With all the talk about healthcare, let me share my recent experience.
For the record, I am 49, unemployed, and a Type 2 diabetic. Since my last employer did not carry health insurance, I had to buy the Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan offered through Cover Florida. It was my only option, since private health insurance companies are not lining up to offer policies to 49-year-old diabetics.
Lately, I have been having pains in my abdomen, along with other symptoms that should not be discussed in public. I saw my regular doctor, who referred me to a specialist. The gastroenterologist recommended a colonoscopy to see what was causing the pain. He charged me $200 for the consultation. My insurance only covered $50 of the cost of the visit.
For those unfamiliar with a colonoscopy procedure, it involves sticking a tube through your anal sphincter and up the Hershey highway. As uncomfortable as that sounds, it is relatively painless. You are conveniently knocked out while you are violated with medical equipment.
Seriously, a colonoscopy can save your life. It is the most effective test for colo-rectal cancer. If there are polyps found, the doctor can remove them during the procedure. Also, a colonoscopy is normally done on an outpatient basis, so you don’t have to stay overnight in a hospital.
The worst part of a colonoscopy is the preparation. The day before the procedure, your digestive system must be cleaned out. You can only consume clear liquids and laxatives. No solid foods, and don’t stray to far away from your bathroom. You will literally have a shitty day.
Since I was surprised by the amount for the consult, I asked the doctor’s office how much the colonoscopy would cost out-of-pocket. The $200 for the office visit set me back, and I needed to make arrangements to get the money.
After a few phone calls to the doctor’s office and the hospital where the procedure would be performed, I got my answer: $700 for the doctor, and $3000 for the hospital. My insurance has a $3000 deductible, meaning it could not help with any of the expenses. It was like I got the colonoscopy without the ansthesia!
I cancelled my appointment. There is no way I could afford it. The pain in my stomach remains. I will wait until I have the means to pay for the colonoscopy then reschedule.
If I lived in a so-called “socialist” country such as Great Britain, Canada, Japan, or France, I would probably have to wait awhile for the procedure too. Government-run medicine does have waiting lists. But it would not cost me the money that it costs in the good ol’ capitalist USA. My wait time might not be as long as it is here.
A partial solution to the problem lies in Congress right now. It will not solve my problem, but it will alleviate it some. Yet, I hear a lot of crazy stories about what this healthcare will do – raise taxes astronomically, deny old people and disabled children care, and replace our doctors with government bureaucrats – and none of this is true. Healthcare is already rationed by private insurers. Corporate bureaucrats make decisions that doctors should make.
Worse yet, we pay twice as much as other most other countries. Because we have no cost controls, Americans literally subsidize the rest of the world’s healthcare. Don’t believe me? Check out this graph from National Geographic.
Until we a good national comprehensive healthcare package passed, all of us will be stuck with our current inefficient package. Financially, we all get colonscopies until this bill is passed. And those of us with inadequate health insurance will have some shitty days.
Much to the dismay of Cleveland fans, Nike, network officials, some of the refs, and many in the national media, the Orlando Magic knocked off LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers 103-90 in Game 6. Now they face the LA Lakers in the NBA Finals.
Dwight was amazing. Rashard Lewis, Hedo Turkolu, Mickeal Pietrus, and Rafer Alston kept raining in threes. Everybody played defense. King James played great, but the rest of his team failed to step up. The better team won.
Now there is more talk about how sad it is for Cleveland. How the poor fans of Cleveland have suffered since 1964. How bad things are in the “Mistake by the Lake.” How Cleveland fans worry that their superstar will leave for the bright lights of New York.
Puleeze! Orlando needs this more or as much as Cleveland does. We don’t have a 1964. We had a 1995, where we went to the Finals, only to get swept by the Houston Rockets. Instead of developing a dynasty, our superstar Shaquille O’Neal left town for LA the following year. Next came Penny’s meltdowns, Grant Hill coming on crutches, and a hockey GM.
Cleveland has the Indians, the Browns, and the Cavs. We only have the Magic. Cleveland may be ugly, cold, and feeling the recession. Orlando is definitely a better-looking town, but there are some very ugly tacky parts. And for every high-rolling fans in the stands of Amway, there are five working at minimum wage jobs in a hotel, theme park, or restaurant. Not a lot of great union jobs here!
But the biggest reason is that Orlando needs the Magic to bring it together. Most of us are transplants from other places. The Orlando is just a tourist spot or a stopover, and the home office is elsewhere. Most of us here keep our hometown allegiance.
The Magic remind people that we actually live here. We can come together to make this a home instead a layover. We can have good schools, nightspots, and culture right here.
We took care of the storied and defending champion Celtics. We overthrew King James and the Cavs. Now we need to finish Kobe and the robbing Lakers.
Didn’t he know that waterboarding and stress positions were against the Geneva Convention and all American laws? That the only answers you get are the ones you want to hear, not the actual truth?
Didn’t he consider that these actions will inspire more terrorism instead of making us more safe?
Like many people, I wonder what all the fuss is about Twitter. The only value I see is that it limits posts to 140 characters. But if the point is to let everyone know what I’m doing at the present moment, let me save you the trouble.
Here’s my tweet:
I’m typing on a computer. It’s what I do for both work and play.
If I’m not typing a computer, then I am in a meeting (where I might be typing on a computer), driving, sleeping, or playing with my son. You see, I don’t have much of a life or at least one people would find interesting. Unless you are climbing a mountain, crossing a continent, or making love to a beautiful woman, I’m not interested in your life, either.
But when I do something fun and interesting, then I have something better to do with my time than type on a computer. Therefore, I don’t tweet.
The New York Times Magazine has a great cover story of Allonzo Trier, a 12-year-old basketball phenom who is already attracting a lot of attention and “handlers.” Everybody wants to help him.
Allonzo is quite a talent as the clip below shows. He works hard at the game, practicing by himself and with his AAU team for hours each day. His mother, who raises him alone, sacrifices to help him work on his game.
Needless to say, a lot of men want to help him. A high school coach gives him private coaching. Others want him to play for their AAU teams. Allonzo already has all the basketball shoes he needs and his own line of clothes. College coaches send him questionnaires, the only way the NCAA allows them to contact kids not yet in high school. Allonzo has dyslexia, so he gets tutoring help paid for by NBA star Brandon Roys’s foundation.
Of course, what do these people want out of it? Do they really want to help the young man, or do they want a piece of whatever NBA fortune that comes Allonzo’s way? Henry Abbott of ESPN’s TrueHoop casts doubt of everyone’s motives, including Roy’s.
It could be a little of both. If Allonzo’s talents were in music, would anyone question the motives of people buying him instruments and lessons? Would you not want to help out a budding Mozart or Stevie Wonder?
Yet basketball attracts its share of handlers looking for prodigies to hang onto until they make it to a major college or the NBA. Most basketball phenoms come from lower economic classes. The contrast between where they come from and the minimum NBA salary is night and day.
But unlike other sports, basketball prodigies are easier to spot. At 12-years-old, baseball players have not faced curve balls or anything close to major league pitching. Football players risk injury, and their true size and skills do not appear until high school.
But look at Allonzo in the video. Most 12-year-olds basketball players can only dribble and shoot effectively with one side of their body. Although Allonzo still favors his right side, he can do layups from both sides of the basket. He has tremendous peripheral vision and zips right past taller players.
So what do you do with a phenom like Allonzo, who seems unspoiled by the attention? Wish him well. Tell him there is more to life than basketball. Help him like Roy does with his reading skills. And cheer him on as he plays.
One of the greatest arguments against gay rights is “family values.” Tolerating homosexuality threatens the structure of the traditional family, so the Christianists say.
Then how do they explain Frank Gill and his two adopted sons “John” and “James”? And if the idea behind anti-gay laws is to “protect children,” why does the state of Florida want to break up Gill’s family, especially when the state begged Frank to be the children’s foster parent in the first place?
Back before Christmas in 2004, the Florida Department of Children and Families found John and James with their crack-addict parents. James was four at the time, and he was dressed only in a T-shirt and sneakers. Half his hair was missing because of ringworm. James had an ear infection. Medicine for both boys sat on the shelf unopened.
Frank did not want to take the boys at first. He and his partner were going to move from Miami to Georgia, and he did not want to uproot the boys once they got settled. But the state social worker knew Frank was qualified. He had a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s in public health. He had fostered before. Here’s Frank’s take from the ACLU blog:
The social worker said they just needed a place for about a month, as a family member had agreed to take them, but first had to go through an approval process. I still said no. She said we were the only home in the agency with any space left. Then she said, “I bet you could give them a really nice Christmas.”
Frank took them in, and the boys had more than a nice Christmas. The boys bonded with Frank, his partner, and his partner’s son. Frank and his partner decided to stay in Florida, enrolliing them in school and taking them to church. Eventually, Frank decided to adopt the boys.
There was one problem: Florida has a law prohibits gays from adopting children. The law was adopted in 1977 when Anita Bryant went on her anti-gay campaign.
Gill sued the state and won. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman struck down the law in a sharply worded 53-page ruling, calling the law, “illogical to the point of irrationality.”
Florida attorney general Bill McCollum said the state will appeal the ruling. The state spent $87,000 on two questionable expert witnesses whose main contention was that gays could not be fit parents because they were mentally unstable. No state witnesses could provide any evidence that the two boys would be better off removed from Gill. On the other side, Gill’s attorneys provided plenty of experts who said that it would be “devastating to remove them from Gill’s home.”
The ACLU wanted to expedite the case to the Florida Supreme Court but were denied. While the boys are still living with Gill and his partner, there are more court battles to come. Gill’s case has garnered some media attention, particularly from the Chicago Tribune’s Steve Chapman and the Orlando Sentinel’s Mike Thomas. Neither of these columnists are known for their support for gay rights. For more media links, see this Seattle gay blog.
Gill and his family are living proof that laws prohibiting gay marriage and gays adopting children make no sense. Instead of protecting families, they hurt them.
He is Anthony Moran, a 12-year-old from Interlachen who helps take care of his twin brother Ryan, who is autistic.
In the picture, Anthony lets Ryan sit on his lap to keep him calm in church. Read to the end of this article in the St. Petersburg Times on why he puts up with his brother.
