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Richard Lynch, an awesome PHP community guy and former colleague needs our help

richardlynch.blogspot.com

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Re: Richard Lynch, an awesome PHP community guy and former colleague needs our help

#191

Post by vacri »

colechristensen wrote: post #163
vacri wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a reason that most of the best hospitals in the world are American Uh, do you have anything to back that up, apart from the standard assumption that "US is #1 at everything!"? And even if you had 10/10 top hospitals globally, overall average quality is a better metric than handpicked best-of-class examples.

If you have an especially difficult medical problem or you have the money and want the best possible care, your hospital of best choice is probably American. If you're talking about average medical conditions and the average outcomes... maybe not, but those statistics are usually about the medical systems as a whole which is much more difficult to compare in a country without universal health care.

If you have an especially difficult medical problem or you have the money and want the best possible care, your hospital of best choice is probably American.

Again, do you have anything to back this up? My question isn't about there not being good hospitals in the US, but rather the assumption that the best ones in the world must be American.

Also, I think you definitely mean "and" rather than "or" in that sentence. If you have a difficult medical problem and no money, then your best hospital is going to be one that will treat you rather than turn you away for having no money.

Re: Richard Lynch, an awesome PHP community guy and former colleague needs our help

#192

Post by akassover »

Oh jeez... seeing Rich's name made my heart jump. I worked with him in the late 90's. He's a great guy, smart dude, and he wrote some hilarious poetry about Microsoft in his code comments during his late night coding sessions. I hate to hear about what he's going through.

During the year we worked together, Rich was probably the #1 driving force in PHP support worldwide. This was a time when PHP was still gaining traction and it really needed champions like Rich. He answered thousands of questions, posted sample code, responded to emails from strangers, and basically wouldn't leave his desk night day until he'd helped everyone that came to him (often wrapping up at 2 or 3 am).

Rich is also a huge supporter of local music and when I knew him, he was as much a driving force in the Chicago music scene as he was in the PHP scene. He happily fronted the $$$ to bands to cover the costs of recording and touring with zero expectation of getting paid back and even bought a van to loan out to bands that wanted to go on tour.

Needless to say I kicked in some cash. I'm glad to see he's getting some support here. He truly deserves it.

Re: Richard Lynch, an awesome PHP community guy and former colleague needs our help

#193

Post by piyush_soni »

adventured wrote: post #190
piyush_soni wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> On the other hand, if you adjust the costs for purchasing power, the unfortunate result is that most of the people are pretty much fucked. They are not. As I said, this was the cost in the best of hospitals. In government hospitals, poor people get medical care for a fraction of it. Of course, the health care system is still not good, but I'm convinced that a US like system of insurance is not a solution either. Ca…

I agree with some of your points here, but this has to be noted. It's not 7.5 million US residents per year, it's 750,000. And this: "The nonpartisan Fraser Institute reported that 46,159 Canadians sought medical treatment outside of Canada in 2011, as wait times increased 104 percent — more than double — compared with statistics from 1993." Calculated upwards, that would be 404,000 or so on a population equal basis…

Humm ... That's a mistake on my part. But this is because I'd seen another article from 2009 [5] which clearly said it was 6 million. And this article was from 2014 so I quickly read that as 7.5 million.

[5] http://news.health.com/2009/04/08/traveling-treatment/

Re: Richard Lynch, an awesome PHP community guy and former colleague needs our help

#194

Post by overgard »

hueving wrote: post #174
overgard wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why I qualified it with "if you're lucky to live long enough". So, yeah, you might be lucky enough to unexpectedly drop dead before some other scourge takes you However if you don't happen to fortune into a sudden unexpected death, your body will inevitably decay to the point that you will become a large financial and emotional burden on someone. (Or die homeless and friendless). But we can't take care of thos…

If the probabilities were as bad as you suggest, there would be no such thing as health insurance. They need to bring in more than they spend on health-care costs. Most people can't end in a devastating health-cost manner.

So.. your argument is that because insurance companies can profit, it's not so bad? "Well, your legacy might be financial ruin for your children, or an early death to avoid that, but since most people die before they realize they're severely ill, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm not arguing probabilities here, I'm arguing deductive reasoning. You are a decaying meatsack. So am I. At some point something very bad will happen to that decaying meatsack. Such an event will be absurdly expensive to treat. Since I think we'd all agree that for pretty much anyone it makes sense to have health insurance, the obvious next step is: just give everyone health insurance and take it out of tax, and simplify these things 1000 fold. (Not to mention that a single payer would have WAY more leverage, and thusly could negotiate way lower prices. And that's not a hypothetical.. that's how it works in pretty much every country that isn't the US).

Re: Richard Lynch, an awesome PHP community guy and former colleague needs our help

#195

Post by jkimmel »

joshmn wrote: post #65
bestham wrote: post #9

It's so sad that the country where Richard lived, worked and paid taxes for about 30 years can't provide for him. I'm glad to be able to help. But what happens to those that don't reach the front page of HN? No one enduring the stress of a terminal cancer should have to stress about getting ends to meet during their last months alive. EVER

My family is one of them (stressing about getting ends to meet). My momma, 55, otherwise ridiculously healthy, has terminal brain cancer among other things. She was diagnosed five days before her 55th birthday (10/25) this year -- [seemingly] out of the blue. While her and my father have insurance (through United Health Group), there's no smooth sailing because her treatments are so "specialized". I, at 22, cleaned o…

You're barely older than me, and I can't begin to fathom how I would handle that situation. Your actions demonstrate incredible selflessness, and a startling degree of competence in the face of something no one your age should have to consider.

Your efforts are truly amazing. I hope one day in the face of such challenges I could be half the person you are now.

Re: Richard Lynch, an awesome PHP community guy and former colleague needs our help

#196

Post by adventured »

sofal wrote: post #179
jasonlotito wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about Canada? Is that acceptable? Left canada to come here to the US where we pay less and get more for the care my children need. No system is without its problems. I'm just glad in the US it's not about quality or quantity of care, just funding.

There are medications I need that cost an entire order of magnitude more in the US than in Canada. I'm not exaggerating. They're about $80 full price from Canada and $800 here in the US.

That's the pharma industry's 'America pays' system. Canada receives subsidized costs on medications like much of the world, and America picks up the tab.

Re: Richard Lynch, an awesome PHP community guy and former colleague needs our help

#197

Post by adventured »

runamok wrote: post #144

The other question is could we just build him a wooden ramp for a lot less than 20k or would the city he lives in et all have a problem with that?

The process would normally go like this in modern hyper regulated America:

Do the smart, logical thing: build cheap wooden ramp, problem solved.

Local regulation thugs ("zoning enforcement" or similar) come around and destroy ramp or otherwise take it away / require its removal, fine you for daring to violate their rules. You can sometimes avoid this step if you pay into their bribery system (more common in some locations than others, eg Los Angeles runs strictly on a bribe system).

If you're lucky, then there's an outcry in the community, some local government thug's feet are put to the fire, and they relent. Said thug then holds a community celebration anointing the new ramp, noting how it was all just a misunderstanding, and said thug is not really against people with cancer or disabilities.

This whole process will take weeks or months to play out.

Re: Richard Lynch, an awesome PHP community guy and former colleague needs our help

#198

Post by Rantenki »

jasonlotito wrote: post #142
DasIch wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that you have to compare the USA to a developing country to be able to say that "it's still much better" speaks volumes.

What about Canada? Is that acceptable? Left canada to come here to the US where we pay less and get more for the care my children need. No system is without its problems. I'm just glad in the US it's not about quality or quantity of care, just funding.

I am a Canadian who occasionally complained about long (several hour) emergency waits for broken limbs from mountain bike downhill racing. The triage system prioritizes people who are dying, not adrenaline addicts.

... However ...

I got diagnosed with Cancer (lymphoma) in 2008. I was xrayed, CT scanned, blood tested and ultrasound guidance biopsied so fast that my head spun. From initial lump discovery to the onset of chemo was only a couple of weeks. Quality of care was first rate, and it's been 5 years. My experience with Canadian health care for a life threatening condition was extremely good.

I should also note that the cost of my medication was a significant $100k+ figure, not including chemo drugs, and this was all covered to an out of pocket of under $1k.

I was a working as a contractor, and didn't have any private medical insurance of any kind.

Needless to say, looking at the cost of treatment, and the ruinous effect it would have had on my (and my wife's) finances, I am very glad I live in Canada.

Re: Richard Lynch, an awesome PHP community guy and former colleague needs our help

#200

Post by cromulentarian »

I wish that there was a sufficient safety net in the US so that people who get catastrophic illnesses didn't have to negotiate stressful financial situations while dealing with extreme medical problems.

I am really glad this made to the front page of HN, it is great to see people helping him and his family out.

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