Healthcare @ MindSay

How's this for interesting?

 

Japan is instituting a program where its citizens of a certain age are now being measured for obesity. If they are above a specified size, they will be forced to diet and lose weight, after a period of 3-6 months, if they still are too big, they will be penalized financially. This was an article I stumbled across in the New York Times. It is very intricate, talking about why they are doing this.

 

Wow.

 

It is kind of stunning. Apparently, the Japanese government has more control over its citizenry than they do here in America. Can you just imagine the press conference of GW Bush announcing that all Americans are to be measured for a specific body size and those who don't meet the criteria will be given time to fix it and eventually punished?

 

One glaring problem I see with this would be that so many Americans don't have health care, how could you possibly get them all to go to a doctor to be measured in the first place? Not so much a problem in Japan, I guess.

 

I am envisioning the screaming hordes of people in this country who would be railing about civil rights and inherent freedoms. Dammit...we can be fat it we want to!

 

Besides, if we force everyone to lose weight, won't that put all the junk food companies out of business? Poor Little Debbie, sad Frito Lay, all those workers without jobs. But hey, at least they'd be healthy, right?

 

 

Gosh, it has been forever since I've actually had something to write about.  Lots has happened since my last entry.  I had my second son in March and we named him Colin.  Thanks for all the name suggestions from my last post! 

 

I've been dealing with the complete loss of my kitchen since late December - the dishwasher leaked and ruined all the cabinets; leaked through the wall and into the office in the next room, ruining the walls, carpet, and furniture.  I'm hoping it will be done in a month - I've been washing dishes and bottles in my laundry room sink; I have no oven or stove either.

 

I also finally was able to see Michael Moore's movie "Sicko".  I know people either like him or hate him, but every American should see this movie.  It will make you really think about our current health care system, and what needs to be done about it.  If the current system is still in place by the time my husband and I retire, I really worry about our ability to be able to pay for premiums, and get full coverage for any preexisting conditions we might have at that time.

 

A socialized medical system is actually not a bad idea.  When we were in Australia for our honeymoon, we asked our wine tour guide about the medical system in Australia and he loved it.  Every citizen has government healthcare (paid by taxes).  Canada, the U.K., France and even Cuba has universal free healthcare (they do pay for it with taxes, but no one is turned away for their inability to pay). 

 

Some people may be of the opinion that 'Oh, I'm healthy, why would I want to be taxed to pay for universal healthcare?  Why should I pay for other people's medical care?'  Well, you never know if you will be struck with a catastrophic illness (e.g., cancer, massive heart attack), or sustain massive brain injuries from a car accident, which would leave you needing life-long medical care - which under our current system would bankrupt most Americans.  Or if you have a child born who needs life-long medial care.  It's a gamble with a privatized system - especially if you are denied coverage by your insurer for whatever reason.

 

Since this is an election year, all the presidential candidates are touting their solution to the healthcare mess.  I encourage you all to check out their proposals prior to the November General Elections.  Here are the links to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain's websites.

Now this is what I don't get. Shouldn't my doctor be listening to what I have to say?

All I want in a doctor is for him/her to listen to my concerns and my wants for myself and for them to go about the best way for me to treat myself. Did you get all that? I want to be treated for my disease the way I want to be treated. I'm not going back to Synthroid and that's all I have to fucking say! I'm the one who has gone years of poor medical treatment, I'm the one who has all the side-affects from the synthroid such as dry skin, dry brittle hair, thinning of the hair, funky yellow nails, puffy face, slow metabolism and the list continues on and on.  I was diagnosed with hypothryoidism well after the fact that all the symptoms were first noticed.

I grew up as the fat kid. The kid who couldn't do math to save his life. I always had a hard time concentrating in that subject and I still do. I'm the kid who always got chosen last because he couldn't run if his life depended on it. The one who constantly had to buy new clothes because he just kept on getting fatter and fatter. And do you know why my doctors answer to all of that weight gain and difficulty losing weight was? He just needs to exercise and play sports.

No, he never listened to me as a kid when I told him I just didn't feel like playing sports and that I was tired all of the time. NO! I was just some lazy boy who needed to get out there and play sports.

I've gone through countless doctors. The first doctor to diagnose me with Hypothryoidism was the same doctor who for 12 years told me I just needed to play sports and then finally he has a fucking epiphany when he checked my thryroid. He didn't even know until I started to develop a goiter. Then I moved on to an Endocrinologist who could barely speak english. He used to yell at me and tell me "Do you want to die? If you do not exercise now you will die." All the while I'm only 12 years old. No child wants to be told that especially when there was nothing I could for all those years prior to being treated! How fucking insane!

Then I moved on to several doctors after that because they all decided to leave the family practice office. So my files just kept getting passed on to yet another doctor with no real information about my thyroid history. So I finally decide to visit my family doctor and get a referral for a new Endocrinologist because it's been years since I've had bloodwork or even a thryoid checkup since the last time when they thought I had a tumor on my gland.

I recently switched to Armour Thryoid. It's a thryoid blend made from the dissicated thryoid glands of pigs. It's a blend of both T4 and T3's. Which is supposedly better for you than Synthroid which is only T4. However Synthroid has given me nothing more than problems for the past 7 years such as thinning hair, yellow nails, bad skin, headaches, the same list as above. So I switched meds for my sake. I'm fucking 20 years old, I shouldn't have to deal with these problems yet! Then the specialist doctor today tells me he'd rather me switch back to Synthroid since he PREFERS that all his patients use Synthroid.

NO way! I'm the patient and what I say goes! I've told him about the side affects it caused me and yet it was still more than persistent about switching me back. He told me that the dry brittle hair is just male pattern baldness....So the fact that I've been losing my hair since I was 12 doesn't strike you odd? I told him.  He said it's probably just genetic male pattern baldness. All of the male members in my family aren't bald yet. Neither grandparents, nor uncles, nor male cousins.

This Doctor is full of shit! I asked him all kinds of questions today about the T3 and T4 and Armour and he could barely answer me back without 20-40 seconds of awkward  Umms and Uhhhs. This is his profession! Shouldn't he know more about ALL the drug treatments out there instead of the ONE that causes the most adverse side-affects?

I'm not happy with doctors at the moment....


Tschuess!

The mere thought of facing a year of fast talking, insincere, political stratigizers pumped and fed by frustrated Americans and detailed by hungry journalists makes me want to hybernate until it's over.  I love this country, and in general, I love people, but it is certainly true that the "mob" mentality is brutish! 

 

The issues (in no particular order):

• Iraq:  the choices are drop the ball and run, OR clearly define the US mission and let the military do its job.  What do we really think will happen if we pull out completely?  What do the "rumblings of war" in Iran mean?  I hear many people say it is not our business to settle the world's disputes, but if not, who will?  Like it or not, human nature (and testosterone) incites men to covet what others have ... more power, more land, more money ... without some sort of governing presence, all hell will break free. 
• Health care:  do we really want to penalize - or cease to reward - the outstanding medical minds in our country by socializing the medical system?  Seems to my mind to make more sense to penalize businesses for not providing adequate insurance benefits for their employees.  Even the issues we already have with HMO's ought to be enough to open our eyes to the failures of socialized medicine!
• Violence:  How can we curtail the increased violence in our streets and, ultimately, in our world?  Preaching "peace" doesn't seem to work ... How is the "gangster" mentality a positive lifestyle for Hollywood and TV to promote?  What would resolve the issues that have corrupted the idea of a loving home with 2 loving parents (m/f or same sex), gainful employment, honest labor,  and personal respect?
• Immigration (legal / illegal): Is building a fence a realistic treatment of the issue?  What about those already here ... those who have been here for years?  What are realistic expectations for granting citizenship?  What are the consequences?

No easy answers for any of these issues or any of those I did not list, but it is almost ridiculous to believe that ANY one woman or man can resolve every issue happily.  The purpose of this post is to incite clear, logical thinking.  I don't care if you agree with me or not.  That's not the issue.  My concern is that you each THINK through what each of the hopefuls say.  Some change their course every time they open their mouths, so what do they really think?  Realistically, how much can one person change the course of a nation?  How and in what ways do we desire change?  Please, don't just jump blindly onto some popular bandwagon just because it seems like the thing to do.  Educate yourself and think things through to their conclusions.  OK?  Thanks!  Oh ... and be NICE to one another!  ;)

 

~ B

Bush would veto the bill to expand child insurance. A White House spokesman said “The proposal would dramatically expand the Children’s Health Insurance Program, adding nonpoor children to the program, and more than doubling the level of spending. “This will have the effect of encouraging many to drop private coverage, to go on the government-subsidized program.”

Nonpoor children, huh? I have an idea... we could pay for children's health care by dropping taxpayer-covered insurance for the non-poor President, Vice-president, and the rest of the fat cats in Washington. This will have the effect of encouraging many of them to purchase private coverage and go off the government-subsidized program.