Are there other options?

The question is whether Americans really want healthcare reform. I don't know. We are continually told that we do. What the polls have documented, very well, is that we don't want the plans that are currently being debated in congress. I stumbled upon this video discussing some alternatives yesterday. I suppose the point is that it is possible to be in favor of reform and not in favor of increasing the size and spending of the federal government.

New Perspectives on Universal Healthcare

I admit that I have been avoiding sharing my thoughts on healthcare because it is such a divisive issue. But, yesterday, I sat in a dentist’s office waiting room for an hour, reading Newsweek. I have never been exposed to such a load of slanted, untrue nonsense. I wondered whether this was a perspective my dentist espoused or whether he just stuck the magazines in his office without being concerned about what they said. Throughout my life, this would have made me very uneasy about speaking my mind. It’s much easier to preach to those who agree with you. I found myself, however, being very candid in small talk with the dentist, even when it became civilly political. In fact, I still do not know what his position is. But I have realized that I am growing out of being afraid to be who I am.

If I can be straight forward in person, I can certainly be unafraid on the internet. I am extremely secure in my beliefs.

Today, I want to share one more reason why the government plans being put forward will not fulfill the promise of lowering healthcare costs. Do you want to know who usually ends up in my husband’s ER? It’s not poor people without insurance who have neglected their healthcare to the point that they have no choice but emergent care, as the proponents of universal coverage would have you believe.

It’s people on Medicaid.

A very frequent conversation goes something like this:

Doctor: The symptoms are indicative of a viral infection. You will need to stay hydrated and I can give you something to help with the symptoms. But resting and waiting it out are the best treatment options now.

Patient: I was really thinking I need a chest x-ray.

Doctor: It wouldn’t help at all in your situation. If you start suffering from new symptoms, please see your regular doctor, but I am sure a little time will allow your body to heal.

Patient: Just do the x-ray to be sure.

Doctor: Listen, I’m trying to keep your bill down. If I thought an x-ray would show anything, I would order one, but…

Patient: I don’t get a bill. I’m on Medicaid.

You think I’m kidding? My husband hears this ALL the time. I know people who would indiscriminately take their children to the emergency room for ear infections because they did not like the family practice doctors who would take them. There is a reason that ER visits increased in Massachusetts when universal coverage was implemented. I’ll be sharing additional perspectives as they arise.

White Coats and Paid Bills

I don’t pretend to be an uninterested bystander in the health care debate. I admit that, being married to a doctor, this is something that will fundamentally affect everything that happens to my family over the course of our lives. But, I am honest in saying that my opinion in this matter is focused much more directly on what I feel is right, rather than what I want from the situation. I suppose that is why I disagree with all of the propaganda my husband and I have been getting from doctor’s organizations. If you didn’t catch my commentary on the AMA’s position, find it here.

This week we got something from another organization: The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). My husband is a member of this organization. Like the AMA, he was signed up for his affiliation by the residency program he is in. He did not review their policies or endorse their agenda. He hasn’t paid them a dime. But, since he is a member, we get front row seats to the propaganda battle being wages in the United States. Last week, ACEP decided it was time to dispel the myths being dispersed by the proponents of Obama Care. Here are some of the observations they made:

Myth: Emergency medical care is expensive and inefficient. Reducing emergency care will “bend the cost curve” on our nation’s rising health care costs.

The Facts:
• The 120 million annual visits made to emergency departments account for only 3% of all health care spending.
• Emergency departments are equipped with state-of- the-art diagnostic equipment and highly trained physicians who can draw on many hospital resources quickly, providing coordinated, efficient patient care.
• The fixed costs of being open 24/7 are high, but the variable costs for seeing patients in the emergency department are the same as anywhere else care is provided.

Myth: Emergency departments are crowded with patients seeking non-urgent care.

The Facts:
• Only 12.1% of emergency patients have non-urgent conditions that could wait 2 to 24 hours for medical care, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
• Crowded conditions and longer wait times are primarily caused by patients being “boarded,” or forced to stay in the emergency department – often on gurneys lining the hallways - long after they have been seen and admitted to the hospital.

Myth: Your local emergency department will always be there when you need it.

The Facts:
• Hundreds of emergency departments have closed nationwide because of an overburdened emergency care system.
• The nation’s emergency departments must accommodate an average increase of 3 million more patient visits each year.
• Every 60 seconds emergency care is delayed when an ambulance is diverted to a distant hospital because a nearer one is unable to accept more patients.
• Seventy-five percent (75%) of emergency department directors report significant problems getting needed on-call specialists, such as neurosurgeons and orthopedists, to provide vital on-call services to emergency patients.

Myth: The need for emergency care will decrease when health care reform is enacted.

The Facts:
• With a growing and aging population, our role in providing care to the sick and injured any time day or night, and our front line responsibility in responding to natural and man-made disasters, will be in even greater demand.
• Since enacting its universal health care legislation, Massachusetts has experienced an increase in emergency department patients. • Emergency medicine is an essential community service that is vitally important to our nation’s health care system.

WAIT A MINUTE! The whole pitch being made to the American public is based on the idea that poor people without insurance are showing up in the Nation’s Emergency Rooms and costing us tons of money. You mean that’s simply NOT TRUE? You want to know another fact? It is a fact that studies have shown there is no discernible difference in the health of the insured vs. the uninsured.

Here’s the disturbing part. Following these facts, ACEP says that they support a government option. Why? It will cost us more, take away from physician autonomy and not help in the things everyone keeps promising, according to your own facts. Well. I suppose that if everyone had insurance, more Emergency bills would be paid (at least theoretically).

Huh.

So are the physician proponents of Government Healthcare the ones who care? Or are they part of big business and propaganda like those grassroots physicians assembled at the White House yesterday?

Hilarious!!

This is hilarious. I mean, it's sad that they are painting it as bad that the president hasn't done more of his socialist agenda. I, personally, think he has done MORE than enough. It's funny, though. And I LOVE funny. Have a wonderful day and remember that there is always good news to accompany the bad.

Wait a minute...Did I hear you right?

Keep reading...Keep questioning

Not being all that interested in who will host the 2016 Olympic games, the title that caught my attention this morning was, "H1N1 Kills Moms-to-Be." I clicked on it and read the headline, "CDC: Nearly 1 in 3 Pregnant Women who contracted H1N1 Have Died in U.S."

I was shocked! This strain has a lower mortality rate than the regular flu. Why in the world would it kill one third of pregnant women who contracted it? Perhaps there is a reason to freak out about this after all? But, I wondered, what in the world would make it so much more deadly to pregnant women when it's not dangerous to the elderly? I read on...

“'Since the virus was first recognized in late April, early May, 100 pregnant women across the country have been hospitalized due to the novel H1N1 flu and 28 have died,' Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention told FOXNews.com."

Oh no!

Wait a minute...It said this was among women "hospitalized" with the disease. How many women didn't bother to get treatment for their mild flu? How many were treated and released? How many were hospitalized with the flu, but were not given the expensive and often superfluous tests to determine exactly which strain they were suffering from. Could it be that the headline was a bold faced lie? There is a huge difference between the number contracting the disease and the number hospitalized with it. And, let's face it, these morbid conclusions come from a pretty small sample size.

Huh.

I guess you really shouldn't trust anyone. I should note that I went back to the website later and found that the wording had been amended. But, the point of this post is that you should always check for yourself facts that seem unbelievable. There's a good chance they're simply not true.

Against Isolationism

What happens when too many people decide to mind their own business? Let's be a community again. Let's depend on people to care about people instead of trying outsource it all to the government.

 

What???

Okay, listen, in any argument about being safe and taken care of or being free, I will side with freedom every time. I believe that you should not silence people, and in a free marketplace of ideas, the best in people will inevitably come out. But I was shocked to learn that today the Empire State Building will be lit up red in honor of the 60th anniversary of the Communist take over in China. Seriously? Is this a joke? Now, I absolutely believe that it is the right of the building's managers to honor whatever the heck they want. I do not think the government should tell them they are not allowed to honor the communists.But, as I have said before, freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences. Every freedom-loving American ought to be furiously speaking out against this idiocy. We're allowed to because we don't live in China. Since when did politically correct tolerance of tyranny trump common sense?

To Quote from a Fox News Article, "During one five-year period alone, the Great Famine of 1958-1962, 36 million Chinese are believed to have starved as a result of Mao's Great Leap Forward, a government policy meant to industrialize the nation.

"During those years of ruin, peasants ate bark, maggots, bird droppings, human flesh — anything to survive — as government storehouses stood full with grain and other cereals, neither the first nor last in China's troubled line of violations of human rights."

It's very ironic that the people in this country are using their free speech to celebrate a place where people don't have any.

God Bless America--But it is up to us to preserve her.

Cash for Nothing

I don't have much time to write today, but I just heard a few interesting statistics I heard on the Dave Ramsey program.

-Most people who bought new cars are paying for them by paying less on their credit card bills.

-Among "cash for clunkers" buyers, buyer's remorse is double what it is among regular car buyers.(Likely because many buyers couldn't afford to buy even with the rebate.)

-Cash for clunkers has INCREASED gas usage. The study shows that people tend to drive newer cars more, meaning the saving of gas mileage didn't matter.

This doesn't take into account other observations dealing with the economy. This ignores the current sales slump that may last for years because everyone who would have bought in the future won't be buying anymore. This also ignores the fact that so many good used cars will now be unavailable for the market because they're squished up. This doesn't consider the ballooning deficit indentured servitude of our children for generations to come because of idiotic government spending.

huh

Allow me to quote Dave, "Quit trying to fix things and leave us alone."

Why??

I have been reading reports that the swine flu vaccine is going to be rationed closely. There are five groups that will be allowed to get the flu shot and the rest will have to wait until it is determined that there is enough for the general population. Those having priority are:

-- Pregnant women
-- Health care workers and emergency medical responders
-- People caring for infants under 6 months of age
-- Children and young adults from 6 months to 24 years
-- People aged 25 to 64 years with underlying medical conditions (e.g. asthma, diabetes)

I can’t be the only one wondering why college kids are getting this shot before the elderly. Please understand that everyone in my family fits into the high priority group (except me). I am not even sure I want to give my children the vaccine, after what happened the last time. I will have to do more research on it before I decide. Every year 36,000 people die from the flu and most of them are the elderly. I wondered if it was a safety issue. But, certainly if this shot is safe for a fetus, it’s been properly tested. There are some news outlets indicating that the elderly simply aren’t at risk from this disease. Indeed, the government explained its decision this way:

“Based on what we know now about the novel H1N1 virus and the most vulnerable groups that are being affected most by this virus and those most likely to encounter it —younger people, pregnant women, healthcare personnel, and people who have underlying health conditions—it is necessary to revise and refine our vaccine prioritization guidance based on real world events.”

By this, we are supposed to conclude that a 65 year old with heart disease is LESS likely to suffer complications from the swine flu than a 64 year old with heart disease. You see, seniors with underlying medical conditions are excluded from the flu shot, unlike those in their 20s-50s with the same conditions.

Are we devaluing human life? Are we rationing health care by prudency? I hope not.

You see, today something else happened that intrigued me. The local radio station was inviting people who “go overboard with their pets” to call in and tell their stories. There were tales of doggy day care with snacks and naptime. There were doggy birthday parties with cakes and doggy neighbors (and, no doubt, doggy friends from doggy day care), There were tales of owners requiring doggy hospitals to provide the dogs with television sets and iced drinks. Meanwhile, Newsweek Magazine’s cover this week featured an article called, “The Case for Killing Granny.” Huh.

The words of people much smarter than me: relationships

What are we missing in this world? What has changed since the days when my grandmother was growing up? Don't get me wrong. I am forever grateful to live in a world with technology, which provides access to information and education like never before. I believe that truth is light and learning is the key to both. I love being able to answer any question my children have, because I can look it up in seconds. People cannot be kept ignorant in a world where anyone can be a researcher. More importantly, I am grateful to live in a world with the advanced medical knowledge we have. The illnesses which may have taken my children's lives a few decades ago, barely keep them home from school today. We have so much, so many tools to fight the slavery that ignorance brings. But it seems to me that some of the most fundamental truths have been forgotten in our push to be smarter, faster, better. Why are so many of us unhappy in this miraculous world? We don't have to be. When you leave behind the slavery of ignorance of the academic, do not embrace the slavery of ignorance of how to be happy.