Health Care Reform School
Los Angeles, July 17, 2009
By Danny McBride
I keep hearing and reading about Health Care Reform.
STOP!! ENOUGH!
We do not need “Health Care Reform”. We need to scrap the entire system and start fresh. We don’t need “Reform”; we need “Reform School”.
If you think a bunch of congressmen are going to sit in a room and discuss, discuss, discuss how to fix Health Care, you’re wrong. If you think there is no way that they will not be pulled and jostled by insurance companies, pharmaceutical behemoths, HMOs, hospitals for profit, doctor organizations, heck, the band-aid industry, the paper towel companies and the delicious food service companies you’re wrong wrong wrong! No matter what kind of a compromise you come up with a bunch of Neanderthals like Senator Mitch McConnell (R, Kentucky) will be against it. He’s been against every advance in civilization since the Stone Age. The wheel. He was against that.
Throughout U.S. history, the U. S. Government has had to nationalize certain industries such as the railroads, the telegraph lines, the Smith and Wesson Company during World War I, and the railroads, the coal mines, the midwest trucking operators, and many other companies during World War II, all for the security and safeguarding of The United States.
During The Korean War President Truman tried and failed to nationalize the steel industry even though the raw materials of war were essential to building ships and planes and for many other applications.
We have that situation today. A system where our own citizens have risen against others- -the “haves” against the “have nots”. If you are in the top echelon of Aetna Insurance or Eli Lily Pharmaceuticals you should probably be sent to reform school- - Robber barons of the twenty-first century. As I’m sure you’ve heard or read, about 1% of the people have 50% of the money, and in some cases very much more.
What needs to happen is that the President needs to direct the proper cabinet officers to seize the industry he’s in charge of and run it for the betterment of the American people. We do not need competition in keeping people alive and healthy. It is better for the whole population if this small part of the civilized equation has to sacrifice for the betterment of the whole. Besides, multi-millionaires will not suffer that much, will they? Would you want to put a quarter in a box for every block you drove so the street lights would come on? Should stop signs be installed arbitrarily by competing companies, some feeling you need one, others saying no? Shouldn’t we run things as they are run in civilized countries? What if a doctor says you need some medication and a bureaucrat a thousand miles away who doesn’t know either of you says no? You want insanity? We’ve got insanity.
There is no need for profit vultures to swoop down on the lame, the infirm, or the sickly, or those afflicted with some temporary illness or medical condition. Medicine for profit is immoral.
Picture one of your favorite action movies and the second lead has been wounded. The star of the film runs over to comfort him and say things like “Don’t worry, Peachy, you’ll make it through” as the music pulls at our heart strings. But what if he said “Don’t worry, Peachy, you’ll make it through if you can afford my services to patch you up and drag you to the medic’s tent. How much have you got on you? Let me see your insurance card.”
Nuts, I say!! It is time to blow up the system as it now is.
Just like the railroads, the telegraph lines and such in a time of emergency, we have a crisis and this is really the only way to fix it. What if we were under attack? Would we see what company might cut us the right deal for an Army? Nonsense. Tear it down. Start from scratch.
Do you seriously expect Congressmen, most of whom cannot seem to say no to temptation of one kind or another, to pay no attention to lobbyists with bags of money? They can not. This must be taken out of their hands with Executive Order 1-2-3 and that’s it done. Don’t like it? Go to court. In the meantime, try to put as many effective policies into practice as possible. Nationalize Hospitals, HMOs, Big Pharma, Insurance Companies and everything that doesn’t work now for the national good. Follow examples already working in over 30 civilized countries.
“During the past eight years,” according to President Obama recently, “premiums have grown four times faster than wages. An additional nine million Americans lost their health care.”
Doesn’t that make you proud to be an American?
Make it like the Post Office. Stuff gets across country in three days for 42 cents. Why can’t we be that efficient with medicine? We can do way better, probably.
For those who think lab fees, co-pays, out-of-network visits and such, along with unpayable pharmacy fees are just the way of business, think again. We’re being scammed up the ying-yang.
Time to say “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore” a la Howard Beale. Why do we sit around for it?
No more. “I’m mad as hell”. What are you going to do?
-30-
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Home, Home at the Home
Home, Home at the Home
Los Angeles, July 12, 2009
By Danny McBride
Sing: Home, home at the home- -where the deer and the antelope have to wait in line like everybody else at the never ending buffet.
We did our Patriotic Duty and visited Great-Grand-Mama at the retirement facility for the Fourth of July picnic. Not much of a “picnic” actually because nobody sits cross-legged on a blanket peeling hard-boiled eggs and eating chicken drumsticks. If they did sit on a blanket most of them would never get up. They don’t do much in the way of water balloon toss or three legged races either. Mostly they just sit in lawn chairs and say “nice to see you” because at that age it seems, it’s nice to see anybody not in a service uniform of some kind. We had the extra sodium hotdogs with warm beer. Boy, you know they’re getting the best of care. We had cole slaw (or maybe E. coli slaw) and potato salad, which, like meatloaf, can contain almost any ingredients, including vegetables and small plastic toys. There were also some fattening, artery clogging deserts. Boy these folks have all the best. They pay a fortune to live here and they get all the quality food service any Denny’s might offer.
Then you go back to grandma’s room, a four by four cell with a TV and a toilet, sink and bed. Staying in a Motel 6 would be cheaper and far roomier. What are we doing to the old folks? Can you say “Warehouse”?
I remember when I was a kid my grandmother came to live with us. She stayed for years until just the very few last weeks of her life when she really did need hospice care. But for years she was with us. At first just being part of the family and years later, unable to go over the stairs, living in her own room. My mother took care of her mother as has been the family tradition in most cultures for eternity. Later she also took care of my father’s mother.
But somewhere along the line in the past thirty years younger people have shied away from taking care of their elders as “Senior Care” facilities popped up all over. So for a fee, and a hefty one at that, you can ship your parents off to the “Comfy Care Retirement Home”. Why bother with Granny when you have such an important life to be living? You know the bumper sticker- - Be nice to your kids- -they’ll choose your retirement home.
I learned a lot from my grandmother in those years. She had grown up on the coast of Maine almost as far north as Canada and she had all kinds of stories about her life in the 1880s up until the 1920s. No TV, no radio, no cars or planes - - heck not even the bicycle. What did they do? Well, obviously quite a bit as she was one of eleven children.
We have been hornswaggled by insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, HMOs, medicine-for-profit exploiters, for-profit hospitals, and, of course, the Shady Living Senior Center.
How much is your rent or mortgage a month? I bet it isn’t half of what this place is. Great-Grand-Mama is a widow now but her savvy husband set her up for life with all kinds of investments, even if she lives to be 120. And if she does, the company that runs this ghastly priced bed and breakfast stands to make out like bandits. Hmmm…That just came out without thinking, but “bandits” is exactly what they are. It’s not that she couldn’t be with us- -she could. But she was and is convinced that this is the way to go into her sunset years. You couldn’t pry her loose with a sledge hammer. They have her brainwashed. Oh sure, she gets to play bridge with the girls. Hey! We have or could acquire playing cards here.
One of the big problems now is that she’s not sure if she has cable TV- -remember that pitch recently to make sure you have a converter box? (She has cable.) And how about the hand-held cordless phone? Golly! How does that thing work? An answering machine. Who’d have thought?
As we tip-toe into the health care morass, setting up care for grandma and her pals has to be a priority.
After all, that’ll be me soon.
-30-
Los Angeles, July 12, 2009
By Danny McBride
Sing: Home, home at the home- -where the deer and the antelope have to wait in line like everybody else at the never ending buffet.
We did our Patriotic Duty and visited Great-Grand-Mama at the retirement facility for the Fourth of July picnic. Not much of a “picnic” actually because nobody sits cross-legged on a blanket peeling hard-boiled eggs and eating chicken drumsticks. If they did sit on a blanket most of them would never get up. They don’t do much in the way of water balloon toss or three legged races either. Mostly they just sit in lawn chairs and say “nice to see you” because at that age it seems, it’s nice to see anybody not in a service uniform of some kind. We had the extra sodium hotdogs with warm beer. Boy, you know they’re getting the best of care. We had cole slaw (or maybe E. coli slaw) and potato salad, which, like meatloaf, can contain almost any ingredients, including vegetables and small plastic toys. There were also some fattening, artery clogging deserts. Boy these folks have all the best. They pay a fortune to live here and they get all the quality food service any Denny’s might offer.
Then you go back to grandma’s room, a four by four cell with a TV and a toilet, sink and bed. Staying in a Motel 6 would be cheaper and far roomier. What are we doing to the old folks? Can you say “Warehouse”?
I remember when I was a kid my grandmother came to live with us. She stayed for years until just the very few last weeks of her life when she really did need hospice care. But for years she was with us. At first just being part of the family and years later, unable to go over the stairs, living in her own room. My mother took care of her mother as has been the family tradition in most cultures for eternity. Later she also took care of my father’s mother.
But somewhere along the line in the past thirty years younger people have shied away from taking care of their elders as “Senior Care” facilities popped up all over. So for a fee, and a hefty one at that, you can ship your parents off to the “Comfy Care Retirement Home”. Why bother with Granny when you have such an important life to be living? You know the bumper sticker- - Be nice to your kids- -they’ll choose your retirement home.
I learned a lot from my grandmother in those years. She had grown up on the coast of Maine almost as far north as Canada and she had all kinds of stories about her life in the 1880s up until the 1920s. No TV, no radio, no cars or planes - - heck not even the bicycle. What did they do? Well, obviously quite a bit as she was one of eleven children.
We have been hornswaggled by insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, HMOs, medicine-for-profit exploiters, for-profit hospitals, and, of course, the Shady Living Senior Center.
How much is your rent or mortgage a month? I bet it isn’t half of what this place is. Great-Grand-Mama is a widow now but her savvy husband set her up for life with all kinds of investments, even if she lives to be 120. And if she does, the company that runs this ghastly priced bed and breakfast stands to make out like bandits. Hmmm…That just came out without thinking, but “bandits” is exactly what they are. It’s not that she couldn’t be with us- -she could. But she was and is convinced that this is the way to go into her sunset years. You couldn’t pry her loose with a sledge hammer. They have her brainwashed. Oh sure, she gets to play bridge with the girls. Hey! We have or could acquire playing cards here.
One of the big problems now is that she’s not sure if she has cable TV- -remember that pitch recently to make sure you have a converter box? (She has cable.) And how about the hand-held cordless phone? Golly! How does that thing work? An answering machine. Who’d have thought?
As we tip-toe into the health care morass, setting up care for grandma and her pals has to be a priority.
After all, that’ll be me soon.
-30-
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