and rob whoever had what you wanted.  While this is the essence of government, many individuals now achieve financial security through peaceful and mutually beneficial exchange.

All through history, societies that engaged in mutually beneficial commerce became the richest societies on the planet.  This type of commerce promotes and has promoted peace and has enriched both parties of the exchange (As Walter Williams taught his classes for years, the grocer wants your $2 more than he wants his gallon of milk and you want his gallon of milk more than you want your $2, otherwise the exchange wouldn't occur).  As an example, Venice, Italy, by virtue of its proximity to the Orient and the massive commerce resulting from this position, was the richest city on earth for a very long period.  Indeed, everywhere the promotion of mutually beneficial exchange has occurred the result has been the same. 

Why then, is this economic miracle (non-coerced exchange enriching both buyer and seller) not promoted everywhere and by everyone?  Quite simply, if you are inclined to acquire and use force, you have a much higher time preference as the Austrian economists would suggest, and are more inclined to steal than to do any actual work.  This is, once again, the essence of government.   For example, rather than seek mutual benefit, governments pass laws at the end of which (every time) resides what I call an "or else" clause.  This describes the punishments or fines or jail time for those who disregard or disobey the new law.  "Do what we want or else," in other words.  Government exists by pillage and plunder, very simply and primatively by conquest, as they produce nothing on their own.....well, except poverty and destruction of property. 

"Buy this health insurance, or else!"  Federal employees are, no surprise, seeking an exclusion from this law.  "Employers, obey health information privacy laws, or else!"  The federal government has grabbed the medical records of millions of individuals without their consent, however, and plans to grab everyone's records are part of the upcoming electronic medical record's "meaningful use, part 2."  None of the laws and their "or else" clauses seem to apply to the tyrants that foist this on the rest of us, do they?

Only the rarest of human beings can obtain power and not use it to leverage or pillage others.  I believe it is our moral and ethical responsibility as individuals to always avoid exchange that is not mutually beneficial even if we are the beneficiary.  "Getting ahead at all costs" is not a free market concept.  It is the ethic of the state and their cronies.  Making individuals purchase what they would not buy on their own (like health insurance) represents a confiscation and wealth transfer from those robbed to those who benefit and receive this loot.  This is the lie of the state then:  what's yours is not yours, after all, but the state's ...to distribute to those deemed "winners." In the case of The Unaffordable Care Act, the winners are those industries (hospital, insurance, big pharma and electronic medical records) that are raking in even more of your paycheck than they did before....all for your own good, of course.

I am amazed at all that people are forced to purchase in this day and age (ethanol-containing gas, mandatory features on cars to name just two) and without exception, it is the guns of the state enforcing every one of these purchases, purchases we are forced to make "for our own good."  My friend Jim Epstein taught me that industry consolidation (something we are seeing in health care like never before) is the smoking gun of government corruption and bribery.  I think he would agree with me that all the items and services we are mandated to buy are yet another window into an increasingly criminal regime.

G. Keith Smith, M.D.

[surgerycenterofoklahoma]

New Jim Epstein Video Flogs Medicaid Expansion

5 months ago I posted this blog about Dr.'s John and Alieta Eck.  Toward the end of the post, there is a link to a video of Alieta's congressional testimony at the end of which Dr. Rand Paul delivers a scathing rebuke to those on the panel who had spoken of a "right" to health care and what that really means.

The Dr.'s Eck are featured now in another video blockbuster by none other than our good friend from Reason Magazine, Jim Epstein, producer of the video about our facility. With his uncanny ability to pack these brief videos with such large amounts of factual material all the while maintaining perfect clarity, he devastates the Medicaid expansion movement like nothing I have seen up to this point.

Congratulations to Jim Epstein on this new project and also to John and Alieta, whose work may now begin to receive the attention that it so richly deserves.

G. Keith Smith, M.D.