Arkansas Blog

And let us remember that our two Senators Lincoln & Pryor gave the sick of this nation a kick in the head by voting for the bankruptcy changes that will help put you in the streets when a member of your family turns up with a devastating illness that swamps your medical insurance if you're lucky enough to have it.

The bankruptcy changes were sought by and benefited only the big credit card companies. I say we strip Lincoln & Pryor and see if it says MasterCard on their asses, I believe it do. Tonight at dinner when you look around the table realize that someone seated there is a ticking time bomb unless you're wildly wealthy and insuranced up to the max. Re-elect Pryor? Are you high?

An acquaintance who happens to be a life long, fire breathing, anti-tax, anti-handout, I-got-mine-screw-you, get-a-job Republican is now scrambling to hide his assets because his wife's health is failing. Before it's over he will undoubtedly file bankrupcy...the Republican healthcare plan in action (inaction.)

In the latest news regarding the fall of America, a world wide pandemic will be coming soon to a town near you. In an effort to bring honor and integrity back to the White House, lying has made the standard operating procedure for all communications. A recent Homeland Security training operation discovered that most Americans no longer believe their government. As a result, shoot on sight orders have been added to federal quarantine policies. Furthermore, because of a policy to limit the supply of health care in order to maximize profits, the following undesirables will be denied medical treatment:

1. The very elderly, seriously hurt trauma victims, severely burned patients and those with severe dementia.
2. People older than 85.
3. Those with severe trauma, which could include critical injuries from car crashes and shootings.
4. Severely burned patients older than 60.
5. Those with severe mental impairment, which could include advanced Alzheimer's disease.
6. Those with a severe chronic disease, such as advanced heart failure, lung disease or poorly controlled diabetes.

Such rules would exclude care for the poorest, most disadvantaged citizens who suffer disproportionately from chronic disease and disability & although the recommendations would violate federal laws against discrimination, no one cared. Speculators chortled "it's just a matter of time before such a health care disaster hits."

"I don't particularly like it when people put words in my mouth, either, by the way, unless I say it."
G. W. Bush, Crawford, Texas, Nov. 10, 2007

You can tell ole McCain has never had to sweat out the underwriting process to get a private insurance policy. Nor has he had to decipher exactly what the gobbledygook means when they actually issue you one. Will they cover some female disorder or other, given that you refused to have a hystectomy 15 years ago, preferring to wait and see?
What about those visits to health care professionals who told you about two conditions -- information you haven't relayed to your family doc because you knew the day would come when you would have to seek private health insurance? Pray there is no way the insurance company can find out about those situations if one or both gets worse.
And be thankful for the doc who worked out an "off the books" treatment plan for a relatively minor but long lasting condition. He preferred not dealing with an insurance company (and maybe the IRS), since my coverage was skimpy anyway.
John McCain's health insurance ideas are "thin"? Try pie in the sky. Try barely a step above GeorgieBoy's Social Security privatization idea.
Are all rethuglicans idiots? My black and white tomcat would be a better president. At least he knows better than to talk back to the ladies in his harem.

Lordie, Zatharus, I thought your post was facetious, but I go off into the Internets and what do I find?
Let's see. Under this proposed edict, my father who died of a heart attack when he was 97 but was making a garden when he was 95 would be out of luck. So would one sister, who had what was characterized as "poorly controlled diabetes" for many years (but with no complications at all until she died of a stroke at 91). Maybe another sister, who had difficulty with speech and some residual weakness after a stroke, but was able to successfully monitor grand- and great grandkids' behavior in the absence of their parents, would be luckier. Or maybe not.
How about the neighbor who retired at 65 and is still farming nearly 30 years later -- 'taint gardening anymore when it's counted in acres -- with the produce going to various food pantries and and similar organizations.
I didn't see anything about prisons inmates on that list. Me -- I'd rather see my neighbor treated than some 19 year old punk who solves his squabbles with a gun. Too bad our government can't figure out a better way. But given what happened, and still hasn't happened in New Orleans, I guess we better come to terms with it.

Another perspective is "Did you ask your Dad what he would want if he had a heart attack at 95"?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/health/05slow.html?ex=1210651200&en=6be615369d7d67d7&ei=5070&emc=eta1

After my father started having medical problems -- congestive heart failure -- he lamented not being able to do as much as he would have like. This was in the 1950s or 1960s. His doctor ordered him to "take it easy." That lasted until spring when he said he was going to make a garden. His attitude was if it killed him, it killed him. I really think it kept him going. He finally quit when we disabled his tractor because we were afraid he would fall getting on or off. He began to suffer from what I now think was severe depression and from the things he said during his last years, I suspect he welcomed death. I've often wondered if we did the right thing, depriving him of something he enjoyed so much.
In any case, to address the "slow medicine" question raised in the article you cited, Mudturtle, during my father's last years, medicine could almost be said to be in its infancy compared to what it is today. It was "slow medicine."
However, if he had still been active, I suspect Daddy would have opted for anything that would have given him a few more "good" years. He had cataract surgery when he was in his late eighties and hernia surgery when he was 91 or so. At the time, it was pretty unusual for a man of his age to undergo elective surgery.