by Art Woolf
The Free Press devoted a full article to an error that Attorney General candidate T.J. Donovan made about the percent of babies born at Rutland Regional Medical Center who are addicted to opiates. It's not one in seven, but rather one in one hundred. But is it really worth a 750 word article explaining how Mr. Donovan made the error?
And if it is, why not an article pointing out that Governor Peter Shumlin essentially said that when Vermont goes to a single payer system, doctors and hospitals will be paying us when we get sick and go to see them. At least, that's how I interpret this direct quote from the Governor, which only VPR carried:
We might not all like all of their [other countries' health care] systems but they're spending two to three hundred percent less on health care than we are and they have better outcomes, it means that they are healthier than we are
The Governor should know that if some other country was spending one hundred percent less than the U.S. on health care, they would be spending nothing. Two hundred percent less, than spending would be negative.
I recommend the governor read Innumeracy, a fine book by mathematician John Allen Paulos.
