Going to the doctor is always frightening. You’re, of course, mostly surrounded by sick people – and since most younger humans seem to just tough it out (as I generally always did), you’re mostly surrounded by sick OLDER people. There’s a lot of coughing and a horrible vision of the future. There is no optimism here, just people hanging on. A woman perhaps my mother’s age helping HER mother in and out of the bathroom. Eyes are averted, faces are contorted. There’s not much to smile about. Numbers have changed, things are more complicated than they should be.
People bitch about the Affordable Care Act. “Obamacare” won’t be in full effect for a while, and with how much angst there is about it, perhaps it will NEVER take full effect. File your taxes NOW small businesses! Take advantage of the tax credit from last year before they decide to take it back!
Though I agree with most of the act’s provisions, the point of big contention is the mandatory gotta-buy-it health insurance. I agree that there’s just no way that should be legal without some substantial reworking of the Constitution (perhaps to include that we have the inalienable human rights to Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and a healthy Life). That doesn’t sound like such a bad thing, frankly, but it would never fly. A recent judge’s point that forcing a person to buy health insurance because it’s good for them or good for the overall society is pretty equivalant to forcing them to exercise or eat broccoli….
The man’s got a point. I don’t ENTIRELY understand why if it’s legal to eat ourselves to death or die slowly on the couch, refusing to follow our doctor’s orders, its ILLEGAL to commit suicide – but the world will never truly make sense to me. Wouldn’t THAT be a different world? The Physician’s Enforcers coming to your home, throwing out the black market junk food and using a tazer to get you jogging. I don’t know that there’s literally a logical middle ground – in a world where healthcare isn’t universal, we’ll always have the RIGHT to be unhealthy, I suppose.
Adam Kruger bringing himself a trio, which is actually not the Adam Kruger Trio. It was two members of the Adam Kruger Trio and a guitarist from another band…. who was amaazing. At the end of the night we got to do a big jam session – the guitarist, the drummer, Sharif on keys and myself on bass. Oh, how delicious it was to play bass! Matt Pless’ new band, a three-piece punk band, rocking hard at my open mic at Trax on Wax in Catonsville, MD. Matt is so very full of energy. He made me want to jump up and down for a bit, but I had to maintain propriety.
Relying on the concept of social responsibility of course, doesn’t get us very far. As a matter of fact it pretty much just gets us to where we are today. Frankly, I think that the entire Afordable Care Act missed the point – attacking health insurance reform rather than bothering with the cost of the actual care, which is where the problem lies. Still, it’s good to see someone bothering to do something, even if I think it’ll likely going to be entirely undone in the next couple of years.
What truly infuriates me though, is that Obama probably won’t even get the credit due.
He’s TRYING, and if the whole thing was allowed to function, it’d probably do a good deal of net good in our world. But it’s a carefully constructed thing, and as soon as it gets a couple of holes in it, it will not only collapse, but it’ll probably implode in a rather expensive fashion. It’s about the only piece of litigation that’s actually making an effort to pay for itself, and rather than follow the example or try to upgrade it in an intelligent fashion, it’s under vicious attack by people who, when asked “well, what’s YOUR idea”, will simply shake their heads and claim that that’s not the point.
And so when one is in the doctor’s office, if you ask “how much is this going to cost”, they can’t answer the question, because that’s between you and the health insurance company. And if you imply to the health insurance company that you’re preparing to go to the doctor for anything out of the ordinary, you’re in danger of being canceled or having your rates raised. That’ll be illegal in 2014… but that’s a long time to avoid going to the doctor because you’re afraid your health insurance company will dump you.
Of course, they’ll always be allowed to just price you out of your coverage, it seems – which they’ve been trying REALLY hard to do the last couple of years, but in 2014 at least we’ll get some financial aid… paid for by the mandate…. which is probably illegal.
Sigh.
And so I look around the room and think about how I don’t want to survive THAT long in any case. I’m not going to have kids to help me in and out of the bathroom.
And I’m not going to be wealthy enough to pay for it on my own. And health insurance probably won’t cover it….
