Still a legend. Still the greatest. Not an innocent soul, but then who is an innocent soul. It is now difficult to draw a line between the ones we call dopers and the ones we call legends.

1) This was not the forum for you to establish context. Any further comments about health care by you in regards to this post will be deleted.
2) The cost or value of cars is not the conversation, either. It was a way to give context to the bill we’re looking at without naming the exact number.
3) I’m not comparing the value of my son to a car, either.
4) I was not complaining about the bill—or about his care. I was making an observation about my need to come up with a great deal of cash.
5) Value was never a subject of this post, so it’s inappropriate for you to bring value into the conversation.
6) Suggesting that I might be part of the problem is definitely asinine.

I can see it was a mistake to interject into a discussion whose backstory has to do with fathers and sons. I agree that the only opinions that matter in that conversation belong to the father and the son. If that’s what this is about, then there is no need to post or even read this reply.

My post, if you care, was an attempt to put into context and make sense of something that strikes me as hard to swallow- your complaint directed at the hospital and providers about the cost of one of the most complex, expensive, and high-stakes services that medicine offers.

Why is $20K acceptable for a good (if not amazing) car and $50K acceptable for a luxury car, but too much money for the good (if not amazing) life-saving treatments that we expect our hospitals to offer?

Put another way: Your car is not the problem, but if you think the car’s “value” justifies its cost and at the same time suggest that the cost of comparably-priced health care is not justified by its “value,” that’s a problem.

If your complaint is not with the total cost, but rather the portion of it that you actually have to pay, remember that this is the result of several factors such as our government’s approach to funding health care and your own decisions about health insurance among other matters of personal finance.

The actual itemized costs of health care are relatively fixed, even if your negotiations with the billing department suggest otherwise.

The “value” of health care is important for individuals and society, so many providers and hospitals want it to be more accessible to and more affordable for more people.

So do me a favor and don’t complain about your provider or your hospital- they cared about your family and they were pretty darn good (I don’t work in a Kaiser hospital, but I do know that they have helped set the standard by which other hospitals are measured in terms of efficiency, quality, and cost). Instead, look at your elected officials, the lobbyists, and possibly yourself.

Or would that be asinine?

However it’s done, cycling must have a day of truth and reconciliation. A critique needs to be held and all of the facts laid out bare for all to see. Necessarily, we will finally come to grips with the fact that our cycling heroes doped, their heroes doped and it’s not until now that anyone has had the courage to admit it and try to end it. Want to see a real change in behavior? have someone like Merckx admit that he doped and I guarantee the floodgates will open wide. Furthermore, we will come to better understand the cultural pressures on young racers to win and seek to put policies and procedures in place that ensure transparency, and a level playing field.

I am a retired Navy submarine Captain and know that if this situation existed anywhere in the submarine force, the entire fleet would have been tied up until we had uncovered and removed every bit of the cancer. If everyone is truly on board with fixing this mess then the riders, teams, sponsors and fans need to make it clear and accept that the party is over until we come to grips with the facts.

Like you Padraig, It is unlikely that I will watch the tour this year. As ambivalent as I am though, it would only take about ten seconds watching the peloton snake through a beautiful Canyon in the French countryside for me to realize that to resist is useless. July and Tour are synonymous and will remain so for quite a long time. So, can we please find some adults to fix this mess?