Category: Health

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I was appalled to read that Mary Lou Retton, Olympic Gold Medal winner, doesn’t have health insurance and has to raise money for her hospital stay through an on-line fund raiser. She has a life-threatening pneumonia and is in critical condition. She has been in the hospital for over a week, so you can imagine the cost already and she isn’t out of the woods.

How does someone so well connected not have health insurance? This absolutely blew me away. If Retton is taking risks regarding health insurance, then the number of people who faces these choices must be much larger than I imagined. This doesn’t mean that they decide not to get health insurance either, they may decide for health insurance but what are they doing without. This is about life on the margins where the cost of health insurance might make people sacrifice other necessities of life — like not paying the mortgage, half dosing prescription medicine, skipping meals. But, then, there will be people who will argue that this is good, Retton will make better decisions in the future from the lessons she learned from not having health insurance.

Like delaying necessary treatment because she doesn’t have health insurance. I can’t imagine what I would do if I were sick and didn’t have health insurance. You don’t know if you will get off easy with $100 bill for a doctor’s visit and prescription or a $50,000 hospital stay. And even if you only have to pay $100, it may be $100 you don’t have, so what do you do? How is not taking care of your health beneficial to society?

Then when you are so sick you have to seek medical treatment, who pays the bills when the person involved is not America’s sweetheart? What happens to a person who is an asshole and people hate the person so much that they are angry at you for even thinking of helping the asshole. Though it pains me to say this — even assholes deserve healthcare and they probably won’t fare well in the Go Fund Me Route. So instead of contributing to every Go Fund Me asking for help with medical bills, our system is set up to treat everyone through a universal health care system.

That won’t happen because that is socialism and socialism is bad. I honestly don’t care how it is done either. If you can propose a way to do it through the markets and it is both affordable and universal, I am cool. But I haven’t heard one yet so there is that. The Republicans, who I would assume after bitching for 8 years about Obamacare, would have passed reform bills with these market solutions incorporated when they took over, but they didn’t so it looks very much like they don’t have anything. Which is unsurprising but nonetheless disappointing.

Until then I will continue to enjoy the best medical care in the world.

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A television ad blew my mind the other day. An American Health Insurance companies was offering health plans that included Mexican doctors. I thought this had to be wrong. American Insurance companies would never include cross border doctors. I was wrong. I googled it and sure enough I found a Health Insurance company that includes Mexican doctors. Forget the bullshit about being culturally sensitive and giving customers a wider network of doctors. They can’t contain themselves about the real reason. I am betting you already know the answer but just in case you are struggling, I will let you know — it is cheaper. The lower co-pays for using Mexican doctors gave the game away.

Living on the Mexican border, on and off, for the past 30 years, I knew people who have crossed the border for medical care but I always was a little suspicious because there alway seemed to be some horror story attached with the doctor’s visit to Mexico. Plastic surgery gone wrong, dental work that turns into health emergencies. Of course, the same horror stories happen with American doctors every day so why this influenced my thinking is a mystery. I am sure it has something to do with having been told my whole life that American healthcare may be expensive but it is the best in the world

But now that American Insurance companies allow Mexican doctors in their plans, this lays to rest these concerns. Of course, it also raises a big question – why is American healthcare so much more expensive. I mean, any insurance company that includes Mexican doctors has to believe that Mexican doctors are, at least, comparable to American doctors or why would they include them in their plan. They could never publicly say there is a difference in service because to do so would undermine the whole idea of American Healthcare which is price doesn’t matter. The quality is the same, the different prices customers pay only means lower co-pays, lower deductibles. and more doctors in the plan. But the quality is exactly the same.

How, then, can American Insurance companies continue to say that American Healthcare is the best service at the best price when they are also willing to pay for comparable services of Mexican doctors which is a lower rate. It is a contradiction that requires some explanation. I am listening.

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We are all sinners. This is one Christian teaching I have admired as it humbles, or it should humble, Christians when they are tempted to judge other people. Pope, Prince and Pauper — we are all sinners. It is the great equalizer. Christians would be wise to keep this teaching in mind instead of throwing their moral superiority around to influence public thinking. Unfortunately they rarely do. Instead they divide the world into two camps — Christians and everybody else. Moral people versus heathens. This type of American Christian enjoys pointing out everyone else sins and, because heathens continue to sin, these Christians are committed to making sinners lives as miserable as possible.

This divisive thinking among American Christians can be seen on a daily basis but a particularly vivid example of it occurred the other in the Florida Legislature. Republicans there passed a law saying that they don’t have to treat anyone if they disagree with them on moral grounds. The intention, as I understand it, is to enable doctors to refuse treatment of patients who they find morally dubious.

I am confused because aren’t these same Republicans and Christians complaining about cancel culture. They want to be able to be disagree on subjects like transgender treatment for children without fear of retribution from trans activists who would view this as transphobic. Since their stated goal is an open society where anyone can speak their mind freely without fear, its particularly annoying that whenever they get control of a legislature they try to cancel the groups that fails their morality tests. A morality test that is pretty much focused on people Christians view as sexually deviant. They aren’t complaining about treating robbers, rapists, adulterers and con men. Their focus is on doctors being forced to treat gay and trans people.

I didn’t know they were being forced to now. This is the first I heard of it. I would think if this is a widespread problem that the outrage machine at Fox News would have spread the news far and wide. Are any doctors in Florida complaining about being forced to take on Drag Queens and Trans patients? Don’t doctors have a pretty easy way of taking on patients they approve of without making much of a scene. If I call a doctor for an appointment and the receptionist catches my gay lisp, they can just say the doctor isn’t taking new patients and I wouldn’t be the least bit suspicious to hear that. It happens all the time. There is no need to get into a conversation about morality much less a law suit. As with many issues that the Republican Party take on, this isn’t a problem. It is a show tune song to please their constituents and not because there is a problem. Florida Republicans have made a mountain out of no hill. It does give the illusion of movement and that is all these legislators want.

Another big problem with this startling ill-considered law is it is so broadly written that non-Christians can use it too. This will be its undoing. What is to stop a Gay Doctor from saying I believe that Christian Republicans are evil and I refuse to take them on as patients. What happens if there is a mass casualty event and the police bring in the wounded gunman, can a doctor decline to treat him because he disapproves of murder? Would Emergency Rooms across Florida have to staff a cross section of faiths, sexual identities and political persuasions to accommodate all the different political and religious passions that inspire disapproval? Where exactly does this end?

What we have here is a solution to something that isn’t even a problem. Nothing will change. Doctors will carry on doing what doctors do without having any patients forced on them. Nobody will see the difference because nothing needed to change. There will be legal battles because, of course, this is what it is all about. Republicans want somebody to challenge this law so they can point how unreasonable their political opponents are because, of course, some Trans Activists will take the bait and bring suit.

It is a lot of fuss for nothing. Most doctors will treat any patient they have without question. If a person wants a gender reassignment, I am pretty certain that most Christian doctors aren’t experts in that particular field and will have to refer them to another doctor any way. Most gay people want a doctor they feel they can talk freely to and will choose someone who is sympathetic to them.

If there is a problem then I suggest these Christian doctors remember the teaching that we are all sinners. Every patient that a doctor treats has sinned and is going to continue sinning every day for the rest of their lives. They will sin because they are human. In the mean time, a body is a body. If you have the power to make someone feel better why not do it? What would Jesus do?

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I remember the good old days when I drank fluids without the foggiest notion of where the restroom was. I could reasonably gauge when I needed one and had a good fifteen minutes or so before I needed one. Not any more. If I start drinking, I need to know that a restroom is nearby because I have lost any excess time to go searching for one. Once I feel the need to pee, I desperately must reach that toilet within seconds. At night, this is particularly dangerous for my poor toes as I groggily race from my sound sleep to the bathroom for relief. For some reason, probably the not unreasonable fear that I am about to pee my pants, my toes bump into anything that might be in the way — slow moving cats, cabinet feet, improperly stored shoes — all become obstacles in my desperate journey to the bathroom.

Don’t drink before bed, you say. This would have been an option say 10 years ago, however, I am a man of a certain age when keeping the body together requires a certain amount of medication. Some of those pills need to be taken before bed, some of these prescriptions even advise a full glass of water with the pill. How do you hydrate and not urinate, I ask you?

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I am about to turn 65 and I will finally get socialized healthcare (otherwise known as Medicare). Yeah.

Except the insurance companies are involved and everyone (otherwise known as people already in Medicare) says you have to choose the right program. Grrrrrr.

I thought I was done with the yearly Hell of medical elections but it seems that the insurance companies have found a way to stay in the game after we turn 65. At this point, I am not going to complain. One, it does absolutely no good because there is no way, outside of rewriting of the American Constitution. And two, all it does is raise my blood pressure which is now something I need to watch.

I do however have a suggestion on the names that might help someone like me choose the write program. Gold, Silver and Bronze are meaningless to me. I know the Olympic medal system and get the idea of Best, next best, and least best but, for some reason, that doesn’t necessarily apply here or, at least, not always. Which means I have to go in and spend some of precious few years of life parsing Health Plans.

Instead of the Olympic medal description, I suggest:

Rich and Hypochondriac

Just Pay the Damn Bills

Poor, young (read here 65 to 70 years of age) and careless.

If would be invaluable aid to someone like me and would also insure that my eyes will be relieved to skip the insurance fine print. This is important because Medicaid does not automatically cover eye care. Grrrrr.

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Medicare is socialized medicine. I think it is important to note this. Every American 65 years and older gets their healthcare paid for by the government.

A lot of people, particularly on the Right, hate socialized medicine but like Medicare. In their misunderstanding of what Medicare is they trick themselves into believing that Medicare is a uniquely American idea of healthcare. It isn’t. It is socialized medicine for every American 65 and older pure and simple.

I think if people would start calling Medicare socialized medicine, some opponents of socialized medicine just because the word socialized is in the phrase would see it for what it is — a government run program designed to control the costs of healthcare. And, as far as I can tell, people actually like Medicare, which is the same feeling that most of the citizens of other countries who have socialized medicine have about their healthcare system.

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Why are we still debating about vaccinating people who have already had COVID? It is a small point but someone like Rand Paul harps on it anytime he gets a chance to spar with Dr. Fauci.

Sen Paul’s point is that someone who has had COVID has antibodies to COVID thus erasing most of the danger of getting COVID.  Antibodies are antibodies. Public Health officials go through horrible gyrations in their explanation of why people who have recovered from COVID still needs the COVID vaccine.  They give it the old college try and it is painful to see. After watching these people squirm I realized that Sen. Paul must be right.

So why argue about it? It is a  losing battle? More importantly, it isn’t going to have any impact on bringing down deaths from COVID.  If a person has had the disease, can prove it with an COVID antibody test that person is considered vaccinated. This would eliminate opposition from some of the people who are presently fighting vaccination.  Public Health officials then can focus on a much different group – people who have no antibodies to COVID. They are, after all, the people who need to get vaccinations.  And, as an added benefit, the government is giving them a choice about how they get their antibodies – they can either get COVID or get the vaccine.

To continue to argue about is insanity. Let’s save our time, energy and money for something that really matters.  This would save Public Health officials from looking like sputtering fools defending the indefensible and we shift the focus back to the problem – how to keep people who don’t have antibodies from getting the disease. It is a very small bone to throw to anti-vaccers. But a bone is a bone.  It would have little impact, if any, on the spread of COVID. So why argue about it. What worries me is that the pro-vaccinators have lost their patience with anti-vaccers to such an extent that they continue to fight a losing battle because they now want submission . They want everyone vaccinated and that is that. I understand the frustration but it seems to me a stupid battle. A hill not worthy of dying on.

Let’s choose our battles wisely.