What Actually Happens to Destitute with Health Care Needs in U.S.- Experiencial Evidence

I just want to tell the history of a man to whom I gave assistance a few years ago. He had worked for me for a couple of years many times in landscape projects. He had been to Vietnam in the supplies divisions and had come back to find his girlfriend gone and a baby he thought he had fathered. He began to drink and continued for 30+ years finally escaping to a commune in southern Indiana for respite. But he continued to drink and make problems for himself. He really hadn’t been able to ever keep a job, but was really a talented comedian and had a lot of great musical knowledge, and ability to entertain at a party. After being kicked out of the commune he had become homeless twice, and I arrange to ask him if he wanted to make a trade for living in a small cabin of general landscape care and a few other helpful things on my property with me. I was temporarily keeping his dog, and this way he could be with her too. And so it began.

Not too long after he was found unconscious on his front stoop at 3am by my dogs, who notified me of a problem as they sensed it from the inside of my cottage. I took him to the hospital to save time and he was given ‘every test under the sun’ including brain scan where they found that he had a tumor, and lung cancer. I stayed with him all night and part of the day during these tests. I was able to do all his paperwork and explain to him the meanings of the paperwork. He was set on a very successful regimen for brain radiation (which removed the tumor) and oncology with one of the best oncologists our city. And we had appointments set up with me as the liaison for Medicare and Social Security disability monetary help. The Hospital never billed him as all the paperwork was done and understood-he was destitute.

Other things given to him during this time because he had a personal advocate, was smoking cessation medical care and psychological medications. I cared for him gratis, and was certainly sometimes ‘nurse Ratchet’ disallowing too much pain meds and providing super veggied, fine protein meals. Cigarette smoking was not allowed on the property and only one cigar could be smoked a day if he HAD to. What I see was the difference for this man, who was only 54 years old and looked 90 for the abuse he had reeked on himself, was that he had a well educated-English literature major, with Medieval Studies interests-who could accomplish, with legal understanding the applications and appointments needed to set him up with the health care for the poor that is already provided in this country. In this case he needed a volunteer personal advocate

IN my further work with the homeless and generally incompetent population-many of whom are very intelligent, but not able to sort out everyday life- have been brought up by addicts and others-they need a battery of people who can walk them through the procedures required to get help. This person not being hired by the government, because they are usually paranoid about ‘big brother’ and just won’t come to get help. Churches and synagogues or other religious groups could do this work. Every large town or city population has the resources to do this

This gratis care is what hikes up the costs of the economic middle class, insurance companies, and the wealthy. But we can say that in the U.S. people don’t die of the inability to access health care. Sometimes they die of their own refusal to ask for it soon enough. No child dies from lack of health care as we have marvelous charity organizations that make it policy not to turn down families for lack of funds. Many people don’t go for health care because of the fear that it will cost money…and then it can be too late. In England while I was there they allowed 2 infants to die because the doctors had a strike and there weren’t any operating rooms. Obama is like a little boy who decides to take his dad’s watch apart to “fix it” and can’t put it back together again, when all it needed was cleaning and a real watchmaker to tweak a gear or two.
Scarlet Periwinkle

Educational focus change for TSA, security required.

There is a lot of discussion in the media regarding the stupidity and unbelievable incompetence of the TSA for airline security or the border patrol delusions of grandeur,in the way that they treat the American public. Especially since it does not result in 0% incidence of terror. At least two reporters have said, ‘imagine if this kind of overstepping the bonds of constitutional liberty extended to the everyday life of Americans!’ These men have not had to deal with the everyday experience in our local government. They both are well employed and have probably just sent a lawyer to take care of any issues they have had with government offices.

Let me assure you, as someone who has to do everything herself, the people that the Councilmen and other administrators of government hire are purposefully hired because they are unquestioning ’droids’. Because of this, technically speaking, numbers of things get done ( which looks good on paper). Many times these non-critical actions for the sake of numbers, can seem to go on successfully for years, and even go through the exchange of candidates, such as sheriffs, or auditors, or treasures (for example) without discovering to the public the problems stacking up in the non-critically run offices!

In my county this is DEFINITELY the case. Then they (the cronies bi-partisan) turn themselves inside-out trying to hide it from the public. In our town they virtually own the newspaper. They ‘own’ it even though people have cancelled their subscriptions by droves to buy papers that report some news. The paper is on the brink of going under. They are in such denial that they think it is because of the internet that subscriptions are down. But the “old people” who compose the money in this town ,and used to take the local paper, have told me that it is because the relatively new policy of reporting only the great things about Bloomington instead of any real news or controversy that might be happening here. They opt for national papers. The town’s paper has become an elaborate travel brochure. There are no arguments, discussions, or examinations of the judicial in the paper as used to occur in the 19th century, when there were at least two papers for the voting public.

We need to require the hiring of educated folks to run the TSA posts and government offices. I don’t even mean educated in the sense that a lawyer is educated. I mean that the people who have humanities degrees where they were required to read and to argue classical points of freedom and such, as well as being trained in the Security business or Legal business should be hired for our offices and security positions (or we could require more critical thinking in high school again). Eighty percent of the security people I come across are at the level of the typical car mechanic at a box store. This is not bad if you are young and aiming to be a professional car mechanic someday. It is not what is needed for making national security decisions.

On the other hand, the Obama administration is so arrogant about their country club qualifications (which mean nothing other than attending a University that used to be a great academic institution and now sustains it’s PR by pretense and perceived prestige) that they think they are the only ones in America of importance. It reminds me of the nobles in 16th century England. Exactly the people our forefathers wrote the Constitution to prevent the seizing of our people’s God given freedom. They are like the ‘popular kids’ in high school, manipulators of the unpopular kids.

People on the top social echelon think the people they represent are idiots and the people they hire haven’t been required to have the minds of thinkers and questioners, because that kind of person can’t easily be controlled when asked to do nonsensical things. It s a typical modern management scenario, taught by the best technical schools. It is something the public schools of the last 40 years have cultivated in the U.S. But being lemmings is not good for the profile of the people in the United States. And that’s a bigger story.

ly SP