Spay or Neuter Please!

Alter's Sarcasm

I’m a fan of the journalist and author Jonathan Alter. I have seen him on TV a number of times and he wrote a great book on FDR’s first 100 days in office. I always thought he was pretty progressive in his thinking so I was surprised when I saw that he wrote an article called, “What’s Not to Like? Why do we need health-care reform? Everything is just fine the way it is.”

I quickly learned he was being satirical and I want to share a few important points. I’m very serious here. Dealing with health insurance throughout Heidi’s cancer and recovery has been a nightmare and we have had insurance the entire time. But here are a few thoughts by Alter:

I’m with the woman who wrote the president complaining about “social medicine” and added: “Now keep your hands off my Medicare.” That’s the spirit!

Please, please, please tell me you know the difference between Medicare and socialized medicine. Do you? Well, there is none. It might be hard to believe but Medicare is socialized medicine for everyone over 65. The only qualification is a social security number and 65 years of age and then you are guaranteed coverage.

I work in hospice care and we have far more problems with private insurance than we do with Medicare. Get this; many insurance companies only want to pay for six months of hospice care while Medicare is indefinite. So, if you are terminally ill but you take longer than six months to die…well, you have to come up with the $140 a day for hospice care. Good luck!

I had cancer a few years ago. I like the fact that if I lose my job, I won’t be able to get any insurance because of my illness…I like the choice I’d face if…the cancer recurs – sell my house to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in treatment or die.

When Heidi moved to Texas we were naïve. We thought since her insurance had never lapsed we could purchase private insurance. Yeah, right! No insurance company will cover Heidi as a private pay client for at least 10 years.

Instead we had to purchase insurance through the COBRA program (at least we had this option, thanks President Clinton). It is expensive but it works and saved us twice. When you quit your job you can continue to pay for your previous plan for up to 18 months. But there is a catch; you pay 103% of the premiums. In our case it was over $600 a month…just for Heidi.

Medical expenses are involved in over 60% of US bankruptcies…wonderful. If you do not have insurance and you have a pre-existing condition I feel for you…you are already screwed but you just don’t know it yet. Don’t think for a second your case is special, you are not an exception.

I like the “lifetime limits” that many policies have today. Missed the fine print on that one, did you? It means that after you exceed a certain amount of reimbursement, you don’t get anything from the insurance company. That’s fair.

I believe the typical lifetime limit is 5 million. Heidi’s ordeal cost half a million so hopefully costs don’t keep going up too much or she might run out of dinero.

It’s a long story but a very successful and wealthy family once sued me because of this clause. I was involved in a fender-bender with a retired NFL linebacker. Over 20 years after leaving the NFL he had dozens of surgeries on his back and legs and burned up the 5 million allotment. Four years after our fender-bender he died and his family sued me for wrongful death in a vain attempt to pay of some of his medical bills. The case was thrown out.

Speaking of fair, it seems fair to me that cost-cutting bureaucrats at the insurance companies – not doctors – decide what’s reimbursable. After all, the insurance companies know best.

This is one of my favorite stupid arguments: “My healthcare should be between my doctor and myself and a politician should not be involved.” ARE YOU SERIOUS?! Do you really think your care is between you and your doctor?! I hate to break it to you but you don’t have a single thing done without the permission of your insurance company. The End.

Two stories, first Heidi and I had good insurance, PPO not HMO (If you don’t know the difference you need to learn ASAP). On one occasion Heidi had a two-inch needle stuck in her chest to administer meds. However, the doctor forgot to authorize a certain med, one she had already received several times before, and they had to call the insurance company for permission. Forty-five minutes later Heidi still had a two-inch needle in her chest, as we waited for the insurance company – not her doctor – to determine the med was a necessary.

Second story, my work changed insurance companies just before Heidi’s last chemo treatment. So despite already having 13 rounds of chemo according to the procedures set by doctors, the insurance company was not sure if Heidi needed one more round. Heidi was supposed to go into the hospital for her final treatment on a Monday…we got in on Thursday.

Don’t fool yourselves into thinking your care is between you and your doctor. Sure, the doctor tells you what needs to be done but it doesn’t get done until the insurance company says so. I’d rather have a politician, who is not in it to make money, than insurance companies, who actually make more money if you don’t receive care, determine treatment plans.

And how could the supporters of these reform bills believe in anything as stupid as a “public option”? Do they really believe that the health-insurance cartel deserves a little competition to keep them honest? Back in the day they had a word for competition. A bad word. They called it capitalism. FedEx versus the US Postal Service, CNN versus PBS - just because it’s government backed doesn’t mean you can’t compete against it. If they believed in capitalism, the insurance companies would join the fray and compete.

Who stands to lose the most with healthcare reform? Not the doctors, they’ll always make money. Perhaps a little less but they’ll still be plenty wealthy. Hospitals? Nope again, in fact they probably would get more reimbursed because most people entering their doors would have some sort of coverage. Those that stand to lose the most are the insurance companies and that is why they are spending over 1 million dollars a day on lobbyists to make sure things stay the way that they are.

The villain is not the government here, it is the insurance companies that have taken us all to town over the past several decades. I want to be optimistic but thanks to money-grubbing insurance barons our system is probably too screwed up to fix. We beg you, if you do not have insurance you better get some soon because if you don’t and something bad happens…well, you just better hope that doesn’t happen.

Was that a real happy entry or what?

I'm Not Very Inspired

On September 12, 2009 there was a big rally in Washington D.C. by the "Tea Party" people. Protest organizers claimed to have 1-1.5 million attendees but the official numbers are more like 60-70,000. Not exactly a Million Man March but respectable none-the-less.

I love protests. Traditionally they have great music and brought about significant change such as Civil Rights and Woman's Suffrage. But unlike those noble endeavors the "Tea Party" people oppose pretty much anything and everything proposed by President Obama and Congress.

But that is besides the point. Like many I have been inspired by the signs carried by the Civil Rights proponents and Women's Suffrage. The two images that still haunt me are those of African-American men carrying signs that say "I AM A MAN" and the parade of women carrying the signatures of one million women demanding equal rights. And then there are the "Tea Party" people:

(Look carefully at this jerk's signs; gotta love that fear mongering.)

(Thousands of these signs were handed out...real classy. I'm sure health insurance companies were behind this one.)

("Muslim Marxist," really? Oh, and Glenn Beck is this guy's hero. Him?)

(Let me explain, a horse crapped on the road so they slid a sign with Obama underneath the poo and now they are taking pictures of it..)

(Now I just don't get this woman's gripe, did she really lose her gun? Completely plausible at a rally like this one. Or does she feel the government is preventing her from getting a gun because sadly anyone can get a gun in this country if they try hard enough. Or does she feel the government owes her a gun?)

(What physical characteristic do all of these people have in common?)

Several thoughts:

1. What's the saying...you catch more bees with honey than water? I mean come on, how ostracizing are these people?
2. Not a single racial minority in all of these photos. How much of their actions/words are more about race than policy? I hate to break it to them but this is no longer strictly a white country - I'm OK with that, I actually think it is kind of neat - and the sooner they are the better.
3. When you get a kick out of putting a sign under poo and taking a photo of it you have issues. Ironically, these brain donors probably don't pick up after their dog takes a dump.
4. For those who follow our blog you already know how I feel about the "Hitler/Nazi Card."
5. I'm also disturbed about how much the government is spending, however, where were all of these people as the USA spent over a trillion dollars in Iraq? How much did we get out of that investment? I'd rather have health care for all with a price tag like that.

Just a few of my thoughts. Anybody follow this whole "Tea Party" movement? They just seem to spew anger and that's just not physically or mentally healthy...I hope they have good health insurance.

Again, I love protests, that is how things get done but could you see Gandhi carrying signs like these? Or how about Martin Luther King, Jr.? They did not resort to such intellectually immature tactics and they got a lot done before they were both gunned down.

Do you have any thoughts on this subject or are you trying to ignore the news, if you are ignoring the news good for you, you will be a happier person as a result.

My {blogging} break

I {and this is Heidi by the way} went back to school today.

I cried a little, leaving my little guy.

He didn't care though.
He just kept squirming and wiggling and wanting to play with his toys.
I had so much fun with him over my break.
{My blogging break as it turned out to be.}
I did a lot of playing and a whole lot less blogging.
I think I like it that way.
Taking the internet out of our lives...at least our daily lives.
And taking precious time to relish in the newness and innocence of my child.
Three weeks to just hold him and cuddle with him and love him to death.
And we had our adventures too:

We played in the bathtub {and when I say 'We' I mean Henry},

We went to the zoo,


We went swimming,

And then Henry and I went up to Utah to see our new nephew/cousin Quinten...
and to see Andrew off on his mission.
Why did I not take any pictures of Andrew?
Hmph?!
We got lots of hugs and kisses from Grandma and Grandpa...

and a few too many kisses from Auntie Rachel.

I got to meet up with my college room-mates...

And hang out with all our kids.
Should it be weird that we have kids? It feels like we're still 18!
And doesn't Henry look thrilled to be there!

We saw our family on the Shelton side, and got to hang out with all the cousins
(sans Jason's family...sniff sniff.)

And grandma and grandpa Williams took all 7 grandkids to the zoo!

{with the help of me and Rachel of course}

Henry and I had a great time in Utah, besides the horrible plane ride home, all went surprisingly well without the help of Daniel.


Henry and I were sad to leave our family, but excited to come back home and see Daniel and the dogs...and I guess that stupid cat too.

If you want to see more pictures of our adventures keep an eye on Henry's blog.

The World Needs More Lou Gehrigs

Last week I read “Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig” by Jonathan Eig. Before reading this book I really only knew three things about Lou Gehrig:

First, in 1995 Cal Ripken broke Gehrig’s record for the longest streak of games played, I remember this because I was in high school and it was a pretty big deal when this “unbreakable” record was broke. It took more than fifteen years of playing in every single baseball game possible for Ripken to break the record.

Second, Lou Gehrig gave one of the few speeches in American history that most Americans can at least partly quote: “Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” We have all seen and heard clips of this speech given at Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day on July 4, 1939.

Finally, I knew he died of “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.” Eventually I learned that “Lou Gehrig’s Disease” is actually Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or ALS. And no, he was not the first one to be diagnosed with this horrific disease, not even close. But his name became synonymous with the ailment as he became a martyr for the exploration and study of ALS.

But after reading this book (which brought me to tears on a number of occasions) I realized how unfair it was that this stand-up guy was given such a raw deal. He was a decent, good, kind, talented, and humble man and I came to the conclusion that the world needs more men (and women) like Lou Gehrig. There are so many reasons to like this likable man but after reading the book a few things really stuck out:

• Born to poor immigrant parents he began working as a teen to help cover his family’s bills. Though he did not graduate he studied at Columbia for two years where he played baseball until the Yankees signed him. Considering the period of time and his poverty and immigrant background just making it into college was a huge commendable step.

• His first name was Henry and he was a total Mama’s Boy (Remind you of anybody?) He lived with his parents several years into his professional baseball career until he married his wife, Eleanor. He would take cookies and pickles his mom would make to the Yankee’s practice to share with the other players. While many players went to Spring Training to party Gehrig would take his mother.

• Lou Gehrig was only one of a few players from the era to make the unpopular move and criticize racial segregation in baseball. He once made a statement in an interview that baseball is America’s pastime, something everyone should be able to participate in and enjoy regardless of one’s race.

• He loved what he did. When the Yankee’s would send him his contract he quickly signed it and mailed it back without negotiation because he was terrified they would change their mind. He didn’t care how much they paid him because he played a child’s game for a living and that was fine by him.

• The record. Over fifteen years he played in 2,130 straight games. Do you know anyone that has not missed work in over 15 years for personal or health reasons? For crying out loud the only thing that stopped the man from playing baseball was contracting a deadly disease! It took 56 years for the record to be broken by Cal Ripken (a decent guy himself). It might never happen again in my lifetime seeing as how the third place is over 1500 games short of breaking the record.

• After being diagnosed with ALS he was optimistic but realistic. He knew he would not be able to play baseball again but he made the best of what life he had left. Do you know what he did after retiring from baseball? He accepted a position from the mayor of NYC on the city parole board. Public service! How many athletes quit sports only to take a job in public service? He kept the job for over a year, often accompanied by his wife, and when he became too sick to work he asked for a six-month leave of absence hoping he would rebound enough to return to work.

What can I say, Lou Gehrig is officially one of my heroes and the world needs more people like him. Perhaps the quality I most admire was his ability to get along with everyone. People just liked the guy. He was quiet and sensitive and didn’t really care what other people thought about him or his actions. Man, why can’t I be like this guy? Who is your hero? Why? Just curious. I’m always looking for good role models.

Choices

CORRECTION: I was so excited to throw myself a pity party that I forgot Heidi's mom spent a week here shortly after Henry was born and Heidi's dad spent a day here when he was passing through for business. My bad. Maybe I was just thinking of my side of the family.

Heidi went to Utah this past week to see her brother off on his mission. During this time several people have asked me why I did not go. Setting aside my disdain for Utah culture it would have been nice to escape the Houston heat and humidity, see family and friends, and enjoy the mountains. However, we have a few trips planned and I can only take so much time off of work so I had to make a choice. I could have taken work off and gone to Utah but I would have to go without one of the following three planned trips:

1. Next week Heidi, Henry, the dogs and I are going to New Orleans to meet some friends for four days. During that time we hope to eat fried dough in the most corrupt city in the country, go to the D-Day Museum, check out the local Dog Parks (a ritual we do on every vacation), ironically go to a BYU football game and enjoy one of the most unique cities in the country.

2. In October Heidi, Henry, the dogs, and I are going to Austin for a few days. While there we will participate in the charitable event "Walk for Farm Animals," go to the LBJ Presidential Museum, eat at Mr. Naturals, go to Red Bud Isle Dog Park (only the coolest dog park we have ever seen), and perhaps this time we can check out one of Austin's many musical venues.

3. In December Heidi, Henry, the dogs and I are driving across the American Southeast to get to Florida for Christmas at Pop-Pop and Gaingi William's home. While there we hope to see the manatees, check out a School of Asian Medicine, go to some dog beaches, and enjoy the plethora of fun outings available in the Tampa Bay area.

I look at that list and can't believe I am second guessing not going to Utah! I feel like I made the right choice. I mean sure the mountains are great but Texas has plenty of outdoor opportunities. I do miss my family and friends but they rarely came to see us in Vegas and other than the Andersons nobody has come here so until they put in a little effort to see us down in the Lone Star State it is hard to reciprocate.

But what do you think? Did I do the right thing? It would have been nice to see Andrew's farewell talk (I really am proud of him for taking this huge step in life) but I only have so much time and money at my disposal. What would you have done? By not going well probably be able to have one other short trip in November, something we would not be able to do if we had spent all that time and money going up to Utah. I don't know, maybe I'm just a jerk, but life is too short to keep going back to the same place I have been so many times before.

P.S. I sure do miss Heidi and Henry...they are my best friends.