Get the broken medical delivery system off my aching back!

Health Care reform is in the news again. This is one topic that we all need to sit up and pay attention to. There is nothing more important than our health, and there is no doubt that our current medical delivery system is broken. As I write this, I am right in the middle of it, and I can report from direct personal experience that it is, indeed, a mess.

I have a herniated disc in my lower back, and I am in excruciating pain. Even with a specialist MD’s request, it took nearly a month for my insurance company to approve of an MRI needed to accurately diagnose the origin of the problem. And that was with me making daily phone calls being as squeaky a wheel as I could be. I actually had to file an appeal and a grievance to get it done. Even then, no one from the insurance company had the decency to call me. I got a phone call from the MRI center informing me that the procedure had finally been approved.

My insurance company wanted to treat my condition with pain medications. Here’s the thing folks, what insurance and pharmaceutical companies and even some doctors don’t tell you is that pain meds are bad. Pain is good. Pain is your body telling you, “Uh-oh, something’s wrong. Stop, don’t do that!” Cover up pain with medications, and you can do your body more damage. Maybe even permanent damage. My insurance company knows that, but prescriptions are a lot cheaper than surgery. There isn’t a single insurance provider that doesn’t put profit ahead of proper care. That’s a bad thing.

Pain is a symptom. Properly prescribed, pain medications help a patient get relief from the pain until the underlying cause of the pain is corrected. My insurance company was happy to dope me up and send me on my way regardless of the underlying cause. That’s wrong.

Here’s the problem facing our law makers. If the new plan is to be any good at all, there is no way it is going to be a win-win. Actually, considering all the parties involved in this mess, it is more accurate to say that there is no way the new plan is going to be a win-win-win-win-win…. You get my drift. For us to have affordable, universal, and efficient health care, somebody is going to have to take a few hits. What is important is that the plan be a win-win for two groups: the people, and the doctors who treat us.

The doctors are on the front lines. They are the ones whose training and experience we count on to help us. Nevertheless, they have taken a lot of heat for making too much money. As far as I’m concerned, they should make as much money as they can. In consideration of the hard work, discipline, determination, and perseverance pre-meds and interns must develop on their journey to become doctors, they deserve to be well rewarded. Not to mention the brain power, the time (measured in years), and the debt most incur along the way. The system is tough for a reason. It is supposed to weed out the unfit. Is it perfect? No. There are bad doctors. That’s where our responsibility comes in.

As consumers of health care, we Americans are too trusting. We still cling to the “Marcus Welby” image of doctors, and gladly swallow whatever they give us. We forget that they are working in a competitive environment just like any other service provider. We forget that doctors themselves are now completely immersed in a complicated and sometimes irrational web of compensation for their services. More than likely, we blindly and gladly accept whatever health insurance plan our employer has to offer. We are fools to believe that our employer didn’t weigh costs in the determination of which insurance plan to offer. Good companies care about their employees. They offer them good health insurance plans. Not all of us work for good companies. We need to remind ourselves of the number one consumer rule; caveat emptor – buyer beware. As Americans we tend to scrutinize our cell phone and cable TV plans with more vigor than we do the bona fides of the doctor into whose hands we may be placing our very lives. The same goes for the insurance company we are going to rely on to “protect” us from the high costs of medical care.

That brings me to another point. As Americans, we are the fattest and sickest population on the planet. We really should be ashamed of ourselves. After all, if we have control over anything, it what we choose to shove into our mouths. If we Americans were to fully accept responsibility for our own health, and get into shape, we could shrink the health care industry by 50%! Okay, I’ll admit, that’s just a wild guess, but you get my point. More than any grandiose plan, losing a few pounds and exercising our hearts would shrink health care costs tremendously, and we don’t need the government to do a damn thing. To start, it’s as easy as getting off our butts and taking a walk…at lunch, after diner, whenever.

Of course, the truth is, the whole medical-industrial complex doesn’t want that to happen. They stand to loose billions! And of course, that means they will have less money to contribute to their favorite politician’s re-election campaign.

One last component of health care reform needs to be addressed as well. Until we make it as difficult to become a bad attorney as it is to be a bad doctor, frivolous law suits will continue to drive health care costs up. Ask any doctor, and they’ll tell you, that’s where this whole mess started in the first place. Of course, there are so many frivolous lawsuits due to the potential of huge settlements or awards. If the government is hell bent on socializing something in addition to the auto and banking industries, perhaps they should start with the legal aspects of healthcare by requiring arbitration and prescribing set amounts for damages. Of course, these is little chance of that happening due to the fact that most of our elected officials are attorneys themselves.

So, the best way to partake of the health care system, as it is today or will be in the future, is to avoid it as much as possible. Enjoy your walk.

Back Pain

Hello Everybody,

Sorry, no post today. My back pain is really bad, and the meds aren't working. Please tune in tomorrow. Hopefully, I will be better.

Regards,

Preston

Nose Hairs

I promise that as soon as my wife rips out the current crop, I will post a picture. Until then...

Cheers,

Preston

Legalizing Gay marriage supports divorce attorneys

Two things in today’s entry:

One. I have been reading that a good blog should have a central idea or theme that the posts consistently relate to. I confess that’s going to be a tall order for my brain. There is a lot I want to say about a lot of different things. So for the time being, I’m just going to plug away, and see if any particular pattern emerges. In the meantime, bear with me, and enjoy the ride.

Two. The Gay Pride Parade was held this weekend in Los Angeles. So today, I will focus on the hubbub surrounding the issue of gay marriage.

I believe that anybody who wants to get married should be able to. Besides, with fewer straight men and women getting married these days, divorce attorneys need the work.

Seriously, I support Gay marriage. What I find objectionable is all the political drama surrounding it. For Gays and Lesbians, this issue is deeply personal. If we accept discrimination is bad, then Gays & Lesbians should enjoy the same rights as the rest of us. Unfortunately, the emotionality of the issue makes for good news. Like moths drawn to a candle flame, anything that makes for good news seems to draw the attention of those who need…well, some attention.

I don’t think the issue of Gay marriage would be an issue if it were not for two underlying factors: One. It presents the opportunity for certain reactionary groups (read organized religions) who have been steadily losing power in American society, to grandstand and thereby regain some of the spotlight.

When somebody has power, they want to keep it. They want to protect it. They will not give it up without a struggle. It goes against human nature to give up power willingly, and, as the old adage states, desperate men do desperate things.

The same is true of organizations. Organized religions – and the conservative politicians they support - do not have the same clout in the determination of what American culture looks like as they used to. They are not going to go down without a fight.

Suffice it to say with a pro-choice President back in the White House, and a Democratic majority in Congress, the winds of change are a blowin’ - as they always are – but for the short term, in a direction that is clearly unfavorable to the interests of the religious lot. Their base of power is threatened.

More evidence of the political nature of this dispute can be found in Jesus’ own teachings. Those teachings appear to stand in stark contradiction to the position of the religions that claim to represent Him. As an ex-Irish Catholic (I’m still Irish), I have some experience here. If I remember correctly, Jesus taught about acceptance. He asked his flock not to judge thy neighbor, but to tolerate them, and to peacefully co-exist with them. Leave the judging to His Father, Jesus bade us. God would sort the bad ones out at a later time and place.

If Gays and Lesbians are bad, then let the good Lord turn them into pillars of salt on the appointed day. Meanwhile, let our elected officials concentrate on the serious issues they were hired to address. Aha! That leads to factor number two. As Deep Throat said, “follow the money.”

Two. Married folk get a nice tax break. I bet there is a study conducted by some political group somewhere that calculates the tax revenues that will be lost to Federal and State governments if the marriage deduction is extended to Gays and Lesbians. And in these days of economic woe, and diminishing tax revenues, our governments need all the money they can get.

I’m sure the politicians’ thinking goes along stereotypical lines (and now I’m talkin’ about politicians on both sides of the aisle): “Gays and Lesbians have higher educations, double incomes, and no kids. Therefore, Gays and Lesbians have more earnings potential and higher savings rates than heterosexuals. As long as the religious guys can keep this issue whipped up, let’s not give the homos the tax break. We get the money, and the heat falls on the churches. It’s perfect for us! “

So sadly, until the good American people see through the political fog, and recognize the real issues at hand, Gays and Lesbians will be denied the same rights as the rest of us.

Oh yeah, one last thing for the record. I know that not all Gays and Lesbians have higher educations, and that not all Gays and Lesbian couples have double incomes, and that there are Gay and Lesbian couples raising children. And based on the Gays and Lesbians I know, I’m willing to bet that on a statistical level, there are fewer incidents of emotional and physical child abuse in households with Gay or Lesbian parents as there are in homes with heterosexual parents. Any sociology or social work grad students want a research project? There ya go.

I will address the real problems that face the institution of marriage in America today in my next posting. Until then…

Warm regards,

Preston

Welcome to my first blog entry. Obviously, I am new at this. For instance, I just learned that you can't write in Word and paste that content directly in here. Any tips?

The reason(s) I take "pen" in hand will become clear down the road a piece. But first, let me give you a tidbit about myself. If asked to describe myself, the last thing I would say is that I am computer literate. I'm more of a techno-dunce actually. If it doesn't have moving parts, or can't be fixed with a hammer, I'm lost. So, from time to time I'm going to rely on the more experienced readers out there in cyberspace to help me out with the fine points of this blogging thing. There, I'm glad that's cleared up from the get-go.

As a fifty-something-year-old man, I have plenty to write about. I have not been shy about living. Along the way, I made my share of mistakes. Hopefully, I learned from them. Time will tell. Having said that, I'm not pretentious enough to believe that I can teach anything to anybody. I'm not smart enough to have made any original mistakes. Rather, I'm here to share. Sharing feels good. I don't know anybody who doesn't like to talk about themselves. And I love to write, so this whole blogging thing is decidedly self-serving.

Which brings me around to another reason I started this blog; I am currently confined to a zero-gravity chair waiting my employer's health insurance company to approve the back surgery that will - hopefully - allow me to return to my "normal" life. I am very kinesthetic. I like to move. I love to work with my hands. Beyond the pain, this last month of sitting on my slowly spreading keester has been nothing short of pure psychological torture.

In the first few weeks, I downloaded a lot of songs from iTunes. It was fun re-discovering some of those oldies I remember from my childhood (who knew they had the Baja Marimba Band!). But I blew this month's disposable income and had to restrain myself.

I find daytime TV insulting (nightime's not much better). That's one thing that hasn't changed since I was a kid.

I Google Earthed just about every mile of coastline on the planet. In doing so, I added quite a few places to my bucket list.

So, having exhausted my options, here I am. For a brain like mine, writing requires focus, and that helps distract from the pain. I'm not a fan of pain medications. Pain is good. Pain is your body telling you, "Stop! Don't do that, stupid!" Cover pain up with meds, and stubborn numbskulls like myself will hurt themselves even more. "I feel great! Think I'll climb up on the roof and patch that hole before the next storm comes in."

Besides, for me, thinking is like dredging the Santa Monica Bay; sometimes somthing interesting floats to the surface, but most of the time, it's just....well, you know.

With that in mind, I invite you to come back and visit again. See if anything interesting bubbles up.

Best regards,

Preston

BTW: Is it proper to sign off after every post?