It's been a rough few weeks. Really rough.
I've had a bunch of emails asking if I fell of the planet. No, still here, but death paid us a visit. And when this happens, life just stops.
Three weeks from yesterday, I was flying to Los Angeles hoping desperately that my beloved stepfather would dodge another bullet. He was more than a step-father, my sister brother and I called him our second father, because he was. He lived a long and blessed life, but no matter, there's never a good age to die. And he died about an hour before I got to his bedside.
He was, God bless him, three days shy of his ninety first birthday. And when you make to to ninety-one relatively unscathed, this is a good thing. Yet it's hard, death is always terribly difficult for those left behind, even with the longevity he was blessed to enjoy.
I was just getting ready to depart the plane at LAX when my cell phone rang, it was my wonderful step-sister, she was crying, she was waiting for me at baggage claim, all she said between sobs was, "we lost him".
So, clinging to each other, she and I collected my bag and raced off to bid a final farewell to our beloved Morty, a man who without a doubt, was the most decent and kind human being who ever crossed my path and likely ever will.
He died in an institution that can only be described as the Taj Mahal of American healthcare, the brand new Ronald Reagan Hospital at UCLA Medical Center.
As you might imagine, being nyceve, as I jumped out of the car from LAX in front of the Hospital--now the crown jewel of the California healthcare system--I stopped for a moment and gaped at the extraordinary and imposing structure replete with valet parking. As tens of millions of Americans do without even basic healthcare, Ronald Reagan Hospital provides its guests and patients all the niceties of the Southern California way of life including valet parking.
As family members began assembling in the brilliant California sunshine, waiting to head up to say a long goodbye to the man who was the backbone, the spine and the glue of our family, I explained the ridiculous irony of the Ronald Reagan Hospital. Why in the world was this great medical center named to honor the individual who did more during a lifetime of "public service" to deny Americans healthcare than any other elected official, except perhaps Mister Bush?
And yes, if you have to be in a hospital, Ronald Reagan Hospital (I can barely type those words) is the place to be. It's the Taj Mahal, the Buckingham Palace and the Vatican of American medicine.
Here I am telling you about the grandeur of Ronald Reagan Hospital and the privilege--if it's ever a privilege to be a patient in a hospital-- in the same week that the New York Times is reporting that Americans are turning in increasing numbers to health food supplements as they lose their jobs, their employer health coverage and access to healthcare.
Shame the fuck on us, that as a society we permit these atrocities to go on and on. ENOUGH!
As Economy Is Down, Vitamin Sales Are Up
"If I had a job with health insurance, I probably would have gone to see a doctor by now," said Ms. Parham, 39, who lost her clerical job at American Greetings a while back. "But instead, I’m here buying echinacea. I hope it works."
http://www.nytimes.com/...
And this morning, more of the same in the Los Angeles Times. Americans forgoing healthcare because of the economy. Shame on us. Shame on a country that accepts this as normal!
In an ailing economy, the doctor can wait
Dena Lansford, 49, would like to have a cholesterol check, a mammogram and, soon, a colonoscopy.
She hasn't seen a dentist in more than a year. She worries that she might suffer a similar fate as her mother, who had a stroke at 47.
As of February, an estimated 3.7 million working-age Americans -- 500,000 in California -- had lost their health insurance since the start of the economic decline, according to a recent report.
People are cutting back on routine screenings and examinations designed to protect their health, Southern California doctors and dentists say.
http://www.latimes.com/...
But though I've been gone, I haven't stopped working. I've been stockpiling stories of healthcare and insurance atrocities. Here are several.
Insurers shun those taking certain meds
How health insurers secretly blacklist those with certain ailments.
Trying to buy health insurance on your own and have gallstones? You'll automatically be denied coverage. Rheumatoid arthritis? Automatic denial. Severe acne? Probably denied. Do you take metformin, a popular drug for diabetes? Denied. Use the anti-clotting drug Plavix or Seroquel, prescribed for anti-psychotic or sleep problems? Forget about it.
This confidential information on some insurers' practices is available on the Web -- if you know where to look.
What's more, you can discover that if you lie to an insurer about your medical history and drug use, you will be rejected because data-mining companies sell information to insurers about your health, including detailed usage of prescription drugs.
These issues are moving to the forefront as the Obama administration and Congress gear up for discussions about how to reform the healthcare system so that Americans won't be rejected for insurance.
http://www.miamiherald.com/...
And this should make everyone lose sleep. The drugstore chain, Walgreens is offering free care to Americans who have lost their jobs and their healthcare. More shame, nothing but shame.
Walgreen giving free care to jobless and uninsured
Drugstore operator Walgreen will offer free clinic visits to the unemployed and uninsured for the rest of the year, providing tests and routine treatment for minor ailments through its walk-in clinics — though patients will still pay for precriptions.
Walgreen said patients who lose their job and health insurance after March 31 will be able to get free treatment at its in-store Take Care clinics for respiratory problems, allergies, infections and skin conditions, among other ailments. Typically those treatments cost $59 or more for patients with no insurance.
http://www.chron.com/...
Does everyone know that a couple of health insurance industry executives thugs were hauled before a Senate Committee?
My only comment for Mr. Rockefeller and the 99 others is, why has it taken you so long to put these soulless criminals under oath? And why are you about to mandate that all Americans be required to throw billions of dollars to bail out this criminal Murder by Spreadsheet industry?
Senator Puts UnitedHealth Execs on Payments Hot Seat
Among health insurance CEOs, Stephen Hemsley of UnitedHealth is known for shying from the limelight and rarely submits to press interviews, let alone cross-examination at a congressional committee hearing.
So it was something of a star turn when he testified today before the Senate Commerce Committee over whether UnitedHealth and other insurers have systematically underpaid consumers for out-of-network care. Sen. John D. Rockefeller, the committee’s chairman, is delving into the industry’s controversial payment-setting practices more than two months after New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo began reaching settlements with the industry’s biggest players over the issue.
But the hearing marks the first time top industry executives have been called to publicly defend the practices. The senator from West Virginia has said he wants to determine whether federal legislation is needed to ensure changes to out-of-network payment practices happen in every state, not just New York.
. . .However uncomfortable the questioning got — at one point the West Virginia Democrat asked the two executives how they slept at night — Hemsley denied the price data was skewed. He also argued that the database helped set standards for the price of medical care.
. . .That didn’t appear to satisfy the committee chairman. Calling the UnitedHealth executives’ testimony "profoundly troubling," Rockefeller said he plans to ask government officials to look into how many federal employees may have been shortchanged for out-of-network care over the years. He’s also sending requests to nearly 20 insurers to explain how they used the Ingenix database.
http://blogs.wsj.com/...
The blessed Medicare card, which every single American is entitled to receive--from birth until death.
Returning for a moment to my dear stepfather, my mother told me as the ambulance personnel were putting him on the guerney, that he called to her to remember his Medicare card. It helps if you're a patient at Ronald Reagan Hospital to have Medicare as my stepfather did. No bills, no fuss, no financial ruin, no bankruptcy--just healthcare.