Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Health care, American-style
hey zen—good to hear u comin thru—loudand clear .. from the volcano’s mouth .. say hello to MT HOODIE FOR ME..
MICK .. enjoy the day..
...ET/al..
i am—a dad /&^ grand/dad—another is on the way for my b/day ..... this OCTOBER ...
http://tinyurl.com/n4y2fd WASHINGTON POST TEXT .. fathers D
............how bout a lil LENNY BRUCE clip.. IRISH vs JEWISH DADS
http://tinyurl.com/mdm4ch vidclip
Posted by richie from st james city, FL on 06/21 at 01:01 AMOne of my most favouritist things is watching waterfowl take off and land. Simple minds, simple pleasures
Hope your dad recovers well Mickey.Posted by Mew from on 06/21 at 06:17 AMHi richie, Mew, and all…
Mickey, I hope Dad is feeling better. Gall Bladder issues can be painful. One of my favorite true Vermont stories is that when my gall bladder needed to be surgically removed, the operation was done by my next door neighbor. That’s how tough things are in Vermont. True. (My neighbor was the head of surgery at the hospital. He did a great job. Not even a scar. He went in through my belly button.) (I know I’ve told this story here before, but I like telling it.)
About health care - this is also a true story. Yesterday I visited a friend in a nursing home. In order to stay in the room she was assigned and not be moved to a very small, inadequate, not sanitary, shared room, she had to fake hearing voices. She also went on a hunger strike. Everybody needs to visit places like that on a regular basis. What a reality check!
As I sit here at the computer, I am hearing bomb blasts - not my imagination running wild - they are doing the annual Revolutionary War celebration. Who wants to celebrate war?
Posted by RMJ from Ward Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts on 06/21 at 12:23 PMNews report says that Bernie Sanders is the only one in the Senate who supports Single Payer.
Posted by RMJ from Ward Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts on 06/21 at 12:45 PMWishing your dad as speedy a recovery as possible. <a href="a href="http://dasnotesfromunderground.blogspot.com/2009/06/worth-ten-thousand-word">As I was putting it the other day</a>:
Looking at the consequences of our own system, it is clear that we spend a hell of a lot more than any other nation on health care with less to show for it. In fact, our whole quality of life compared to much of the planet (including nations that are considered part of the ‘developing’, third world, or global south) is pretty damned poor.
As an aside, have been devoting a few hours each week on a possible book project. Finally settled on a title: An Ordinary Person’s Guide to Genocide. Finished drafting a preface, and have a pretty decent working draft for chapter 1. Four more chapters to draft after that one. The idea is for it to be a brief work that is grounded in theory and research but can serve as a handbook for advocates and activists who themselves aren’t academicians nor who wish to read academese. Once classes for the summer are complete, I’ll go full bore on completion. I’ve never actually written a book before, unless we count masters and Ph.D theses, so this is truly uncharted territory.Couldn’t help but notice the captcha word: action.
Posted by Don Durito (Dr. B's latest pseudonym) from U$A on 06/21 at 03:42 PMRMJ, 3...I just did a local rant recently about health care. So we know about costs, fraud, corruption, lack of health care for so many people.
I also wanted to look at the quality of education that doctors receive, why people choose to be a doctor, why surgeons must cut and don’t recommend herbal cures, the pharmaceutical industries influence on medical education. All of this places economics before humanity.
I find doctors to be inconsistent with X-Ray and MRI readings.
Oh, occasionally I have met Real healers that drive 17 year old cars, but they’re rare.
How can there be healthy care in a society that is so destructive and murderous?
Posted by joe of maine from on 06/21 at 03:48 PMbest wishes again
the health system in america really is barbaric. not the quality of the care if you can afford it but the fact that so many people go without.
unfortunately, the politicians and businesspeople at home want to make a system that was designed to be free “from the cradle to the grave” like the american one. they just don’t admit it openly is the problem.
Posted by michael from not scotland on 06/21 at 04:03 PMHi Don ... Important points you bring up. We DO spend more and get the least for our money. The big propaganda being spread in the media is that we don’t have enough money for Single Payer. The fact is we don’t have enough money for the insurance company system that we now have. Single Payer would save money - and lives too.
joe...One of the best docs I ever knew is the one who saved my life after I had been walking around with ruptured appendix for 3 days. I was 15 years old. My Dad had just changed jobs and had ‘lost’ our family medical insurance. Good ol’ Doctor John, who had just graduated from med school, performed an emergency appendectomy at midnight on a Sunday. As part of his payment he accepted my Dad’s ‘professional’ services as the area’s best auto mechanic. Doctor John was one of those compassionate old time docs who no longer exist.
In this area the entire medical system is collapsing. Big layoffs in the local hospital. Also big layoffs in the hospital in Pittsfield, Mass. No dental care. Vision care only for those with money. Long term care is a nightmare. I have been doing research on elder abuse. The possibility of withholding life-saving medical care from the elderly is a part of the discussion. Money for bombs, but no money to take care of Grandpa??? This is not a good time to live in the U$A.
Posted by RMJ from Ward Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts on 06/21 at 04:14 PMWishing your dad a speedy recovery MZ.
I’ve spent a little time in Central Park this weekend. It’s so good that it’s there. I also checked out the new High Line (for non-nycers, it’s a new public park that was built atop a disused overhead railroad in a rapidly developing part of Manhattan). The path is concrete and is bordered by many varieties of local flora. There are a bunch of signs there that read “KEEP IT WILD. KEEP ON PATH.” which I think is a contradiction in terms.
Posted by keir from here and there on 06/21 at 06:21 PMAnd best wishes from me and Mr Helga as well, Mickey!
Good article on the American health system in the forthcoming issue of the NYR:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22798’’Hello, richie, Mew, Rosemarie, joe durito, Joe of Maine, Michael and keir.
Oh, and I love Central Park, too!
Greetings to you all from a wet and cool Daylesford,
HelgaPosted by Helga Fremlin from Daylesford, Australia on 06/21 at 06:37 PMOops - hope this link works:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22798Posted by Helga Fremlin from Daylesford, Australia on 06/21 at 06:40 PMI’ve having a hell of a time finishing my book. I’ve been working on this thing for over 2 years.
This book titled, ‘Something for Everyone’ will be a social commentary about life in america. It’s 100 blank pages and I’m having trouble completing the 2 page preface. I thought of having a bibliography but not sure yet. I’m very excited!
One entire chapter is devoted to the absence of medical care in america. There’s something in this book for every member of the family.
Posted by Joe of Maine from on 06/21 at 06:58 PMJoe, you definitely must include a bibliography - and footnotes! Don’t forget the footnotes.
Posted by Don Durito (Dr. B's latest pseudonym) from U$A on 06/21 at 10:58 PMSpeaking of blank pages, check out Guys from Area 51’s post This Is Your President.
Now for some psychology trivia: One of the cards included in a projective personality test, the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), is completely blank - sort of the ultimate in projective test stimuli, I suppose.
Posted by Don Durito (Dr. B's latest pseudonym) from U$A on 06/21 at 11:09 PMI may have missed the back story on that picture, Mick, but it brought me a moment of happiness...thinking about that bird in Central Park.
My best thoughts and energy are going out to your dad today.
Good to see RMJ in full force on the comment board.
Hello and goodnight to every other Expendable too.
Posted by JOS from Oak Park on 06/21 at 11:26 PMThanks,everyone.Got my hands on a public computer. Dad had a bad day yesterday. Hope I have better news later.
Posted by Mickey Z. from Texas on 06/22 at 08:47 AMWill keep the fingers crossed that you have better news.
Posted by Don Durito (Dr. B's latest pseudonym) from U$A on 06/22 at 04:53 PMIt’s a full boat at Cool Observer today, and the morale flotation devices are on me: http://tinyurl.com/nzyxtj
‘Laundry haiku’ is exceptional, as are the responses.
Catch 98.6: what will it take to cause mass disturbance in the profit care system? Routine neglect and a major war’s worth of corpses haven’t tipped the scales. But if RMJ’s friend is clever enough to get results… (see also Joe Bageant on worker rights http://tinyurl.com/l9jn6s )
Winged Imagery Dept: Canada geese drifting downward into tight spaces for a barely-controlled water landing is always fascinating, yet has been happening for millenia. This is usually in a smaller pond or river, but other fowl use sweeping turns to dump speed before submitting to gravity. Canadas just bore right in with feet splayed, but they still have more sense than Obamatrons.
Posted by Zen Prole from Pac NW on 06/22 at 04:54 PMHe’s home now...not handling all this very well but I’m hoping he can snap out of it. I’ll try to update tomorrow.
Thanks, all…
Posted by Mickey Z. from Deja Vu on 06/22 at 05:08 PMYou have my thoughts Mickey. Solidarity greetings from the UK.
I told someone at work the other day that I wanted to be a pigeon, they seemed so carefree...[not that I was looking out the window if anyone asks]. She quit within 48 hours of me saying that. I’ve been blaming Capitalism for my office going from 50 people down to about 6...but maybe I just scare people.Posted by Rick (the Cartoonist) from England on 06/23 at 03:19 PMbest wishes.
Posted by michael from not scotland on 06/23 at 04:20 PMMickey #16 and #19, I hope your Dad fully recovers and has many better not to say good days ahead of him.
And good luck with your book, Joe of Maine #12 - it sounds fascinating.
Lastly, kindest greetings to all those who have commented here since I last ‘called in’: that would be JOS, Zen Prole and Rick (the cartoonist) from a cool but dry Daylesford, where the sun shone briefly in the morning before it disappeared behind clouds.
Posted by Helga Fremlin from Daylesford, Australia on 06/23 at 10:53 PMa o k
Posted by richie from st james city fl on 06/23 at 11:21 PMHi Mickey,
I hope your father is on the road to recovery.
The American medical system is FUCKED, and the argument that there is no money to fund universal health care is even more FUCKED. Canada has gone to shit too, but I’m sure glad I don’t have to worry about the crippling medical bills that Americans have to.
My aunt, who lives in Washington, just spent a couple days in the hospital. She has insurance, and the visit still cost her something like $2000. I was so angry when I heard this. She is an aging single lady who has seen some rough times and struggled through them. She does not have a lot of money, and she does not know how she will afford medical care as she grows old.
Fuck you Obama. Revolution anyone???????????????????????
Posted by Mike from Cariboo, BC on 06/24 at 01:20 AMI had an ER visit this past spring (word to the wise: if you have a stomach bug, avoid air travel, or simply avoid travel if at all possible). My insurance is actually okayish, compared to what I previously got as a state employee, but once all was said and done I got stuck with somewhere between $600 and $700 in bills. About $160 of that came from a doctor who visited with me for all of about five seconds - no kidding.
I’ve also noticed that hospitals are more loan shark-like in terms of bill collecting these days (I’m surprised I haven’t been knee-capped yet while awaiting payment for some extra work I picked up in part to pay for that misadventure).
I scrape by on $30K a year, no real prospects of earning much beyond that, am not getting any younger, and neither is my wife (whose disability will inevitably lead to more hospital visits as she ages); so yeah I worry about how we’ll deal with all that if the present health “care’ system remains more or less as is. My guess is that I’ll do what I increasingly do any way - skimp on my own health care, make sure my wife gets what she needs and hope I don’t suffer the fate of my paternal grandad. In the present scheme of things, I get the message loud and clear: unless you’re wealthy, you’re expendable, you won’t even be missed.
Guess I’m a bit jaded and bitter. Noticed that the captcha word was “market”. Screw the market.
Posted by Don Durito (Dr. B's latest pseudonym) from U$A on 06/24 at 02:35 AMMike, 24...I agree with you completely !
Posted by joe of maine from on 06/24 at 05:10 AMHello Expendables. Still very chaotic here but perhaps some improvement. I just put up a new post so I can feel a little more normal.
More soon…
Posted by Mickey Z. from Texas on 06/24 at 09:24 AMSending good vibes to Mickey’s Dad.
joe...I need an autographed copy of your book ASAP.
Mike #24...You said it better than I could.
Here’s a hospital billing story - sort of a secret system designed to screw the the public. When I was rear-ended by the Government truck, I was ambulanced to the ER. They discharged me with a broken back. At the time I had 3 insurance policies covering me for medical expenses. Eight YEARS later, the hospital billed me. When I suggested that they bill the insurance companies, they said that it was now too late. When I requested a face-to-face meeting to discuss the billing policy that led to this, they refused. Basically they said that they had all of the power and I should ‘pay up’ or else - or else they would ruin my credit rating, take my house, and find some more creative ways to terrorize. I now make monthly payments to the extortionists. True story.
Posted by RMJ from Ward Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts on 06/24 at 09:33 AM
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