Below is a just released abstract that essentially finds that if you:

1. Memorize something.
2. Wait 6 days and try to recall it. (could probably be more or less days)
3. While you are recalling it , put your hand in ice water. (other mild pain stimulation might work as well, like a cloths-pin clamped on the body part of your choice.)
4. When you try to recall it on the following day, you should remember it better than the day before.

Perhaps, however, just adding a little pain when you are first learning it would work as well.

Why this might work:

Memories come out of storage when recalled, and need to be remembered again (reconsolidated, the technical term) or they will be lost. Stress enhances the chemical environment in the brain that fosters learning, so there is a better chance that what is encountered during pain will be learned, and learned immediately.
Makes sense too. If you meet someone new and she shakes your hand there is a lot less of a chance you will remember them the next week (or the next year for that matter) then if she slapped your face instead.

…robust memory performance was shown at testing when the CPS administration was concurrent with the retrieved-labile memory state. Results from the present study reveal that a naturalistic mild stressor can enhance reconsolidation, improving the long-term expression of this declarative memory.

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This interview with Dr. Andrew Wakefield is worth listening to. If you have ever had reason to doubt the depth of dishonesty in the interlocking medical/pharmaceutical/government establishment, and the depths that they will sink to, blatantly disregarding not only science, but also health and even life, this interview will disabuse you of any notion of impartiality, regarding vaccination at least.

It is a bit long – 90 minutes, but was quite interesting to me at least, it was the clearest example of something that is generally a matter of rumor or second-hand reporting.

Forward this to anyone you know who has children, wants children, or who ever was a child.
you can get it here: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/04/10/wakefield-interview.aspx

• Healthcare, in this definition is everything up to the point you have a disease that threatens life or permanent disability. It includes everything from the flu to back pain, broken legs to psychotherapy, diabetes care to preventive care, routine checkups to care of routine injuries, and is the purview of medical doctors, chiropractors, psychotherapists, acupuncturists , herbalists, nutritionists, dietitians, public health educators, massage therapists, physical therapists… sorry if I left anyone out. Healthcare is performed outside of the hospital – outpatient care.
• Disease care is the care needed when permanent disability or death is outcome of lack of treatment. Disease care will more often require hospitalization, expensive drugs, home nursing, and expensive testing. It is generally the purview of medical doctors, or others trained in critical care.
• Long-term care is just what it sounds like.

How medical bills are paid

Healthcare costs
- The Personal Care and Retirement Security Fund –Pcares Fund -When most people speak of wanting to choose their doctor, and keeping bureaucrats out of healthcare, it is this level of care that they are speaking of. As in HSA plans, individuals fund their own healthcare, up to, say, $5,000 (inflation adjusted each year) by pre-funding an account for that amount. This account belongs to the individual, and unused funds can accrue value year to year. (I bow to economists here as to how it is to be safely invested or grow, who holds it, etc.) It can only be used for healthcare.

• - At age 55 remaining funds can be drawn out at 3% per year, or possibly in larger lump sums, but $5,000 per year needs to be assured to be available through age 85. It can be filled by federal funds at the beginning of the year, and paid back by individuals on a monthly basis.
• - Those who can’t afford the monthly amount pay what they can, based on income formulas. They still get to keep 50 to 100%, to carry over, based on the amount they are able to contribute, of the amount for future healthcare use or retirement.
• - People use their Pcares Fund to pay for whatever routine care they need. They choose their own doctor, types of therapies, herbs and nutritional supplements, pharmaceuticals.
• - Those that wish to preserve their retirement funds can purchase additional insurance, or use other funds to pay for healthcare.

- Benefits of Pcares

• Self responsibility for health is rewarded, as people see their retirement funds building up.
• Price competition among providers is encouraged
• People get true, day to day freedom of choice regarding their healthcare.
• There is no overhead – Medicare, for instance, presently has about 7% overhead, and insurance companies over 30%.
• Indiscriminate use of healthcare is discouraged.

Other aspects of the Healthcare portion

• Community run clinics could save more money for those who wanted to use them
• People may, if they elect to do so, use their Pcares money to purchase healthcare insurance – possibly like an HMO – to reduce costs
• Community testing facilities could reduce the cost of expensive tests.
• Federal or community health education could be offered for free, to deal with things addressable in groups, like support groups for obesity, smoking, addictions.

• A national subsidy for malpractice insurance premiums could bring down costs for care.

If the yearly bill goes over $5000, the Disease/longterm care plan kicks in.

Diseasecare insurance (D-ins) works like our present insurance, with a public option.

• - In this plan, insurance fulfils what insurance is supposed to cover – the risk of devastating financial catastrophe from illness.

• - Individuals would be mandated to purchase D-ins, though they could pay for public option, either at federal or community level.
• - Those that cannot afford the premium, would be subsidized into the public option.
• - Insurance companies that want to offer that insurance would need to abide by rules like disregarding preexisting conditions and allowing transfers from other insurance – no turndowns!
• - Community hospitals, and long term care facilities, possibly federally subsidized, could be made available.

There are plenty of holes in this model. I did not, for instance, address how to cover children.
The costs of covering the poor, putting together a public plan, and other things still remain to be seen. But it does bring some new ideas to the table.

Here are several reasons why I don’t buy the breaking the bank argument.

1. Straw man #1: We can probably insure EVERYONE for the 30-40% we save by dropping the overpriced insurance we presently have, and putting that money into a public option. We call it a government program, but what is the government in this case other than all of us getting together and saying to our neighbors, “I’ve got your back”? A single payer system can be thought of as shifting the cost. If everyone paid what they pay right now to a single payer, it would at least go a long way, if not all the way towards giving everyone good coverage.

2. Straw man #2: From the 1930′s to the 1970′s, in Republican and Democratic administrations, the marginal tax rate was 50-90%, and the corporate taxes were in the 30% range. During that time we had a high GNP, and no destructive bubbles, while accumulating a broad middle class with unparalleled opportunity and great national wealth. Now, the discredited Republicans shout “socialism” about simply reversing the Bush tax cuts, going back to 39%. The trickle-down/government is the enemy/regulation is bad – policies and economics of Reagan have been thoroughly discredited by now, yet the Democrats, for whom I worked hard and gave money in the last election, refuse to stand up for what I had thought were the ideals of the Democratic party. Bottom line – there is a huge untapped source of revenue waiting to be tapped.

3. The US has the most expensive healthcare in the world, per capita, while being at or near the bottom, when compared to European countries, in infant mortality, life expectancy, and satisfaction with healthcare, among other things.

4. Efficient universal care will save money in many ways, including improved prevention, fewer workdays lost, more efficient utilization of healthcare resources, bulk purchases of certain aspects of care (ie prescription drugs)

5. Universal healthcare will prevent bankruptcies, an estimated 62% of the 1.5 MILLION bankruptcies per year. I can’t compute the money this saves across the economy, but whatever it is will be more than a drop in the bucket, not to mention the suffering it will save.

6. Single payer health care will free businesses health insurance and workers compensation

In summary, I will suggest that a single payer will save money, not break the bank.

This time could be remembered as a new New Deal, a time that can set us up for another 50 years of growth, or it could be seen as the time when our representatives lacked the courage to do what was needed.

DEMOCRATS HAVE THE MAJORITY – USE IT WITHOUT SHAME!