This week it was just me, Carlos, and Ken, the bass player. We had a real good jam. Here's a few tunes from the evening... hope you enjoy.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
For all you OKies out there...
THought you might enjoy how your representative is representing you. Yes, this stuff makes it all over the world. Click on the links within the text for related stories on Inhofe's health care stance. From thinkprogress.org:
Inhofe admits he’ll vote against health care bill without even reading it.
One of the most vociferous opponents of health care reform has been Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), who previously promoted blocking reform because it would be a “huge gain” for the GOP. The Oklahoma-based Express-Star reports that Inhofe told a town hall crowd yesterday that he will vote against health reform legislation without even reading it or knowing what’s in it:
At a town hall meeting Wednesday Sen. Jim Inhofe told Chickasha residents he does not need to read the 1,000 page health care reform bill, he will simply vote against it.
“I don’t have to read it, or know what’s in it. I’m going to oppose it anyways,” he said.
He went on to tell the crowd we are “almost reaching a revolution in this country” due to opposition to health reform. Inhofe is not alone in saying he will vote against any health reform bill. Last week Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) told Fox News that he doesn’t think a “single Republican” will vote for health care reform.
I encourage you to drop by his website and let him know how you feel about representatives taking this health care reform initiative as nothing more than politics. After all, he is speaking for you.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Can you give me a hand, please?
Can someone let me know in the comments section if the image in my previous post is cut off by the column width? It's fine on my computer but not so much on my work computer.
Thanks.
Thanks.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Amazing 3d technology and a guest blog on health care...
I'll start this morning by sharing a video I found of some amazing new 3d video modeling software.
Other than that, not alot to talk about this weekend. If you haven't noticed, I've taken a momentary step back from the health care issue for the good of my own sanity. This debate is not taking place amongst the rational or genuinely concerned Americans, it has been hijacked by political opportunists, zealots and profiteers. What should be a genuine discussion about the value of health and human life has instead become another ring in the grand media circus that is the lifeblood of America. I have every faith that Obama's foresight, global perspective, and political acumen could lead America in prosperous new directions, but I've grown to have equal faith that the selfish political interests of an entrenched political class backed by an even more entrenched economic class will rule the day. My adding rational discourse to the debate is like trying to get rid of a fruit fly infestation with chopsticks. I'm not through, but I definitely need a break.
To help facilitate a retreat into my inner sanity, I've asked for help from my friend, Thomas, a husband and father of three who has lived in the US, Mexico and Canada and used the health care systems in each place. A couple of weeks ago I asked Thomas to muse on his experiences in each country so that I might share with you, my good readers, a first-hand account of the evils of social medicine. Enjoy...
______________________________________________
Healthy
by Thomas Mical
Disclaimer: I am an American Doctor. I have a Ph.D. in Aesthetics, but since I cannot legally write prescriptions, my in-laws feel I have wasted my time (and theirs). This is my story.
As an American father married to a Mexican wife and blessed with a great many (disobedient) children, we have had the good fortune to experience US, Canadian, and Mexican health care for many years personally. Before we come to the crucial debate over who gets to euthanize my elderly mother, lets go over how to have a baby.
Making a baby in each country is similar, usually involving alcohol. In Chicago, when our little Medium Boy was born, I was unemployed, and paying for a post-employment health care option called COBRA, aptly named for it’s deadly bite. I was actually paying for this, along with my rent, with cash advances from credit cards. You could do this under the glorious Clinton regime, but only for 6 months, because then you needed another full-time job to get fresh health insurance.
I finished my doctoral dissertation on May 18, and the boy, who we were previously told would have severe and inoperable birth defects based on an expensive sonogram I still haven’t paid for, came May 21, after 30+ hours of labor. When he was born he was lavender and lizard-like, but one slap and he was pink and screaming, just like daddy. A large and well-developed baby, his defects healed themselves before birth, which probably resulted from the prayer of all our families. Today he is certified as gifted (in mathematics), and he a chronic hypochondriac - this second trait obviously inherited from my mother. It skipped a generation, as I prefer to follow my father in “walking off” the illnesses I’ve had: bronchitis, pneumonia, bone breaks, and probable cancer from starting smoking at 29 (I quit 3 years ago because of the Canadian sin taxes).
As we were covered under our insurance, my wife got to stay in the hospital for 2 days, got lots of medical attention, the boy got constant nursing attention, and we got a gift basket of diapers and bottles and baby stuff. The women who did not have insurance were usually given their babies, and wheeled to the exit, as recovery rooms were reserved for “paying customers.” That made me a little sad to witness. When it was time to go, I again confirmed my insurance, wrote a check for $4K, and left with the new mouth to feed. When I go back to visit Chicago I always visit that hospital where I nervously smoked and paced for 2 full days, as it was the most intense and stressful time of my life, and it lets me gauge how much I have changed or grown over the years. Now the hospital is shut down, as they refused to treat an uninsured gang member who had been shot and left in the emergency room entrance, which started an investigation, which lead to discovery of financial irregularities, and hence the closing. They were double-billing us for a while, so I think the problem was systemic.
Having a baby in Canada was much easier, for me. 60 days after legally moving to Ontario, we were all magically covered under their OHIP universal health care – you get a card that looks like a Driver’s License with a personal photo on it. At that time, the other provinces didn’t have this long qualification period, but this might have changed now. This card is more desired than an American green card. Anyway, while I was adjusting to my new habitat, my wife decided to go into labor a few weeks AFTER we qualified, so I didn’t have any stress this time. We didn’t know many people in Canada then, so they let us all sleep in an empty hospital room while my wife was in labor. The practice nurses kept trying to draw blood from the baby’s head (it is a teaching hospital, so everyone got a try), and he has a round scar from it, but he’s pretty normal otherwise. They had to do an emergency C-section because the little Canadian had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck twice (he’s still very wiggly), and then my wife had complications and had to stay in intensive care for 6 days.
I managed to get the other kids home and cleaned and off to school each morning, then I would go to the hospital by bus to play with the baby. I finally got them to release her by constantly asking the nurses what they were doing, and since she could just as easily wait for follow-up tests at home as in a hospital bed. When I went to “check out” and pulled out my checkbook, the nurse said, “You’re from the States, aren’t you? We don’t pay for our babies here!” I was intrigued, and asked if there was a mandated limit like in China or with an HMO, and they laughed. Canada is tough on immigrants, but they love newborn Canadians. Love ‘em … more than puppies. The final tally after 6 days: bus tickets - $18, 6 packs of cigarettes - $72, hospital stay – free, new screaming Canadian poop-machine – priceless (actually I read today it’s $200K/kid to raise them now, unless you can train them to dance for nickels, but that’s not an option because its unionized here).
I have heard rumors that women from Mexico sneak across the border into the US just to give birth to a US citizen, but I’m surprised more American women don’t take a bus to Niagara Falls and hop across pretending to “buy some duty-free souvenirs” and staying. Maybe it’s because the myths in the US about how Orwellian the health care is in Canada, but they have great doctors, and they have strict standards for all the professions, because every cab driver here claims they are a doctor who got in due to their educations, but their credentials weren’t accepted for practice.
Back in Mexico, when you go to the doctor, my wife said you are expected to make a cash donation, kind of like giving a retainer to a lawyer, before treatment, based on the (apparent) difficulty of the treatment. This is a radically privatized system, more so than the US, but with each doctor free to set the market rate based on many factors, both real and imaginary. Hint: speak perfect Spanish for the best rates. Back when Michael Jordan was playing for the Bulls, Chicago Bulls mugs and hats were better than passing out hundred dollar bills! I am told there is formal and expensive health insurance in Mexico, and a good health care infrastructure in big cities, but the impression is that health care is a luxury item for most, and so homeopathic cures are quite common (and sometimes even as effective). As in Canada and the US, common illnesses are solved quite quickly, and most common medicine is significantly cheaper than the US and Canada.
Reality check: when we lived in Oklahoma, our rental home was US $425/month, and the mandatory health insurance policy with my company was approximately US $900/month for a family of 4, with my company only covering my portion. Health insurance was our BIGGEST expense (followed by utilities, then food, then housing, then deductibles for health care). In Ontario, my rent was CAD $1100/month, and the OHIP was free, but now they charge us CAD $750/year for the family on the tax form. We just have to flash the OHIP card whenever you want to go to your family doctor (preferred first stop, but not mandatory), or a walk-in clinic (easy and convenient, usually with decent rotating doctors), or bus to the emergency room (if it looks expensive), and they admit you and process you – we have NEVER had to wait more than 15 minutes to get medical care for ourselves or our kids, and we go for sniffles, coughs, or rashes, because it’s free. We don’t have to call anyone, we don’t panic, and we just go, like running to get eggs from the grocery store.
Some things are a little difficult: CAT scans and other heavy machinery usually take a little longer to schedule than in the US, most tests are fast but results can linger longer, and when the baby broke more than one pair of glasses, we had to use the private health insurance card my company provides to pick up the slack from OHIP. My company covers this private supplement out of my paycheck just like in the US, and it has small deductibles. It works similar to the US except you can also go straight to treatment without calling some switchboard for approval like we always had to do in Oklahoma, even when my son was choking to death and we had to wait for some switchboard monkey at the insurance company to tell us which emergency room we could use. I will always hate HMO’s for that terrifying procedure delay. If Canada went that way, the switchboard would be automated and polite, perhaps “Good day, eh? If you are bleeding profusely from one or more wounds, press 1; if you are incapable of walking to the curb, press 2; if you are unconscious, press 3 …”
Canadians only recently got their universal health care, but they all seem to think it is an essential human right and an essential part of Canadian identity, not the profit-driven elective luxury it should be. Compared to our lifestyle in the American Midwest, Canadians spend more time and money on treatment and prevention, as we noticed my oldest son’s Oklahoma obesity faded after a year of mandatory healthy eating and intensive outdoor exercise required in public school. It was kind of cool to go meet my kids after lunch to go skating on the canal. The teachers had stools and whips like lion tamers, and they made those kids skate!
They like to tax things in Canada, big things, unhealthy things, like those cigarettes I liked. In their passive-aggressive haste they banned smoking everywhere, and they banned foods with trans fats one day, because the second biggest killer after cancer is obesity. I’m not sure what the third is, but there will likely be taxes and laws to stamp it out at the root cause. Note to Canuck activists: I would love to see the Canadian health care system try to stamp out stupidity, but I know that I am a dreamer.
So back to euthanizing grandma ... As the first born son, pulling the plug with my bare hands is my right alone, not some panel of doctors, or some insurance company switchboard operator, or some redneck “death panel”. She had a small head injury a decade ago, which didn’t do too much damage as far as we can tell, but she was blackballed at 55 from any health insurance in the US, due to this “prior condition.” Grandma now has Social Security and Medicare, but this is not enough, so I send her some money each month to cover her food, since she was in the classic “food or medicine?” bind in Wisconsin for a while. Though her prior conditions may or may not be covered if she moved to Canada with us, she thinks those payments won’t work here, and she thinks there are long bleak Soviet-era lines for health care here, and that the ambulances are dogsleds, or some other such nonsense.
Funny how my train trips back to the US bring me in contact with nice older ladies my mother’s age that have duffel bags filled with pills. Because I grew up in Chicago watching the old black-and-white TV show “The Untouchables,” I can imagine a new series where the Feds are cracking down on these modern-day smugglers. I think the pharmaceutical costs and choices would be better across the other border, but I don’t know.
The annual costs of medicine, and our need for health care, has varied significantly from year to year. The USA and Canada have systems that make it possible to budget for these. In Canada, you know the basics are covered, and anything else goes to the private insurance (not everyone has this luxury, either in Canada or the USA). My last job in the USA had an affordable pre-tax option where you got to estimate how much health care money you wanted withheld from your paycheck, as if you could forecast a growing melanoma and budget correctly for it beforehand. I thought it ghoulish, but everyone else at the orientation session said it was a “good deal.” And of course I had to list every named illness I ever had on all this tedious forms, and hope that none of them would get me blackballed like my mom. Imagine the scenario then – you get an illness that usually kills people, you beat the odds and you survive, and your joy turns to despair because now you are the living dead to the insurance companies.
As the living dead, you are on your own against all viruses and medicine-resistant microbes. No wonder my mom has those hand detergents in every room – she buys them by the crate at Sam’s club – because they are now her medical insurance. My mother-in-law used crucifixes in the house much the same way, but in Mexico most homeopathic medicines are collected from the back yard, and boiled into teas.
In conclusion, let us tally up the last 15 years of personal experiences:
Other than that, not alot to talk about this weekend. If you haven't noticed, I've taken a momentary step back from the health care issue for the good of my own sanity. This debate is not taking place amongst the rational or genuinely concerned Americans, it has been hijacked by political opportunists, zealots and profiteers. What should be a genuine discussion about the value of health and human life has instead become another ring in the grand media circus that is the lifeblood of America. I have every faith that Obama's foresight, global perspective, and political acumen could lead America in prosperous new directions, but I've grown to have equal faith that the selfish political interests of an entrenched political class backed by an even more entrenched economic class will rule the day. My adding rational discourse to the debate is like trying to get rid of a fruit fly infestation with chopsticks. I'm not through, but I definitely need a break.
To help facilitate a retreat into my inner sanity, I've asked for help from my friend, Thomas, a husband and father of three who has lived in the US, Mexico and Canada and used the health care systems in each place. A couple of weeks ago I asked Thomas to muse on his experiences in each country so that I might share with you, my good readers, a first-hand account of the evils of social medicine. Enjoy...
______________________________________________
Healthy
by Thomas Mical
Disclaimer: I am an American Doctor. I have a Ph.D. in Aesthetics, but since I cannot legally write prescriptions, my in-laws feel I have wasted my time (and theirs). This is my story.
As an American father married to a Mexican wife and blessed with a great many (disobedient) children, we have had the good fortune to experience US, Canadian, and Mexican health care for many years personally. Before we come to the crucial debate over who gets to euthanize my elderly mother, lets go over how to have a baby.
Making a baby in each country is similar, usually involving alcohol. In Chicago, when our little Medium Boy was born, I was unemployed, and paying for a post-employment health care option called COBRA, aptly named for it’s deadly bite. I was actually paying for this, along with my rent, with cash advances from credit cards. You could do this under the glorious Clinton regime, but only for 6 months, because then you needed another full-time job to get fresh health insurance.
I finished my doctoral dissertation on May 18, and the boy, who we were previously told would have severe and inoperable birth defects based on an expensive sonogram I still haven’t paid for, came May 21, after 30+ hours of labor. When he was born he was lavender and lizard-like, but one slap and he was pink and screaming, just like daddy. A large and well-developed baby, his defects healed themselves before birth, which probably resulted from the prayer of all our families. Today he is certified as gifted (in mathematics), and he a chronic hypochondriac - this second trait obviously inherited from my mother. It skipped a generation, as I prefer to follow my father in “walking off” the illnesses I’ve had: bronchitis, pneumonia, bone breaks, and probable cancer from starting smoking at 29 (I quit 3 years ago because of the Canadian sin taxes).
As we were covered under our insurance, my wife got to stay in the hospital for 2 days, got lots of medical attention, the boy got constant nursing attention, and we got a gift basket of diapers and bottles and baby stuff. The women who did not have insurance were usually given their babies, and wheeled to the exit, as recovery rooms were reserved for “paying customers.” That made me a little sad to witness. When it was time to go, I again confirmed my insurance, wrote a check for $4K, and left with the new mouth to feed. When I go back to visit Chicago I always visit that hospital where I nervously smoked and paced for 2 full days, as it was the most intense and stressful time of my life, and it lets me gauge how much I have changed or grown over the years. Now the hospital is shut down, as they refused to treat an uninsured gang member who had been shot and left in the emergency room entrance, which started an investigation, which lead to discovery of financial irregularities, and hence the closing. They were double-billing us for a while, so I think the problem was systemic.
Having a baby in Canada was much easier, for me. 60 days after legally moving to Ontario, we were all magically covered under their OHIP universal health care – you get a card that looks like a Driver’s License with a personal photo on it. At that time, the other provinces didn’t have this long qualification period, but this might have changed now. This card is more desired than an American green card. Anyway, while I was adjusting to my new habitat, my wife decided to go into labor a few weeks AFTER we qualified, so I didn’t have any stress this time. We didn’t know many people in Canada then, so they let us all sleep in an empty hospital room while my wife was in labor. The practice nurses kept trying to draw blood from the baby’s head (it is a teaching hospital, so everyone got a try), and he has a round scar from it, but he’s pretty normal otherwise. They had to do an emergency C-section because the little Canadian had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck twice (he’s still very wiggly), and then my wife had complications and had to stay in intensive care for 6 days.
I managed to get the other kids home and cleaned and off to school each morning, then I would go to the hospital by bus to play with the baby. I finally got them to release her by constantly asking the nurses what they were doing, and since she could just as easily wait for follow-up tests at home as in a hospital bed. When I went to “check out” and pulled out my checkbook, the nurse said, “You’re from the States, aren’t you? We don’t pay for our babies here!” I was intrigued, and asked if there was a mandated limit like in China or with an HMO, and they laughed. Canada is tough on immigrants, but they love newborn Canadians. Love ‘em … more than puppies. The final tally after 6 days: bus tickets - $18, 6 packs of cigarettes - $72, hospital stay – free, new screaming Canadian poop-machine – priceless (actually I read today it’s $200K/kid to raise them now, unless you can train them to dance for nickels, but that’s not an option because its unionized here).
I have heard rumors that women from Mexico sneak across the border into the US just to give birth to a US citizen, but I’m surprised more American women don’t take a bus to Niagara Falls and hop across pretending to “buy some duty-free souvenirs” and staying. Maybe it’s because the myths in the US about how Orwellian the health care is in Canada, but they have great doctors, and they have strict standards for all the professions, because every cab driver here claims they are a doctor who got in due to their educations, but their credentials weren’t accepted for practice.
Back in Mexico, when you go to the doctor, my wife said you are expected to make a cash donation, kind of like giving a retainer to a lawyer, before treatment, based on the (apparent) difficulty of the treatment. This is a radically privatized system, more so than the US, but with each doctor free to set the market rate based on many factors, both real and imaginary. Hint: speak perfect Spanish for the best rates. Back when Michael Jordan was playing for the Bulls, Chicago Bulls mugs and hats were better than passing out hundred dollar bills! I am told there is formal and expensive health insurance in Mexico, and a good health care infrastructure in big cities, but the impression is that health care is a luxury item for most, and so homeopathic cures are quite common (and sometimes even as effective). As in Canada and the US, common illnesses are solved quite quickly, and most common medicine is significantly cheaper than the US and Canada.
Reality check: when we lived in Oklahoma, our rental home was US $425/month, and the mandatory health insurance policy with my company was approximately US $900/month for a family of 4, with my company only covering my portion. Health insurance was our BIGGEST expense (followed by utilities, then food, then housing, then deductibles for health care). In Ontario, my rent was CAD $1100/month, and the OHIP was free, but now they charge us CAD $750/year for the family on the tax form. We just have to flash the OHIP card whenever you want to go to your family doctor (preferred first stop, but not mandatory), or a walk-in clinic (easy and convenient, usually with decent rotating doctors), or bus to the emergency room (if it looks expensive), and they admit you and process you – we have NEVER had to wait more than 15 minutes to get medical care for ourselves or our kids, and we go for sniffles, coughs, or rashes, because it’s free. We don’t have to call anyone, we don’t panic, and we just go, like running to get eggs from the grocery store.
Some things are a little difficult: CAT scans and other heavy machinery usually take a little longer to schedule than in the US, most tests are fast but results can linger longer, and when the baby broke more than one pair of glasses, we had to use the private health insurance card my company provides to pick up the slack from OHIP. My company covers this private supplement out of my paycheck just like in the US, and it has small deductibles. It works similar to the US except you can also go straight to treatment without calling some switchboard for approval like we always had to do in Oklahoma, even when my son was choking to death and we had to wait for some switchboard monkey at the insurance company to tell us which emergency room we could use. I will always hate HMO’s for that terrifying procedure delay. If Canada went that way, the switchboard would be automated and polite, perhaps “Good day, eh? If you are bleeding profusely from one or more wounds, press 1; if you are incapable of walking to the curb, press 2; if you are unconscious, press 3 …”
Canadians only recently got their universal health care, but they all seem to think it is an essential human right and an essential part of Canadian identity, not the profit-driven elective luxury it should be. Compared to our lifestyle in the American Midwest, Canadians spend more time and money on treatment and prevention, as we noticed my oldest son’s Oklahoma obesity faded after a year of mandatory healthy eating and intensive outdoor exercise required in public school. It was kind of cool to go meet my kids after lunch to go skating on the canal. The teachers had stools and whips like lion tamers, and they made those kids skate!
They like to tax things in Canada, big things, unhealthy things, like those cigarettes I liked. In their passive-aggressive haste they banned smoking everywhere, and they banned foods with trans fats one day, because the second biggest killer after cancer is obesity. I’m not sure what the third is, but there will likely be taxes and laws to stamp it out at the root cause. Note to Canuck activists: I would love to see the Canadian health care system try to stamp out stupidity, but I know that I am a dreamer.
So back to euthanizing grandma ... As the first born son, pulling the plug with my bare hands is my right alone, not some panel of doctors, or some insurance company switchboard operator, or some redneck “death panel”. She had a small head injury a decade ago, which didn’t do too much damage as far as we can tell, but she was blackballed at 55 from any health insurance in the US, due to this “prior condition.” Grandma now has Social Security and Medicare, but this is not enough, so I send her some money each month to cover her food, since she was in the classic “food or medicine?” bind in Wisconsin for a while. Though her prior conditions may or may not be covered if she moved to Canada with us, she thinks those payments won’t work here, and she thinks there are long bleak Soviet-era lines for health care here, and that the ambulances are dogsleds, or some other such nonsense.
Funny how my train trips back to the US bring me in contact with nice older ladies my mother’s age that have duffel bags filled with pills. Because I grew up in Chicago watching the old black-and-white TV show “The Untouchables,” I can imagine a new series where the Feds are cracking down on these modern-day smugglers. I think the pharmaceutical costs and choices would be better across the other border, but I don’t know.
The annual costs of medicine, and our need for health care, has varied significantly from year to year. The USA and Canada have systems that make it possible to budget for these. In Canada, you know the basics are covered, and anything else goes to the private insurance (not everyone has this luxury, either in Canada or the USA). My last job in the USA had an affordable pre-tax option where you got to estimate how much health care money you wanted withheld from your paycheck, as if you could forecast a growing melanoma and budget correctly for it beforehand. I thought it ghoulish, but everyone else at the orientation session said it was a “good deal.” And of course I had to list every named illness I ever had on all this tedious forms, and hope that none of them would get me blackballed like my mom. Imagine the scenario then – you get an illness that usually kills people, you beat the odds and you survive, and your joy turns to despair because now you are the living dead to the insurance companies.
As the living dead, you are on your own against all viruses and medicine-resistant microbes. No wonder my mom has those hand detergents in every room – she buys them by the crate at Sam’s club – because they are now her medical insurance. My mother-in-law used crucifixes in the house much the same way, but in Mexico most homeopathic medicines are collected from the back yard, and boiled into teas.
In conclusion, let us tally up the last 15 years of personal experiences:
- The most affordable health care system for our family, so far: Canada (significantly better).
- The easiest and most flexible health care system for our family to use, so far: Canada.
- The best health care system for newborns so far: Canada (but the USA is just as good, except for all the bills and paperwork).
- The best quality health care for children, so far: Canada, then USA (almost tied).
- The best health care for elderly: maybe Canada, maybe Mexico.
- The health care I would go to for unusual diseases or difficult to diagnose chronic ailments: USA - but using my Canadian health insurance if I could get away with it. If this unusual disease or difficult to diagnose chronic condition occurred in the USA, and my USA HMO were to refuse “non-essential” treatment or downright drop me for getting sick (as they apparently do to keep medicine profitable) I would probably break down and go to Mexico to self-medicate (Tijuana?), get some hand gels, and try the Mexican homeopathic medicines my mother-in-law brews.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Government health panels...
Today I was sent a list of controversial points in the health care bill by a good friend of mine and I've decided that instead of reading the entire bill through, I'll just start researching the highly contentious points and writing what I find. Tonight I begin with these.
Claim: The HC Bill mandates the Govt will audit books of all employers that self insure.
This is true in a way. The government will set up a panel to study health care, essentially, and make recommendations based on their findings. One area of research would be to look at the companies that choose to self-insure instead of buying an insurance plan. They want to make sure, first, that any companies aren’t putting their employees at risk. And second, they are looking for holes in the legislation that would provide incentive to self-insure. So it’s not an audit in the IRS sense of the word.
Claim: There will be a government committee that decides what treatments/benefits you receive
I’ll paraphrase section 123 of the bill:
There is a private-public advisory committee of medical and other experts to recommend covered benefits and three type of plan.
The Surgeon General will chair the committee.
The committee has to represent
providers
consumer representatives
employers
labor
health insurance issuers
experts in health care financing and delivery
experts in racial and ethnic disparities
experts in care for those with disabilities
representatives of relevant governmental agencies
at least one practicing physician or other health professional
at least one expert on children’s health
They don’t decide what benefits you receive, they recommend benefits covered by three levels of plan. Someone does that for you now at the insurance companies but the insurance company’s job is to decide what the least they can get away with covering is.
This committee’s job, instead, is to recommend a benefit standard for insurance companies to maintain. Their directive is to make sure insurers are covering basic services for everyone. Basic covered services include:
(1) Hospitalization.
(2) Outpatient hospital and outpatient clinic services, including emergency department services.
(3) Professional services of physicians and other health professionals.
(4) Such services, equipment, and supplies incident to the services of a physician’s or a health professional’s delivery of care in institutional settings, physician offices, patients’ homes or place of residence, or other settings, as appropriate.
(5) Prescription drugs.
(6) Rehabilitative and habilitative services.
(7) Mental health and substance use disorder services.
(8) Preventive services, including those services recommended with a grade of A or B by the Task Force on Clinical Preventive Services and those vaccines recommended for use by the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
(9) Maternity care.
(10) Well baby and well child care and oral health, vision, and hearing services, equipment, and supplies at least for children under 21 years of age.
So yes, there is a committee but they are there to guarantee us coverage, not to deny it. We’re not used to that. All we’ve ever known are companies that profit off of us as a primary directive, not companies that keep us healthy as a primary directive.
That's tonight's piece. More tomorrow. If you have anything you want me to look up, drop a comment on the post.
'Night all
Claim: The HC Bill mandates the Govt will audit books of all employers that self insure.
This is true in a way. The government will set up a panel to study health care, essentially, and make recommendations based on their findings. One area of research would be to look at the companies that choose to self-insure instead of buying an insurance plan. They want to make sure, first, that any companies aren’t putting their employees at risk. And second, they are looking for holes in the legislation that would provide incentive to self-insure. So it’s not an audit in the IRS sense of the word.
Claim: There will be a government committee that decides what treatments/benefits you receive
I’ll paraphrase section 123 of the bill:
There is a private-public advisory committee of medical and other experts to recommend covered benefits and three type of plan.
The Surgeon General will chair the committee.
The committee has to represent
providers
consumer representatives
employers
labor
health insurance issuers
experts in health care financing and delivery
experts in racial and ethnic disparities
experts in care for those with disabilities
representatives of relevant governmental agencies
at least one practicing physician or other health professional
at least one expert on children’s health
They don’t decide what benefits you receive, they recommend benefits covered by three levels of plan. Someone does that for you now at the insurance companies but the insurance company’s job is to decide what the least they can get away with covering is.
This committee’s job, instead, is to recommend a benefit standard for insurance companies to maintain. Their directive is to make sure insurers are covering basic services for everyone. Basic covered services include:
(1) Hospitalization.
(2) Outpatient hospital and outpatient clinic services, including emergency department services.
(3) Professional services of physicians and other health professionals.
(4) Such services, equipment, and supplies incident to the services of a physician’s or a health professional’s delivery of care in institutional settings, physician offices, patients’ homes or place of residence, or other settings, as appropriate.
(5) Prescription drugs.
(6) Rehabilitative and habilitative services.
(7) Mental health and substance use disorder services.
(8) Preventive services, including those services recommended with a grade of A or B by the Task Force on Clinical Preventive Services and those vaccines recommended for use by the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
(9) Maternity care.
(10) Well baby and well child care and oral health, vision, and hearing services, equipment, and supplies at least for children under 21 years of age.
So yes, there is a committee but they are there to guarantee us coverage, not to deny it. We’re not used to that. All we’ve ever known are companies that profit off of us as a primary directive, not companies that keep us healthy as a primary directive.
That's tonight's piece. More tomorrow. If you have anything you want me to look up, drop a comment on the post.
'Night all
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Want to know what The American Health Care Bill has in it?
Here is a link to the official summary of HR 3200, the American Health Care Bill. It only takes a few minutes to read. Give it a look and see what you think. I've downloaded the full text of the bill and am in the process of reading it through. I've never tried to read a bill before. This ought to be interesting. I really want to print it out but it's 280 pages long... that would take forever to print and would take so much paper! Guess I'll be reading it on my laptop. I'll get back with you soon (hopefully).
And still more on health care...
A Friend writes:
In part I agree with you; we do need healthcare reform but the problem I have is how are we going to pay for it. Thanks to the PAST and CURRENT administration's ludicrous spending, this country is spiraling into eternal indebtedness. I more afraid of what is going to happen to my income taxes than I am of losing my health care. I do not have the first clue as to how to solve the problem but the white house cannot continue using the ‘Fed’ like a reproduction company.
As to the comment regarding voices, there are just as many inflammatory nuts on the left side of the media. One only has to watch msnbc and cnbc for a few hours to realize that fact.
While there are not "just as many inflamatory nuts" on the Left as the right (I'd lay odds on that one, my friends), it is true that there are some on the left just as guilty of instigation as some on the Right. Because the Left choose to play into the "who is more evil" game concocted by the Reagan-era marriage of the conservatives and the religious right, they do the same harm as their firebrand counterparts screaming doom, Armageddon and revolution.
The tone of this particular fight, however was chosen by the right, instigated by the right and is carried by the right. This administration began by saying "hey, let's try to work things out," to which the right responded with a thumb to their noses, fingers extended and spread. No, the left are not guiltless, but it's time Republicans owned up to the dirty dealings of their leaders and stopped following them in a blind rage. It's time that Republican people stopped getting offended when people speak out against their elected officials. Yes, you elected them. No, that does not mean that you must stand behind them. I'm sorry, but just because you're signed up on their roles doesn't mean you have to support everything they do and it doesn't mean you have to enlist to help fight Democrats on the grounds that they are "the opponents."
Forgetting the last administration, in less than one year, Republicans have taken us from being a nation of hope, of promise, of joy and of possibility to a nation of fear, anger, betrayal, lies and deceptions. Why do I blame this on Republicans? Because it is their soundbytes, their carefully choreographed opposition to anything laid out by the Obama administration, their unwillingness to compromise in hopes of having a better run in 2012, and their blathering mouthpieces that have turned up the political temperature in this country.
Have Obama and his people made all the right decisions? Certainly not. Have Democrats done stupid things over he past year? Absolutely without a doubt. But are Democrats trying to incite people to riot? To take up arms and revolt? To regain the revolutionary furor of the late 1800's? No. Absolutely not. Are Republicans? You betcha.
It is time for Republicans to own the actions of their elected officials.
No, I recant. It's time for Americans to own the actions of their elected officials and stop letting the actions of their elected officials own them.
More on Health Care...
Hi everyone,
I'm writing this morning because I have been reading up on the health care debate and found a couple of things I'd like to share with you. Being in Canada, I am spared from most of the propaganda surrounding this debate, both for and against, but I'm assuming that you, my friends and family in the States, aren't so lucky.
It's terrifying to sit outside of our borders and watch as men do harm to my country in the name of their own selfish political interests. Republicans are openly talking about health care as an issue they can "stop the President" on in order to gain favor for the 2012 election. It's appalling to see a man in Maryland opposing health care reform with a sign that reads, "Death to Obama" and, "Death to Michelle and her two stupid kids." That indicates to me that those who are angry don't know what they are angry about... they have simply been whipped up into a frenzy and are out to show it. It's gut-wrenching to see that the "debate" over reform risks being derailed by people whose words have been proven as lies, but who continue to spout them nonetheless. Unfortunately, if you say a lie loud enough and long enough it takes on a "truthiness" of its own. Those who oppose the changes happening in America today have difficulty finding solid ground to stand on and so they have resorted to lies, misinformation, and outright instigation. Do you find it odd that opponents of health care reform aren't actually defending our current system, but instead are instigating Americans to furious levels of rage by making it seem as though someone is attacking their freedoms, their liberties, their right to choose, their essential "American-ness?" How can we fight this? What choices do we have when our voice is so small compared to the Glenn Becks and the Bill O'Reillys of the world? All we can do is know the truth for ourselves and speak truth when confronted by lies. And so it is in this spirit that I present you with two links this morning.
The first is an op-ed piece by President Obama, himself, titled, "Why We Need Health Care Reform." It is the President who is behind this reform and his is, unfortunately, one of the voices of reason being overwhelmed by the mob. If you gave a news anchor 10 minutes of your time this week, hopefully you can also afford 10 minutes to read the President's words without the editing and commentary pasted on by news media.
The second is titled, "Seven Falsehoods about Health Care" from FactCheck.org, a "nonpartisan, nonprofit 'consumer advocate' for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics." I highly encourage you to bookmark and revisit FactCheck.org any time you have a question about something said in the news or a claim made by a friend. It is a quick and easy way to sort through the layers of double-meaning and tricky wording to get to underlying truth. They are not Obama advocates, they are not opponents. They simply analyze claims made by politicians and report on their accuracy and context.
Many of you already have health insurance and don't see this debate as relevant to you. I'm begging you to take at least enough interest in it to be able to have a straight conversation about it. There is a large portion of America that is angry and afraid right now and at the heart of that anger and fear is disinformation. If more people know the truth behind the disinformation, the more people there are to calm those who feel threatened.
Thanks for spending a few minutes reading up on this today. If you learned something useful, pass the sites along to your friends and family. If you have any questions, I'm more than happy to do some research to try to find an answer for you. I hope you are all doing well and have a great week ahead of you.
Cheers,
Michael
I'm writing this morning because I have been reading up on the health care debate and found a couple of things I'd like to share with you. Being in Canada, I am spared from most of the propaganda surrounding this debate, both for and against, but I'm assuming that you, my friends and family in the States, aren't so lucky.
It's terrifying to sit outside of our borders and watch as men do harm to my country in the name of their own selfish political interests. Republicans are openly talking about health care as an issue they can "stop the President" on in order to gain favor for the 2012 election. It's appalling to see a man in Maryland opposing health care reform with a sign that reads, "Death to Obama" and, "Death to Michelle and her two stupid kids." That indicates to me that those who are angry don't know what they are angry about... they have simply been whipped up into a frenzy and are out to show it. It's gut-wrenching to see that the "debate" over reform risks being derailed by people whose words have been proven as lies, but who continue to spout them nonetheless. Unfortunately, if you say a lie loud enough and long enough it takes on a "truthiness" of its own. Those who oppose the changes happening in America today have difficulty finding solid ground to stand on and so they have resorted to lies, misinformation, and outright instigation. Do you find it odd that opponents of health care reform aren't actually defending our current system, but instead are instigating Americans to furious levels of rage by making it seem as though someone is attacking their freedoms, their liberties, their right to choose, their essential "American-ness?" How can we fight this? What choices do we have when our voice is so small compared to the Glenn Becks and the Bill O'Reillys of the world? All we can do is know the truth for ourselves and speak truth when confronted by lies. And so it is in this spirit that I present you with two links this morning.
The first is an op-ed piece by President Obama, himself, titled, "Why We Need Health Care Reform." It is the President who is behind this reform and his is, unfortunately, one of the voices of reason being overwhelmed by the mob. If you gave a news anchor 10 minutes of your time this week, hopefully you can also afford 10 minutes to read the President's words without the editing and commentary pasted on by news media.
The second is titled, "Seven Falsehoods about Health Care" from FactCheck.org, a "nonpartisan, nonprofit 'consumer advocate' for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics." I highly encourage you to bookmark and revisit FactCheck.org any time you have a question about something said in the news or a claim made by a friend. It is a quick and easy way to sort through the layers of double-meaning and tricky wording to get to underlying truth. They are not Obama advocates, they are not opponents. They simply analyze claims made by politicians and report on their accuracy and context.
Many of you already have health insurance and don't see this debate as relevant to you. I'm begging you to take at least enough interest in it to be able to have a straight conversation about it. There is a large portion of America that is angry and afraid right now and at the heart of that anger and fear is disinformation. If more people know the truth behind the disinformation, the more people there are to calm those who feel threatened.
Thanks for spending a few minutes reading up on this today. If you learned something useful, pass the sites along to your friends and family. If you have any questions, I'm more than happy to do some research to try to find an answer for you. I hope you are all doing well and have a great week ahead of you.
Cheers,
Michael
Friday, August 14, 2009
Open mic jam with my new friend, Carlos...
I've mentioned before that I started playing an open mic at a local coffee shop. These videos are from this past week and the gentleman joining me is Carlos. We've only played together one or two times before this but we seem to do alright together. Have a listen and hope you enjoy!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Sunday, August 09, 2009
And now a word from the Internets...
I regularly cruise a social news site called Reddit. Mostly, people find interesting things online and then post links to them. There is a section, though, where you can post questions and let the Reddit community answer in the comment sections. You get a diverse range of replies, ranging from the brilliant to the idiotic, but reading with a careful eye, there is a wealth of information to be found.
Today I came across this question in Reddit, which I wish I would have thought to ask long ago. There are some malicious lies floating around talk shows, email forwards, and water cooler conversations. This post eals with several of those. I encourage you to hop over and read some of the replies. A couple of them are quite well researched and worded.
"Reddit, my dad just sent me this email forward about health care. It's wildly inaccurate and misleading, and my entire family believes this stuff. How should I respond to them?"
Let the idealogues spew their nonsense and lies all day long, but don't think for a second that politics is not a prime motivator in this health care debate. Republicans see an opportunity to stop Obama's plans and make him unpopular, thus opening the door for their next presidential candidate to fare better. They are pretty open about that.
America is the 4th richest nation in the world but has a health care system that the World Health Organization ranks behind 36 other countries. And our nation's overall health? Ranked thirty-fourth by the WHO.
Fourth richest.
Thirty-seventh best health care.
Thirty-fourth best overall health.
Please take a few minutes to write your congressperson and ask them to put a stop the politicking and deal with our broken health care system.
Today I came across this question in Reddit, which I wish I would have thought to ask long ago. There are some malicious lies floating around talk shows, email forwards, and water cooler conversations. This post eals with several of those. I encourage you to hop over and read some of the replies. A couple of them are quite well researched and worded.
"Reddit, my dad just sent me this email forward about health care. It's wildly inaccurate and misleading, and my entire family believes this stuff. How should I respond to them?"
Let the idealogues spew their nonsense and lies all day long, but don't think for a second that politics is not a prime motivator in this health care debate. Republicans see an opportunity to stop Obama's plans and make him unpopular, thus opening the door for their next presidential candidate to fare better. They are pretty open about that.
America is the 4th richest nation in the world but has a health care system that the World Health Organization ranks behind 36 other countries. And our nation's overall health? Ranked thirty-fourth by the WHO.
Fourth richest.
Thirty-seventh best health care.
Thirty-fourth best overall health.
Please take a few minutes to write your congressperson and ask them to put a stop the politicking and deal with our broken health care system.
No Sunday rambling today...
I wrote a long post on healthcare and other such nonsense this morning as I sat and ate my breakfast... but then decided against publishing it, as it was pointless, whiny, and just plain boring to read. So instead, I will tell you that all is well and show you this post I found today on reddit.com. Enjoy...
Sunday, August 02, 2009
A couple of videos to make you smile...
I found a couple of videos this morning I thought were fantastic enough to share with you. The first is a stop motion film made for the 50th anniversary of the Olympus PEN camera. The second is a video from Oren Lavie.
'Tis the first Sunday of August...
Good morning all and a special good morning to my lovely girlfriend who I assume is doing well and enjoying herself in the wilds of Europa. So I find myself at the end of another week without girlfriend… another week slid into the routines of a single guy. I found a new open mic to play this week and it went fairly well, but wasn’t spectacular. I’ve grown stale on the harmonica... that’s the way it feels, anyway. The things I play are old and tired and I can’t find good musicians to play with to make me better. Not that I’m looking that hard. But it always cycles like this. I’ll meet someone new or buy a new harp or hear a new song… something will eventually inspire me. Not yet, though. I also have managed to get back into Jits twice a week. I was shooting for thrice but things keep getting in the way. Like this weekend is a long weekend with a statutory holiday Monday so the gym is closed for the weekend. Jits has been good. A black belt from Brazil moved to Vancouver to teach Jits and improve his English. He joined on at our school and so we've had a very different kind of training lately. It's intense, but good. I enjoy it and can feel my strength slowly returning. I've been drawing more but nothing worthwhile has come of it yet.
So I’m down at Nice café this morning to have breakfast before returning home for a cleaning binge. The café opens at 9:30 on Sundays and I didn’t manage to get here until 9:50 so the only seats available were outside. The weather is nice for outdoor eating but unfortunately it’s the worst place to sit for timely service. Oh well… it’s Sunday. Why be in a hurry? The other unfortunate part about being out here, though, is that the breeze carries on it an occasional hint of the dumpsters around the corner. Eugh.
Last night I went to watch the final performance in the annual fireworks contest that happens down on English Bay. I went on opening night and watched Canada and it was a pretty good half hour show. I skipped about 4 teams in the middle and then went last night to watch China’s show. I think the most concise explanation of last night’s show would be, WOW!
It was the most well coordinated and composed show I have ever seen, flowing along with an instrumental score and continually amazing the audience with rolling highs and lows of light and color that followed the music like a dance partner. They shot fireworks high and low and used a myriad of different types of explosion to gain and carry your attention through the show. They used colors I’ve never seen in a fireworks show (at least I don’t think I have) and built sets upon pianissimos of smaller, more subtle fireworks shot lower in the air. They shot rockets that exploded into a hundred thousand streaming points of shimmering light and then each of those points begat their own explosion and those points, yet again. Fantastic!
They began one set with low-fired bright white streams of light that arced slightly and lilted over gracefully like the leaves of a budding flower. They followed with small mid-level bursts of pink that showed like the closed bulb in the middle of a flower and then opened the bloom entirely with tall bursts of pink and purple. Once the crescendo reached its peak, the sky was filled with pinks, purples, whites and reds that lit the skyline of Vancouver like an artist’s palate. I’m so used to the standard red, white and blue of many American shows that I was thrilled to get subtle variations of color. Then there was the finale. Again, WOW!
They let the show die to nothing and let a calm hang in the air for a mere second or two then began a spirited charge towards the finish line with a launch of overlapping huge boomers that left the sky with explosion happening within explosion happening within explosion. It was a sustained version of most fireworks finales I’ve seen, with the crowd applauding the several seconds of high-intensity explosions. Then the real finale began. From what seemed to be the peak of their show, it got even more intense. I’ve been thinking about what I saw since last night, and the best I can describe it is that they were shooting 4-5 massive explosions per second for a good 10 or fifteen seconds and then for about 3 seconds kicked it up to fire 5-10 per second for 3 or 4 seconds… and then in one last burst of delight and surprise, they fired a final salvo that I’m guessing was about 30-50 rockets in 1-3 seconds. It was the most intense set of explosions I’ve ever witnessed! I was staring in awe when it happened and my mind couldn’t register what I was seeing/hearing for a split second. I jumped, but not in fright… in overload!
Boom!
Boom!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!B
OOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BO
OM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOO
M!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM
!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!
Then… silence.
That lasted for about 2 seconds before every boat in the harbor and every car on the road let loose with a exuberant cheer of horns that was quickly joined by shouts so loud that we could hear them from across the water. It was phenomenal! And to think I almost didn’t go…
So, now with my fireworks report complete and my last cup of coffee nearing its end, I shall call it a morning here. Hope you all have a wonderful day and, for those of you reading from Canada, enjoy your long weekend. For my American audience, have a nice Monday. For my girlfriend, I hope you are having a wonderful time and enjoying your studio. (Sketch something cool that we can frame, eh?)
So I’m down at Nice café this morning to have breakfast before returning home for a cleaning binge. The café opens at 9:30 on Sundays and I didn’t manage to get here until 9:50 so the only seats available were outside. The weather is nice for outdoor eating but unfortunately it’s the worst place to sit for timely service. Oh well… it’s Sunday. Why be in a hurry? The other unfortunate part about being out here, though, is that the breeze carries on it an occasional hint of the dumpsters around the corner. Eugh.
Last night I went to watch the final performance in the annual fireworks contest that happens down on English Bay. I went on opening night and watched Canada and it was a pretty good half hour show. I skipped about 4 teams in the middle and then went last night to watch China’s show. I think the most concise explanation of last night’s show would be, WOW!
It was the most well coordinated and composed show I have ever seen, flowing along with an instrumental score and continually amazing the audience with rolling highs and lows of light and color that followed the music like a dance partner. They shot fireworks high and low and used a myriad of different types of explosion to gain and carry your attention through the show. They used colors I’ve never seen in a fireworks show (at least I don’t think I have) and built sets upon pianissimos of smaller, more subtle fireworks shot lower in the air. They shot rockets that exploded into a hundred thousand streaming points of shimmering light and then each of those points begat their own explosion and those points, yet again. Fantastic!
They began one set with low-fired bright white streams of light that arced slightly and lilted over gracefully like the leaves of a budding flower. They followed with small mid-level bursts of pink that showed like the closed bulb in the middle of a flower and then opened the bloom entirely with tall bursts of pink and purple. Once the crescendo reached its peak, the sky was filled with pinks, purples, whites and reds that lit the skyline of Vancouver like an artist’s palate. I’m so used to the standard red, white and blue of many American shows that I was thrilled to get subtle variations of color. Then there was the finale. Again, WOW!
They let the show die to nothing and let a calm hang in the air for a mere second or two then began a spirited charge towards the finish line with a launch of overlapping huge boomers that left the sky with explosion happening within explosion happening within explosion. It was a sustained version of most fireworks finales I’ve seen, with the crowd applauding the several seconds of high-intensity explosions. Then the real finale began. From what seemed to be the peak of their show, it got even more intense. I’ve been thinking about what I saw since last night, and the best I can describe it is that they were shooting 4-5 massive explosions per second for a good 10 or fifteen seconds and then for about 3 seconds kicked it up to fire 5-10 per second for 3 or 4 seconds… and then in one last burst of delight and surprise, they fired a final salvo that I’m guessing was about 30-50 rockets in 1-3 seconds. It was the most intense set of explosions I’ve ever witnessed! I was staring in awe when it happened and my mind couldn’t register what I was seeing/hearing for a split second. I jumped, but not in fright… in overload!
Boom!
Boom!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!B
OOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BO
OM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOO
M!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM
!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!
Then… silence.
That lasted for about 2 seconds before every boat in the harbor and every car on the road let loose with a exuberant cheer of horns that was quickly joined by shouts so loud that we could hear them from across the water. It was phenomenal! And to think I almost didn’t go…
So, now with my fireworks report complete and my last cup of coffee nearing its end, I shall call it a morning here. Hope you all have a wonderful day and, for those of you reading from Canada, enjoy your long weekend. For my American audience, have a nice Monday. For my girlfriend, I hope you are having a wonderful time and enjoying your studio. (Sketch something cool that we can frame, eh?)
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