Wrong again Willard

Romney said on 60 Minutes that if people get sick or need a doctor and they are poor, they can just go to the emergency room and get treated.  So, in his mind we have national health care for all.

As usual when it comes to things involving the poor and the working poor, Mitt's wrong.  And I know from experience he's wrong.

The last company I worked for took my health insurance from me when my sales fell below a certain level.  Even though I paid for it, they took it from me.  If I got my sales up for a quarter, they said I could have it back.  Since I didn't have health insurance I didn't go to visit a doctor when I started having chest pains.  A few months later I had a massive heart attack.  Had I had insurance I would have been diagnosed with a heart condition, given a stress test, and would have been sent to get a bypass operation.

But I didn't.  I collapsed and was rushed to the emergency room.  Instead of preventing a heart attack, I was given full blown treatment after having had one.  And since at that time adults could still get on Tenn Care, my states version of Medicaid, which has since been slashed and is now available only to children and expectant mothers, Tenn Care paid for most of the treatment I got after my heart attack and it covered 100% of my quadruple bypass surgery.  In case you missed it, instead of having a private insurer pay, the tax payers of my state paid for my treatment.

If my heart attack had been prevented the state would have saved thousands of dollars and I probably wouldn't be on disability today.  I'd be contributing more tax dollars to the system and I'd be making far more money by being employed than I do on Social Security Disability.  So in my case, and in most all cases like mine where people lost health insurance and had to rely on public assistance, remember that's Mitt's new health care plan, the government ended up paying far more than it would have if I had been able to see and doctor who would have caught my disease and treated it before I had a massive heart attack.  Mitt's plan then, just let the people who don't have insurance go to the emergency room, costs society as a whole more than prevention and proper treatment.

Just like all the rest of his ideas, it's wrong and based on faulty assumptions.  And it shows once again his callous disregard for the poorest among us.  He's never had to go without, he's always had his way paid for, he has no idea what it's like to be poor and to be at the mercy of the system that he's not only benefited from, it's one he's helped rig in his favor.

If you're going to hear the truth, then you might as well hear it from me

Some progressives and liberals are claiming the health insurance reform that was passed recently by the House of Representatives is a 'sell out' and/or an insult to working people, a slap in the face of women, the worst thing ever, and possibly the end of western civilization as we know it. They site the Stupak amendment, the fact that the bill is not single payer national health insurance, or that it didn't include something they thought it should, or that it included too much stuff they didn't want in it.

To those people I have this to say: get over it. Modern politics is all about compromise. And compromise means that you get some of what you want and some of what you don't want. In this age of hyper partisan politics we constantly expect that if our political party is in the majority then we get all of what we want enacted into law. Ummm, sorry to burst your bubbles but it doesn't work that way. In order to pass a bill you give away some things in order to get others. You and I may not like it, and I know I don't because I want European style single payer health insurance for all, but that's the way it is.

And you know what else? It's going to stay that way until you organize enough to oust the people you don't like and then you organize some more to elect the people you do like. But even if you do that then you still have to contend with the power of corporate money in our political system. Until we get rid of the tidal wave of corporate money that floods our political system and we go to 100% public financing for our elections then things will always be the way they are now. So what you people who want things changed need to do is to organize and work to oust politicians and judges who favor keeping the legal fiction that corporations are persons and have the same rights as you and I. And you also need to work to oust judges and politicians who say that political donations are a form of speech and therefore protected under the First Amendment.

There's another group of folks on the left who need to get over themselves too and that's those who say that the Democrats who voted against the health care bill aren't real Democrats and they should leave the party. One quick word to those that say that, and that word is, NO. You folks are sounding like Republicans. See folks, political parties are made up of all kinds of folks and some of those people are more conservative or more liberal than you. Do I like it that so many Democrats voted against the bill? No. But are they had their reasons, some like my man Dennis Kucinich voted against it because it's not single payer, and some like Heath Schuler and Rick Boucher voted against it because they represent heavily Republican districts and they want to be seen as 'tough' and 'standing up to' Nancy Pelosi. I guarantee you that those men would have voted for the bill if their votes meant passage or failure for the bill.

What those of you on the left who oppose this bill need to understand is that it is real reform, reform that we've needed for many many years. And like I and many others have said, it's a good start. Now please, before you leave me any long winded comments or write me off all together, go back and re read the previous sentence. This bill is JUST A START. And a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. I want single payer, but I am supporting this bill. And I know that if I really want single payer health insurance in this country then I need to get out and organize my neighbors, go door to door and explain why it will bring down the cost of health care and actually save small business, I could care less about big business and in fact, I hope big business fails and takes the corrupt financial system with it.

And to those disaffected Hillary supports out there who want all attempts at health insurance reform to fail because Obama is President and not Hillary, I say, kiss my ass. You people are lower than pond scum. You'd gladly see millions of your fellow citizens go without health insurance just so you can gloat about breaking President Obama. And if you idiots think that Hillary wouldn't have made the same concessions that President Obama has in this fight then think again. She'd have made the same ones and possibly even more. After all Hillary enriched herself while sitting on the board of directors of Wal Mart while it put hundreds of thousands of small businesses out of business.

Crazy huh

It turns out that the happiest people in the world live in countries where there are high taxes and high rates of atheism. I'm guessing people love living where their taxes pay for their health care, their kid's college, and it pays for a strong social safety net. Since they don't have to worry about working so hard to pay for life necessities, they have no need to become slaves to out dated Bronze age religions.

So once again, it shows you how wrong conservatives and libertarians are. People do not mind paying taxes as long as they get something tangible for their money, like health care, college educations, unemployment insurance, etc. And notice that some of the world's most successful corporations come from those countries as well, corporations like Nokia, Bang & Olufsen, Lego, Heineken, Vodaphone, and Royal Dutch Shell. Also the unemployment rate in Finland and Denmark routinely hovers around 2%. So the line that business can't survive or thrive in highly taxed countries is nonsense.


If we would just make the rich and big business pay their fair share of taxes we wouldn't have to pay much more to get all the things that other, more civilized, countries have.

Cheap shot

I couldn't stomach watching that interview with Bush McCain yesterday morning, but thank goodness the cats over at Crooks and Liars watched it and reported on the juicy tid bits.  The best bit of the interview to me was when Bush McCain said that Elizabeth Edwards, a breast cancer survivor, was taking a "cheap shot" at him for asking why the American people couldn't have what he's had most of his life, health insurance paid for by the US government.  

Bush McCain reminded everyone of the time when he didn't have health care, and that was when he was being held in a North Vietnamese POW camp.  So we're supposed to feel sorry for Bush McCain now and forgive him the fact that for all those other years he's had what millions of Americans don't have?  The fact that he spent a few years in the Hanoi Hilton excuses him from sucking at the government insurance teat all these other years?

Ummm, as the kids today say Senator, hell to the no.  The fact is Bush McCain, just like his buddy Dick "So" Cheney, has not only government sponsored health insurance, he's got the best of the best that our government offers.  Millions of Americans have a form of "socialized" health care, and I'm one of them, and it's called Medicare.  Others have Medicaid.  But the cream of the crop, the asses in Washington DC and the people who work for them, get the best of the best insurance, they pay virtually nothing for their insurance because they are doing "the people's business."  I pay around $100 a month in Medicare premiums and that's deducted from my monthly SSDI, McCain makes far more than I make on SSDI, I'd be willing to bet he makes a month about a few thousand times what I make, and yet he pays less for his health insurance than I do.  And he gets better coverage as well.

But then there's the millions of men, women, and children in this country who have no health insurance whatsoever, just like Bush McCain in his Vietnam days.  Is it a cheap shot at those people if we ask why they don't have government paid health insurance?  If we lock them up in the Hanoi Hilton and then we let them out is it okay if they have what Bush McCain has?  Can the rest of us folks on Medicare and Medicaid go do some time in a POW camp in the Vietnamese jungle so we can get the same level of medical insurance that Bush McCain has?

Asking why we all can't have the same level of government paid health care that Bush McCain and Dick Cheney has isn't a cheap shot, it's only fair.  We're supposed to be all about fairness and equality here in the USA and it's about time that we all got the fair and equal government paid health care that people like Bush McCain get.  And if they're worried about how the government is going to pay for it, well, they can start by taxing his wife Cindy's 100 million dollar  fortune.  And then when they get that one taxed, tax the Cheney's, then all the Bushes, and then tax every multinational corporation until we all have the same health insurance that Bush McCain does now.  And if they don't then they're taking a cheap shot at each and every US citizen.

One down, two to go

Castro resigned today.

Too bad these two won't do the same thing.

If they did then we'd be rid of three of the world's dictators. And then maybe after those asshats were gone we could start dismantling the corporate power structure that is strangling us all.

Stress relief

It took me two tries but I finally got that stress test out of the way today and the people who worked at the cardiology clinic where I went to day could not have been nicer and more professional, unlike the assholes at Heart and Vascular, 405 State of Franklin Street, Johnson, City.

The whole process took about 3 and a half hours so hopefully this one will do me for a few years. It was a full on cardio stress test so I got the whole schmear, the electrodes on me while I walked on the treadmill, the nuclear isotopes injected into me, and all the other trappings.
The fact that they did not hospitalize me during the tests leads me to believe that this stress test went pretty well. I couldn't manage to get my beats per minute up to where they wanted me to but beyond that I don't think there were any problems.

The doctor who monitored my heart rate during the treadmill portion of the test was very nice and he treated me with respect. He answered my questions and was very helpful. He was 180 degrees different than that ass I saw last week.

The nurse who prepped me was a nice young woman who hailed from Bombay. Her name was Rekah. She was incredibly nice and very thorough. I got along well with her, so well in fact that I was able to crack some jokes with her as she got me ready.
Imagine this gal with a bit darker skin and wearing a pair of glasses and that's what Rekah looked like. I got her on the old "Will I be able to play piano after this procedure?" joke. We laughed like crazy after I told her the punch line, and by we I mean me because she politely smiled and Sparky rolled her eyes after I used that joke. Believe me, it was good times, good times.

The nurse who supervised the treadmill portion of the test was a nice woman as well. After she said her first sentence to me I said, "So, what part of the Midwest are you from?" She laughed and told me she was originally from Michigan. I told her I could tell as soon as she opened her mouth and spoke. I admitted I was originally from Detroit so we had that going on between us. It was pure Midwest medical magic for a few minutes.

I get the records back from my visit and their interpretation of the results Friday or Monday, hopefully. I'll then hand deliver them to my cardiologist some time in the next few months.

Two quick notes to the people at that cardiology clinic:

• Having a few books from the 1970's and some copies of Trailer Life magazine in a room does not a "library" make.
• If you're wondering who tore out the pages with that cassoulet recipe from that old copy of Martha Stewart Living in the patient holding pen in the back, it was me. Not to worry though, I'm going to do some serious modifying on that recipe so that it's not so high in fat.

Here's hoping all you take better care of your heart than I did and you don't have to go through cardio stress tests like I do.

Customer satisfaction? What's that?

I didn't think it was possible for me to find another industry that used the same bad business model that Charter Cable uses, but some how I did. And what industry would treat their customers with contempt, sneer at people who asked questions, and demand utter obedience and obsequiousness from their customers? Why that industry would be the health care industry in general and the cardiology profession in particular (my regular cardiologist is exempt from this tirade).

For those you of who are joining this blog already in progress, let me update you. In 2004 I had a massive heart attack while I was in Knoxville. I got sent to the Baptist Hospital ER where I met Dr. Hoadley, who would become my regular cardiologist. He put a stent in me that night and he recommended I get bypass surgery. Six weeks after my heart attack I got quadruple bypass surgery. After my successful bypass surgery I decided to keep on seeing Dr. Hoadley because he is a good doctor who listens to me, which is a rarity these days, despite the fact that his office is in Knoxville and I live in Johnson City. For those of you unfamiliar with the geography of TN here is a little visual aid to help you visualize the distance from Knoxville to Johnson City:

Red dot=Johnson City

Blue dot=Knoxville

So every time I got to see my cardiologist I have to drive about 220 miles round trip. I don't mind it now because I only see him about every six months or so. However the last time I saw him he said I needed to get a cardio stress test done since my last one was done in January of 2005. After checking with the people in his office I found out that I could only get one scheduled for early in the morning at around 7:30/8 AM. They don't schedule any any later in the day so that meant that I would have to get up at around 5:30 AM and drive like a bat out hell to get to their office on time. Well boys and girls, I decided to try something different this time, something that would be more convenient for me, something so radical that it would cause some people to freak out, I decided to get my cardio stress test done locally in Johnson City and then I'd give the results to my cardiologist on my next appointment.

There in lies the problem. I thought, silly me, that a cardio stress test was a stress test was a stress test and that if you got one done at a reputable hospital then it would be fine and the results would be accepted country, if not world, wide. Seems simple doesn't it? Get a test done close to home and then have your regular doctor, the guy who has all your info and who knows you, interpret the results later.

Well kids, I somehow managed to wangle an appointment with a cardiology outfit here in Johnson City and I told the referring phys. office that I needed to see them for a stress test only. When I got the cardiology office in town this morning I was told that the referring phys. office had sent me over as a new cardiology patient and that they had no idea I needed a stress test. I politely but firmly told them I was not going to be a regular patient and that I only wanted a stress test done. This seemingly simple request of mine seemed to throw the two nurses who I dealt with initially. They seemed stunned that I would tell them what treatment or test I wanted instead of it being the other way around.

After a few minutes of sitting alone in the cold as hell exam room a douchebag on two legs, or he may actually have been the doctor I'm not sure, came in the room and he demanded to know if I got the stress test done there was he was going to be my cardiologist from then on.

I told him no. I said I would continue to see Dr. Hoadley. This seemed to throw Dr. Douchebag for a big loop. He stammered and hemmed and hawed and when he finally determined that he was not going to be making any more money off me he then said that I should get the stress test done in Knoxville. I told Dr. Douchebaggy that it was a matter of convenience for me to get it done there and then I could take the results to Knoxville next time I went to see my regular cardiologist. Dr. Douchenheimer was having none of it. He claimed that cardiologists rarely trusted stress test results from other cardiologists and that he was suspicious of anyone who walked in his office bearing results of tests done elsewhere. I stood my ground and I told him that I'd like to get the test which I had scheduled for today done. He said I should get it done in Knoxville. I tried to tell him again about the convenience aspect and he interrupted me by telling me that I was an unpleasant person who was just giving him some "shit." I stood up and told him, "Fine, if you don't want to do the stress test here I'll get it done in Knoxville." It was all I could not to spit on him and tell him he was one of the reasons why people hate doctors and hospitals.

I couldn't believe how condescending and jack assy he was towards me and my situation. Because my medical gravy train wasn't going to be stopping at his shitty station any more he decided to say, "Fuck you, I don't care what you want or what is good for you, it's all about me and making money for my practice." As for insane pronouncement that cardiologists rarely trust outside test results, I know that's a fucking lie because the last stress test I had done was at a hospital other than the one where I usually get treatment and my cardiologist readily accepted those results. Maybe, just maybe, Dr. Doucheinstein at Heart and Vascular, located at Suite 24 in 408 North State of Franklin Road, Johnson City, TN, knew his people were not up to snuff and that the test results from his office are universally suspect and he did not want another office finding out how incompetent he and his people are.

It really is a shame that medical "professionals" like this asshole are allowed to dictate when and where people get the tests their regular doctor orders for them. I'm sure if I lived in Canada, or the UK, or in France, I could have gotten that stress test done anywhere I fucking wanted and it the results would have been accepted anywhere.

Wanna hear a good one?

The assholes in Congress are getting a pay raise of over $4000 starting this month.

The cost of living increase on my SSDI was about $16 bucks and I have to now pay a co-pay for generic drugs on my Medicare prescription plan.

They get a pay raise of over $4000 and you and I get shit.

Is this a great country or what?

Somewhat of a movie review

I saw this movie last night on DVD. During this film I laughed, I got pissed off at our health care system, at Congress, and at all the corporations who profit off our health care system. At various points I decided I was going to move to Canada, then the UK, then France, then Norway because all those countries treat their citizens better than we do. Most of all I was deeply and profoundly ashamed of our country and by all the people who refuse to stand up for universal single payer not for profit health insurance for all and who fall for the lies and smoke screens of the corporations who benefit from our current system.

I urge every one of you to see this film and to tell others to see it. I urge you all to watch the extras on the DVD and to do something, anything, to get universal not for profit single payer health care for all of us in this country.

I was going to write about how I lost my health insurance right before I had my heart attack, and then how I got tossed off Tenn Care, which was the state of TN's version of Medicaid, and all about my hassles getting my SSDI benefits, but then it hit me as I was writing it, what happened to me was nothing compared to the people who've died as a result of the actions of the insurance companies and for profit hospitals, so I erased it. I'm still alive and some of those poor folks lost husbands, wives, children, and other loved ones.

It's a god damned shame that we allow corporations to dictate medical decisions. And it's an even bigger god damned shame that we don't rise up and do something about it. I'm going to go to Michael Moore's website later and I'm going to help out in whatever small way I can and if you do a small part too then all of us together can change this country for the better.

I'd like to ask my Canadian readers and UK readers to leave a comment about the health care systems in your countries. Do you think your health care systems suck like they Reich wingers in this country say they do? Or are they decent systems? Do you have any nightmare stories to tell? Or are the pundits on FOX and the corporate media lying when they say health care in your countries is a huge mess?

I know my heart will go on

I just got back from my cardiologist appointment in Knoxville, I have to go every six months for a check up to placate the douchebags at Met Life Insurance, my last employer had a disability policy with them and lucky for me they did or I would have been without income for the year and a half it took me to get my SSDI benefits. No worries on this trip which was good news, Dr. Hoadley told me I seem to be doing well and he says that he's glad to see me coming back in these six month increments because that means he's been doing a good job of keeping me alive.

He and I have a funny doctor patient relationship. He was the cardiologist on duty the night I had my heart attack and he was the one who put the stent in me that night. He also was the guy who recommended I get bypass surgery and despite my sometimes bad behavior towards the medical people in Baptist Hospital in Knoxville, he's still my cardiologist.

At one time I pissed him off and he told me to find another cardiologist closer to my home, it's an hour and a half drive to his office from our home, but we've since smoothed things out and Sparky and I still make the trip every six months to see him. After he found out I was one of those patients who reads up on his disease he treats me with much more respect than he would some idiot who never modifies their behavior or lifestyle after a life changing heart attack. He also found out I used to do improv comedy and so he likes to joke around with me when I go see him. Here's a snippet of our conversation in his office today:

Dr. Hoadley: You need to find a personal physician so you can see them in emergencies.
Me: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I will. I promise.
Dr. H: You also need to have one because it's a long drive up here and something may happen to you, no let me rephrase that, something will happen to you eventually...
Me: Like?
Dr. H: Something like an accident or you could get cancer. So that's why...
Me: Well, odds are one of us is going to get cancer at some point.
Dr. H: Most likely it'll be you. (Laughing)
Me: Geez, you need to work on that bedside manner. You're a real barrel of laughs and full of bad news today.
Dr. H: (Laughing) Well, as long as I'm giving you bad news, you're ugly too.
Me: Sez you baldy. (Pointing to my still hair covered head) See? I still have my hair. Oh, what happened to yours? Why it all fell out! Nah, nah, nah.

He's no Henny Youngman but the guy does have some comedic game and he's a nice guy so you can see why I don't mind driving an hour and a half to see him instead of finding some quack around here in Johnson City.

Unfortunately, almost everyone else in his office sucks ass. There receptionists are a group of women who Sparky and I have dubbed The Coven due to their rudeness and witchy bitchy behavior. They scream out people's names and have no problem shouting out personal info about patients if they like. They seem to think that because the majority of their patients are elderly that all people who come into the office are heard of hearing. The gal who took my blood today also suffered from thinking I was deaf as well. I was standing not four feet from her when she shouted my name and demanded that I follow her. I asked to to not shout at me and she seemed to think I was joking. She said loudly, "I hope I don't have to shout at you." When I told her I was not deaf and that I would appreciate it if she used her "indoor voice" when speaking to me she finally got the picture.

But having a doctor who will joke around with me while he makes sure I stay alive makes me keep going back to Baptist Hospital in Knoxville every six months.

After we left with my good cardiac report and a promise to schedule a cardio stress test later, Sparky and I went and had lunch at the Gourmet Market on Kingston Pike. It was meh, nothing special but we enjoy browsing in the kitchen and cooking utensil part of the place. After that we hightailed it to one of our favorite Knox-Vegas haunts, McKay's Used Books and CD's where I picked up a couple of travel and food related books and a Kirsty MacColl CD and Sparky bought herself some novels by Peter Mayle and Anne Tyler as well as a travel book that I'm sure I'll end up reading someday as well.

All in all not a bad day and I sure am glad I'm home now so I can blog like crazy and read all your wonderful blogs too.