Healthcare, healthcare, who cares?

Seems the healthcare industry cares A LOT! To the tune of $263 million (that is a quarter of a billion folks) bucks this year. Between the cost of them going to congress, greasing congress, and info commercials.

Don’t worry though, fear factoring is in full force. Recent TV ad targeting seniors and playing on their concerns and fears is making its impact. Seems fear mongering among seniors is still one of the best forms of lobbying.

Rep. Jim Cooper D-Tennessee likens it all to a football game saying, “It is sort of a Super Bowl of lobbying for health care reform.” Going on to say that the lobbyist are winning “so far, but the game’s not over yet.” Glad my health and the care I need still has a chance in the big game.

PricewatherhouseCooper released a study saying basically that if healthcare as proposed, would increase premiums upwards of $4000 for a family. Course this has people freaking out and running scared. Hold the phone Gracie, they also admit they did not take into account some of the subsidies that are proposed. Including but not limited to low-income families. Even they said that these provisions would offset this $4000 per family impact. In other words, we ran a study, and didn’t take everything into account so this huge number we are using to scare you is not real. Now, the Republicans are running up and down the halls of the Capital buildings screaming, “the sky is falling, and PricewaterhouseCooper says so.” How stupid do these people think we are? Pretty stupid it seems, and historically we are proving them right.

Deals are being made right and left, industries that we think stand for one thing are making and benefitting from the deals at the cost of? Everyone from coal miners, clinical labs, and hospitals are the special interest groups winning exemptions from taxes and other cost-cutting measures from the plan that the Senate Finance committee has come up with. Confused? Good, your suppose to be, that is how all of this works.

The United States of America, this great land and society, ranks 37th in the world with its Healthcare system. Which gives us a world ranking of 42nd in life expectancy.

So, what is important? Maybe 50 million Americans without healthcare is acceptable. It is only 18 thousand people that die every year because of complications of being uninsured. I am one of those 18 thousand.

Weird pains

Why am I having these damn pains again? EERRRRRR!

Typical day for a ADD Adult

Want to know how my typical day goes? Take a look …

I decide to wash my car.

As I start toward the garage, I notice that there is mail on the hall table.

I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.

I lay my car keys down on the table, put the junk mail in the trash can under the table, and notice that the trash can is full.

So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the trash first.

But then I think, since I’m going to be near the mailbox when I take out the trash anyway, I may as well pay the bills first.

I take my checkbook off the table, and see that there is only one check left.

My extra checks are in my desk in the study, so I go to my desk where I find the can of Coke that I had been drinking.

I’m going to look for my checks, but first I need to push the Coke aside so that I don’t accidentally knock it over.

I see that the Coke is getting warm, and I decide I should put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.

As I head toward the kitchen with the coke a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye — they need to be watered.

I set the Coke down on the counter, and I discover my reading glasses that I’ve been searching for all morning.

I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I’m going to water the flowers.

I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water and suddenly I spot the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table.

I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I will be looking for the remote, but I won’t remember that it’s on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I’ll water the flowers.

I splash some water on the flowers, but most of it spills on the floor.

So, I set the remote back down on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill.

Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day: the car isn’t washed, the bills aren’t paid, there is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter, the flowers aren’t watered, there is still only one check in my checkbook, I can’t find the remote, I can’t find my glasses, and I don’t remember what I did with the car keys.

Then when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I’m really baffled because I know I was busy all day long, and I’m really tired.

Right Wingers Wreak Havoc on Philadelphia Town Meeting

This whole healthcare reform issue is getting so out of hand, and to be perfectly honest, this is bullshit from all sides. This is an issue that is about our lives and everyone has turned it into a political debate. To such a point, people are screaming at each other in the aisles of our local meeting halls. So many people just need help, they need medications. Is it anyones responsibility to make sure this mothers child lives or dies, or if that senior gets the medication to extend their life? Not even going to touch on the hopeless thought of comfort.

Healthcare has become the latest whipping boy from both the right and the left. What is our (all of us as in society) responsibility to the person next to us? Do we have a responsibility? Or is it our “God-given, inalienable right” to be responsible for no one other then ourselves? This is an issue that is rapidly reaching the normal conclusion we usually find ourselves in. It is not how loud you scream, but how much money you throw at it. Because the simple fact of voting in this country is measured in Benjamin’s not a ballot.

Denise Dennis: Right Wingers Wreak Havoc on Philadelphia Town Meeting: ”

Philadelphia, PA — August 2 – This afternoon, at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, I saw the face of ignorance and hate–and it wasn’t pretty.

When Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius and Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) came to the National Constitution Center to answer questions about health care reform, they were greeted by an overflow crowd of approximately 400 people, the majority of whom were supporters with legitimate questions.

Unfortunately, though, a well-organized, belligerent and loud group of right-wingers stood in the aisles and across the back and disrupted the town meeting throughout. They yelled, shouted and jeered, and it was clear that they were not there to participate, but instead to try to disrupt the meeting and make it difficult as possible for anyone else to ask questions. They jeered from the moment the director of the Constitution Center stood to welcome everyone. For a few days leading up to the town meeting, e-mails circulated around Philadelphia warning that the ‘tea-baggers’ were planning to protest the meeting and, although there were fewer of them than there were supporters–they made more noise shouting about ’socialism,’ ‘abortion,’ and ‘assisted suicide.’

To show their support, the audience stood and applauded Secretary Sebelius and Senator Specter numerous times. There were people in the crowd wearing purple t-shirts with gold and white lettering that said ‘Health Care Now We Can’t Wait.’

Local members of Health Care for America, a non-partisan, nationwide coalition of volunteers were a strong presence at the event. According to Antoinette Kraus, a Pennsylvania Eastern Organizer for the Philadelphia Unemployment Project, one of Health Care for America’s member organizations, ‘Two people a day die in Pennsylvania from illnesses that could have been prevented if they’d had access to affordable health care.

‘We advocate for quality health care for all through a public option,’ she said, ‘and we encouraged all advocates of health care to come out today and support Sect. Sebelius and Senator Specter.’
In spite of the chaos, questions were asked and answers given. In response to one question, Specter said, ‘I believe the single-payer system should be on the table,’ and was enthusiastically applauded. A retired nurse then prefaced her question by saying, ‘If single-payer passes, I’ll come out of retirement!’

When asked why the Community Choice Act (which would cover patients who can be treated at home) wasn’t included in the proposed plan, both Sebelius and Specter explained that they are an effort to put it in the final Senate bill.

When an angry woman approached the microphone and complained that health care reform would lead to ‘rationed care,’ Secretary Sebelius said emphatically, ‘Rationed care is absolutely not something we condone,’ and explained that today health care is ‘rationed everyday for people who do not have coverage.’

To emotionally charged questions about abortion and assisted suicide, Sebelius calmly answered, ‘Abortion and assisted suicide are not a part of the legislation.’

impassioned and frustrated man asked why–if sixty-three percent of the American people favor health care reform–can’t sixty-three percent of the Congress pass the legislation. Specter replied, ‘We are going about it in a democratic way.’

One person described seeing people ‘falling through the cracks everyday’ and asked what can be done about ‘getting insurance for people with serious illnesses.’ Sebelius explained that the proposed health care reform would require ‘no more pre-existing barriers, no more being dropped by insurers when you’re seriously ill, and no more losing coverage when you lose your job.’

Frances Conwell, Philadelphia, was in the audience and supports health care reform and she explained, ‘People say they don’t want to pay for other people, but I say they’re going to pay anyway–they can choose to pay for prevention or for how much it costs us now when people have to go to the emergency room for care.’ She added, ‘I have health care, but I can’t watch other people suffer just because I have coverage. You have to think outside yourself and think about other people.’

Maureen Benzig, retired, who formerly worked at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, said, ‘I would like to see a single-payer system and I was happy to hear Senator Specter say he like it on the table, but I support a public option if we can’t get single payer.’ Benzig described a family member who is a physician and took a year off in order to support single payer. Her own doctors, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania also support single payer.

When I asked one of the belligerents why he and his companions wouldn’t stop shouting so others could speak and be heard, he shouted that it was his right to yell under ‘the first amendment.’ I then asked why he couldn’t respect the first amendment rights of others and he answered by glaring at me and walking away.

After the question and answer segment ended, I asked three of the boisterous opponents of health care why they do not support it and one of them pulled a copy of the Constitution from his hand and waving it, said, ‘Health care is not covered in the Constitution.’ Their arguments were illogical and based on lack of knowledge and an abundance of fear. I commented to them that they were being had, that they were working against their own best interests and they kept waving the Constitution.

The fury and rancor in the faces of the right wingers at the town meeting made it clear that this was not about health care only. It is about fear and raw anger, already inside them, now directed toward the health care debate. They see defeating health care legislation as their opportunity to re-visit the Presidential election.

More on Kathleen Sebelius

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(Via The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com.)

Why do we expect one man to do what everyone in congress can’t

I really wonder why so many have the expectation that our President can or even should fix everything that is broken in this country. Sadly, I believe the reason we do this is because we have loss total faith in all our other leaders. Not to mention that the average American can’t name their congressional leaders, or state and local leaders. We hear about them during election time, and then most just somewhat disappear. These leaders share the lowest approval rating in history right now.

Lets face it, being in Congress is the best scamming job there is. Basically, they get people knocking on their door, loaded with gifts, money, trips, and whatever else just so they can “inform and educate” them on every issue under the sun. Add to that, 100% healthcare coverage (the best on the planet) for life. Not even going to go into everything else (Google it) or we would be here all day, sufficient to say it is ridicules.

How much is it costing to debate healthcare reform? I can’t afford my medications. The medication I need, I can not have, and all I can think about is what did it cost today to debate and do nothing?

Many argue that every person should and need to provide for themselves. Guess it is the logical conclusion of, “Survival of the fittest.” Maybe that is where I am missing it, because we hold so dear our principal of a free market capital system, it is that value I confused with the christian value of helping those who need help. Which one to pick, hum…

My Morning

Putz day

Diabetes SUX!

To be perfectly honest here, I still am at a lost with all this diabetes crap. Seems like when I make some head room all I get is more meds to take and more often. I swear I am getting poked and needled to death with this. Needless to say this is making today a bit of a putz day for me. I really want to get this under control and not let it run my life but it doesn’t seem to care what I want.

Post election depression

Spoke with my mom for a minute today. Wasn’t pretty by any stretch of the imagination. Not going to really say much about it on here, other then I hope everyone out there is having a better day.

Blogging & Work

Now, I realize I have not always been really good at keeping this thing updated as regularly I would like to. Even though I think I have improved somewhat. I am of course ADD as well and I am learning (or re-learning, all in how you look at it) that I have to have everything written down and on a calendar. One thing that has always bothered me about that is no one else I know has to do this. Not nearly to the degree I have to do it. But, I finally realized, I am not like everyone else. That having a calendar that looks like it exploded out of a crayon box is what does work for me and keeps me on track. This has been something that has bugged me for some time, but I just can’t keep thinking about it and just need to do it. All of this has lead me to put everything I do on my calendar with times to write on here as well as my work blog.

My work blog is a place more for clients and potential clients to get to know me as well keep up on trends and email marketing I am doing. Will be listing all of my listings on there as well. It is still in the development stage and hope to have it launched officially within the next couple of weeks.

Not much else to say at this point, please keep posting comments for me. Do love hearing from those that read what I have soap boxed about and such. Trying to add more content about me and the things I do or go through on a daily basis as well.

HUGE NUMBER 176

If your a diabetic, then you know what that number is. If not, that is simply a monster number for me. Because that is my blood sugar number and it has never been below 200 since I started having to monitor my blood sugar.

Do have to say that I haven’t felt this good in awhile. Notice it a lot with my energy and ability to focus. Never thought it would have that impact or that this was one of the reasons I wasn’t getting things done. Lately I have been watching myself much closer and writing down how I feel and when. It is very weird I have to say.