tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9263167.post4291033619058626982..comments2024-03-27T13:25:58.065-04:00Comments on Stayin' Alive: Back to civilizationCervanteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11302076828795198187noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9263167.post-78669036588806102172009-09-08T19:53:18.037-04:002009-09-08T19:53:18.037-04:00well, bix. a healthcare provider? i'm utterl...well, bix. a healthcare provider? i'm utterly speechless.kathy a.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14479337952651746193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9263167.post-1410817434026187082009-09-08T14:26:13.364-04:002009-09-08T14:26:13.364-04:00Oh man, wrenching story, kathy. Hard on everyone,...Oh man, wrenching story, kathy. Hard on everyone, your grandmother, you, your family. We have such a terrible reputation for caring for our elderly.<br /><br />Everywhere I turn there's a wrenching story. How many wrenching stories will it take before we make changes? It's unfathomable, to me, that a country so rich chooses to turn away. Compassionate conservatism for 8 years. Where is the compassion?<br /><br />Mine was a true story. The person was a healthcare provider, no less. Apart from her ideas about socialist communities, her idea that government shouldn't get more involved in healthcare is supported by several providers I know.<br /><br />(Gasbags is a great word.)Bixhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06263963508785739508noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9263167.post-63925555437528044632009-09-08T12:38:13.154-04:002009-09-08T12:38:13.154-04:00bix, that's astonishing! let's suppose so...bix, that's astonishing! let's suppose someone on the block gets cancer or has a catastrophic injury or needs nursing home care. would she personally be willing to chip in a few thousand? what about a couple thousand for years on end? if someone needed home nursing, how many hours a week would she be willing to devote to changing diapers and administering physical therapy, and cooking and housework that the patient can no longer do?<br /><br />when my grandmother became physically disabled and turned out to have alzheimer's, too, i ended up assuming her care. my mother insisted that i should have left her in florida, because her elderly neighbors "loved her" and would take care of her. <br /><br />mom was batshit. the one set of neighbors who cared were elderly and already wringing their hands about my grandmother's decline, before the fall. her household helper's last 2 checks had bounced. there were $30,000 in overdue bills sitting around. she had sold her house and needed to move, but had no idea where she could move. once the bills were paid, she had $10,000 left for the duration. etc. <br /><br />there is no way i could have handled the situation without medicare [and i think also medi-cal, the state's version of medicaid], and finding a nursing home that would take medicare. i had a challenging job, 2 young kids, very little money, and it was all i could do to manage her medical care and hospitalizations, the money, visits, the paperwork, and odds and ends like clothing. my grandmother lived another 6.5 years.kathy a.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14479337952651746193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9263167.post-53547819228146580442009-09-08T09:06:21.135-04:002009-09-08T09:06:21.135-04:00Sounds good, C, but that's a long way away. If...Sounds good, C, but that's a long way away. If you were in Sturbridge or some such place, I might go for it.<br /><br />And the chord is a 7th flat nine, you play a diminished scale over it.<br /><br />Well folks, it's kind of hard to interpret the polls because so much depends on how the questions are worded. I think that a) most people really have little or no clue about what is actually proposed; even less so what a "single payer" system means or other more substantial possibilities; and so b) majorities respond positively to specific propositions that do happen to be good ones, but the wingnuts and gasbags have managed to create vague negative associations in their minds with the names or labels that are normally put on the good stuff which they actually do support if you just don't call it that. Or something.Cervanteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11302076828795198187noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9263167.post-41248427499421688122009-09-08T07:08:57.498-04:002009-09-08T07:08:57.498-04:00I was speaking with someone who told me the govern...I was speaking with someone who told me the government should not be involved in healthcare. It's socialized medicine, which she doesn't believe in. She said if someone needs care, people on their block should chip in and help. She believes in "Community."Bixhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06263963508785739508noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9263167.post-54489707932126521032009-09-07T18:45:41.579-04:002009-09-07T18:45:41.579-04:00Wow, chord wood! Major triad? Augmented seventh? ...Wow, chord wood! Major triad? Augmented seventh? :) <br /><br />I agree with Kathy: Those folks aren't against "Medicare for all." At best, they don't have a clue that's an option that has been discussed. At worst, they're against the fantasy gov't takeover with Death Panels and forced abortions and unplugged grannies. But they do want the same thing that the rabid fringe left is insisting on.<br /><br />If you want a free cord of wood, come on up to Hawley with your chainsaw and clear the devastation off my lot. I've got at least 30 cords' worth of trees lying on the ground so thick, I can't walk to the stone wall in back.C. Coraxnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9263167.post-72558454430524944672009-09-07T15:46:48.571-04:002009-09-07T15:46:48.571-04:00i don't believe that people who are already in...i don't believe that people who are already in dire straits are the ones complaining about change. but people who are broke and out of work and/or in pain are also people less likely to have their voices heard -- it's what they can do to get through the day. <br /><br />i also have a suspicion that despite the volume of opposition, most ordinary people -- even those who give lip service to some of the gasbag talking points -- are not buying the whole package, because it doesn't reflect the reality they live. <br /><br />this is at least true regarding health care, with the otherwise conservative people i know. several have a variety of health conditions themselves, or close family members do, and they have struggled for years to get needed care -- struggled with insurance companies as well as disability programs, medicare, etc. the ones with insurance are terrified of losing it, even as they have to fight inappropriate denials, and scramble to cover the increasing patient costs.<br /><br />but none are opposed to the other programs covering medical costs -- they may have problems with getting a loved one enrolled, poor fit with providers, and the more ordinary problems of getting doctors to pay attention to patient history, etc. -- but these are lifelines. i do not hear *any* grousing about getting the government out of their family's health care, because without a safety net, they or their loved ones would be shit out of luck.kathy a.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14479337952651746193noreply@blogger.com