Alan Grayson Tells it Like it Is! Pap on the Healthcare Debate
Ring of Fire's Mike Papantonio may be one of the only couple of good things left on Air America these days, and here Pap Attacks the health insurance corporations with the help of Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla,) who is so refreshingly logical that he makes me want to cry.
Why is it so hard for Americans to get their minds around the concept of shaking up a corrupt industry in order to help our neighbors stay healthy and alive? How could we have gotten to a point where we are more interested in protecting huge corporations and when did we decide that we would prefer these same corporations to be in our lives and running our health care into the ground while stealing us blind?
It must be that people are just bamboozled by the lobby's doublespeak...it has to be that people think they are saving on taxes or something, and cant see that in the big picture there will be savings all around. But, honestly, if that is really what its about, then there is something wrong with America. All of the religious folks out there who feel like they do their duty by going to church on Sunday or Temple on Saturday or Mosque whenever, have to reassess what is important in their lives. We cant just let people be sick and die, some 44,000 per year, so that we can have a tax break. No one is more deserving than anyone else; we all rely on luck in this country, and every one of us stands, in some way, on the shoulders of the person who went before us and who stands beside us.
To learn more about Grayson's background listen to part 2. This is a guy with the kind of prior experience to be a profound force in the progressive movement, and hopefully an important player in higher office. What has he done to block fraudulent contractors from receiving funds via contracts from our government and What do we need to do to effect real change? Grayson explains it all here:
h/t to Go Left TV for bringing us video coverage of many of the high points of the debate out there. Go there and subscribe to their feed!
Matt Taibbi's Last Appearance on Morning Joe...Also, Did Congress Sabotage Any Chance at a Public Option?
As reported by blogger D-Day, the fireworks were bright over in Starbucks-land this morning.
"Excuse me, but if America is so bad, why is it that if I got sick or one of my loved one's got sick, well America is the best....?" best, best, best? That was Maria Bartiromo on Morning Joe, arguing with Matt Tiabbi about the health insurance issue. What she didn't say is that she has great health insurance as an anchor at CNBC and so has everything that American medicine can offer available to her. And, its worth mentioning, as she spews out verbatim talking points, that she also is married to the very rich son of an investor, CEO of an investment services company, known as the "reinventor of the index fund," a company that specializes in exchange traded funds; (... supposedly a vehicle which holds certain stock and bonds, much like a bundled mass of crap, but what do I know? Supposedly these ETF's have the value of whats inside, but then so does everything have an underlying value and a possible value depending on the market...isnt it all gambling on what the value will or won't be?) which he designed himself, and Ms. maria never really has to worry or work a day in her life. Its easy to have total confidence in the American system when you are a have.
The fact that Bartiromo has such a glaring conflict in her financial reporting is something that I have never heard stated on NBC, and I'm an avid NBC viewer. Now that I've looked at the research, I have to say that I cant imagine why NBC would allow this to go on without constant disclosures, considering her stock holdings and lack of transparency while interviewing the titans of industry. She sure has a big opinion, even if it was written by the wingnuttia out there who float the talking points these days. When faced with actual figures she is comfortable stating that she just doesn't buy them because they include illegal aliens. Huh?...there are so many things I could say to that but maybe its best to just let it swelter, like a fine wine...
The great part always in all of this muck is that Taibbi has so many clear facts that he didn't need to pull the conflict of interest card, the talking points card, or the screeching over the other person card; he is unflappable, and just keeps coming with those facts. I think that's why the wingnuts are in such a ruffle over him and how he is merely a "hack." The truth, apparently, hurts.
Tweeted thusly by Morning Joe hisself:
Video: Taibbi: Health care 'can't be fixed': Aug. 20: Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi joins Morning Joe to discuss h.. http://bit.ly/3lJNUsabout 4 hours ago from twitterfeed"
Maria Bartiromo isn't a very smart person. She just tried to tell Matt Taibbi on Morning Joe that America has the best healthcare system in the world because people from other nations come here for procedures.
I feel like someone went to the mat for me and all I got was this lousy tweet! Hah!
Taibbi thinks a deal was cut from the beginning between the White House and the insurance and pharmaceutical industries and that they never intended to have a public option.
And without that the dems are not going to vote for it at all.
Taibbi breaks down the five steps Congress took to be sure no bill would pass — aiming low, gutting the public option, packing it with loopholes, providing no leadership and blowing the math — in his story, which is available on stands now. In a series of video interviews for RollingStone.com, Taibbi explores one of our system’s most severe flaws, explains how the government wedged itself into an awkwardly damning position, and looks at how the proposed bill would change the ordinary American’s life
Even a child could understand Taibbi, in these videos, explaining the situation and the obviously sensible solution. Unfortunately, the government here is run by the Insurance Industry, and the lobbyists have an army of armed, disgruntled, fringe whack-jobs out there to make sure that we don't even discuss our options. We seem to need total collapse of any particular system before we seriously look at any reality...and even then...the light of truth is just a little bright for most Americans, clutching their remote controls and chips.
Meanwhile, back here on the ground, Maria can get all the healthcare she wants or needs, so can Morning Joe and the CEO of Starbucks...but millions of Americans remain uninsured or underinsured, and its unclear what the answer will be for the rest of us in the free market; Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.... Just go here and watch the videos...and buy the new Rolling Stone! Its one of the few magazines worth having in your hands these days!
Move over boys; there's a new girl in town, and shes speaking truth to idiocy in the citadel of the main $cream media! Congratulations to Rachel Maddow and especially to...um...US, the American people, for her superb performance today on Meet the Press. To have an intelligent, liberal voice speaking for us in that old white men's forum is huge, and looking around the channels this morning, it seemed that those uptight white guys who run the show were especially pale today, and Monica Crowley seemed to be more of a joke than usual as the token whatever she is...idiot! Even old Eleanor, trying to shout down Uncle Pat on McLaughlin, couldn't hold up in the blinding light of what is surely Maddow's rising star.
More important is that Maddow is the real deal. She is a true-crime-glossy politics geek, who is not afraid to speak the truth and can hold her own beautifully against anyone and anything that the smartest wonk could come up with. For those of us who have followed Maddow since the late great Unfiltered in the beginnings of Air America Radio, this comes as no surprise. How long could they resist with the way the numbers in this country are actually going? After Tucker made the incredibly brave and misguided mistake of casting her against himself, thus showing how stupid he is, I actually wrote a letter to NY Magazine about how great Maddow is and it was published! I cant remember what I said but it was about how horrible Tucker is but that it was a ballsy choice. God, what a choice it was, on so many levels; and I do think that Tucker was mainly inside of his own bloated head in not realizing that he could only look bad up against her.... Cue Willie Geist, frat brother turned "producer" turned asshole pundit.
The troubling thing is that in the face of the incredible lies being spun by the fringy right, its taken this long for MSNBC to allow Rachel the chance to go head to head with the roulette wheel of wingnuts being give free reign across the airwaves. The troubling thing is that any insane theory can be floated and the closest we've gotten to a voice of reason, besides the one profitable show, also the one island of sane, Keith Olbermann, is Chris Matthews "playing hard ball." It may make for "good" TV to have the likes of Michelle Malkin slither back with her odd predictions and her pouty mouth, or Uncle Pat spouting racism and insanity, but at a point its like shooting fish in a barrel and there is no excuse to keep Olbermann out there on his own, like hes some angry old guy reciting Murrow lines. Also, they never let Olbermann go up against the likes of these morning show regulars.
The problem is that the media looks for the elements of the story and presents it in a way that doesn't look for truth, but rather draws a simple picture that will be palatable to a wide ranging audience and advertisers. As in the health care debacle, there is a conflict so deep in the media being run by large corporate interests with their first responsibility, by law, being to their shareholders and ultimately the bottom line. But also, there is the obvious slant of entire stations towards their CEO and "owner's" political bent.
That's why its pretty funny that as the numbers don't lie, and the tide is turning, the corporate interest must be served, and there is no way that they can get around the fact that has been pointed out to America by none other than Maddow's biggest champion, Keith Olbermann; we are in the presence of a real star. As much as this must stick in the craw of every firmly entrenched media slouch out there, there is a new level of excellence out there and it goes beyond gender and a million other reasons why America might not accept Maddow as a voice of authority. But the overriding element here seems to be trustworthiness, truth and reason, all of which Maddow wields beautifully in the face of some formidable characters.
Her level of comfort with her subject gives her an ease with the camera and her surroundings, as if she was born to do this. Her humor cuts the thick air of threats being heaped upon the American people right now and allows us to think what we've been thinking, which is that things are very, very wrong out there. The words of those who would call anyone who dissents unamerican, dissolve in her bemused smile and the shake of her head, as if she is dealing with children.
Surely she had on her serious face this morning, under the spectre of being pitted against the wingnut from the land of wingnuttia, Dick Armey. David Gregory, notable only in his ability to cut the conversation off, and almost protecting Armey from himself and Maddow, was as annoying as his tweets about his hair and suits tend to be, and frail enough at hard reporting to do Tim Russert proud in the chair of the softball show of all times; the platform for McCain and his friends to run wild, and the show that will put it in writing that they wont ask you about the hookers and blow if you'll just come on! Are there any reporters out there who want to report the truth? If the fantastic claims of the wingnuts make good TV, is it still a sin to give the people what they want, even if it kills some unsuspecting fools who thought it was OK to go to a town meeting with their representatives, or ask for health care...? Isn't there a way to let these folks air their insanity in full and then allow a Rachel Maddow to hammer them until they have to answer, or start with that old chestnut, "youre badggering me, and I cant answer any questions when Im being badgered!"
The media is as complicit in the past 8 years as Cheney and the blind American public are. And now we are somehow supposed to be patient and not appear to be pushing things through too quickly, as Obama seemingly drags his feet on some very important issues; some life or death issues for alot of people. Healthcare is the issue here, as we all know, and the claims are so stupendous as to be the stuff of Soylent Green and The Island, among others. Sure, its easier to read the talking points and to jump on board than it is to read the bill and do the research and listen to both sides. The dumbing down of the educational system has worked, but its not just that, it's that we are lazy when it comes to running our lives; we want it all on credit and we are willing to give away the country so as to hang on to more precious cash per year, even if we pay more on the other side to the doctors and insurance companies; just so long as we don't have to look at the balance sheet; just so long as we don't have to feel like the poor folks downtown are taking part of our paycheck. And all of this has been supported by a corporate media that has to answer to the advertisers and the shareholders. What's wrong with this picture?
Is the addition of Rachel Maddow to the Sunday lineup a good sign, or is it desperation by a corporation that has been forced by the numbers into doing something that it really doesn't want to do? Time will tell, and I predict that Rachel will have that seat if she wants it, or any other position at that claptrap "news station." We owe a debt of gratitude to Olbermann for his key role in using his numbers to give a hand up to another sane voice in the wilderness. The fact that he has those numbers have been looked at as some anomoly, or we would have seen this type of programming explode...change is slow, but its coming....
You will, no doubt, see the videos of her fantastic smack down of Dick Armey (posted below, and here is the transcript.) The question that I have is why is this guy in the government, and why, even if he was elected by some stupid-heads, does he deserve a forum to spin his tales? Maddow has shown great restraint and has given these matters all serious consideration, and manages to address the concerns of the denizens of wingnuttia seriously rather than spitting her coffee all over them in hilarity, while Armey hems and haws, and blocks and weaves, changing the subject every time Maddow strikes near a nerve, with Gregory cutting off the real hammering questions necessary in these matters. So Armey walks away never having to admit the truth or answer a question in a straightforward manner, and MSNBC has its great TV, and around we go; and who is hurt by this? Why, of course, its the American people who sorely need some sort of true north in this debate. They want to be told about it because they don't want to have to read 1500 pages, (of 4 or 5 lines to a page, but still understandable, I guess,) but there is no one to trust anymore in this game.
My suggestion is to try to pick out what sounds totally off the wall and use your minds, as Olbermann said, to think about this. If you're still unsure then read about it, at least, from some reputable sources; multiple sources. And if you're still unsure then read the freakin' bill!
Here in long version, is a clip from today...check it out because it really is some good TV, and stay for the truthful information that Maddow is trying to tease out of the pompous asses surrounding her. I hope to see alot more of this sort of thing...the truth, I hear, is in style right now....
I've been listening to stories of desperate wingnuts, working for insurance lobbyists, disrupting town halls held by our representatives who are returning home to speak with their constituents...One story reports attacks so aggressive that a certain senator had to be escorted out of the meeting in his own state! My God, when will the American people tell these corporations that they have no audience? When will we just say no? Can we not even have our own local meeting without outside interests importing people to disrupt our communication with our representatives?
Keith Olbermann is back. Its unclear how long he is actually back for or if MSNBC would be crazy enough to get rid of him, but he named O'Reilly the second worst woman in the world for a bald faced lie that he caught him in on tape, and then proceeded to pass on this very real information. There is an election next year, and if its preferable for you to have Corporate America in your business and controlling your life, then just keep electing these people. If you've had enough, start taking names and planning on who should go; that's a bipartisan suggestion.
Remember, those of you who are bristling against a government being too involved in your life, the insurance companies have all of your information and they are selling it to their closest partners if you don't read the tiny print and fill out a form and get it back to them! Any claim that sounds insane, such as that under the government plan, which is merely a choice, we have to decide how we want to die and when we have to die, is not true....if it sounds crazy, its likely not true. Read the bill people...its important enough to take the time and at least skip around in it...read it here. The let your representatives know what you want, and let them know that the lobbyists that are giving them huge donations must stop with their guerrilla tactics! It has to stop NOW!
Joe Lieberman; Liar for the Ages, Speaks on Single Payer Health Care....
Why oh why did I let myself start this? It was only a matter of time, if I sat here long enough that something about Joementum Lieberman was gonna come flying at me in such an infuriating manner as to shut down all other activity and force me to...rant! Here ya go: I was innocently on Talking Points Memo lifting the picture in the post below, of Al Franken's senate plaque, (which will become, I'm sure, a tourist attraction immediately, Just like the Ethics Office plaque!) when I saw this little bit of film from my Jr senator, Joe:
Isn't he brave to stand against the public option, alone in the wind? Isn't he a real mensch? Well, considering that old Joe is only in office due to a platform of lies and a twisting of the ticket, which should be made illegal if it isn't already (they were working on it last I heard,) CT was the capital of insurance in the country, and it used to be that you couldn't spit an miss an insurance agent willing to sell you some great low cost health insurance.
Then somehow, a couple of huge corporations began gobbling up the small private insurance agencies, and then suddenly they all decided in lockstep, not to write any policies at all for individuals. The next step was to create the Husky program for children in the state; a program that Joe and his buddy in war, Chris Shays, took great pride in...except that...oohh...there are very, very few providers in the southern half of the state. Reimbursement is so low, and oversight and paperwork are so overbearing, that there are very few providers for children here. Of course, the hospitals have deals with Husky and they also have the infrastructure to handle the billing, so, many low income people were forced into emergency rooms and clinics.
At a certain point, recently, actually, a company named Charter Oak came into the picture as an entity created by the state to oversee providers of a Husky like program for adults who are also unable to get health insurance. The problem there is that not only has Charter Oak taken over Husky, (it was previously outsourced, of course, with many problems,) There are no providers who will take this insurance; even the hospitals are wary.
There is a law on the books that doesn't allow any insurance company to deny private insurance to any individual due to preexisting conditions, and I realized that at a point that private insurance had crept back into Connecticut, so maybe I should check it out. But, here's the rub, they can legally deny you insurance if there is a state run plan available to you, regardless of if the plan has any doctors that take it. So the creation of the Charter Oak entity ensured that none of us could actually get insurance written for us by an agency that has providers!
The Governor has taken some flak for this, of course, and its a work in progress. If they just took the Medicare reimbursement model, but made different levels of payment depending on your income, it could be a viable option. But they won't do that it because they want to make deals with large insurance companies and drug companies themselves! When Joe Lieberman opens his mouth to say anything about insurance, he is likely to start patting his own back for being the first state to offer health insurance to all of its children.
The truth of that is pretty disgusting; a middle class income means that each child's insurance costs $195 per month. There are two huge practices with long waits and waiting rooms full of children of color, that accept the Husky program. Husky A is for the very poor, and Husky B is for the middle class and up. The closest heart specialist who takes Husky is 2+ hours away by car (if you have a car and money for gas.) A surgery on my son's legs took 1.5 years to have approved, and then was canceled on the evening before surgery when they realized that only the surgeon was approved but not the operating room!
My family pays cash for 90% of our health care, and around here if you don't have someone helping you out, or unlimited funds in the face of medical problems, you can just kiss your health or the rest of what you've built all these years, goodbye. If we were to get someone like our long term child psychologist involved, he would have to accept payment of $15 per session. He has been down that path and would prefer to see a few patients pro bono than to deal with this bureaucracy!
A pediatrician gets $19 per visit and for they they are accountable for every drug, and liable if anything goes wrong. And on top of that they are overseen by boards of nurses and "experts." The insurance companies, like Blue Cross and Blue Shield, create arms specifically for this program, so we had Blue Care Family Plan, which was Blue Cross and Blue Shield of CT, but with no providers and totally different standards for us as opposed to their corporate clients. This is how bad it's gotten: Blue Care Family Plan jumped ship because Charter Oak took over and they felt like the oversight of Charter Oak would limit them in some way. There is a profit to turn here, because Atena just created an arm for this program and signed on.
But that's not even what sprung to mind when Joementum, all wind-blown and handsome, jumped off the screen at me with his wisdom! No, its his wife, Hadassah, who is a well known big pharma lobbyist, and more recently was a consultant to Hill and Knowlton , PR firm to the unlovable and questionable, with clients such as the big tobacco firms , among others, who hired H&K to counteract the fact that smoking is hazardous to your health! These are bad people, and as much as Joe has been slaving away for the big payoff job that he should be getting from friends of Bush when he is voted out, (and he will go bye-bye, considering that he hardly has a supporter left in this state after what he did,) Hadassah has been slaving harder. Lets just say that I wouldn't worry about their retirement nest egg.
Can you say conflict of interest? Joe Lieberman should recuse himself from any talk of health care or drug coverage, and yet, he jumps right in the middle of it. And why does Joe do anything? Well, because HE knows whats best for the people of CT, and the people of America, experts and consultants be damned...he knows. Who does that sound like to you? Oh yes, George Bush, our previous president and idiot in chief!
So, If Joe Lieberman is talking about Medicare part D being a great blueprint for anything besides toilet paper, ask your local pharmacist how old or lower income people with catastrophic illness pay for their drugs when they hit the donut hole suddenly? Why is it that the most needy people in this country, with catastrophic illness requiring sometimes thousands of dollars of medications per month, are the ones suddenly hit with a bill for the pills that could mean the difference for them between life and death? Ask the pharmacist what happens, especially now that the credit card companies have turned on the people, and cut down everyone's credit limits and raised their minimum payments and interest rates?
He is worried that we are not going to have fair competition between insurance companies? That's what hes worried about? There is no competition at all. Not only can the government no negotiate with big pharma on the large amounts of drugs that they are buying but the general reimbursement prices are fixed anyway, and the insurance companies are paying their CEO's record bonuses, as they rake in dollars earned by scrambling their own drug lists and insisting that patients take older drugs that are...oh, let me see...recently I heard a referral to something that was actually speed. Its cheap and it kills!...but just so long as the CEO gets his payout!
That's what Joe is about when he speaks out as Representative of the minority of Americans who don't want a single payer health plan. He is for corporations that have more money than they know what to do with; He is for the big consulting fees that his wife gets from those very companies (and strangely, its hard to figure out where shes working these days,) and he is really about who owes him what, and when the payoff comes; because heaven knows, Joe has been bought and sold so many times, they cant even scrape the price tags off his back! Remember, this was one of the only few guys next to Bush himself and Barney the dog who thought that Iraq was going great and that we had to stay there till victory or bust!
This is disgusting, and all i can say as a resident of this state is that I wish Joe would shut the fuck up until we can vote him out!
..Where as Jon Bon Jovi played Central Park, just out the window; "its my life...now or never..." wafting through the hot apartment here, the hard work of life and death was being folded over and decided upon like a napkin tossed to the side in any sidewalk cafe up here on the new gold coast. Not so many days...oh maybe a week or 3 ago, wasn't I planning my little silly trip to Austin and the Netroots Nation? Us girls going to blog in our little world of the in-crowd of our own device? Our beautiful writerly posse looking at the entourages float by with a new sort of pop star leading the way, and us just looking; trying not to laugh.... But then, it seems like each step of this thing has played out at its own speed. I am not the boss here. I follow the powers of a secret medical schedule, ancient yet somehow strong internal organs, dramas unfolding as equipment and supplies slowly come and go with the tides, and the very delicate nature of the line between life and death controls the days and nights in these halls and rooms full of my childhood. I can vaguely hear in the background the leaping and chirping of those who want to say "Me too! My life too! 70 years of it!" like a buzzing fly from a long time ago, sitting in court eating apricots...but no, this is my story and these are my ideas of how a family, much less a society, should run. So, I will hear no more of all that...no more...
No sooner had I touched down at the Rooster Ranch, Wednesday before last, or before that as days blend into weeks, having left laundry and all that silly straightening up nonsense for my glorious days sans kids to get all that stuff done, when I got a call from my grandpa's doorman that he had fallen in his kitchen and was being taken to the hospital. I guess I was bringing Ben to an appointment when the call came in, so I talked to the ambulance driver, my grandpa who was being wheeled past apparently, and figured out where he was going and dumped Ben off, called Mom to pick him up, and jumped on the highway to the city.... the rest is part of the ongoing story that this time unfolded from St Luke's, the very nice cardiac wing part of the scary horrible downtown Roosevelt emergency room, where we spent quite a few hours deep into the night that first night....
This is just part of life when you're 98, and the details don't really make much of a difference except that it gets a little more real and alarming every time we find ourselves crammed into a spoke in another triage-in-the-round, with too many beds on wheels close together and lots of doctors discussing quietly in the middle of the wheel what the disposition of each spoke will be....I could almost grab and hug those scruffy guys from the relief; on duty too long and digesting alot of information very quickly, they take the time, explain whats happening, and then disappear around the wheel again.
So with him finally ensconced in an elite specific department, 70 or so blocks north, I had been able to actually sit for moments at a time and try to get through the pieces of the NY Times that I'd been carrying around and get some of this down.... To that end, I'd been hauling my laptop envisioning throwing up a post or two on the go. All I ended up with was bits and pieces and some long parts that I am still trying to beat into shape somehow. Honestly, Ive spent more time staring at people magazine and on the phone than being productive at all.
That's always hard for me, because there is just-so-much-to-do, between 2 households, family drama and whats going on with the man... and if I'm not jumping up every few minutes, I'm trying to sort the receipts so as to account for one place or another and to keep up with my bank, and also, as always when I interact so much with the system, the real lives being lived by the people who care for the sick and elderly in this country take me over. This guy, my granddad, is not so much sick as he is old, and as much as we overlook this population, they are us; not the Christian charity of the beggar in the street us, but the flesh and blood of where we will definitely be one day whether we turn away from it now or not, us. Never have I seen this with as much clarity as I do now.
This fall, a day on the floor with the I've-fallen-and-cant-get-up button left on the bedside table, heart attack, pneumonia, whatever, has been a serious occurrence in our lives that has incapacitated not only the faller, but the one-who-brings-the-groceries, (and other stuff as necessary.) I see alot of denial around me about the reality of this thing and what it could have been, almost was, and is. But grandpa and I keep looking at each other and exclaiming about how bad this is, because we've been through this together a few times already and we have what to compare it to. The confusion that the hospital causes in the elderly, not to mention the young at this point, is really hard to handle, and my aunt, accidentally in town this time, took the opportunity to manipulate words and take seriously what he thought he was saying to me...lets just say it was a battle that I didn't deserve after all of these years. Not that it wasn't expected.
For the first week I kept thinking that at least this happened before Netroots Nation in Austin, because if I could possibly get everyone situated, I may have been able to actually go forth without that familiar nagging lil' what-would-I-do-IF, scenario playing out. I love the thought of Grandpa having a couple of nurses trading shifts and keeping him company, such as that is. It's really, really hard to be this old and to remain so sharp and aware. Its really hard to be someone who was always so independent and to have the decline play out in slo-mo to a clear head....and its very hard for me to witness up close the very physicality and resultant disappointment of it all.
But, we are finite, and there is a reality to all of this that is inescapable. This lump of flesh and all that we hold on to is the same natural matter that the woods envelope and suck down each time a tree falls or an animal dies... in my woods where somehow the questions of heaven and hell don't matter much because nature just makes sense on a very basic level.
I suppose that the real deal of the experience of who you have been, how you have made amends for your trespasses, and how you have contributed to this rotting culture, may be all that matters ultimately. What becomes of the complaints and broken hearts of this world? What about wrongs and crimes committed by masters of war? Their names are uttered throughout our brief history to be forgotten except by a few historians, whatever that will look like, in some future world with a different history that matters, or maybe it'll all be just spun into the sun when this place is done.
But here and now, for whatever its worth, what of the fringe of society next to us in the rolling bed, waiting for a pain shot for his sickle cell, all defiant and crude?... or the other side crying after some altercation, with the cops leading her around? Tattoos and flabby stomach, her tired puffy face having seen better days. My Mom would have listened and figured out everyone's story there, but I was weary and lonely under the huge responsibility and the task ahead. I could hardly look at what had become of grandpa, tiny there in that bed after a day on the kitchen floor.
I just kept thinking "Isn't our strength as a society measured by how these exact people are treated? How can we even know who they might have been when they have already been treated so badly that all that's left is their anger, and then the returned anger from the nurses and doctors who have heard this story over and over and are tired as shit, but somehow have to maintain professionalism? How can you love and serve that? The same old guy that is my grandfather there is also looked at as a 98 year old with no mind, to be handled as such...and even in good shape sometimes confused.
The burn speed of any of us seems to be directly attributable to how much real change we can effect in people's lives and how much support we get from those around us; even a boss, family member, co-worker, or our government caring rather than putting up roadblocks.
Tied hands in the face of swarms of the needy, in a corporate America with a bottom line to meet, brings to light the reality that treating the masses and preventative care costs too much if not subsidized somehow more than is currently acceptable in this society. At the same time an uninsured population can cause corporate failure, so in order to stay in business, if that's what medicine is to be reduced to, a certain clientele must be attracted; one with certain profitable diseases and good insurance. ...well, not even that happens in a bubble and it takes some very special people with a keen interest in bodily fluids and all that entails, to wake each day ready to go out there and help people; all people, regardless of their ability to pay. Though upstairs somewhere, the calculators in the corporate office cant help but drive the agenda and push back just a little at the practitioners, making it just a little harder to get a test or a service...just a little more paperwork and time...just a few more hoops to jump through.
The only good part about this thing has been that I have met some pretty fabulous and dedicated people who are changing lives every day in profound ways. These are people who should be leading our medical establishment rather than struggling to make ends meet and hoping that their own health insurance isn't changed again so that they can't see even their own doctors.
Here we are in the supposed richest country in the world, in the most fantastic city ever, surrounded by tourists, and families documenting every step and breath of the memories that they create on vacations, in weddings and anniversaries...because that kind of white-wedding-American-happiness leading to the big forever-maybe is what we are all entitled to in this greatest country in the universe and beyond! Whoever said that it was going to be rose gardens and a yearly trip to Disney? I know that story. I've seen American Beauty just like the next Sam Mendes fan, and I never aspired to anything close to Disney or even an outside cabin on the cruise. The thing is that maybe if we can't get the house, we can make it to Disney or NYC to create those American memories. But does that make up for the loss of lifetime security that the crumbling American dream has left us with? I suppose that we can look to our photo albums and videos in our old age, but where will we be when we're clutching those few relics left over from a life of trying to make it OK by continuing the pattern without having the foundation from which to support it all? This is what I call the "shiny, shiny!" distraction method, where the fireworks go off at the magic Kingdom at the stroke of it's-too-f'ing-late-to-secure-your-retirement time. In other words, all the big vacations and weddings in the world amount to nothing when you're old in a state run home.
I guess that I've found that ultimately the things that matter the most are the little day to day experiences that make up our lives rather than the grand experiences that we've been told are necessary to make us whole. I wasn't raised to want that wedding or much of anything actually, and yes, my happiness tends to spark around funny little chickens running across the lawn after a moth or a wiggly pup. And whats wrong with that? A rumbling subway or a train groaning through Glenbrook when Ive been at the bird store....I couldn't want a diamond that would give me more than that. But then there is love, of course.
Yes, and Will and Ben; will we ever look back and say "remember the year that everything went to shit?" or will it just fall into line with so many other shit years? They seem to line up these past 8 or so years (yes, I am trying to blame this on Bush!)...or maybe I just don't know how to be happy (turn off the news, maybe? I hear it works...) Who knows? I am acutely aware that things could still go further down before it drags slowly back uphill. But something that I've grasped hold of pretty hard lately...well, for a while...is to try very hard to do everything that I do for a really pure and real purpose. Not to go into anything expecting something back or feeling like there is some other purpose other than just the quality and feeling of the task at hand...does that make any sense?
I am very good at it some of the time, and mainly because I find that these days I don't really want alot as far as the material things go. The things I want are more in the way of a feeling of order to the world again, that might indicate that the American culture wasn't really falling to shit and that Americans weren't becoming selfish pigs worse than they had been. I want some sort of feeling of being less alone, and that has nothing to do with lying to myself about forever companions or love, but just the community that seems to wax and wane around me as life gives or takes our time...I sometimes wonder if I will have anyone like me in my life when I am as old and infirm as grandpa, and more, if I could even stand it if I did.
They say that time goes by so fast, and even knowing that and trying to hold on to the important moments with pictures and movies, or consciously basking in the experience (my little trick that doesn't work too well in the long, long run,) inevitably you wake up one day and you can't remember how you even made it through one year or another, while you marvel at how all the children you know are now towering over you.... In wonder at how time passes so quickly, and scared at the prospect of time speeding by faster and faster till you are the one in the triage bed, old and scared, with hopefully a semi-sane family member nearby.
So, amidst that accidental aunt (accidentally was in town for the big fall down/heart attack) acting horribly towards me, and the most incredible array of scary rotten home health aides and a few sterling examples of what our health care system should reward, came the most fantastic and incredible Visiting Doctor of the Visiting Doctors of Mt Sinai Hospital. This is a program that I had found over 2 years ago after Hi had ended up in the emergency room at NYU medical center and had gotten such horrid treatment, and such neglectful aftercare from his longtime physician, that it became clear that he needed a geriatric specialist. There was another practice on the east side, but this was one was close by and ended up amongst the printouts I sent him, even though I still had doubts about Mt Sinai as a whole. He got on the waiting list like everyone else, and began to have home visits from an array of doctors and specialists from this practice that does most of their work in the home.
I had never personally met the doctor that grandpa ended up with after the one that I did know left to have a baby , and then the next one moved on. Because they spend their time in the field seeing patients, you've got to be around when they come or you end up on the phone with them. And I've got to say that in a world of worry and getting the old guy home and not knowing how I was going to manage this thing between the visiting nurse late on a Saturday, no supplies, and a wonderful aide who probably saved my life that weekend, (while my aunt decided to frantically "clean" and throw away all of grandpa's things that seemed dirty to her,)...no sleep for days and then, like a super hero, this young Dr, infamous to me already for how much Ive heard his words of advice and instructions, strode into the hall with a student in tow, tall with long hair, and maybe all of 30-something, and proceeded to not only take control of the situation there and get my grandfather in a good frame of mind, but then continued to call and check in and come back on his own time, actually spending a few hours here with IVs hanging from a nail in the wall at one point, and checking everything. This is the kind of treatment that we don't get in America anymore, and I'm sure, that it saved his life. I've heard the same sorts of stories of other practitioners from this service, and its incredible to find such a simple idea being put to such great use in helping so many people.
This doctor put himself through medical school and works 3 jobs to pay back his loans. A brilliant young practitioner who goes into the homes of his geriatric patients all the time should be spending any extra time he has doing studies and writing papers about this population. He has insight and access to research that can't be done any other way. But, instead he chips away at a mountain of debt in a country where money piles up every day in the coffers of the rich, and too many of the elderly are hitting the insane donut hole in their prescription insurance, which means that they will have to somehow come up with 2 and a half grand out of the air to pay for the rest of their prescriptions until they reach a catastrophic level and qualify again for coverage. If by then their nutrition and bill situation hasn't hit catastrophic.... then maybe they can make it through another year. Well, yeah, my grandpa was one particular person who was only on one pill and an eye drop, but that's unusual...and what can any of us do in the face of government plans that seemingly come straight out of Soylent Green?...It reminds me of that Morning Sedition bit where the Bush Administration unveiled their new Social Security plan by burning old folks on a pyre.
I've again also come up against the disparity in pay between the health aides and the CEOs...not only at Mt. Sinai, which I wrote about last year, but at Visiting Nurse Service, which has managed to screw up quite a bit of this case. That there are people being paid $7-$9 per hour to totally physically care for the elderly and infirm in this country is a shame. The quality of caregivers varies and the the best and brightest will often move on to other areas of care giving or only work 3 shifts per week in order to get their health insurance and do private work the rest of the time. The helpless are often not in a position to refuse a bad caregiver; even my grandfather, if left alone here with an aide, would not have been able to use the phone and would have had a very rough time telling anyone with him what he needed or if anything was wrong.
The healthcare workers union has made a bad deal with no varying levels of experience within the Aide job description, and no merit pay. So a 20 year veteran at this makes maybe a dollar and a half more per hour than a newly starting aide and the people who book the cases don't know one aide from another and don't even get much feedback on them, unless its negative. Not only that, there are always some people out there with attitude problems and quite a problem with English skills.
I have had a parade of some of the best and worst through here, and because my grandfather has been instrumental in building a VNS hospice as part of what he does philanthropically, he should have been treated as some level of a VIP. Not that we demand that, but there is a huge disconnect in that not one of us "clients" can call the person handling our case and find out who the person is thats coming to our house for the next shift. No one in the very busy office has worked with this person? No one knows if they speak English? Some of the aides that arrived here were unclean and smelled so bad that I couldnt have stayed in the apartment with them for a day. A man who supposedly spoke English and Russian was actually Chinese and deaf. He sat and did Soduku for 12 hours and couldn't hear either of us calling him, nor did he look up regularly. By the time I had walked up to him and waved in his face I might as well have moved grandpa myself!
I cant blame the aides, though some aides blame others for not taking enrichment courses or taking advantage of whats available out there. I guess that 12 hour shifts of dealing with differing levels of sickness and trying to go to school and have a home might be too much...who knows? I just would like to know, as I get older myself in an uncertain world, that the very corporate healthcare system will take the time to know who they are sending out to bathe and dress their patients. Many of the aides cant even speak English well enough to call 911. And someone's brilliant idea of an automated check-in and out system for the workers ensures not only that they are further removed from the case managers but also that there are snafus within the system that maddeningly screws up the paychecks. The aides are faced with a menu of what services they performed within their 12 hour shift, which they must enter numerically on the touchpad...and often they are on a cell phone or an old phone or in a hospital room....This is drive-through healthcare but, someone, somewhere down the line from the efficiency experts, is the person who actually touches the patients, and if that patient is your family member you might want to have some idea of what goes into finding the perfect caretaker, if you can even afford one past the 21 hours per week that Medicare allows.
Through all of this grandpa has been railing at how its gone and how difficult its been. I know that the lack of continuity in aides and the slowness of organizing the equipment delivery hurt his recovery greatly, probably costing more in the long run, (if one were counting dollars and cents.) Its also allowed us to find some wonderful people and strengthen ties with the few wonderful people that we had found before. I just know that it doesn't have to be this way, and I wonder how the upper management, who are no doubt trying to make ends meet on their own level of existence in this most expensive city, throw up their hands at what is not working as if they are looking at a political election and saying that one vote cant possibly count (see Bush v. Gore, 2000.)
My point is that there are no more Norma Raes or Ceasar Chavez' out there who are gonna try to make it better. Everyone is just so under it that there seems to be no way out. The long term plan of the neo-conservativism begun surely before Reagan, and back to Nixonian plans for a higher order in the executive branch, has worked and is working in that no job is safe, workers are disposable, and if it can be outsourced you'd better believe that it will be. Thats your taxes, your medical records, your credit cards...and there are no good secure jobs for the middle class. What do you get for struggling to become a doctor? mountains of debt and multiple jobs to pay it off....that is unless you're from a rich family or you jump to a specialty that will enable some profit in the future.
Brilliant at Breakfast is going to be fed directly to the Air America front page this week, and somehow I thought it best to publish what is probably a too long and too personal post on the day before. But really, healthcare and the disposition of the poor and middle class in their later years is a serious political issue that we cant overlook in the face of our stimulus checks from uncle Bush and just running fast enough to keep afloat. Make no mistake about it, there are elements out there who are trying to destroy the middle class and who hold the poor in such disdain that they actually don't care if they all die...if we all die...and, by we, I mean the middle class, if I even qualify, considering that Ive been lucky enough to come from a family that could help me with an array of things like medical and school expenses.
So, anyway, he lived to fight another day. He was clearly not ready to go, much to the surprise of those who stood around saying that he would never get up from that bed. If its for 2 months or 2 years, or even 2 days, hes walking a little, getting around, and watching TV happily...Obama has been on today and is looking mighty presidential.
I'm juggling drafts here at the Rooster Ranch and while most of the incoming stuff seems to be of the Hillary vs. Obama variety show, in which the democrats once again shoot themselves in the foot while working out their very dysfunctional childhood tragedies as the repugs sneak in and blow up the Acme surprise box. Look, I know that they've had shit for candidates on the other side, but at least they have coagulated around one turd. Maybe its the batcrap craziest of 'em, and the one least able to maintain his facade, but so be it...the rub is the presentation by the huge advertising machine that has it's big gears turning underground as I type this. While we squabble about tit and tat they are getting ready, as usual...and as usual, we are locked in battle with ourselves.
From the Daily Kos "writer's strike," (h/t Skippy) where Hillary supporters feel overwhelmed by hate comments, to just about every mainstream media outlet, the story is the big fight between the 2 rarities that the democratic party has managed to put up for scrutiny. The story goes that the world will end if one or the other candidate becomes the general favorite and we are all caught up in the spectacle until WE become the story; the split party! This thing has reached the narcissistic stage, and I, for one, am gonna refrain from taking sides until we get to the general or unless something is real news. I'm also gonna encourage all democrats to do the same. Vote in your primary and then shut up except to go after the republican candidates in all races. The party needs to take the reins and stop the insanity now. Until they do we are in danger of a McCain Presidency. There is nothing to see here folks; move on by.
I'll talk about McCain, the general election, other races, and any real news that comes down the pike about Clinton or Obama (and I don't mean he said-she said,) that is progressing towards a conclusion to the primary season, but otherwise, I'm finished with the argument about who would be better for the country. The truth is that John McCain would be disastrous, and I'm frightened enough to want to urge the democratic party to get a move on so that we can all get behind one candidate and stop the McCain machine. If a miracle happened and John Edwards came roaring back with a billionaire backer, I'd be right up front carrying a sign, but its not gonna happen so... back to reality:
President McCain. Lets all ponder the concept of that for a while. The fact that he is dangerously wrong on the issues is one thing...Oh, maybe he is better than Romnuckabee on one thing or another, and maybe he is a little less planet friendly or less pro-choice here or there, but the main problem that we have from the get-go, before we even begin to sort out the niggling things about spinning into the sun and who is really a real conservative, is the fucking war! McCain's issues page, "Iraq Victory" subsection begins with the following:
A greater military commitment now is necessary if we are to achieve long-term success in Iraq.
He doesn't mean have a draft and then send in a quarter million troops and get this thing over with...no he means the same old crap of trying to train the security forces there and stay until they can totally take care of themselves in a democratic way, whatever that is when filtered through the Haliburton/Blackwater government that's been in charge.There is really no need to read further at this point because there are just too many active and former military specialists who have been saying that our military is stretched too thin and that we cant possibly continue like this, much less start another one. The fact that McCain seems oblivious to the very real problems faced not only on the front lines of this war, but stateside, should be enough to make any thoughtful American reconsider a vote for McCain. The fact that the war is impacting our economy in such a devastating way is more cause for worry, and for the more self centered of Americans, that should be enough....see, even if we currently don't have to make personal sacrifices for this war, the financial difficulties caused by it are going to find each and every one of us on one level of another. If gas prices are bad for the average American now, just wait! $4 per gallon is right around the corner, and with it comes higher prices for everything that relies on fuel. The truth is that under a McCain presidency, or any Presidency that will continue the existing war and compound it in any way, we will likely be forced into a draft, a war tax, and sacrifices the likes of which we haven't previously seen. If this war doesn't touch you now, it will shortly. In order to follow McCain's plan we have to have a draft.
McCain admits himself to being a bit weak on economic issues, even as he tries to tap dance out of that admission, while at the same time aligning himself with the dawn of Reaganomics. Its enough to make your head spin.
A quick look at McCain's own issues page, reveals a troubling pattern of corporate economic incentives that seem to be more of the same old thing. He pays lip service to tax cuts for the middle class, but what is apparent is that his focus is still on the trickle down, but does not address the loss of jobs to outsourcing and the CEO payout. How does McCain think that the health care system should be reformed? Increase competition between providers, of course! Its all some sort of fantasy, as far as I can see; promises that don't have any concrete plan. How would one increase competition between medical providers exactly? In what world can you mess around with the content of provider's care in medicine without serious regulation, (the type which that McCain is completely against...or is he?)
With a 10 percent corporate tax cut and the dream that it will result in a raise in American wages, (complete with footnotes!!)McCain is all over the place. Cut, cut, cut...and where is the money coming from as we fight on in the middle east until we're victorious? Add to that his pie in the sky plan to strengthen our borders and stop illegal immigration, with some nod to America being some "shining city on the hill" to the rest of the world, and NO PLAN.
Its all there, or not there, as I've said, and we don't have the luxury of letting another crazy work out his mommy or torture (take your pick) problems on the country. Americans who insist on believing the unfounded line that we can somehow pull off a victory in Iraq, bomb Iran, and/or somehow help Colombia with their growing problems, without a huge change in our current lives, are dreaming. The fact is that our version of "help" tends to create more problems, unless we begin with a quick hit and run plan, and a huge amount of troops. We also usually throw alot of aid at 'em immediately, as I recall from previous strikes. There is no doubt that we have created more terrorists with our "War on Terra" just by how it has been carried out, and that we are in much bigger danger from the toll of continuing our activities in Iraq than of the terra itself. Hell, if some other country did to us what we've done to Iraq, I'd be joining the rebel army myself!
If the idea of a full blown depression and a broken military doesn't give you pause, try this:
John McCain agrees with retired Army General Jack Keane that there are simply not enough American forces in Iraq. More troops are necessary to clear and hold insurgent strongholds; to provide security for rebuilding local institutions and economies; to halt sectarian violence in Baghdad and disarm Sunni and Shia militias; to dismantle al Qaeda; to train the Iraqi Army;
So, I'm assuming that this is on top of the surge troops that are "working."How long have we been trying to train the Iraqi forces and clear and hold strongholds? This is a war without end, and the longer we stay in it, the more we self destruct. There is hardly a passage in McCain's Issues section that doesn't spell some sort of destruction of whatever American way of life is left when thesewingnuts are done with us. Instead of Issues, why not call them Delusions?
Deluded is what John McCain is. He has some incredible deficit in his emotional control, with that about to blow persona, and who knows what resentments are hidden there after his failed election bids, not to mention his actual real-life torture, that he seems to use when its convenient and dismiss when its an issue of possible mental health concerns. Any of us can Google this and get many, many different stories and ideas about McCain's fitness to take the highest office in this country, but it seems like it is very obvious that he is someone who does not have a good grasp on his emotions some of the time, and perhaps that should be something that we consider carefully.
I suppose that it would be politically incorrect to say that McCain also has cancer. Malignant Melanoma is an aggressive and deadly form of cancer, as the the New York Times reported when McCain had his first major relapse in 2000. According to statistics, melanomas caught in stage 1 or 2 can be cured pretty easily, but later stages along with thickness/size of tumors and recurrence sites, along with the general fitness of the person, make the survival rates fall. This is measured in 5 and 10 year increments. Because McCain is someone who has had recurrences and those recurrences were spreading of original cancers along with new cancers, it may be impossible to figure out his exact chances for long term survival unless he comes out and talks about it beyond the "I'm cured" line. He may be "cured" of those particular cancers, but he really cant say that the next one, and there will be a next one, wont be more aggressive that the ones before. I guess I'm saying that the republican party had better look hard at McCain's running mate...harder than usual.
The folly of running John McCain for President is something that we dems haven't had a chance to revel in because of our own problems. At some point we have to set aside our differences and start chipping away at this guy. He is so full of faults that ...well, I imagine still that if there is a way to hand the election to him, we will...but lets surprise ourselves, one soul at a time, and turn away from the propaganda about the left and towards the task at hand.
Welcome to the general election, in which we are at war with John McCain, and our candidate, whoever that may be, is as good as we can do right now...lets get to work!
A Wicked Week in the Hopeless Maze of Children's Healthcare
TGIF!
I've been running round on the ground in the health care wars this week, and let me tell you, friends <*snark*,> its not pretty. The overwhelming reality of what too many parents live with; the trade- offs and choices that go round on a roulette wheel, with the possibility of a disastrously wrong choice as the winning number. It may be a necessity for some parents to just turn a blind eye to what is missing in the struggle just to keep a roof over their heads, but the tragic legacy is all around the neighborhoods where impossibly young girls push strollers and young thugs shuffle by with pants around their knees speaking in an indecipherable language. When you relegate an entire portion of society to a certain part of town you cant really expect them to be able to integrate themselves back into general society on command; at some point they are going to make their own culture, and that will ensure their separateness forever.
And much like I'll talk to people about dogs...and say that the doggy dental was SO expensive, as well heeled pure-bred dog owners will say, matter of factly, that they don't go in for that dental stuff, because we never used to do that for our pets in the old days. Well, I guess you couldn't say that about a child, could you? But what if you come from a country where medical or dental care is not readily available, and what if the clinic lines, hours away from work, and co-pays, and even the daunting process of applying for state aid, are an impenetrable wall. What difference will it make for an inner city kid to lose his teeth, as he or she is growing up and trying to get themselves out of the neighborhood? What puts someone over the edge? Is it the lack of skills? The lack of language or growing up around people who are not really aware of what is going on in the world? The lack of just having someone to talk to and some small choices in life?... The lack of any empowerment at all.
So, why do Medicaid, and similar services for the very poor, only provide for the pulling out of teeth and not for the saving of teeth? Isn't it incredibly short sighted for the government to not realize the ramifications of saving a tiny bit of money now only to have to spend heavily later? Its not just the bone loss in the face from not having teeth. Its the loss of self assurance and the loss of clear speech in some cases. Its all of the complications that happen later in life regarding nutrition and health. This should not happen to anyone, much less a child! Oh, there are programs to find out there to help with these tough cases. What I've found here are far away clinics that demand transportation and time to sit on line. You take the appointment you're given, and you don't complain...and hope that your job is still going to be there when you're done. And then, of course, the specialist only comes in once a month, so the first available appointment is months away.
Some people are not going to be able to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and realize the American Dream in the way that has been advertised, but their kids might be able to. So, in the interest of giving the second generation, at least, a chance, and in the interest it seems, of maintaining the maze of bureaucracy that is involved in getting care, why not let the parents care for the kids rather than making them work a minimum wage job that is not possibly enough to lift their family out of poverty, but which does assure that their children spend an inordinate amount of time either alone and wandering, or in daycare, cared for by others who are getting maybe just above the minimum.
Here we have a mother who is working 24/7 as a home health aide. Because she is making some amount below the poverty line her children are able to get the Husky plan,here in CT. Because her income surpasses some line in the sand, her children are forced off of the A plan, which is reserved for the very poor and which has no premium, and on to the B plan, which is for the slightly less poor and has reduced premiums based on what she makes. Because she makes so little there is no premium. The difference? The A program covers many more services, more fully. Why is that? Would the citizens of Connecticut want to cover the children of the very poor more than the children of the slightly less poor? The maze to even get into this program is daunting, and the re certification every year is a nightmare.
To hear the mayor of this town boasting about his lean machine, reminds me of how Rudy notes cutting the budget of New York City partly by making the maze to social services more difficult to navigate so that people had to give up on trying to get services. Where is the morality in trying to deny care to anyone? How does that provide for a happy life for anyone? How does someone who boasts of that sort of behavior sleep at night?
If there is a God, which seems pretty unlikely in the face of all of this, maybe this is just a huge test....and really, it could go either way. because if what science has learned is true in that the fittest need to survive in order to better the race, then it's wrong to bring along the weaker members; they should be cut loose on an ice floe, and I'm the overly empathetic weak one. What I see happening here though, is that many of the kids of the very rich, raised in a bubble and unaware of how things fit together in the world, are more likely to be the weak links in a Darwinian sense. The hard working immigrants are tough as nails and those who work hard can really make a life. Take away the cushy surroundings from most of the rich kids around here and they couldn't survive. There is seemingly an active campaign against the poor brown kids pouring into this country, because they are tougher, and it could be that the only way that we have to fight them is to keep them part of the underclass, lest they overtake us.
With an eye to the crumbling middle class, and many in the upper classes having to downsize, it will be a pretty telling time regarding who is resilient enough to survive. Money is a construct that used to based on something valuable kept in a vault somewhere, but its so much more abstract than that. Just as a foreign government can buy our debt or an official can raise or lower interest rates, or print more money, its all just an idea. The only truth worth holding on to is that we are really only one or two steps removed from the homeless person on the street or the hardworking immigrant trying to scrape together enough money to take their kid to the doctor. Just as we don't torture people because we don't want our soldiers tortured in other lands, we cant deny care to anyone lest we be denied ourselves.
There is no doubt that this country needs a single payer health care system with no qualifiers. it needs to cover everyone and it needs to cut the insurance corporations out of the process. There are enough issues to overcome as a human being on this planet, without having to worry about what should be a right to everyone; not just the rich.
I don't know why, but to me the saddest part was that after the tooth cleaning, the kids didn't even get a new tooth brush, much less that array of samples which is like a prize for being good.
That was the dentist...next came the pediatrician, the blood lab, the psychologist...and school...all this week...next: the specialists!
The SCHIP Tragedy....Lets get Down to What it Means to Us All....Even if You Don't Have Kids....Even if You Have Private Insurance!
On the day after the day that Bush stood in front of the press corps and threatened world war 3 as if it was a joke; as if it was some sort of sitcom he had just been watching in the oval office, the overwhelming feeling seems to be one of fatigue and disbelief... ho-hum, such nonsense, whatever....He isn't taken seriously and he is treated lately like the crazy uncle chained in the attic; which is something, I guess, after all these years. But in the wake of the SCHIP defeat and the kiddie swiftboating that has been going on, I've been again wringing my hands and wondering what country I'm living in. It seems to me that the real danger here is in not giving Bush enough weight...he talks, chuckles, guffaws, and we ignore him for the most part (is it possible that his eyes have grown closer together? Is Laura really living in a hotel? Is he drunk? What meds could he possibly be on?)
But what is scary here is that he still wields enough power to make himself relevant at the expense, less of little blond children, than of countless inner city communities full of children who are suffering as I type this. You see, Bush is really FOR a program like SCHIP; in that is he is for the Medicaid side of it if we could make the people poorer, and get rid of the Medicare side altogether.... because we wouldn't want to pass anything that might actually ensure that slightly less than dirt poor Americans might possibly ever lift themselves too far above the poverty line. The swiftboating of the Frosts points to the chilling reality that the middle class are indeed in the cross hairs of this administration.
It wouldn't do to open the door a crack to allowing the struggling middle class who might maybe own a house, to hang onto it if they fall into illness. The outrage over a family that makes 50 grand per year and owns a house that has grown in value to be worth maybe a quarter of a mil...the outrage over them being offered a medical plan that they would have to buy into...the outrage over them not having to lose their house over a medical catastrophe that would crush most families, is insane! When did that part of the American Dream become something that we should be MAD at our fellow citizens about?
This is why I could never be a politician. When the crazy idea comes up that maybe some of the health insurance is going to poor adults, and maybe its wasted somehow in that way, I just think "so?...and the pallets of money in Iraq? How many years would it take a state to waste that amount of money?" This argument about how poor is poor enough is so crazy because what they are talking about is poor...really poor...and if anyone thinks that a welfare payment of $300 per month for a kid goes far...well, the real world is out there if you just leave your delusion for a while and take a walk.... I may live in one of the most expensive counties in the country, but even the people in the cheapest have to start to realize that 50 grand is just not a whole hell of alot for a family of 4 anywhere, and to allow the tone to be set by mega millionaires who want to squeeze every struggling American out of basic necessities while they wave from their limousines, is like walking off a cliff with the rest of the lemmings. S\See, this is where we are supposed to turn on eachother and argue about how much 50 grand per year is, and if its OK to own a house that is worth a quarter mil and still participate in government programs that might be deemed "socialist" (like our army, by the way and many other services in this country.) Lets get it straight: 1 million dollars in the bank...cash...invested safely, throws off 40 grand per year. That is probably taxable income...so in order to be "rich" you would have to have investments worth many millions of dollars. In order to even run a mansion or a boat or whatever the lotto dream is today, you would have to have alot of money. The taxes and upkeep alone are more than a million in the bank could support.
A house worth $250,000, doesn't pay the bills unless you rent it out and rent another place for your family to live...and if you need catastrophic care like the Frosts did, its not even a drop in the bucket. The state generally would have a medicaid case spend down their assets until they had something like a few thousand dollars worth of possessions, and then they would kick in. So a family like that would lose everything, and maybe end up homeless or a struggling burden on society. So even in a cold dollars and cents way, it cuts costs to offer programs like SCHIP.
We are in a big bucks economy here, and the kind of money that the people who are running this thing have is massive. So, as you are being manipulated into looking at your neighbor and squabbling over who is a true patriot and who is some sorta commie, get it straight that the highways, police, military, and just about every other public service, could be deemed "socialist," and a certain level of "socialism" is an integral part of any democratic society that is going to function. We have seen a little bit of what deregulation and privatization does, and it clearly doesn't work. So, lets just cut to the quick of this thing and get real about what it means. There are some necessary services that should be funded by our tax dollars. If you look at the dollars and cents of government run medical services vs. private insurance,there is no comparison. If this were a low bid contract, the government way would win out...but it doesn't seem like the government gets to bid in these matters....
The criticism against families like this seems to be that they should have planned better. They should've had to go out and find insurance on the open market because otherwise the taxpayer is paying for their insurance and maybe they are stealing from the system. Because the insurance business is best run by the unregulated insurance corporations and not the government, which might demand, at sometime in the far, distant future, some accountability or regulation. Because a country set up to give a leg up to families on the brink or right over the line on their way at a slightly upward angle towards the Dream, might be construed as socialist! Because if things change significantly the insurance and drug companies might not be able to keep or renegotiate their cushy deals.
Part 2.... Its Better Than Nothing:
Well, its not always that easy. I live in a state that offers mandatory children's health care, and I am someone who prices into the maximum premium; which is coincidentally roughly double what I used to pay for private insurance in this town, before one large corporation (Conseco) bought up all of the small insurers and proceeded to shut them down in favor of offering only corporate insurance policies. The state mandates that any insurance company left that carries private insurance must write a policy for us regardless of pre-existing conditions, as long as there is no lapse in coverage, but it does not mandate what they can charge for it. It also does not mandate what type of policies are offered....so, welcome to the world of the most strict and archaic HMO's and PPO's ever designed. Just the coverage books alone are daunting and so difficult to understand that its scary to think of giving up the devil that you know in favor of the unknown in the private, private, sector that is unregulated...and that can and will change regularly....I know because Ive had my insurance switched around at the drop of a hat and Ive also lost it suddenly.
The big question is this: Is it preferable to us as tax payers to have the Frost family have lost their house and ended up on welfare with all sorts of far reaching problems, or is it preferable to offer a little support before the big tragedy...with the full knowledge that not everyone will have a catastrophic accident or disease? Do we want to do preventative work or should we live in the fantasy that everyone should be able to provide somewhat for their families regardless of their background and should also be able to benefit from the system that they pay into. The one thing that privatized mandatory health care does well is to cover the catastrophic, and ultimately, that saves alot of people from disaster. There is so much more that is necessary, because disaster comes in many forms, but at least we can realize that in the Frost's case, this thing WORKED!! Was it a handout? No! Should they be vilified for telling their story? No! Do we not fucking want to know from our neighbors what is going on? Are we not supposed to compare notes from state to state to try to find what is best for all of us and to avoid the pitfalls that have ruined the lives of others? It seems like the voices that have screamed the loudest and shown the most venom are again the ones who want to shut down discourse with this "loose lips sink ships" mentality that somehow sends the message that we are not supporting the troops or looking for Bin Laden if we talk about not what we can expect from the system that we pay into..and the system that is really OUR system. It works for US...it belongs to us....right?
We have seen over and over that what we are creating is a permanent underclass that does not want to be where they are, but often not only sees no way out, but knows no other way to exist. The operative function here is fear, and the advertising gurus who toiled for those many years under Karl Rove have worked hard to expand and exploit the fear base. That fear costs more money than any imperfect SCHIP plan, and its shortsighted...unless the government WANTS it that way. Its the devil you know as opposed to the boldness of America and taking a chance on a better life. Its what happens when you are told over and over that you have too much and all that is left is to protect it, because surely any movement will endanger everything you've ever known...the mushroom cloud, WW3...ho hum...but it reverberates in the lower and immigrant classes where not only most of the soldiers come from, but where many, many of the people have actually seen real poverty and death and war.
Pt 3...I Am Guilty...We Are All Guilty...
How does the insurance industry work? Not everyone uses more than they have paid into the system; which makes sense and can be a good model...That is, until the insurance company goes public and suddenly the company's first responsibility is to the stockholders and being able to pay big bucks to the top executives. What follows is the downward spiral of ethics and medicine vs. the bottom line. That is the story of these certain Americans who are way too wealthy to be eligible for SCHIP, right? They are a huge liability going forward for any insurance company, and if they didn't have this service they not only would have lost everything to save their kids, but they would have been uninsurable later on. And I would like to see any of the critics out there try to live on 50 grand per year in that town, much less 80 grand in this town!
Politically speaking, I understand compromise in the bigger sense, and I understand partial victories. I am one of the first to gather in and hang onto any little bit of goodness that wafts off of that DC garbage dump. But the problem for me is that in order to block the struggling lower-middle and middle class Americans out there from getting what is being talked about on the right as if its a handout, the really poor of this country get the shaft totally. Whats the harm in the possibility that a tiny segment of a struggling class might get a little bit more than the absolute minimum that society can offer? Its OK to throw cash at any private enterprise that is fighting our war with private security guards; Pallets of cash....Its OK to destroy and rebuild an entire country and plan war after war...its OK to hand out no-bid contracts left and right and then rebuild the flawed structures built by unregulated business...but its not OK to allow an American family to buy affordable insurance that is overseen somehow by the government, and that might prevent them from struggling quite as hard? Everything should be as hard as possible for those people because...? Why? Both parents should work because...? Why? Because my tax dollars shouldn't go towards someone else's comfort?
How about our tax dollars going towards us , for once, making long term plans and looking at what becomes of our society when a huge portion of it struggles. Do we want to have programs and education or do we want to have chronic illness, chronic poverty, chronic lack of education and skills, and the ongoing problems that come with those things, such as huge prison populations, teen pregnancy, and the feelings of helplessness and hopelessness that comes along with the knowledge that you are never getting out of debt, and your kids are on their own when it comes to college.
We have a generation of kids who have two parents struggling to make ends meet; who own nothing but debt; and who's kids, in the best case scenario, end up wandering in the afternoons. Lessons, and the minivan Mom being around for homework and interaction of the sort that the family values people espouse, are more and more reserved for the rich, as the middle class falls between the cracks. And I would slide right down with them if I did not have family help with medical bills and education and the like. I can only keep thinking, "what do other people do in this situation? What do poor people who cant speak English do?" Because I can say that my experience, in my family and in helping others, is that its a full time job to deal with illness, chronic or catastrophic, to deal with poverty and the walls put up to prevent people from getting services, to deal with getting approvals for the basic things that you need to stay alive, and to try to be a person with some pride in whatever they have scraped together, keep a house and a job that pays nothing, raise kids, and try to unravel the impossible maze of insurance in this country. So many people just don't...and then its too late.
It seems to me that whether or not one supports programs that help the poor or disabled, they are somewhat necessary unless we want to go back to a draconian system of orphanages and people dying in the streets. I would like to know what the alternative plan is on the right? Privatization has not worked, regardless of what the talking points are. The numbers bear it out that privatization has failed. And to talk to those who say stoically that government waste is the big problem...well, I guess that you could accuse this administration of that, but you've got to point out that one program that actually does work well is Medicare, and that even though the rates paid are not as high as some private insurance companies, they do pay the providers pretty easily. Providers actually TAKE Medicare with little problem because of that; getting a payment is half the battle in this thing. It boggles the mind that one of the first big "problems" to fix that the right brought out in this administration was the supposed "failure" of Medicare.
They then bent over backwards to mandate the insane Medicare part D, which began as a failure in its strange design that required phone banks of customer representatives to direct patients to the proper plans...and then plans proceeded to change their rules. The old and infirm had to hold on for a representative for over an hour in those final weeks before "fines" were going to be levied if a plan wasn't chosen....and then the details were so strange and intricate, that the plan would have to be selected according to the drug, (oh, and the prices of the drugs were and are non negotiable, so the government is mandating a program that pays top price for bulk supplies of drugs to big pharma,) and then the cost. The lower priced plans obviously offered less drug availability and more of the downside, such as the insane "donut hole." Who designed this thing? There is no way that anyone could have seriously sat down and designed that as a workable plan for real people. The reality of it is like some sort of pot induced bullshit session about what would be the WORST plan ever for the old and disabled!
Medicare D is constantly adjusting in that the insurance companies participating in that big kickback have been allowed to change their terms, which drugs they cover , and what their premiums are. I personally know of one Medicare D insurance company, Humana, that was sold as a premium company which charged more in order to guarantee its subscribers that they would not have a "donut hole." Well, at the end of the first year of the program, Humana informed its subscribers that they had made a mistake in that they need the donut hole in order to be...er...profitable or to break even...?... and going forward there would be a donut hole. Not only that, but the premiums were going up and also the drugs covered would be changing...ha! But what if there was a loss in the beginning of this thing and the companies that took the chance had to just eat it as part of an investment in the future of making the thing work? Isn't that the way things used to be done in new ventures? You get a chance to be one of the few companies allowed to provide this special insurance, but maybe you lose or break even in the first year or two in advance of profits...right? Why is it that in the face of a program that is a failure from the start, the failure part of it is shifted to the people it supposedly serves as opposed to the huge corporations, which could write the failure off anyway or the government that mandated it. Medicare D is also only a part of what the company does. So how is the "failure" figured anyway? Is there any regulation on any level of this thing? Is there anyone to even look at it?
The donut hole causes seniors and the disabled to suddenly find that their regular prescriptions cost as much as a couple of grand a month. One week they go into the pharmacy and the bill is HUGE...and it remains huge until another amount of out of pocket expense has been met. My friends at the local pharmacy have told me of people paying thousands for necessary drugs....which might get them out of the donut hole faster, but it might also make them not eat for that month! I know of people who have gone without medication lately because they were surviving on doctor's samples and ran out. I know people who have missed work because of illness caused by not taking their medicine. And I know of people who have ended up in the hospital on the state's dime...that's you and me....because of no preventative care and not enough money for medications for things like blood pressure.
Extrapolate that situation out to children who have become orphaned because of this...children who lose their home and end up wandering the system...the overburdened system that cant possibly handle everyone, and especially not the ones who are doing seemingly OK. Extrapolate that out to teen pregnancy and prison time. I could cite studies, but I'm tired of the war of studies. I know how these things are done, and what they control for. And I know what first hand experience and logic shows, along with the literature. If you don't spend some money in preventative care on every level, socialist or not, the cost to the society is going to be much larger than any privatized bullshit program could have imagined. And the real rub here is that the private companies can easily go out of business...but the government can't.
[Pete Stark on SCHIP]
Pt 4. What Does This Mean in the Real World?
This is mostly the middle class and senior side of these things and that is almost necessary to understand what goes on for the really poor folks in this country. Ive been lucky enough to have a muted view into what really goes on and what its like for the people who have been, as Liza says at Culture Kitchen, thrown under the bus this time round, and I have to constantly apply that to "real" inner cities like they have in NYC and LA; our inner city here is so much better than what I grew up around.
The people who have to wait during the big government argument about how to help the people who are just scraping by, are the people who are not scraping by, and who have no way out. First, as some sort of background, I should say that as a white, articulate, writer, I have been able to wage an ongoing fight against the system here in Connecticut, which is one of the few states to supposedly cover all of its children with health insurance.
This is, after all, the state helmed by the likes of Joementum Lieberman, (late of the CT For LIEberman Party, newly again a Democrat,) and Chris Shays, (with his nose still brown and stinky from climbing up the ass of the Blackwater witnesses, not to mention his ongoing support of the war, except for in the weeks before an election, and his many, many trips to Iraq with his good friend Joe...way to go Chris...oh, and bye bye next cycle boys!) who never hesitate to pat themselves on the back and blow their own horns in their wonderful foresight in covering all kids...etc, etc, etc.....Beyond that I'd really like to know what Senator Dodd thinks about this. Shays just denies that it is possible that this information is correct...but it is my personal experience, and he is going to have a much harder time dismissing me than he does dismissing people with no voice. This is what Shays does: He treats every complaint or argument as a very strange and interesting atypical situation, in his experience. He then, in his quiet voice, earnestly says to call (insert woman's name here) at his office, and turns to one of his aides and says "give then the private line" and then the complaint is GONE. This is a good way to derail dissent in a townhall meeting situation, but it doesn't address the systemic flaws that abound in his shiny, shiny ornament of a kid's health plan. I have no doubt that individual problems can be solved with a call from Shay's office, but I also think that its not happening very often. His town halls tend to be in places where the inner city folks cant reach because of bus service...or its in the government center during work hours. This is just what Ive noticed...who knows if its planned...but when I stand up in a meeting and I see only older white faces, its hard to address problems with the state's kid's health care plan.
CT's Husky plan is one that directs all business to 3 or 4 private insurance companies, run by the likes of Healthnet and Blue Cross/Blue Shield of CT. Yeah, its a huge kickback in no uncertain terms because the state pays for anyone making less than something like $24,000 per year (which in southern CT is the extremely low 200% of poverty or whatever their rule of thumb is, and then the rest of us are charged according to our incomes with a maximum of $221 per month, per kid.
After being forced onto the Husky program, my son almost got kicked out of his long time pediatric practice because they, like just about all other southern CT practices, had closed their boards to the Husky kids. Fortunately, Will had gone to nursery school with the kid of the senior doctor there, and we still see each other at social events and have common friends, so he had a partner's meeting and they allowed us to join the boards retroactively. This is the practice that we had been with for his whole life!! I was first told by the doctor to go and get a job with health insurance... to which I answered : Ha Ha!! I don't even know if the hospital jobs in this town offer health coverage anymore, but that must be some kinda joke. What would that sort of a statement sound like to an immigrant who is trying to get by and doesn't want to make waves?
They have passed a law in CT saying that as long as your insurance hasn't lapsed that insurance companies cant turn you down for insurance. But that doesn't mean that they cant sell you the worst HMO plan with the highest premium. I think that the last time I looked it was going to be something like a grand a month to cover us both. Will has a hereditary joint problem which caused his tendons to remain short after he began toddling, and over the years it became clear that he needed an operation to lengthen them. For some reason the physiatrist at the clinic , who we were compelled to see for this rather than an orthopedic specialist, kept him in PT and leg braces for a couple of years with little result. I questioned and questioned, as I had done since he was just past toddler stage and his heels hadn't gone down to the floor. Finally, the physical therapist told me that I had to take him to a surgeon and gave me a name.
The Husky program has NO orthepedicsurgeons in southern CT who participate, (not even in the clinic,) nor do they have any in Manhattan, which is very close to us. So we went to a surgeon at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital who is very well known and was also very kind and flexible with us upon learning that we were paying cash for the consult, due to the fact that I was tired of waiting six months to get an approval. ( We had just lived through the hell of waiting for a dermatologist approval that caused a plantar wart on his foot to grow into a real problem.) The doctor was willing to personally take whatever his office could negotiate for the operation and his office would take care of the hospital approval and the rest.
Thus began 1.5 years of craziness in trying to get the negotiations and approvals done. Neither the doctor's insurance office nor the hospital's insurance office were up to the task of getting an approval from this arm of Blue Cross and Blue Shield. I dealt with them extensively and I let them know that it was clear to me from my past and current dealings with Blue Cross and Blue Shield's other plans, that this was a set up. I know that they are not that inept, and some decision has been made to force their policy holders to jump through hoops to get anything.
Besides the surgery being canceled on the night before it was scheduled, because the hospital still hadn't gotten a confirmation number from the Blue Care people, and then reinstated in a few days, after the surgeon agreed to come in especially to operate on Will on a Friday that he was scheduled to go away...and finally, having finished the surgery, the doctor told me that Will was the oldest patient that he had ever done this surgery on. That it was supposed to be done years earlier and that he was glad that we didn't have to wait longer. Will had no calluses on his hells and his heels were half the width that they were supposed to be for his size. His tendons were so short that they were in danger of snapping if he had any sort of sports injury...and Will had gotten not only a black belt in Shaolin Kempo on his toes, but he had played LaCrosse that year for the first time on the school team...on his toes.
The doctor then sent us off with Will in double casts, which he had to wear for the summer. When they came off he was so weak that he had to go to physical therapy every day in order to walk properly. What was not lost on me was that if he had done this during the window that it is supposed ot be done, I would have had a much easier time in lifting him and caring for him...it was not easy; he is a very big kid...bigger than me already now at 13 years old and expected to be 6'4" by the time this growing thing is over.
It might sound like I was joking if I said that the hospital was still billing me for the use of the operating room 18 months later, but apparently it would have been OK to do the surgery on the kitchen table as far as the insurance company was concerned. They never properly approved the hospital room.
The point of all of telling stories is one of relativity of situations. I can talk and reason about this thing from my point of view without fear of retribution from the insurance company in any way...and as busy as I am, I know my rights. I already passed on suing them because I was caring for a big boy in double casts and immediately was also dealing with an elderly grandfather, and the rest of the craziness of life. It wasn't worth the time to engage in something so flawed....and its law...would I even have a case if I sued because bureaucracy caused my son not to get treatment until it was almost too late?
It shouldn't be so hard for us to get care...And now, we pay cash for Will's psychological care and just about everything outside of prescriptions and basic pediatric care. He has pneumonia currently so I've had an office visit and a prescription refill for $11, in a month that actually cost us $221 for our premium, plus $600 for therapy, plus $500 for Psychiatry, plus the additional prescriptions, and besides the antibiotics today...and I don't think I can even go into the other medical bills this month that were not covered... The thing is that I know people who would not even get the kind of care that we have fought for, nor would they try. And an inner city child with this problem could easily end up crippled. If it had not been for the saintly PT who became my friend along the way and talked ot me at great length about all sorts of things; if it had not been for her goign outside of the lines and recommending against what the clinic Drs were saying, he would still be on his toes or in painful leg braces, trying to stretch out tendons that were long past stretching.
The same system that serves poor kids in the public school, served William during most of his leg problems, and the therapists there were unable to help him unless the problem got in the way of his school work. In other words, if it had been his hands, and if he had not been able to write, he would have had OT and PT for that. If the school had stairs they would have addressed his legs a bit more. For the most part their hands were/are tied.
No specialists or regular doctors outside of clinics take this insurance, and many more are jumping off the rolls. Our current pediatrician runs the largest pediatrics practice in the area with 8 or 9 other doctors and alot of patients. They participate in the hospital clinic on a rotating basis like everyone, and they have done their part for the community. I guess that it was the amount of work to get the compensation and the levels of compensation they get that caused them recently to cease to accept the insurance altogether, even from those who had been grandfathered onto the boards previously. Apparently around 5-10 patients were kept as personal friends of the practice and one of those was US. The secretary, (who I know because she used to work at my vet's office,) told me in a whisper, that patients left in droves. I didn't even know this had gone on.
Why not use the clinics? Well, in a system that touts being able to choose your own doctor it is a little disconcerting to sit on line for an hour or two with spitty babies to get to see a doctor not of my choosing...I have seen many doctors in my life and they are not all good or even passable, and when you are dealing with surgery and the psychological and physical well-being of your child, you would like to know who you are seeing. I have heard stories of the city clinic in this town making mistakes with tests....important tests...enough said... The few private doctors that are taking Husky and serving the immigrant community...well, lets say that the one who's office I have frequented most recently keeps a pretty dirty place, and is so busy with the overflow of kids who have been thrown out of the other private practices lately, that he doesn't seem to have the help to even put water in the fish tank or have the waiting room cleaned. This doctor is fine for school physicals but when I questioned him about Lyme disease which is at an all time high around here, he knew little about the basic testing procedure and its flaws. I find him to be basically intelligent and he was open about the high false negatives of the Elisa test, but I would definitely want a second opinion on anything important. He is definitely someone who has to put off important issues and concerns because of parent's financial considerations. He can list off what is covered by Husky and which private plan is the best to be on through Husky. He is pretty good at picking what is the most pressing, but why should he have to? He prescribes from their formulary and chooses the tests that they suggest. I dont think that is good, and I've never met a doctor who operates that way.
This area has a cost of living that approaches Palm Beach, and yet the Husky program won't adjust the customary rates for doctors who are paying much more for rent and malpractice insurance. Nor will they adjust their purposeful bureaucracy, which a child could see is created to make the patient give up trying to get care or trying to get reimbursement. The few who take it are overrun by kids, have long lines, are burned out, and cant possibly process all the paperwork that is necessary to keep accepting this plan. And yet they do, because someone has to serve these children besides the emergency room.
So how does this situation effect an immigrant family? Well, let me add also that the forms are so complicated in order to get and remain ON the Husky program, that they send a step by step instruction manual. I have a college degree, I research and write on politics regularly, and I was previously a film coordinator and producer, and even I have to use the instructions and sometimes call the 800 number to fill out this crap because it is written so poorly and is so daunting. In fact, the social workers at all of the cities agencies have to take a CLASS in how to fill in the forms for this program....
I pay the maximum premium, and I still have to prove, and then prove again, my qualifications to pay that maximum...OK...apparently that is in case I ever make less and want to try to pay less...huh? Remember, no child can be turned down...but if money were no object, one would surely buy really good insurance that their doctors actually take and that doesn't take up all of their time. Why would anyone with money or good insurance choose this? The government would have to offer a plan so sterling, so wonderful, that people would give up what they have in favor of it, and short of offering all Americans what is offered to congress and the senate...and/or Medicare...I cant imagine that there is something coming down the pike that would budge busy Americans from where they are.
The idiots who say that if there were more insurance and good health care available it would be used more, are dead wrong. Rather, I've found that people are working so hard that they hardly have time for the well visits required to put their children into daycare or school. I see people putting off basic care all the time because of lack of time. The only people who I see going to the doctor regularly are the very old or the disabled....and those populations should go to the dr. all the time...on Medicare!
Here is an example from right now, today: I filled out the daunting forms to help a non English speaking single mom get the Husky program. They claim to have sent her a letter requesting further documentation. In Huskyland that means that they want the original of your child's birth certificate, your marriage or divorce decree, proof of your earnings, and your green card or citizenship papers; The originals...brought in person to social services. The letter was lost somewhere in the children messing the house up and the mother working all the time and she was very confused about what they wanted and if they were going to TAKE HER PAPERS AWAY. So, rather than deal with it, the Mom let it slide. I urged her over and over to call and ask for what information they needed, assuring her that I could bring the items to them and then bring them right back.
Finally, after I gave her a carefully written step by step note on what to say, she called from work. She then called me and said that she has been unable to reach the Husky people all day and that when she did, and asked for an interpreter as I had instructed her, the interpreter just referred her to a social services office, but didn't explain why. The number they gave had no answer or voice mail. She called and called and finally got through...at which point, or shortly thereafter, I got a call from a nasty, exasperated social services worker, who was telling me that the application no longer exists because the woman had not responded within the two week time frame, and that she had called and left messages....as I explained that the woman is working all the time and has to take time off to make all of these calls. She was very nasty and said that the woman would have to refill out an application and start again. I said that I had a copy...oh, a copy?? Well, then I just have to get her to sign and date it again.
I asked her to list for me again the things that need to be brought to social services. To which, she sighed a long sign and said, in a totally exasperated voice, birth certificate for the child, original...proof of income through original paystub or letter from employer (and when I said that there was no paystub but that she was being paid by check, the nasty said,"oh, so she is working illegally??"...NO, of course not! But if you said that to any one who was already nervous about their life and having to prove who they are over and over...well...)....divorce decree and information on the father...But he is out of the country and has no telephone; it doesn't matter...(I know this story...then you have to get a notarized affidavit stating that fact, which sounds more scary than the little letter that you get notarized at the bank is.) They need to know who the father is regardless of if he is on the moon or if they can collect any sort of support from him.
And does she have to bring the items personally? No. And who should I ask for? Well, this snotty girls is actually changing jobs so she wont be there anymore...actually she has missed many of the Mom's calls because she was in training for the new position. uh-huh.
As an aside, I knew that the snotty girl had left something out, but I just let it go. See, the first time she said green card or citizenship papers, original; she said it all really fast...but the time I was supposedly writing it down and going over it, she left it out. So the Mom would normally take the morning off of work and go to the bank, where she has been unsuccessful in getting a bank account because her green card and her DMV ID dont match, because she is using the name of one of the other father's of her kids...whatever...and they need more ID to take her money and make an account. So, going to the bank to notarize the affidavit letter that I will instruct her to write is probably out of the question, because you have to have an account with the bank to get things notarized for free. So she will have to go to the check cashing place and pay a premium. Then she will have to go to the social services with her papers...but she will find that the snotty girl on the phone didn't tell her to bring the citizenship papers, so she will not be able to complete this mission. It will be a week until she can try again.
That is why I am going to copy the forms, have her re-sign and re-date them, gather the pieces of her existence, and bring them over for her. Because the snotty girls who mess with me have another thing coming, even though Ive found more and more that there is a feeling, even in social services, that they have all the power and that the security of the country is in their hands...which gives them a real attitude problem. Truthfully, there is some bad blood between different groups of African Americans and also within their groups, who is a church goer and who is not, and the bloods vs. some Haitian gang, and the Spanish speaking population from anywhere, (who have quickly become the majority of the minority.) And then the hateful attitude encouraged at the desks by bad management, mixes in a bad way with the prying into of the lives and the original copies of these American's documents, be they permanent residents or full citizens, and the tension between the different groups of neighbors there, to create a situation where many people just walk away. They are waiting for a long time to get basic care and aid...most of them work and pay taxes...and they are struggling. I guess that they can still get emergency room care on an anonymous basis. The ones who walk away might be ignoring serious medical problems. And even the cruelest of conservatives can see that people who don't take their medication or see a doctor, stand a risk of costing the economy much, much more in the long run.
So imagine that you work crushing hours for less than minimum wage and you barely scrape by with kids to care for and a household to keep. Imagine that you apply and apply for help and your applications go unanswered, either because you're too damned busy to cover everything or because the snotty girl sets the stage for failure. Imagine that you come home on the weekend and have a room full of laundry to do, and a house to clean, and marketing to do...kids to nurture, paperwork to fill out, and bills to pay. Imagine that one or more kids are in trouble at school and that you're expected for a school event or to see the principal because someone is in trouble, someone is sick, and you can just never get ahead. Then, here comes the neocons who are literally trying to kill you because you're poor and you use the system, which should not exist or should be private...and look how well the privitized system works; especially in conjunction with the government systems that are trying to prove who people are and if they are here legally.
What will you do? When do you get a break? What about your poor family back in the old country who are begging for money all the time? What about these people who say they want to help but keep asking for your papers?
I was told recently by a social worker that a certain client was not as dumb as he appeared. That he had been working the system for his whole life and that its important to be able to recognize that. This wasn't a welfare king, or even someone doing partially well. It was someone who seemed inept, trying to raise a family and navigate a system that is complicated to say the least. If in the last 20 or 30 years we have not created some sort of a savvy generation of poor in this country, then what have we created? My point is that we certainly can't hate the poor if they know the system that they live in. The system is what they do to survive, and its not designed to elevate anyone up and out of that spot.
So, the grand idea to reform welfare is just a failed theory...and let me say that as far as I can see on the ground in this microcosm of the country, it never worked. We have to decide what we want in this country. Not everyone is going to rise up from the ghetto to own a home and put their children through college. The opportunity should be there, but trying to force everyone out into the workplace creates empty homes and aimless children...and an army of fast food workers who can't afford anything more than they could when they were on the dole. The reality of any large country could be that there are bound to be non-retired people who are permanently on the social services rolls. Maybe if we got real about that fact, we could move on to create programs for the kids to enable them to get out and have a chance. It could be that immigrating to a country, raising a family above poverty, and all upwards movement in a democratic society does not necessisarily apply only to the generation that we are faced with, but with multiple generations and a gradula progress. Blaming and limiting the entire family because the parent is unable to move with the speed that we have applied to the study of immigrants and poor people, does no good.
I am surrounded by people who want to work. But there are few jobs that make it worth upsetting the apple cart of Husky, housing, taxes, and childcare for. I also know people who fear letting their children out of their sight because of real dangers in the city, like shootings and muggings, not to mention the influence of other kids that they might not even know because they work all the time..
So, watch the societal costs roll out of these neighborhoods and watch the anger roll in from the middle class, who should be directing their anger upwards to the top earners who have tax breaks and every accounting trick onboard in the first place...The upper classes are only where they are thanks to this system, that allowed their parents and then them to stand on the shoulders of others in the hierarchy...and also to use the resources created by the pool formed by our tax dollars...So, should they pay back in according to how well they've done? Hell yes!! It is purely egotistical to claim to have made it to the top with no help....say what you will, but unless you fly, you have walked these streets, gone to these schools, for better or worse, and if you breathe this air, you have a part in this society...so do your part...more if you can.
The nature of what social services has become, in the rush to reform it, is to put a band aid on the problem and then to falsely try to help people move upwards towards the dream. The truth is that very few of the people living there now will be able to get out. If their children can, it will only be because of almost impossible diligence or finding a strong mentor to help them every step of the way. The truth is that the American Dream for many immigrants is not that they will rise from poverty, but that their children will have a shot.
If we were realistic and if the powers that be in this farce really wanted to do away with poverty, we would accept people as they are, and try to help those who we are able to help. But that takes money and manpower and programs and the kind of society that we don't have anymore...and I expect that we won't have it again unless and until we suffer another huge disaster like the great Depression that leaves Americans on the side of the road. Its a crime that we need to see dead children before we take action...and who knows if that even works anymore, because the dead Iraqi children on every newspaper don't seem to make a dent.
We are all Americans, all colors, all languages, in this melting pot of insanity...How is it supposed to work out in the end? How did the framers foresee it? Its an ongoing experiment...but its painfully clear from where I stand, that the cards are stacked against certain portions of the population...and we can debate endlessly about the new underclass to be: the middle class, and by what bar they should be measured for services, but we've got to keep in mind that every time we table a bill that could help with programs and systems for kids who don't even have the pain in the ass of having to live through the bureaucracy and kickback laden crap that any health care coming out of this government is going to be, we stop the really poor kids from getting any care at all, besides emergency care, which costs us all alot more than we ever would bargain for in dollars and cents but costs the most in the loss of our very identity as human beings and as Americans.
WW3..?...It seems to me that the real WW3 is the class war being waged on normal Americans, and the devastating changes happening through out the world due to our aggressive form of globalism , looking for an ever cheaper workforce and then pulling up stakes and moving on. The reasons to be afraid of the Bush Administration have more to do with the looting of the entire global social infrastructure for the gain of big business and cronyism ...and for the denial of basic services and the rights of every person to the basic necessities of health care, housing and food....WW3 is less about a mushroom cloud than about the war on people.
