In the Wee Hours

At 2:30 this morning an electrician with dreadlocks and I were taking eye tests with the chart on the wall. Did you know 20/20 is not the best vision? Apparently not, because if you can read two lines down (even smaller print) you are 20/10. We did not know that.

I also didn’t know an ER room could go so long without cleaning. There was a layer of grime on the waste baskets, bed controls and certainly the floor. I kept my hands in my pockets and used hand cleaner frequently.

While the electrician with the eye problem and I entertained ourselves in the hall, my poor son waited for relief from his back pain. He has had therapy since his bad automobile accident a few months ago, but physical work yesterday erased all that apparently. So with endless re-runs of “Earl” and “Sex in the City” on the TV, I alternately rubbed his back and exercised my legs and feet—well, as much as I could without touching walls or anything. We were there for five hours, from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. My tote of magazines helped for a while, but articles started looking familiar.

While my son did paper work earlier I discovered that many in the waiting room were just there to see their 70 year-old-grandmother who was experiencing her first heart attack. My son wanted to know how I knew what was going on with people. Simple. We talk.

Going back in the night even earlier, I spied my son in a chair just inside the door of the ER waiting room, but had to go through security check before entering. No one was doing checks, so I finally sat down. When the policeman returned I got up and put my tote bag on the table as well as my purse. I was asked to open the tote, which I did. He shined a flashlight on the reading material and OK’d it. I raised my arms facing, then not facing while the wand waved past my body. Cleared. That was a relief since I had a pop-out razor on my keychain (in purse), a nail clipper and serrated defensive flashlight in the tote. One patient did have to take his pocket knife back to his car before entering, but that had been in his pocket. He should have had a man purse – or not.

The challenge when my son was released was finding an open pharmacy at 3 a.m. There were none within ten miles of the hospital. My son stopped at one near his home in a neighboring town on the way home. There are a lot of things wrong with the health care system and cracks are beginning to show even more. Apparently hospitals are cutting back on cleaning (if this one is representative), we never saw a doctor, only nurse, and you still can’t easily fill a prescription at 3 a.m. Don’t get sick and stay out of accidents, people.

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Clark Howard’s Health Plan

Clark Howard made his “address to Congress” today on his proposed health plan. Devotees of his wise money program will find much to like. Let’s use this with a few tweeks and forget the 1,000 page debacle.

http://clarkhoward.com/liveweb/shownotes/2009/09/09/16614/

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Health Education

Suddenly Senior (http://www.suddenlysenior.com) e-mailed an article by Tom Braun, RPh. Titled Health Care Ping Pong. He subtitles it Who is in Charge of My Health? Profiteers, God, or Me? May I suggest for most of Americans it isn’t “Me,” and therein lies the problem. Braun says:

“—little is done to provide health education and foster healthy (sic) eating habits for the American consumer via the educational system—“

Really? I haven’t been in school in a long time, but we had health classes back then which were reinforced by healthful meals in the cafeteria. There was no catering to a “children’s McMenu” of chicken fingers, French fries, hamburgers and pizza. You ate what was served or went hungry. Kinda the way I served meals when my children were growing up and my parents before me. And if perchance you missed the memo on proper food for health, open any magazine or newspaper or view a newscast. There is no lack of information. I can’t swing a cat without hitting something on the subject of proper eating. So who is dropping the ball? I vote “parents.” Things changed around the dinner table for a lot of reasons, like two working parents and a culture that caters more to kids than the one a generation or so ago. So yeah, education is key, but let’s start it at home, reinforce it in schools. Then we’ll see a healthier community down the road.

Braun goes on to say:

“Recently in Chicago, it was announced that two daughters of an elderly mother who did not want hospitalization were found guilty of neglect in the care of the mother. This could have been avoided if they were aware of Hospice which fitted their mother’s wishes.”

He points out that Hospice is less costly to Medicare than hospitalization. “So what’s the problem?” he asks.

The problem is an electorate so uneducated as to not have heard of Hospice, for God’s sake! What is AARP, Suddenly Senior, senior centers and even churches everywhere doing to educate elders on this issue? I’ll bet the majority of them could be snared and receive good advice about Hospice if all of those made an effort.

Braun says “Every senior should have a living will that expresses his or her view on how he or she wants to exit life. That’s why they are modestly suggesting a discussion between doctor and patient which Medicare would pay for every five years.”

Good idea. So is a durable power of attorney. In fact I refuse to die without either. My husband had these in place when he died and I am updating mine at this time. How did I manage to do such a thing without my doctor’s input? I picked up a durable power of attorney form at an office supply store years ago (today I download from the web). For the living will, we used one of the many copies slid in front of our face by a nurse on a visit to the hospital. (It’s the law in Florida at least that the hospital must offer the form to you.) So where did the doctor come in? No where. A little self education is all it took and that doesn’t require a PhD. A high school education and reading comprehension will suffice. It does require being able to admit you are going to die.

He ends with the question, “Does medical science have the right to play God?”

Only if you are so accustomed to handing your decisions over to someone else throughout your life it never occurs to you to make them for yourself in advance, or appoint someone you trust to do so in concert with medical information received on the spot as you enter an end of life scenario.

I think we should not forget the circumstances where neither patient, family. nor doctor is certain this time the patient will not survive. That’s a big if that can only be planned for with a durable power of attorney.

Braun went on to discuss profiteering in the form of lobbyists. That requires another fix and groups like Publix Citizen have been pressing for election reform for a long time.

So the solutions to disparate issues within healthcare crisis are best solved in targeted ways. Of course, these are only the few issues Dr. Braun discussed. A huge advantage to the insureds would be to uncouple health insurance and employment. There are ways to do that short of government going into universal healthcare.

There are a lot of shortcomings with health insurance in America and we should be addressing those. Despite the way it has been presented, healthcare is not one single issue. Let’s address each separately, but simultaneously. I suggest we put one solution in front of all the others: cleaning up fraud and waste in Medicare. President Obama says we will save billions doing this, enough to pay for much of a universal plan. I would challenge him to start there. We can do that today, right now with full approval of the American people. And when those billions in savings are in the bank, I’ll bet all sides would be willing to work out the rest. Everyday we don’t start, more money is down a rat hole. What is the hold up? Show us the money.

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Letter to the Prez

I sent the following comment online to White House this morning.

Let me propose a simple solution that may take more time, but *can* hold out the possibility of getting many naysayers (including me) on board. I quote a myth and myth buster from Mr. Axlerod’s email today:

“We can’t afford reform: It’s the status quo we can’t afford. It’s a myth that reform will bust the budget. To the contrary, the President has identified ways to pay for the vast majority of the up-front costs by cutting waste, fraud, and abuse within existing government health programs; ending big subsidies to insurance companies; and increasing efficiency with such steps as coordinating care and streamlining paperwork. In the long term, reform can help bring down costs that will otherwise lead to a fiscal crisis. “

DO THIS FIRST. Forget everything else until sufficient time has elapsed to prove whether this projection itself is a myth or not. I can’t believe that showing a huge savings after implementing your plans would not bring the majority on board. America is sick of RUSH RUSH RUSH, slick talking salesmen, and that includes you. It is demeaning. Show us the money or saving of it in this case. Then we’ll sit down and talk. After all, just choosing a proper dog for your children took months. Please give healthcare the same consideration.

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Obama Drama

I tried, I really, really did, but can’t resist a comment on Obama gaffs last night. (Isn’t that his VP’s domain anyway?) Just allow me this after eight years of hearing similar remarks about Bush (not my Bush, but Bush). I’ll be kind.

I’m trying to understand how Obama could have upset two huge segments of the population in one press conference. The first, of course, were the nation’s police, because they all consider themselves brothers. He should have stopped with I’m not aware of all the facts and come to a screeching halt when he felt the word “stupidly” boiling out to describe police action about which he had no first hand knowledge.

Then there was the point when Obama insinuated that he considered all surgeons dishonest enough to take a child’s tonsils out because the fee chart showed higher payment than other treatments. The fact that the diagnosis of a sore throat is usually by a family doctor who would not be doing surgery was lost in the rambling thought.

You can’t say he isn’t thoughtful when he talks. My mother used to say of a man who spoke with Obama’s glacial speed, “I just want to finish the sentence for him.” Mother, you would have done a much better job last night –for sure.

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