Weekend Musings

Weather Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This

It was a gorgeous weekend here in East Tennessee. After Friday’s welcome rain, Saturday was sunny and warmer, but still with a hint of fall in the crisp air. The trees are taking on brilliant hues and their leaves are starting to fall. I spent much of the afternoon out among them, enjoying the lovely day. Autumn is my favorite season — even more so now that I live in the South. After the heat and humidity of a Tennessee summer, it’s a huge relief when cooler temperatures finally arrive. Add to that some wonderful colors and fragrances, and it’s a joy to behold.

Obama Kicks It Into Gear

His transition web site is up at change.gov (and it’s very hip!).

Welcome to a New Blogger

My favorite US governor, David Paterson, is blogging over at Pam’s House Blend. His first post, Historic, For All The Right Reasons, appeared on Wednesday. You can find an rss feed of Paterson’s posts here.

On Health Care

It was two weeks ago today that I threw my back out. I still sometimes look like a question mark, still can’t sit for very long, and I’m still not sleeping very well. And I’ve yet to get any real medical treatment — from a system that we, as Americans, pay more into per capita than anyone else in the industrialized world (and costs are escalating at an alarming rate).

I called my primary care physician immediately that day, and was able to get an appointment for last Wednesday. When I saw the doctor in a very brief appointment (for which I waited close to two hours), she said she would call in a referral to a physical therapist. Her nurse called me later that day to confirm the referral, but I’m still waiting to hear from the PT…

I’d love to compare notes with someone outside the US. I can’t imagine a health care system that’s worse than this one. I’m a very healthy, active person with supposedly good insurance, and yet two weeks after an injury, I’m still waiting for basic treatment.

I’ve Got No Use for Mormons

Last Tuesday night was indescribable. I was so nervous and for a lot of the evening, I saw lots of eggs, but no birds. And then suddenly, as the polls closed in western states at 11pm, there were the chickens I had steadfastly refused to count, even in those last days of the campaign, when others were starting to crow about the inevitability of an Obama win. I cheered, I laughed, I cried. Victory feels good. The elation was incredible, and it carried me to bed that night.

I woke up on Wednesday with a smile on my face, but then I sat down to check on some races still unsettled the night before, and learned that Prop 8 passed in California, along with similar initiatives in Florida in Arizona. What a crushing disappointment. The most disgusting part of Prop 8 is that its passage was largely funded by out-of-state contributions from the Mormons (should they still get to be tax exempt?). I don’t understand why these people feel so compelled to jam their twisted and deranged morality down the throats of the rest of us, but until they back off, the state of Utah and the Marriott hotel chain can kiss a lot of dollars goodbye.

(I would leave Bob and Sundance alone though — he’s a progressive activist and I’m sure the festival will find a creative way to weigh in on the issue.* Also, Steve Young is pretty much the only prominent Mormon who didn’t support Prop 8. On the other hand… Donny and Marie? Screw ‘em — a cashed version of a deleted post on the Osmand Family Blog speaks out in support of Prop 8.)

*UPDATE: then again, maybe not… hrmmm…

I assume (hope) this is running 24/7 in FL, PA and WV.

More here (from the Wall Street Journal)

UPDATE:

I’m not making this up! Here’s it is, straight from the geezer’s mouth:

Now, John McCain has been treated for his recurring cancer (his treatment is possibly the only thing that stands between us and a truly terrifying President Palin) many times by the top doctors in the country. He’s had specialists and consultants and surgeries and treatments — do you think the staff at the Wal-Mart is going to be up to providing that kind of care? No? Then what, pray tell, does the uninsured person do when his condition is beyond the skillset of the Discount Doctor?

Picture this: you find a lump on your breast and you go to the Wal-Mart to have it looked at by a doctor. What does he do? Perform a biopsy right there in the Wal-Mart? No, he’s going to want to refer you to a specialist. The only problem is that you don’t have any health insurance! That’s why you’re seeking health care at the freakin’ Wal-Mart! So, what do you do?

Much like most of John McCain’s policies and proposals, this health care plan works out great for the rich, and for those, like John McCain, who have Congressional insurance — surely the best health care plan in the free world — but for the people who live in the real world, his plan is silly. Oh, it’s fine if all you have is strep throat — the Doc in a Box can give you a throat swab and write you a prescription for an antibiotic. But what if what you’ve got is rheumatoid arthritis? Lupus? Cardiovascular disease? A recurring melanoma?

Given the fact that John McCain’s health care plan calls for taxing the benefits you get from your employer and providing a $5,000 credit for buying your own insurance (have you looked at the cost of a year’s health insurance lately? $5,000 comes up a bit short, especially if you’re already struggling to pay for food and housing), his plan isn’t going to help get any of the currently uninsured into coverage. So, that brings us back to ERs and Wally World — do you think they’re up to managing your health care? Is that where you want to take your kid? If you lose your job (yeah — do you really trust a McCain economy?), is this what you’ll be left with?

I think we could do a lot better than this. Way better, in fact.

UPDATE: more here. And here.

Another UPDATE: oh my god, we could be doing SO MUCH BETTER! The US has the worst. health. care. system. ever.

While we’re waiting for John McCain to come out from behind Sarah Palin’s skirt, I’d like to raise a couple of issues.

First, Roe v. Wade. I get the impression the most strident Roe opponents — those who shriek loudest about the decision — have no idea what it actually says, so let’s start by taking a peek at what’s there:

The opinion of the Roe Court, written by Justice Harry Blackmun, declined to adopt the district court’s Ninth Amendment rationale, and instead asserted that the “right of privacy, whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment’s concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or, as the District Court determined, in the Ninth Amendment’s reservation of rights to the people, is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.”

Note that the decision rests on a foundation of privacy — something that Sarah Palin demands for her own daughter, but would take away from all the other little girls in the country. She’s maybe never actually even read the decision she’s so adamantly determined to overturn. But then again, ignorance never does stop a fanatic, does it?

Yeah, so anyway, Sarah Palin likes her kids ignorant and knocked up, and she wants to repeal Roe.

This means that Sarah, if presented with a woman who just found out that the child she is carrying has Tay-Sachs disease, wouldn’t have her choose between getting an abortion or carrying the child to term, only to watch helplessly as her beautiful baby goes from healthy to mentally disabled, blind, deaf and unable to swallow, then finally becomes paralyzed, before dying by the age of five. Instead, Sarah would make that decision for her, without regard to the woman’s financial situation; or whether she is equipped to deal with the emotional devastation of such an experience; or her ability to cope with the medical needs of a child who has such profound problems. In fact, she would make this decision on her behalf without knowing a single thing about her circumstances. Sarah would opt for the latter situation, and not even offer her the first option (even if the pregnancy resulted from a rape).

To be clear, I am not advocating for a woman to choose either option over the other. What I am doing is arguing that all women should be able to make that choice for themselves — just like Sarah Palin did when she chose to continue her pregnancy after she found out her youngest child had Down Syndrome.

But back to the woman Palin is forcing into gestation… Would Sarah do anything to address her child’s special needs, as she claimed at the convention? Well, the jury’s still very much out on that question, since Sarah has not been a governor long enough to have much of a record when it comes to action on health care. But since she’s signed onto the McCain/Bush/Republican platform, it’s safe to assume she’ll be supporting the status quo when it comes to American health care (at best).

And then there’s this (more here). Sarah Palin belongs to the spiritual warfare movement (go see the movie Jesus Camp if you haven’t already and you’ll get a peak into Palin’s world) — which more and more, is making Christian fanatics look a lot like Islamic fanatics.

The Third Wave may be kind of spooky, but it’s also really dangerous. These people see the world in very black/white, christian/not christian terms, and it’s that kind of simplistic thinking that got us involved in Bush’s stupid war to begin with — a war, btw, that was supported by Palin, who even subscribes to Bush’s theocratic view that the Iraq war is a “task that is from God.”

Now, John McCain may be with Bush 90% of the time, but Sarah Palin appears to be with him 110% of the time (if you saw any of her interview with Charlie Gibson, you may have noticed that she even mimics George’s word-fog style of speaking which features lots of words, but doesn’t necessarily have a clear point).

I really don’t think we want to go there. Eight years of simplistic, slow-witted leadership has been more than enough. I don’t care how much you’d like to hang out with these people, or how thirsty you are for a beer in their company, that doesn’t mean that they have what it takes to lead this country in the right direction. And if you like the fact that they’re just like you, think about whether or not you’re truly qualified to run this country — really, don’t you want to put someone who’s extra smart in charge? Ideally, someone who is smarter than you and me? There’s nothing elitist about not wanting stupid leaders.

If we need change, then we’re going to have to start with a fresh approach. And that is clearly not what these guys would give us.

I just found this over on Pam’s House Blend. I laughed out loud.

(it’s from this organization)

I’m really worried about America’s karma these days. We’re turning into a nation of mean, nasty people. The king mean nasty person and his lackeys in Congress have been screwing over our nation’s greatest heroes — the first responders and GIs — for years. And our nation’s largest retailer, along with others, is quickly gaining a reputation for repeatedly trying to stand between people and proper medical care and benefits. And we are completely failing when it comes to taking care of the men and women who serve on the front lines of Bush’s unbelievably stupid war.

News stories like these are a daily thing in the Bush/McCain regime and I don’t know how much more negative energy this nation can take.

A committee of the Senate is meeting today to discuss health care in America. Elizabeth Edwards, who is living with cancer, is speaking before that group right now. I’m not sure what the point of the hearing is, since the Republicans have made it clear that no major changes to the US health care policy will take place under their watch, but I’d like to share a few links here — a little food for thought.

The current American approach to heath care policy can be summed up with this: don’t get sick! Many people — even educated, employed, comfortably middle class people — don’t find out until they get sick that they are underinsured.

Further, many people in the United States are slaves to their health insurance. I have a friend whose every career decision has been influenced by her Type I diabetes — the jobs she has taken weren’t always her top choices, but rather the ones with the good health coverage. And if you stop to think about it for even a moment, our system of dispensing health coverage through employers is incredibly bizarre. The quality of your health insurance depends on the ability of some middle management suit you’ve never even met to negotiate with the insurance companies? And since the insurance company is a for-profit business and that middle management suit has to answer to his cost-conscious superiors, what do you think are the chances that your insurance package will be as good as the deal the guys in Congress are getting? It’s a system that just doesn’t make any sense.

And finally, if you think that we don’t have socialized medicine here in the United States, think again. What we do have is the most expensive, inefficient and stupid system of socialized medicine imaginable, but ultimately, the people do eventually pick up the tab when the uninsured, underinsured — or even insured — need help.

In the third day of county budget hearings, Erlanger CEO Jim Brexler asked the commission for $500,000 more than the $3 million the hospital has received each of the last three years. [...] Erlanger will pay around $10 million more this year for uncompensated care than it did last year.

Check out this recent story from the Chattanooga Times Free Press, about a young man who had an accident while he was covered by health insurance.

T.J. is covered by his mother’s insurance policy, United Healthcare…

Unfortunately for T.J. and his family, having health insurance quite often is not enough.

He speaks slowly and in fragments, and he has relearned how to eat and hold his head up. But his progress toward walking again has stalled: He’s waiting to find out whether his insurance will cover more physical therapy.

(By the way, do you think Stephen Hemsley, the CEO of United Health, will ever have to face these kinds of problems?)

Bankrupted by their share of $700,000 worth of medical bills, the Johnsons were forced to sell their home in Soddy-Daisy when they couldn’t make the payments to avoid foreclosure.

And even with all that, they’re still needing help from the public.

Siskin is not in the network, so it received less reimbursement for T.J.’s therapy, said Siskin spokeswoman Teresa Dinger. At this point, Siskin has absorbed about $30,000 in costs for T.J.’s services and can’t afford to absorb more, she said.

Amy Denton, a caseworker at Home Health Care of East Tennessee, said she has some leads on other options for the family and is working with a TennCare caseworker to figure out what the state’s managed Medicaid program should cover for T.J., who qualifies for TennCare as secondary insurance. Ms. Denton said TennCare will cover services at an in-network rehab hospital if United denies the visits.

In the meantime, T.J. goes to school at Central High School for an hour a day and has speech therapy there twice a week. TennCare is paying for a certified nursing assistant to stay with T.J. eight hours a day, five days a week.

They’re still waiting for van modifications that would accommodate the power wheelchair provided by TennCare, but that’s unavailable until T.J.’s vocational rehabilitation coverage kicks in, which won’t happen until he graduates and figures out what kind of work to do, said Tennessee Department of Human Services spokeswoman Michelle Mowery Johnson.

Think about that. Do you have any idea how well insured you are? You maybe have insurance, but how much will that cover if you have an accident or a major medical problem? Are you ready to trade your house for medical care? What will you do for insurance if you lose your job? What if you become disabled and can’t work?

There is a health care crisis in this country, and it’s not just about providing care for the poor. This county spends, per capita, more money on health care than any other nation on earth, and yet the quality of our health care is not even close to making the top of any list. Compared to the people in many European countries, we don’t live as long, more of our babies die in infancy, and we’re continuing to lose ground. We’re fat, hyperglycemic, an accident waiting to happen — and unless we’re named McCain, Cheney or Clinton, we don’t necessarily have access to decent health care.

It’s something to ponder over — especially as November approaches. And in the meantime, whatever you do, don’t get sick!

Jeeze. I can’t believe this. The Democrats caved on SCHIP.

Oliver is right — some of us put our blood, sweat and tears into taking back the Congress last year. And what have we gotten in return? A Congress that acts pretty much just like the Republican-controlled Congress did. Torture? Yes-sir-ee! Another blank check for Iraq? Oh, yes, oh, yes! Warrantless wiretapping and retroactive immunity for telcoms? If it weren’t for Chris Dodd, we would have passed that one too.

Whatever Bush wants, Bush gets, even though the idiot is clearly a liar, has absolutely no credibility and has approval numbers lower than Nixon’s worst.

So, why should those of us in the trenches bust our asses again next year? If they want to get reelected, can’t they go hit up the Republicans for money and volunteers? After all, those are the people who have been benefiting from their “hard work.”

I suppose that means at this point, this is the only guy I’m supporting in next year’s Congressional elections:

Heh.   ;-)   Maybe the list will grow as we get closer to the elections. Let me know if you think someone’s name should be added… but if it’s not someone who has demonstrated the ability to lead, follow or get out of the way, I don’t want to hear about him or her. And don’t get me started on Nancy Freakin’ Pelosi.

It doesn’t matter what claims they make in their commercials. Actions speak louder than words, and Wal-Mart is still a bully.

The company, which earned $2.9 billion last quarter, sued a former employee who suffered permanent brain damage in a car accident to get back $470,000 it spent on her medical bills.

They’re not so reformed as their commercials would have you believe.

Deborah Shank, who receives Medicaid, is not the only Wal-Mart employee receiving public health care. More than 60 percent of Wal-Mart employees - 600,000 people - are forced to get health insurance coverage from the government or through spouses’ plans or live without any health insurance. Last year, the AFL-CIO released a report showing how Wal-Mart shifts health care costs to consumers and a bunch of studies showing how Wal-Mart profits from taxpayers.

And let’s not even get started on how they are the top seller of the toxic toys that are currently sickening our children.

Sometimes low prices do have a high cost. Where are you doing your holiday shopping this year?

UPDATE: Did you notice who carried the story about Wal-Mart going after the brain-damaged employee? It sure as hell wasn’t Reuters, which is too busy sucking up to Wal-Mart to be bothered with actual journalism. Props to these guys (along with the Wall Street Journal and LA Times — apparently they have both featured the story) — which as of this morning, includes exactly four hits: 1, 2, 3, 4 — the latter of which carries this gem:

As Wal-Mart touts its new health care plan and launches public relations campaigns to repair its damaged reputation, this story once again exposes the company’s poor business practices and total disregard for the health and welfare of its employees.

“Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott’s decision to take away the money that Mrs. Shank would use for her medical expenses represents the kind of failure of moral leadership that we have sadly come to expect from him,” said David Nassar, Wal-Mart Watch Executive Director. “The Shanks are a hard-working American family - the kind that Lee Scott currently claims Wal-Mart helps to ’save money and live better.’ Unfortunately, the Shank family is doing neither.”

Wal-Mart Watch will raise funds for the Shank family and tell their story to remind consumers this holiday season that the low costs Wal-Mart provide come with a very high price paid by American families like the Shanks every day.

“Lee Scott will bring home more than $400,000 this week alone,” Nassar added.