Tense

And they say English is hard.

I read somewhere, once upon a time, that we actually only have 2 tenses in English, present and past, and all else is a creation of the same arbitrary Latin-obsessed Victorian pedants that forbade the split infinitive. Can't remember where, though, and I may be putting the estimate a little low. Perhaps some of the language geeks out there can shed some light? I have to admit, we sure do make our auxiliary verbs do a lot of work:

I had gone
I went
I was going
I am going
I go
I will go
I will have gone
I would go
I would have gone
Would you prefer that I go?

(Not a fair example of course, "go" is irregular. Like every second English verb isn't.)

Ha!

I missed this at the time, but it's never too late.

For-Profit Hospitals Cost More -Canadian Study

"In Canada, there has been an intense debate for a number of years now over whether we should move beyond our current not-for-profit health care facility," [Dr. P.J. Devereaux, chief investigator] said.

"We all want to know what is the most effective way to deliver health care," he added. "It should be driven by evidence, not people's ideology."

Devereaux and colleagues earlier showed that for-profit hospitals had higher death rates.

"The reality is that for-profits face significant economic challenges. The first is they have to generate revenues that will satisfy shareholders," Devereaux said.

"Second, they have high executive bonuses. Thirdly, they are very top-heavy and have high administrative costs. Also, they have to pay taxes. That is a lot of extra money that they have to come up with," Devereaux added.

"Instead of finding new efficiencies, folks were cutting corners in quality health care, and also people were having to pay more for care."

- The article
- Editorial in CMAJ

Is this the answer to our medicare problems? Sadly, no -- but it's more evidence that suggests that we should think carefully before we mess with our current system. Medicare isn't as broken as some people would like to think.

Speaking of new efficiencies, I saw a nifty book in Paragraphe that I must track down: Prescription for Excellence, by Michael Rachlis.