Hello Internet. Did you miss me?

Apparently no one missed me; no one cared enough to email.  Abandoned by my family, left behind by friends, ignored and abused by nursing home staff where I currently reside leaves me singing Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me.

Nevertheless, do I care?

Hell no, I don't give a shit; with my narcisism and borderline psychopathic tendencies I function on my own,: no love, no mercy, no peace, and thus really no limits on what I can do save the limits of the law, which did give me my first trespass warning on 3 July.  Good times.

Bunches of stuff happened in my time of sorrow and no intertubes connection because maintenance sucks eggs here.  Ba stards.  But all fixed now, reading news, and slowly back to my normal sunny self.

We have Donnie "Blowhard" Billionaire" Trump sticking both entire legs in his hypocritical mouth and Republicans fled in droves, the Grateful Dead played their last shows (everyone was completely sober,  even "Bear" Owlsey Stanley), the United States Womens Soccer team won the World Cup--USA, USA, USA--and last but certainly not the least the US Supreme Court stepped up and did the right thing by upholding the Affordable Care Act and establishing the right of humans of the same sex to marry and have equal rights with their straight sisters and brothers.

Yay the Supreme Court does the progressive thing!

Owsley's ashes on Dead's soundboard at last show

Romneycare: Observations from the Emergency Room

My adventure: waking at 3 am and accidentally pulling out right nephrostomy tube on way for water. While this caused a trifle bit of alarm on my my part (and by trifle I usually mean gargantuan by writing in an understated bit of British irony),

Nevertheless, my fears of rupturing a blood vessel and bleeding out proved unfounded as simply waited in ER with 0 alarm on part of professionals there, had tube replaced in same hole, and got carted home only to find that handset which would not function to call 911 previously because of low battery would not charge. Next when urine collection bag had blood a week later rather than just pure urine, had to crawl to front door to yell to neighbor who goes to work at 5am to make 911, call a fact which will wound me psychologically to the end of my days but hope to recast in more humorous way in my novel as hate to ask for help, even less so in boxers laying with front door ajar.

Once in the ER, quickly got quickly placed into room with 4 bays divided by curtains, a lucky fact for often patients get placed by triage nurses on cots in corridors--or even in winter laid on a floor with blankets but those latter homeless humans who may fake a malady for warmth--because folks come into the ER with myriad of ills which a primary Dr would better treat.

For instance. the gentleman to my immediate left had fainting spells for a couple months, severe headaches, and had fallen down in public even though sober to cause his ER stay, paramedics having strongly suggested he get his health checked. After a probably unnecessary and costly CT scan which showed no problems, the Doctor discussed his extremely high blood pressure with him.

With my own higher than normal pressure, my ears perked up and heard it explained to the in his early 60's gentleman how pernicious the effects could become; heart attacks, strokes, and death.

He had no doctor (or primary physician as we now say).

He had no health insurance.

He received a prescription and referral to the Orange Blossom Family Medical clinic, a government supported medical center for poor humans and working folks who have no insurance from temporary jobs or cannot afford plans offered by their employers. A little googling will show temporary jobs have become the hiring preference for many companies in the United States of Apathy.

This clinic served me well in 2006 when first diagnosed with high blood pressure, and I sadly never could pay $5 copay for the medications. Budget limits and then more cuts prevented them from referring me to specialists required for my care; nephrologist, urologist, and neurologist for starters. Even after deemed eligible for disability and surviving the 2 year waiting period for Medicare and Medicare Advantage, paying $40 copays for specialists still proves difficult and probably impossible were my dad unable to help his 54 year old son with rent.

Obviously if the gentleman with high blood pressure strokes out and has to receive care in an Adult Living Facility paid for by Medicaid, it will cost exponentially more than it would in a humane system where he could see a Dr a couple of times a year and have some sort of social health insurance to afford blood pressure medication.

This then forms the reality of the broken health care system in the richest country in the world, the world of which Willard Mitt Romney has no inkling whatsoever, not even a bit of curiosity nor compassion, nor any clue he should actually inform himself of the life less affluent really live, the reality of the 47% he mocked, the working folk who pay plenty in sales taxes, increased fees for every governement service in cash strapped states, and pay social security and medicare taxes taken from every paycheck they earn.

This amounts to something more than a tragedy, this ideology of death, a genocide which makes my Jesus weep.
Howzabout you?

For whom will you vote?

"Death by Ideology"

Every day in America people die because they lack health insurance and live in a society which evinces no compassion for the less fortunate among us: those who live without shelter, serve your food, market products over the phone to make minimal wages while getting cursed, and maybe even those who work at greeters at big box retail stores.

This happens because alleged humans hold to an idea that everyone has to take care of everything that happens to them, even medical conditions easily treated in other countries with health cares systems based on human decency rather than wringing every dollar possible out of people.

These people, who loudly proclaim themselves Christians, live by ideology unmoored from any bit of reality or any knowledge of how humans with marginal incomes actually live and die ignoring the very words my Jesus said while mouthing their mealy mouthed platitudes.

Fie on thee, ye who proclaim your righteousness.

I sin and sin greatly but at least admit of my mistakes, and when I see you in Hell, Willard, I will laugh.

[Mitt Romney doesn’t see dead people. But that’s only because he doesn’t want to see them; if he did, he’d have to acknowledge the ugly reality of what will happen if he and Paul Ryan get their way on health care.

Last week, speaking to The Columbus Dispatch, Mr. Romney declared that nobody in America dies because he or she is uninsured: “We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance.” This followed on an earlier remark by Mr. Romney — echoing an infamous statement by none other than George W. Bush — in which he insisted that emergency rooms provide essential health care to the uninsured.

These are remarkable statements. They clearly demonstrate that Mr. Romney has no idea what life (and death) are like for those less fortunate than himself.

Even the idea that everyone gets urgent care when needed from emergency rooms is false. Yes, hospitals are required by law to treat people in dire need, whether or not they can pay. But that care isn’t free — on the contrary, if you go to an emergency room you will be billed, and the size of that bill can be shockingly high. Some people can’t or won’t pay, but fear of huge bills can deter the uninsured from visiting the emergency room even when they should. And sometimes they die as a result.

More important, going to the emergency room when you’re very sick is no substitute for regular care, especially if you have chronic health problems. When such problems are left untreated — as they often are among uninsured Americans — a trip to the emergency room can all too easily come too late to save a life.

So the reality, to which Mr. Romney is somehow blind, is that many people in America really do die every year because they don’t have health insurance.] emphasis added for the clueless and because I want to punch Willard in the nose, ok, strike humourosly with rubber chicken 'cause don't need Secret Service hassle and Jesus abhors violence but did do civil disobedience.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/opinion/krugman-death-by-ideology.html?hp&_r=0

Pre-existing Medical Conditions Personal for Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Myself

Testify, sister Wasserman Schultz, Romney blatantly lied:

[At the debate, Mitt Romney looked the American public in the eye and said: "I do have a plan that deals with people with pre-existing conditions. That's part of my health care plan."
His campaign quietly admitted afterwards that, no, it is not, in fact, a part of his health care plan.

As a breast cancer survivor and someone living with a pre-existing condition, this statement was more personally offensive than any of his repeated promises to repeal Obamacare. This kind of say-anything dishonesty is typical from Mitt Romney and the Republicans.

You can do something. Please give $3 or more today to help Democrats set the record straight about Romney and his allies. Voters need to know.

When the other side makes empty, dishonest promises like this one, it's not only the worst kind of politics, it's toying with real people's lives.

As a cancer survivor, I know just how much we used to be at the mercy of insurance providers. Obamacare protects us from unfair practices like lifetime caps on your coverage, denial of coverage because of pre-existing conditions, and being dropped from your policy exactly when you need it most. Mitt Romney will take that all away -- but when he's asked point-blank about it, he won't admit it.

We deserve better. But we need to work harder than ever for it.]

Yes, Debbie and me be friends, really tight. Wonder if I'll hear from her as much after the election? Also funny how all thems asking me for donations have learned to lower their ask to $3 or $5. Do you think thye share notes 'bout little ole me?

Willard Lies on Insurance for People with Pre-Existing Conditions

Romney's 'plan" just more of the same, allowing health insurance companies to make huge profits and to discriminate against those with pre-existing conditions.

He would deny life saving care from umna beings whose insurance lapsed or who lost jobs when losing their jobs.

[WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney's plan to help people with pre-existing medical conditions: hang on to your health insurance if you want to be protected.

The GOP presidential candidate wants to help those who maintain continuous coverage, a fraction of a much bigger group of people at risk of getting turned down because of medical problems.

Here's the catch: If you had a significant break in coverage, an insurer still could delve into your health care record, looking for anything – from a bad back to high blood pressure – that foreshadows future claims. They'd be able to turn you down.

That's a contrast to President Barack Obama's health care law, which guarantees that people in poor health can get comprehensive coverage at the same rates everybody else pays, and provides government subsidies to help low- to middle-income households pay premiums.

Starting Jan. 1, 2014, an insurer "may not impose any pre-existing condition exclusion," the law says.

Romney is stressing his pre-existing conditions plan as he works to soften his public image in the homestretch of a campaign that has tightened since his strong debate performance versus Obama.

"I do have a plan that deals with people with pre-existing conditions," he said during last week's debate.

The Romney campaign has not spelled out details other than it would help those who have maintained continuous coverage. That would entail incremental changes to insurance laws and regulations, and may or may not whittle down the number of uninsured, 49 million nationally.]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/09/mitt-romney-preexisting-condtions_n_1950661.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

Obama Wins First Debate

That may come as a jarring, even fantastical headline, in this 24 hour news society of instant reaction, analysis, and news "memes" which simply amount to talking points repeated incessantly.

If you read the debate transcript and analyze it for facts--you know, those inconvenient things which taken together amount to truth--Romney lied his ass off.  The man wouldn't know the truth if it walked up, sapped him in the face, stole his woman and burned down the house.  He finds himself of uttering words which might impede his rise to power, like even admitting a tax cut for rich folks marks the exact thing he has run on for last 8 years, for Athena's sake.

Odd but not entirely surprising it takes a columnist from a foreign paper to realize and write this; the British perhaps treat politics with trifle more skepticism since they have awareness they keep around and pay for an outmoded vestige of the feudal era, the "royal" family.

We in the colonies, the good old US of Irony, have no such awareness of the illusion of moral superiority with which we endow ourselves and our leaders.

[Barack Obama won last night’s debate. Or to be more precise, Mitt Romney lost it.

That’s obviously not the conventional view of the commentators or pollsters, who gave the GOP candidate a clear win. But that doesn’t matter. He still lost.

There are three reasons why Romney experienced a soft implosion of his already tenuous electoral chances. First, there was no “gotcha moment”. Before the debate every political analyst, be they from the Left or Right, agreed that Romney had to land a knockout blow, which he didn’t.

There was no major presidential gaffe. No glancing at watches, sighing or claiming there has never been any soviet domination of eastern Europe....

The second problem for Romney was that while he failed to land a knockout blow, he kept piling into him. He was aggressive, too aggressive.

This is Romney’s greatest weakness as a candidate. He lacks compassion. He comes across as one of those big businessman in old Westerns who turns up at the farm and explains to the widow that he needs to buy her land to make way for his new railroad, and if she knows what’s good for her, she’ll take him up on his kind offer. CNN’s post election poll found that two thirds of those who watched thought Romney put in the most effective performance. But only 46 per cent said they found him more likeable than Obama. Not only did Romney not land the knockout blow, he failed to close the empathy gap.

Finally, Romney has fatally shifted the expectation game. In advance of this debate, he was able to talk down his chances of success. This morning, his supporters are ecstatic – just look at my friend and colleague Tim Stanley’s take on the debate – and working themselves up into a frenzy at yet another ‘game-changing’ moment.

Romney will probably enjoy a small boost in the polls. And then the race will settle back down to where it was, which is a relatively tight national poll margin, but an insurmountable lead for Obama in the battleground states.]  emphasis added http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danhodges/100183875/last-night-mitt-romney-lost-yes-you-read-that-right/

Dang, I gotta start watching Saturday Night Live again.  They really highlight Msnbc hyperbole on first debate.  They too get caught in the moment and forget even Republican voters have come to find they like or at least benefit financially and personally from portions of the Affordable Care Act.

You see in the abstract, people find it easy to rail against big government and the encroaching socialist state.

Nevertheless when it gives insurance to their children by allowing them to stay on parent's health insurance and also saves lives of those in their family by allowing people with pre-existing medical conditions to even get health insurance coverage.

And Mitt the mendacious flat out lied on this point during the debate.  

Danielle Sampson, Why the Affordable Care Act Matters

While a branch of the local hospital in this story provided excellent care for me on my United Health Care Medicare Advantage Plan, even the most altruistic health care provider must draw a line between taking care of people with acute conditions and those like myself who have chronic medical issues.

Use of the term "chronic medical issues" obscures the sad fact that in the most prosperous nation on earth a young lady caught in a crossfire resulting in a coma can easily exhaust insurance benefits in a few weeks, and families face ruinous medical expenses uncovered by any of those socialist government handouts to the 47% who, in Willard's World, refuse to take care of themselves, damn leeches on society.

If you can give without going hungry, give: http://www.gofundme.com/SupportDanielle

[ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. —

The family of 15-year-old Danielle Sampson, who was shot in the head, will soon care for her at home once she is released from the hospital.

The Orange County teenager was caught in the crossfire of a shooting in July and has been in a coma ever since....

Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital said it can't talk about specifics of the case because of privacy laws but it released a statement, saying they do their best to work with families through these tough transitions....

The family said it has a long, hard road ahead, as family members soon will be forced to care for their daughter at their small home. 

Right now, the family is trying to figure out how they're going to pay for the special care Danielle needs....

On Tuesday, Danielle's family opened its home to WFTV, showing reasons why bringing their daughter home will be a challenge. Their air conditioner is broken, and her wheelchair and hospital bed won't fit through the doorways.

Danielle's parents said insurance money has run out, and they've both stopped working to stay by their daughter's side.

Danielle will soon be transferred to a rehabilitation facility where her mother will undergo a two-week training session on how to care for her. The plan after that is for the family to return home, which has community leaders scrambling.]

http://www.wftv.com/news/news/community-joins-sheriffs-office-40-days-prayer-ini/nSRCk/



What does wondrous Willard say about health care in America? Go to the Emergency Room; you'll get care there.




Dipwad.

Don't Pay the Ransom; I Escaped

Edited for clarity on 2 October:

And Willard Mittens Romney, explain to me how someone who has survived and sometimes thrived for 34 years after a broken neck and who now walks but has to play wheel of Dr's appts--urologist, nephrologist, neurologist, gastroenterolgist and a primary who won't even do as much as write an antibiotics 'script' when i urinate milk due to a UTI unless i add the cab ride to and fro from his office, his $20 copay, plus $20 copay and more taxi fares to get lab tests to get what I already know I need--can afford all that on less than a grand a month in disability.

PS;  Wonder if i can get a cheap flight to Costa Rica where socialized medicine can give me the care needed.

PPS:  Screw that, too far from my nieces and sis' who still talks to me.  Fidel, can I get me some care in Cuba?

From the Pen of a Kid: Romney, go back to MA

That's the fact, Jack! If a 12 year old can figure this fool out, why can't Republican'ts?

Jackson Ripley, age 12:
[Dear Governor Romney,

I’d like to say congratulations on winning the republican nomination. But, I wish you stayed in Massachusetts. You’re plan for America isn’t what we need, and would hurt us more than it would help.

First, repealing Obama care and other health plans he’s put in place have helped families across America, including mine. I live in a middle class family, and two years ago my little sister; Kennedy was denied insurance because of her pre-existing condition. This was a huge emotional stress and financial burden on my entire family. Under Obama Care, insurance companies can no longer deny Kennedy and kids like her, the coverage they need and deserve. Because of Obama care my little sister was able to have the several surgeries she needed that helped save her life. Once the President was elected he put Obama Care into action, just like he promised and made it so that you could get insurance with pre-existing conditions. This has made a direct impact on my family. My family is with out a doubt better off now, than we were four years ago!

It is to my understanding that you stated that you were going to repeal Obama Care, including the part I have mentioned, which will take away the insurance we have and need for my sister Kennedy. Why do you think she doesn’t deserve health care? Also, when you were interviewed on “Meet the Press”, you stated that you would NOT repeal this part of Obama Care, but then your campaign backpedalled and on the “Tonight show with Jay Leno”, you said that you WOULD repeal this.

Also, you’re domestic plans (birth control, gay rights etc.) are horrible! Women should get to manage their own health, and if you wonder why you’re not appealing to many women voters, rethink your birth control and women’s’ rights plans. And people should be able to marry whom they want. We built this country so people could have freedom, and not have religious beliefs control them to that length. This country was in no way built on any religion, so we should not create laws that repress the American people in a religious way and hurt our most vulnerable.

Sincerely,
Jackson Ripley, age 12] my emphasis
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/18/jackson-ripley-12-year-ol_n_1892456.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

Paul Ryan Loves Him Some Obamacare

Hypocrite!

[Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan is barnstorming the country, promising to repeal every provision of the Affordable Care Act if the Romney-Ryan ticket is elected. But a letter he wrote to the Obama administration may undermine this message.

On December 10, 2010, Ryan penned a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services to recommend a grant application for the Kenosha Community Health Center, Inc to develop a new facility in Racine, Wisconsin, an area within Ryan’s district. “The proposed new facility, the Belle City Neighborhood Health Center, will serve both the preventative and comprehensive primary healthcare needs of thousands of new patients of all ages who are currently without healthcare,” Ryan wrote.

The grant Ryan requested was funded directly by the Affordable Care Act, better known simply as healthcare reform or Obamacare.

The letter, among several obtained by The Nation and The Investigative Fund through a Freedom of Information Act request, is a stark reminder that even the most ardent opponents of Obamacare privately acknowledge many of the law’s benefits.]http://www.thenation.com/blog/169757/exclusive-paul-ryan-quietly-requested-obamacare-cash

Florida Ideologues Strike

Like babies rejecting free cash from Jimmy Fallon, the FL Legislature spurned $ from federal government although it would help keep kids alive because it came from the Affordable Care Act.

Hello, maroons, the US Supreme Court upheld the Act!

How in the name of God they claim to serve does this make sense!

Ideologue, another word for idiot!

[And at this most desperate moment, there was an opportunity to implement evidence-based, cost-effective programs proven to improve the health and development of at-risk children: the federal government was gifting Florida $31.3 million in total grant funding for 5 years of targeted home visitations, no strings attached and no match required, from its Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Programs.

After a thoughtful, year-long state-wide comprehensive needs assessment, five local Healthy Start organizations were awarded funds in September. The most vulnerable families were registered, professional nurses, social workers, and teachers were hired, and by January 1 the programs were up and running....


And then the conservative Florida legislature rejected the following four years of funding, because the grant was provided under the Affordable Care Act -- also known as Obamacare.

WHAT FLORIDA GAVE UP

“Poverty is the challenge that underlines almost every problem we're dealing with in human services,” Carol Brady, Executive Director of the Northeast Florida Healthy Start Coalition, told HuffPost. “To stick a baby in a NICU or get prenatal care, you're just dealing with symptoms. We were talking about doing more than just setting up a clinic -- we were talking about a program where the mother's life looks different, the family's life looks different, and the child's life looks different.”

Brady’s MIECHV–funded nurse-family partnership –- a “nice overlay” to current Healthy Start programs -- sends professionals into the homes of 100 of the most vulnerable first-time mothers in the Jacksonville area, where 32.4 percent of children are helped by food stamps and military families are given priority to participate.]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/29/florida-rejects-home-visitation-grant-miechv-obamacare_n_1838345.html

Florida's high-risk pool for health coverage

[The Affordable Care Act, which takes full effect in 2014, was supposed to save people like Elder (with pre-existing conditions and no medical coverage) in the interim by way of high-risk pools, also known as the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan or PCIP.

The pools are supposed to be a safety net, but many, like Elder, are falling through the cracks.

Elder's family spent her final months fighting for Medicaid, with no clue that they qualified for Florida's high-risk pool. They are not alone: Of the estimated 200,000-375,000 people expected to enroll in PCIP in the first year, less than one-third have done it, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.]
http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/01/health/elder-insurance/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

Cancer Without Health Insurance

Few related "comic" strips making cancer diagnosis. surgery, and billing "funny," not in ha ha way but more like yeah, been almost there, done that, ignoring messages from bill collectors way.

What will President (shudder) Romney replace the Affordable Care Act with?

http://boingboing.net/2012/08/27/uninsured-comic-artist-with-ca.html via http://susiemadrak.com/2012/08/27/whew-4/

Women's Preventive Health Care Today

http://www.beachpeanuts.com/2012/08/preventive-health-coverage-for-women-takes-effect-today-under-aca.html

Medical Bankruptcy: Trying to Fight Colon Cancer Without Insurance Coverage

Please forgive me for this pun, but blogger quoted below gives the straight poop on life with cancer without health insurance.


It ain't pretty.


Read this and then tell me the richest country in the world cannot afford health care for all like the rest of the industrialized world has.


[Fortunately, in part due to my young age and the extraordinary care I have received at the University of Arizona Cancer Center, I’ve been able to cope quite well so far despite the difficulties of treatment.Unfortunately, cancer treatment is quite expensive, and recently the ASU student insurance plan stopped covering my cost of care. The Aetna student health insurance plan provided by ASU caps the lifetime insurance benefit paid out at $300,000, which the high cost of treatment used up in less than one year.]
http://poopstrong.org/

Obama Care Keeping People Like Erin Alive