Comments on: Update on the Health Care Trojan Horse

By: Dave Neis

Dave Neis — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 18:53:52 +0000

I ran into the singular pronoun question while writing the rules for my game, Doin’ D.C. (TM) (Shameless plug!) As explained in a footnote:
‘[I]t is…inconvenient and unsightly to continuously type “he/she”, “him/her”, “his/her”, or “his/hers”… [T]o expedite writing, new words have been created and used within these rules. So it is that you will find “heesh”, “himmer”, “hizzer”, and “hizzers” used, respectively, wherever appropriate in this booklet.’ (And yes, I know the commas should be inside the quotation marks, but that’s another rule I don’t always agree with and necessarily follow.)

I used these words as needed on my website–another shameless plug coming–www.niceideas.com, too.

I’ll conclude the same as I end the footnote:
“Feel free to use them in your own writings.”

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 00:28:21 +0000

In the original article, two paragraphs down from your quote, you find NICE stressing that:

"Its ruling should apply only if the treatment was likely to be less effective, or not work because of an unhealthy habit."

I doubt Doctors will oppose being able to tell patients to buck their ideas up...

By: Mark Keller

Mark Keller — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 08:34:14 +0000

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By: Doug Murray

Doug Murray — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 20:21:38 +0000

Re the Update: I grew up here in the South and knew very well that more than one of "you" is "y'all", so I had a tough time in my early school years with the idea that "you" could be either singular or plural.

If "you" can go both ways, why not "they"?

By the way, did I get the right number agreement in the first sentence with 'more than one of "you" is'?

By: Frank

Frank — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 06:07:09 +0000

This is unquestionably true. My employer presently offers a comparatively lavish set of health care benefits, including an onsite doctor and medical staff. I was interested to note that during our recent HIV training session, the doctor announced that they have little kits containing certain medications that might prevent an HIV infection if used within 36 hours of exposure. However, the kits would only be issued to people who had been exposed by occupational hazard or sexual assault. If you chose to engage in risky behavior, this benefit was not available to you.

Not exactly a government policy, but it illustrates the power of the payer to dictate the terms under which the benefit will be provided.