"It's a Lie!"
Oh, those crazy Republicans! When they're not creating hideous monsters, they're busy disrupting our President with their rude shenanigans. BTW, hope you didn't go to school this week, if you did, you might have heard our President tell you to buckle down, work hard and stay in school. If Nancy Reagan had said it, a thousand comedians would make jokes about it. If our first black President says it, well, you might as well move to Cuba cuz we're all Communists now.
So, that's part of the reason I'm not blogging. Too much of what I want to write about is political and I don't think this is the place for it. I don't want folks to think that you have to be liberal to donate you organs or some such. I didn't think people were that stupid, but then I started watching these town hall meetings and my respect for my fellow Americans dropped into the cellar. I mean, I understand if people are acting like that in Bumble Hills, Arkansas (no offense), but in New Jersey! I can't believe that the people I live with, work with and curse at in traffic would heckle a woman in a wheel chair.
That being said, I LOVE Medicare. I LERV it, even. I had no idea, working on the floor or in the ER, how mindlessly irritating, utterly idiotic and possibly dangerous insurance companies can be. That was before I spent half my life getting prior auth's on meds that MY PATIENTS CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT. Not tomorrow, not next month, not EVAH. And yet, once a year I must continue to justify their use to a beaurocrat. Medicaid, on the other hand, can kiss my ass. I was on medicaid, for a few years when I was young and poor. Medicaid doesn't get you anything except a doctor's scorn. And don't think that the new Medicaid HMO's are any better. You still can't find a doctor that takes it and then they wonder why you show up in the ER at 2am with an earache. Recently, NJ wanted to make medicaid recipients pay copays. Because when you make $11,000 a year, what's $5? Nothing, except maybe a Happy Meal for your kid. But I digress.
So, I've been thinking of starting another blog, but I just haven't had the time. Work is sucking me dry and not in a good way, for those of you with dirty minds. It's not the work, per say, but the office politics. The old boss had run the program into the ground and then lo-and-behold CMS came and everybody had to sit up straight and look smart. Finally, management could no longer deny that everything wasn't happy scrappy. Then came regime change. Tears were shed, heads rolled and now we have a new boss. Who I actually like. Lord knows, she's making changes and I have yet to see a work place respond well to new changes, no matter how much they're needed. I've also been laying low because this blog would NOT be tolerated if it was found out and as I found out at the OPO, it's easily found out. So, I've just been keeping my head down and doing my job and trying to fly under the radar. Then I come home, play with Pooter, eat dinner, yell at the teenager, walk the dog (when I remember, honey) and fall asleep by 9. Until the occassional night when, after a 5 hour nap, I awake at 2am and surf the internet for a while.
So, imaginary internet friends, there you have it. My life or something like it. And now, I'm going to finish "Benjamin Button."
But first, I share with you this:
6 comments:
Great post.
I still find the American system confusing...even the new proposed system. There's so many levels of coverage: private vs. public, medicaid, medicare, HMOs etc.
An administrative nightmare for sure!
I like our system here in Canada better. We pay for our healthcare through higher taxes (but much less than American's pay for insurance). In return, everyone from cradle to grave, rich or poor, is fully covered; equally and with a higher quality than is available in the U.S.
We just show up with our health care number....and voila! We are treated.
Unfortunately, so many myths about our system abound and have completely ruined the image of our system for Americans. From death panels to wait times for emergency procedures.
Anyway...I could babble forever about this. And I have realized that those that disagree with me will never change their mind, so it's not worth wasting too much energy :)
What can I say though? socialized medicine works for the rest of the world, so I still don't get why there's so much fear about it in America.
Great! Any more Canadians who want to chime in are welcome. I've yet to find one who didn't like their system. I worked with a friend who was Canadian (in America). What struck me was when she said that the ER's in Canada aren't nearly as crowded-because EVERYONE can go see a doctor.
I think if socialized medicine could just pass, everyone would cool down in a few years. I'm sure the same idiots were babbling how social security was going to ruin us all back in the day, too.
No offense, but heckling a woman in a wheelchair doesn't strike me as too out of character for a good portion of people from New Jersey. I grew up in NY and, of course, NJ was a punch line to me--maybe you remember this toast by Jo on Facts of Life in the episode where Tootie got drunk: "Here's to those that wish me well. All the rest can go to...Jersey."
But my own experience with drivers from the tri-state area caused me to come up with the following:
New Yorkers know what the rules (of the road) are and just don't care.
People from Connecticut know the rules and think they don't apply to them.
People from New Jersey don't even know what the rules are.
Don't even get me started on drivers from Massachusetts (one of whom hit me and my friends almost head-on one night when he crossed the double yellow line) and New Hampshire; I've always considered them stupid cousins to people from Mass. Hmm. That was a bit of a tangent.
TC,
I'm just glad you are OK. I truly understand the time/family issue and ALL that surrounds it. After working all kinds of crazy shifts and schedules for almost 40 years, I still have not forgotten.
As for the health insurance issues, we've gone through decades of lying politicians, from BOTH sides of the aisle and a great many people want these health insurances issues corrected, but in a sensible and TRANSPARENT manner. Not rushed to judgement in some dark, backroom where nobody knows what te hell is in the bill until AFTER it's become law.
Well, being that while we sat in Ronald McDonald house at Stanford, we ran into more than a few Canadian families that weren't waiting for socialized medicine to help their children. Pros and cons no doubt. I mean really, if there was a system that truely worked, wouldn't everyone do it?
I'm disappointed in the direction the blog has taken but it's totally your blog, do want you want with it! I'm conservative. I will forever vote to continue to pay ghastly premiums to maintain my PPO and freedom to choose to be treated by who I want. And I will always believe medicaid should charge copays for ER visits, not PCP appointements...pet peeve of mine.
Sorry...used to be a regular lurker but it seems like it's time for me to move on.
Keep promoting the cause of organ donation, we will always agree on that.
Best of luck
Sheryl, Peds ER RN, mom to Justice, liver tx 6/02
Well, being that while we sat in Ronald McDonald house at Stanford, we ran into more than a few Canadian families that weren't waiting for socialized medicine to help their children. Pros and cons no doubt. I mean really, if there was a system that truely worked, wouldn't everyone do it?
I'm disappointed in the direction the blog has taken but it's totally your blog, do want you want with it! I'm conservative. I will forever vote to continue to pay ghastly premiums to maintain my PPO and freedom to choose to be treated by who I want. And I will always believe medicaid should charge copays for ER visits, not PCP appointements...pet peeve of mine.
Sorry...used to be a regular lurker but it seems like it's time for me to move on.
Keep promoting the cause of organ donation, we will always agree on that.
Best of luck
Sheryl, Peds ER RN, mom to Justice, liver tx 6/02
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