It was one of those beautiful winter days, uncharacteristically warm but with enough bite in the air to make the horses dance along the trails. It was our first ride after the end of hunting season and we were feeling free to roam the woods at will.

Everyone but Sharon’s Mingo was acting up. I was riding Peg’s Hailey and she was uncharacteristically antsy. Hailey kept telling me I’d picked the wrong day to try and call the shots. I continued to push my luck, reining her back when she’d break into a trot or canter, asking her to make circles when she threatened to buck. Peg and Simon were having similar conversations as were Barbara and Joker.

Two hours into our ride, Barbara rode up alongside us and without any warning, Hailey kicked at Joker. I felt the kick, we all heard the crack of hoof on bone and I instantly smacked her. With my fist. It all happened so fast that it wasn’t clear whether it was poor judgment or poor aim that caused my fist to connect with the bone of her head.

As it turned out, Hailey had missed Joker and hit Barbara’s shin but luckily didn’t break her leg. At this point, we decided to turn back and ride the last hour to Peg’s place. Peg fetched two bags of ice from her freezer and Sharon used a roll of vet wrap to secure one against Barbara’s leg and the other around my hand. We hugged goodbyes and drove off.

A couple of days later I wrote Peg an apology for hitting Hailey in the head. I felt bad, not because my hand still hurt like hell or because I was afraid I’d hurt her horse, but because hitting a horse in the head is really bad form.

I was hoping that I really meant to punch her in the neck and she turned her head but that seemed unlikely. I wanted to think I was simply disciplining her without any anger but that probably wasn’t the case, either.

No one thought I’d broken my hand. Sure it was swollen and bruised but I could still wiggle my fingers. After two weeks of ice and ibuprofen I decided to get an x-ray taken.

Up to now, the fear of having to spend a lot of money as an uninsured patient had kept me from going to a doctor. But after two weeks, my hand was still multi-colored and painfully swollen. I’ve broken enough bones over the years to know what it feels like and this felt more like the ache of bone than bruising. I needed to know whether I should be using the hand or babying it.

My brother Michael tipped me off  that chiropractors have x-ray machines so I made an appointment with Dr. Jacqulyn Nygren, an angel of a woman who hummed while she worked and put me at ease immediately. She examined my hand and said she didn’t think it was broken, took two x-rays and went to develop them.

When she returned, she had a smile on her face. “Well, you broke it.” she said. Dr. Nygren told me that this particular break is often referred to as a bar room fracture or brawler’s fracture because it is the sign of an inexperienced boxer to land a pinky-first punch.

After only two weeks, the bone was already heavily calcified, thanks to the high calcium content in our well water. The same reason Peg and many other Chatham County residents suffer from kidney stones, I might add. From what I’ve read, the bone should be totally healed in 6 to 12 weeks –  sometime between Valentine’s Day and April Fools day.

It was too late for a cast and we don’t have the kind of money it would take to have the hand re-broken and reset anyhow. The good doctor worked the bones as best she could, pulling the fingers straight and smoothing everything out. I won’t say it didn’t hurt but that evening after icing, my hand felt the best it had in weeks. It appears the bone suffered only minor angulation. Not enough to impede functionality but I may live with a permanent bump on my hand to remind me not to punch horses in the head.

There is good news here. This break represents an opportunity for change. With my right hand in the air most of the time, I’ve had to slow my day down to three quarter time. While I’ve vowed in the past to slow down, this time I don’t have much of a choice. Meanwhile, I’m getting loads of practice in asking for help and standing back while younger backs do the heavy lifting.

I’ve noticed that as I slow down,  I’m more tolerant of others. As I ask less of myself, I find I’ve lowered the bar for those around me. I’m beginning to see that everything will get done, especially if I take on less. My new mantra is “they will work it out themselves” when I see problems I would otherwise rush in to fix. Running the world is not my responsibility. Keeping my own world intact is.

As frightened as I am that my hand will never look or behave the same as it once did, I consider this a lucky break. The message is clear. I can hear it now – that insistent voice urging me to lighten up and slow down.

In 2004, the presidential race involved two white guys who went to the same privileged university. Some of us thought we had a choice even if it looked like a choice between bad and worst. Voters were led to believe that Bush and Kerry stood on fundamentally different platforms when in fact, they were both committed to supporting the best interests of the rich.

To me, it looked like a clear choice between vanilla and vanilla. Bob and I knew that whichever guy got to sit in the oval office, things weren’t going to change much. We voted for Ralph Nader and left the country to prevent our tax dollars from going to war.

In 2008, the voting public was led to believe that this time their choice would matter. For the first time in American history, a black man was running for president. And a well-spoken man he was, wooing liberals with promises of change and hope they could believe in. A groundswell of euphoric support ensued and Barak Obama took office.

Two years later, that change has not happened. The new administration left Guantanamo untouched and sent another 30,000 troops to Afhanistan. Under Obama’s watch, the FDA has approved genetically modified salmon, sugar beets and alfalfa. With HR 3200, the 50 million citizens without health insurance were handed to the for profit health insurance companies on a silver platter after the public option was removed. And he signed a Patriot Act extension with no reforms.

At this point in the political evolution of the United States of America, the country is run by the money makers, the CEO’s of corporations. Politicians, especially those at the top, are not much more than figureheads. It’s a two party system in which both parties support the 10% who control 80% of the wealth in this country.

Many of us thought a vote for Obama would be a vote for change. Come to find out it was really just a vote for chocolate over vanilla, breeding a whole new generation of disenfranchised voters.

The last time I went to a doctor was four years ago.  My girlfriend thought I might have a kidney infection, so I went.  It turned out to be a sore back muscle, but the doctor was nice enough to write me a prescription for Cipro anyway.  You never know when you might need a broad spectrum antibiotic sometime on down the road.

I wouldn’t even be thinking about getting health insurance if Bob’s new position at Central Carolina Community College didn’t come with a plan for him and an option for me.  After reviewing my CCCC options, we decided to ask the folks down at Farm Bureau for a quote.  They insure our home and car, we thought, why not our kidneys, too?

So I find myself comparing health insurance plans this morning.  It’s a distasteful business no matter how you slice it.  First off, I’d rather be supporting a single payer national health-care-for-all plan than the health insurance industry.  I don’t really want health insurance; I want affordable health care.

Personally, I think health insurance is a racket whose goal is making enough profits to keep their investors happy and their CEO’s in stock options and million dollar salaries.  One third of every dollar paid into the for-profit Health Insurance companies goes towards administration, marketing, lawyers, CEO salaries and stock options while health care could easily be provided using only three cents out of every dollar to cover administrative costs.

To insure healthy profits, the health insurance plans come with yards of small print, loopholes designed to help them avoid paying claims.  And then there’s all the stuff they plain refuse to insure from the get go.  Click on “more” to see the impressive list of health care benefits excluded by the Blue Options HSA plan.

I think the recently passed H.R.3200 – America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 is really just a pre-emptive bailout for the health insurance companies.  Since mandated insurance coverage doesn’t come into effect until 2014, I’m not sure I’m ready to stop wearing my black rubber “uninsured” bracelet.

Furthermore, I’m healthy and invested in keeping myself that way.  My health care plan has been my local food diet, lots of sleep and a good balance between desk, yard work, friends and down-time.  Putting money into good food and leisure time makes more sense to me than putting it into a Health Savings Account.  Investing money into a plan designed to pay off if something terrible happens just feels wrong.

Sure, I realize most people will say that paying $175 a month to insure against something catastrophic is simply smart risk management.  One bad car wreck could easily send us into bankruptcy and cost us our home.  But every time I write that check, I’ll feel like I’ve just walked up to the betting window at the track and put my money on a horse to lose.

BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina

Your plan for better health

Limitations and exclusions

Like most health care plans, Blue Advantage and Blue Options HSA has some limitations and exclusions. When your application is approved, and you become a member, you will have access to your benefit booklet online. It will contain detailed information about plan benefits, exclusions and limitations.

This is a partial list of benefits that are not payable.

• Not medically necessary
• Investigational in nature or obsolete, including any service, drugs, procedure or treatment directly related to an investigational treatment
• Any experimental drug or any drug not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the applicable diagnosis or treatment. However, this exclusion does not apply to prescription drugs used in covered phases II, III and IV clinical trials, or drugs approved by the FDA for treatment of cancer, if prescribed for the treatment of any type of cancer for which the drug has been approved as effective in any one of the three nationally recognized drug reference guides:
  1. The American Medical Association Drug Evaluations
  2. The American Hospital Formulary Service Drug Information
  3. The United States Pharmacopoeia Drug Information
• Side effects and complications of noncovered services, except for emergency services in the case of an emergency
• Not prescribed or performed by or upon the direction of a doctor or other provider
• For any condition, disease, illness or injury that occurs in the course of employment, if the employee, employer or carrier is liable or responsible for the specific medical charge (1) according to a final adjudication of the claim under a state’s workers’ compensation laws, or (2) by an order of a state Industrial Commission or other applicable regulatory agency approving a settlement agreement
• For a health care professional to administer injectable prescription drugs which can be self-administered, unless medical supervision is required
• For inpatient admissions primarily for the purpose of receiving diagnostic services or a physical examination. Inpatient admissions primarily for the purpose of receiving therapy services, except when the admission is a continuation of treatment following care at an inpatient facility for an illness or accident requiring therapy
• For care in a self-care unit, apartment or similar facility operated by or connected with a hospital
• For custodial care
• For domiciliary care or rest cures, care provided and billed for by a hotel, health resort, convalescent home, rest home, nursing home or other extended care facility, home for the aged, infirmary, school infirmary, institution providing education in special environments, in residential treatment facilities, except for substance abuse treatment, or any similar facility or institution
• For respite care, whether in the home or in a facility or inpatient setting, except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• Received prior to the member’s effective date
• Received on or after the coverage termination date, regardless of when the treated condition occurred, and regardless of whether the care is a continuation of care received prior to the termination
• For telephone consultations, charges for failure to keep a scheduled visit, charges for completion of a claim form, charges for obtaining medical records, and late payment charges
• Incurred more than 18 months prior to the member’s submission of a claim to BCBSNC, except in the absence of legal capacity of the member
• For cosmetic purposes except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• For any services that would not be necessary if a non-covered service had not been received, except for emergency services in the case of an emergency
• For benefits that are provided by any governmental unit except as required by law
• For services that are ordered by a court that are otherwise excluded from benefits under this health benefit plan
• For care that the provider cannot legally provide or legally charge or is outside the scope of license or certification
• Provided and billed by a licensed health care professional who is in training
• Available to a member without charge
• For care given to a member by a provider who is in a member’s immediate family
• For any condition suffered as a result of any act of war or while on active or reserve military duty
• In excess of the allowed amount for services usually provided by one doctor, when those services are provided by multiple doctors
• For palliative, cosmetic or routine foot care
• For dental care, dentures, oral orthotic devices, palatal expanders and orthodontics except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• For dental implants
• Dental services provided in a hospital, except when a hazardous condition exists at the same time or covered oral surgery services are required at the same time as a result of a bodily injury
• For any treatment or regimen, medical or surgical, for the purpose of reducing or controlling the weight of a member or for treatment of obesity, except for surgical treatment of morbid obesity
• Wigs, hair pieces and hair implants for any reason
• Received from a dental or medical department maintained by or on behalf of an employer, a mutual benefit association, labor union, trust or similar person or group
• For sexual dysfunction unrelated to organic disease
• Treatment or studies leading to or in connection with sex changes or modifications and related care
• Music therapy, remedial reading, recreational or activity therapy, all forms of special education and supplies or equipment used similarly
• Hypnosis except when used for control of acute or chronic pain
• Acupuncture and acupressure
• Surgery for psychological or emotional reasons
• Travel, whether or not recommended or prescribed by a doctor or other licensed health care professional, except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• Heating pads, hot water bottles, ice packs and personal hygiene and convenience items such as, but not limited to, devices and equipment used for environmental control
• Devices and equipment used for environmental accommodation requiring vehicle and/or building modifications such as, but not limited to, chair lifts, stair lifts, home elevators, and ramps
• Air conditioners, furnaces, humidifiers, dehumidifiers, vacuum cleaners, electronic air filters and similar equipment
• Physical fitness equipment, hot tubs, Jacuzzis, heated spas, pool or memberships to health clubs
• Eyeglasses or contact lenses
• Orthoptics, vision training, and low vision aids
• Fitting for eyewear, radial keratotomy and other refractive eye surgery, and related services to correct vision except for surgical correction of an eye injury. Also excluded are premium intraocular lenses and services related to their insertion beyond what is required for insertion of conventional intraocular lenses
• Routine hearing examinations and hearing aids or examinations for the fitting of hearing aids except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• Routine hearing examinations except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• Evaluation and treatment of developmental dysfunction and/or learning differences
• For routine eye examinations, except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• Medical care provided by more than one doctor for treatment of the same condition
• Clomiphene (e.g., Clomid), menotropins (e.g., Repronex) or other drugs associated with conception by artificial means
• For maintenance therapy. Maintenance therapy includes services that preserve your present level of function or condition and prevent regression
• For massage therapy services
• For holistic medicine services
• For services primarily for educational purposes including, but not limited to, books, tapes, pamphlets, seminars, classroom, Web or computer programs, individual or group instruction and counseling, except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• For genetic testing, except for high risk patients when the therapeutic or diagnostic course would be determined by the outcome of the testing
• Services whose efficacy has not been established by controlled clinical trials, or are not recommended as a preventive service by the US Public Health Service, except as specifically covered by your health benefit plan
• Shoes of any type, unless part of a brace
• For any condition, disease, ailment, injury or diagnostic service to the extent that benefits are provided or persons are eligible for coverage under Title XVIII of the Social Security Act of 1965, including amendments, except as otherwise provided by federal law
• For conditions that federal, state or local law requires to be treated in a public facility
• For vitamins, food supplements or replacements, nutritional or dietary supplements, formulas or special foods of any kind, except for prescription pre-natal vitamins or prescription vitamin B-12 injections for anemias, neuropathies or dementias secondary to a vitamin B-12 deficiency

Your coverage may be canceled by BCBSNC for failure to pay premiums and for false statements on your application, among other reasons. Coverage for dependent children ends at age 26. Members will be notified 30 days in advance of any change in coverage. A waiting period for coverage of pre-existing conditions may apply to your coverage.¹ These pages contain available benefits only. They are not your insurance policy. Your policy is your insurance contract. If there is any difference between these pages and the policy, the provisions of the policy will control.

1 – Pre-existing conditions are defined as those for which medical advice, diagnosis, care or treatment was received or recommended within the 12 months prior to the date that this coverage begins. You may receive credit toward the 12-month waiting period, if we receive your completed application within 63 days of the termination of your previous creditable health coverage.

“The hotly-debated HR3200, the so-called “health care reform” bill, is nothing less than corporate welfare in the guise of social welfare and reform.” stated Dennis Kucinich yesterday in Health Care Wanted: Dead or Alive.

Writing the words “affordable” and “choices” into the title of a bill that offers neither is yet another wonderful example of our government’s desire to hoodwink its consumer/citizens into believing they have our best interests in mind.  HR 3200’s title is right up there with terms like “freedom fighters” and the “war on terror.”

What I would like to see regarding health care reform is the passage of HR 676, the  United States National Health Care Act or the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act.  HR 676 would bring us up to speed with the rest of the industrialized nations regarding truly affordable health care.

We need health care, not health insurance.  Health insurance is a multi billion dollar industry which minds its bottom line by denying claims so they can pay their executives millions of dollars a year.

HR 3200 promises more of the same for-profit doublespeak while inflating the cost of medical care in this country to more than 18% of the GDP at more than $2 trillion per year.  HR 676 eliminates the doublespeak with a single-payer plan available to everyone regardless of pre-existing conditions or ability to pay exhorbitant premiums.

The United States military budget is a good case in point.  We keep on putting money into the machine so that the machine can keep on fighting.  Sadly, our efforts to police the world have had the unfortunate side effect of making us a hated target for terrorists.  According to the Council on Foreign Relations:

“Defense spending today comes to about 3.7 percent of GDP—and the combined total, even after including both war-spending supplements and “Global War on Terror” expenditures, comes to 6.2 percent of GDP.”

If you think that’s bad – we pay even more for health care.  And yet we have poor coverage compared to countries which pay half to a third as much as we do.

Connect the dots between the following news stories:

The questions our healthcare debate ignores – Salon.com
“Nations with comparable standards of living like France, Germany, Sweden, Finland, the United Kingdom, Canada, Norway, and Japan spend roughly between half and two-thirds per capita what we spend annually. They cover everyone and their results are measurably better.”

Medical Bills Cause Most Bankruptcies – American Journal of Medicine
“62.1% of all bankruptcies have a medical cause, according to the American Journal of Medicine’s study titled “Medical Bankruptcy in the United States, 2008: Results of a National Study”

Comment to the above: “The amount of misinformation being spread to the American people on health-care is staggering and there is little political will to do the right thing, thanks to the enormous amount of money being spent to lobby Congress. The public is being bombarded with the usual scare tactics about losing their freedom to choose doctors and to choose from among many plans. The Federal Government is portrayed as “big brother’ taking away your rights again. The insurance companies are making billions under the current system and will do anything to keep their 30% of the enormous pile of money.”

Ex-CEO Agrees To Give Back $620 Million – Wall Street Journal
To top it all off, former UnitedHealth Group Inc. Chief Executive William McGuire, one of the highest paid executives in the U.S at $35 million per year for 15 years (that’s $525 million) felt he needed to make even more money.  He played dirty with his company’s stock options, got caught and has agreed to $620 in stock options gains.

The Truth About the Insurance Industry – Washington Post
The issue isn’t that insurance companies are evil. It’s that they need to be profitable. They have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize profit for shareholders.  >snip<  The best way to drive down “medical-loss,” explains Potter, is to stop insuring unhealthy people.

Analysts say number of uninsured Americans to grow – Real Clear Markets
“This year, health spending is expected to reach $2.6 trillion and will account for about 18 percent of the nation’s economy. That spending comes to about $8,300 a person.

Without changes in federal policy, the number of Americans without health insurance will grow from about 45 million this year to about 54 million in 2019, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday.”

So, that’s the big picture.  Here’s the more personal side. Bob and I have not been able to afford health insurance since leaving Hawaii five years ago, where our employers picked up the tab.  Count us among the forty-five million Americans without health insurance.  Add to that figure the fifty million under-insured Americans and one out of every three Americans do not have access to adequate health care.

Many of the uninsured Americans are in that situation because they have pre-existing conditions like my friend Nancy.  Nancy has a pace maker which has never once fired since she had it installed six years ago after a freak experience with some massage chairs.  She can’t prove it, but she thinks the forty-five minutes she spent testing chairs for her editors job at Family Circle caused her heart to stop three times during the next twelve hours.

There was only one company willing to insure Nancy after she retired and they set her premium at $1600 a month.  For those who aren’t good at head math, that’s nearly $20,000 a year.  So Nancy decided to cross her fingers and wait five years until she qualifies for Medicare.  But for the grace of God, there go all of us.

The truth is, health insurance once came with every job and the co-pays were ridiculously low.  I was quoted an $8 co-pay for a $4,000 tubal ligation on Oahu just 9 years ago.  That would probably fall under ‘elective surgery’ or a ‘pre-existing condition’ today.

Here’s what I’d like to to see happen.  Our policy makers put an end to endless war to feed the war industry and re-tool for peace.  We adopt a single-payer universal health care plan, ending astronomical health care costs to feed the bloated incomes of health care executives.  We use our savings to pay off our debts and invest in sustainable agriculture and energy.

Ask your representatives in congress to support HR676 which calls for a universal single-payer health care system.  Ask them not to support HR 3200 “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act” which promises more of the same, bloated overhead and profits under the current ‘for profit’ health care system.

Under the current system, one out of every three dollars goes to corporate profits, stock options, and executive salaries, advertising, etc – ten times the administrative costs of the single payer plan called for in HR676.

No one should make $35 million a year.  Everyone should have access to health care.  It’s a no brainer!

Peace
Health care
Civil Liberties
Fair Trade
Solar Energy
Electoral Reform
Instant Run-off Voting
Impeachment for Bush and Cheney
A Foreign Policy based on Diplomacy
A Wall Street Securities Speculation Tax

I voted “No” to:
Militarism as a way of life
A Foreign Policy based on War
The Bailouts
Nuclear Power
Clean Coal
Free Trade
Corporate Crime
Anti-Union Laws

I voted for issues, not rhetoric. I voted for people, not corporations and their rich CEOs.
I voted to cut the huge, bloated, wasteful military budget to a level needed to protect the country.
I voted to reverse U.S. Policy in the Middle East, including a rapid withdrawal of troops from Iraq and an end to support for the militarists in Israel.
I voted to adopt single payer national health insurance that would save $350 billion and apply those savings to comprehensively cover all Americans for all medically necessary services.
I voted to end Corporate Personhood. See Licensed to Kill.
I voted to stop subsidizing entrenched oil, nuclear, electric, coal mining, and biofuel interests and to invest heavily in solar and wind and in more efficient homes, automobiles, businesses and government facilities.
I voted for a first-class, high-speed passenger rail system that will save more than it costs.
I voted to tax the buying and selling of blocks of derivatives for profit so as to help lower income taxes on the working class, reduce speculation in the markets and increase stability in the oil and mortgage industries.
I voted against NAFTA and the WTO, which make commercial trade supreme over environmental, labor, and consumer standards.
I voted against the winner-take-all election system which often pushes voters to vote their fears and not their beliefs – or to simply not vote at all.

I voted with my heart, with my brain, and with my values. I voted for Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez.

“There are those that are gonna say that what we’re doing is gonna take votes from other candidates. Let me just emphasize this: There’s nothing that we do that can force anybody to vote for us, but we very much want the opposite not to be true – that anybody that wants to vote for us should not be forced to vote for other candidates.

If there is any candidate that fears what we’re trying to do here, then I invite them to go out and earn the votes that would otherwise be cast for us. We are in a democracy, that’s how it works. Candidates with different opinions put them forward and go compete for votes.” – Matt Gonzalez

Priorities. Our government has them, but they don’t resonate with many of our personal values. One good example is a bloated military budget (an amazing $515.4 Billion or 16.5% of our budget earmarked for 2009) when one out of every three Americans is left without adequate health care.

Another good example is the government’s obsession with terrorism. While the fat cats on Wall Street are robbing us blind, the FBI is kept busy wiretapping our phones and reading our emails.

F.B.I. Struggles to Handle Wave of Financial Fraud Cases

Since 2004, F.B.I. officials have warned that mortgage fraud posed a looming threat, and the bureau has repeatedly asked the Bush administration for more money to replenish the ranks of agents handling nonterrorism investigations, according to records and interviews. But each year, the requests have been denied, with no new agents approved for financial crimes, as policy makers focused on counterterrorism.
>snip<

Some critics question whether the shift indicates not just a lack of resources, but a lack of interest by the Bush administration.

Bob and I were very impressed with Dennis when we campaigned for him on Maui in October of 2003 and have championed him ever since. We found him articulate, warm and extremely well-read. Most importantly, he is passionate about the issues at the top of our list, namely stopping the war, healthcare, the take-over of our economy by global corporations and a skyrocketing national debt.

Dennis Kucinich is a politician who does not flip flop. As a result, he is considered unelectable and is generally overlooked by the press and dismissed by the taxpayers he champions. Read more about this courageous man on Wikipedia.

Here is a sample highlight from his rousing speech:

Wake up America, the insurance companies took over health care.

Wake up America, the pharmaceutical companies took over drug pricing.

Wake up America, the speculators took over Wall Street.

Wake up America, they want to take your Social Security.

Wake up America, multinational corporations took over our trade policies, factories are closing, good paying jobs lost.

We get very excited when someone gets up and says what needs to be said. I hope America is listening!