HEALTH-CARE IN AMERICA

Around my kitchen table for the topic of healthcare the air gets somewhat 'hot'...And rightly so, but not a good idea for the blood pressures of my aging 65+ neighbors - even though we have healthcare.

And before I tell you about the amazingly positive experiences I have known [firsthand] with healthcare provided in four other countries [Mexico, Canada, Cyprus and France] I will tell you that America has a healthcare plan already in place. 

 

Surprised?  I was too after I read Peter G. Peterson's book [1st edition 2002] "RUNNING ON EMPTY".  Then, after my astonishment wore off, I was furious...

 

From Chapter 9 - titled, 'Move Toward Managed Competition' - page 208 [you may want to sit down for this] Quote: The Federal government knows how to operate an efficient health care system and it knows how to do so without forcing everyone into HMOs.

 

[Since 1959!] The Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan [FEHBP] provides federal employees and retirees, including members of Congress, with a benefit package that preserves consumer choice, holds down costs, and promotes quality care. Beneficiaries get to choose from among a wide range of competing plans offered by private insurers. These range from traditional high-cost "fee-for-service" plans in which patients get to see any doctor or specialist they like to low cost HMOs. All these plans compete for customers on both price and quality, which is their biggest advantage over Medicare's monopoly position.  Unquote. [For the shock of this, I can't give you oxygen - just take slow deep breaths!]

Sooo - with the FEHBP in place and functioning for 54 years prior to Obama's cumbersome 'Affordable Healthcare Act' - one wants to ask WHY wasn't the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan simply renamed then expanded to include the rest of the country? You know, to the people who pay taxes? Why reinvent a more complicated 'wheel'?  [Answer: besides a lucrative legal and software contract - others made out financially too! Others except, WeThePeople.] 

However, since Trump was so critical of Obama's 'Affordable Healthcare' plan then why didn't he correct this major oversight?  DJT had to have known about the Federal [Employees] Health Benefit Plan...?

Moving on...With some tweaking - everyone with a valid Social Security number and/or a legal Green Card would automatically get a Federal Health Benefit card. For basic coverage [say for a single person] there could be a minimum of $25 added to your Social Security deduction that every employer matches even if you work part time. For the self employed it could be a percentage of your annual income divided by 12 - or something. I'll let the bean-counters handle the details - I'm only a writer. But by expanding the FEHBP every citizen paying into SS would be covered.

And - requiring 100% participation makes this plan no more unconstitutional than filing a tax return - or why states require everyone who drives a car to have liability insurance - or why all roads and highways have speed limits to follow etc... 

In 1990 America ranked 6th in the world for healthcare, but in 2019 America ranked 27th [curiously the same drop occurred with our education ranking too]. 

 

Anyway, America has the most expensive healthcare system of any industrialized nation on the planet - it's a circus fueled by three main problems: trash, litigation and profit.

 

Trash...Hospital and clinic cleanliness has suffered, becoming chronic because medical staff rely heavily on [throwaway] single use prepackaged items. Many instruments and supplies like gowns, blood pressure cuffs, syringes etc...can be designed to reuse;

Litigation...America is the only developed country that allows burdensome litigation to add a higher cost to all treatments that does not benefit any patient, but actually drains resources away from serious medical conditions. If litigation wasn't factored into the 'billing' of every aspect in our medical system we could cut costs 70%.

Profit...And - only in America do citizens need to fear filing for bankruptcy or risk the loss of their homes or loss of insurance due to the high 'markup' for all procedures. Other countries don't run their medical systems entirely 'for-profit'. Treatments are provided at cost and are the same cost from region to region.

...While visiting relatives in Alberta, Canada my husband [who had two heart stents] felt a tightness in his chest and believed he was experiencing another blockage. We were in Calgary which is five hours or 320 miles to the nearest U.S. hospital in Great falls, Montana. We decided to head for the cardiac unit in the Foothills Hospital in Calgary, only five miles away - expecting that under the circumstances, Medicare would certainly cover this situation. We were met by the resident cardiologist on staff and Hubby was treated immediately, while I tried to work with Medicare [long distance]. Over the course of five hours of tests, monitoring and observation Hubby had two X-rays, two MRIs, a blood draw each hour and the cardiologist checked it all. 

 

Meanwhile back at the admissions office I spoke to a Medicare specialist who argued we should have driven to the nearest U.S. hospital therefore Medicare couldn't guarantee any payments directly to the [foreign] Canadian hospital or our reimbursement. When I asked if the specialist had a map or knew how far the 'nearest' U.S. hospital was - she claimed it was 'policy'.

By late afternoon, the cardiologist declared Hubby cleared for release. What the doctor concluded was acute dehydration also causing indigestion. Regardless, the cost to spring Hubby totaled $1,618.56 CDN - which when factored into the monetary exchange rate came to just over $900+USD on our VISA!  I could hardly believe it. After we returned home our claim to Medicare was turned down twice. But curious, I discovered that had we made the drive to the Great Falls hospital the same five hours and test procedures and cardiologist would have cost Medicare just over $8,000+ in U.S. dollars!

 

...A cousin vacationing in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico developed an ear infection. She went to a local clinic where she paid $25.00 CDN to see a general practitioner. When the doctor saw her, he thought she should see a specialist. She paid the ear, nose and throat specialist $45.00 [which included a follow up visit] who prescribed an antibiotic that cost her $18 and after ten days she went back to see the specialist, feeling fine.

 

...While living on the island of Cyprus for a couple of years my mother came to visit and she developed pneumonia. I took my mother to the local hospital where they referred us to a local doctor's clinic. The doctor took my mother's chest X-ray personally then prescribed two medications and sent her home for bed rest. Together, the clinic visit and X-ray was $65.00. Both prescriptions totaled $21.00 and the doctor made two house calls during the ten-day course of my mother's recovery. After bed rest and medication a second X-ray showed mother's lungs clear. The second clinic visit with X-ray was another $65.00.

 

...My daughter was a Rotary Exchange Student in France for a year and while there she caught a nasty European flu virus. I was beside myself with worry, but the French Rotary covered all healthcare issues and one of her host mothers assured me that my daughter would be well looked after - and she was for eight solid days. We never saw any bill after my daughter recovered - fully. 

 

No politician here needs to convince me that America has the 'best' healthcare in the world because I know otherwise...

 

What can WeThePeople do? Well the 2020 election is behind us, but even before our new reps are sworn in [there's still a midterm in two years] all voters need to make themselves heard! Write - call - email - then write and call and email again and again and again.

 

There IS a functioning health plan in place that can be expanded to include the entire country. Do your own research and if you're comfortable let your feelings be known to your elected representative, regardless if you voted for them or not. It's time - it has been time for decades - long overdue. America needs to catch up to the rest of Planet Earth - because we are far behind 'that' curve too... 

 

https://medium.com/@BraveNewFilms.org/heres-how-to-contact-all-535-members-of-united-states-congress-call-email-tweet-20b8a1c54195

 

*Sherrie Todd-Beshore is a mystery suspense novelist and former journalist... 

 

Via amazon.com or patchworkpublishing.com

Romantic Mystery-Suspense: "Fine Points Malice And Payback"

HISTORY IN AMERICA

Dear George...Not entirely sure what is being taught in public schools [K-12] in the 21st Century, but huge chunks of 'history' seem to be missing...

And because much is 'missing' far too many people are clearly perplexed as to why numerous countries seem to hate America. Well, seventy-four years ago, America - actually misguided American foreign policy - began to create this 'earned' hostility. 

Several countries came to distrust America because historically soon after World War II - America did not 'play-nice'...

 

For sure - America came to the rescue of the United Kingdom and Europe during WWII - however, our elected leadership became just a little too brash as a result. Then - for the following seven decades political propaganda pushed an artificial national image in a complete disguise to U.S. citizens. 

Year after year while WeThePeople/voters were eagerly gobbling up postwar prosperity in the 1950s - taking for granted America still wore a superhero cape - all around the rest of the world that hard won respect and admiration was actually being compromised.

 

Before the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] there was the Office of Strategic Services [OSS] which, using established military practices took us through WWI and WWII. But, with each new crisis - our 'always look like you're doing something politicians' - tended to create another department agency [eg. Department of Homeland Security after 9/11]. Post WWII there was plenty of additional crisis with Russia shifting in philosophy from ally to threat and China emerging as another communist risk. Regardless, against military advice and against the U.S. Department of State and against FBI input - President Harry Truman established the CIA along with the National Security Council by passing the 1947, National Security Act.

Okay, so the replacement of one government department by another wasn't an action that should have been cause for concern - except...In their zeal to create a truly secret entity President Truman allowed Lawrence Houston, who drafted the Central Intelligence Agency Act [then became its first director] to exempt the new federal body from most limitations on how to use their Federal budget funds. Essentially Houston created a blank-check agency, but not just a blank check on salaries and budget - there was no 'check' in place for disclosure of its organization, its function or its personnel. Every decision and activity was "Classified" and "Confidential" from all oversight or any scrutiny by Congress - and - in too many instances from the President. [eg. 1979 Iran Contra/Nicaragua]

*Syria 1949 - Colonel Adib Shishakli rose to power after a CIA backed coup, but was over thrown four years later...

*Iran 1953 - CIA coup returned the Shah to power, but he was overthrown in a civil revolution in 1979...

*Guatemala 1954 - CIA supported overthrow of the democratically elected Jacobo Arbenz who against the economic interests of an American corporation [United Fruit Company] had begun redistribution of farmland to peasants...

*Indonesia 1957 - Dwight Eisenhower, [then America's President] because of skewed CIA information that described "attacks by dissident USSR planes" - ordered the CIA to start a revolution with the goal of a regime change...

*Cuba 1959 - initially Fidel Castro was welcomed to Washington, but was deemed too independent minded...

*Democratic Republic of the Congo - the election of Patrice Lumumba and his acceptance of Soviet support was seen by the CIA as another potential Cuba...

*Brazil 1964 - a CIA backed coup ousted democratically elected President Jopo Goulart...

 

...I'm not saying that any or all of the leaders from these nations were ousted good guys, but what I am saying is that behind the CIA banner America was starting to be feared as a "corrupt and sinister" aggressor nation. America was no longer seen as a hero riding to the rescue - just the exact opposite. America was seen as a bully and unfortunately the above short list is merely the tip of a global political spear.

 

...There's more, so much more, like the Vietnam war [1961 to 1975] for which a major number of young American youth [429,000] were drafted to fight they thought, for a just cause. You know, democracy for everyone. However, instead of a military operation elected-personalities got involved making it a political pride issue that caused a waste of lives and millions of dollars. 

 

American leadership continued to make 'homeland less secure' by continuing to meddle in the Middle East, South America and Africa by pressing sharp elbows into the sides of other country's leaders for various strategic reasons, but you get the idea...So, between the Vietnam War and domestic flight hijackings in the 1970s and 1980s--the 'hints' were accumulating. But none of those hints became part of the American citizen's awareness beyond their daily six o'clock news. But oh gosh Fellow Travelers, it sure should have been. 

 

Of our 32 policing agencies where was 'intelligence' information prior to the 1993 Trade Center parking garage bombing? Where was any security or intelligence prior to the East Africa Embassy bombings [August 1998] or prior to the attack on our Navy Destroyer USS Cole [October 2000] in a Yemen harbor? Was it arrogant military complacency or critical leadership at the time too distracted by personal scandal in order to manage affairs of state? Both distraction and complacency caused us to underestimate not just who we were dealing with, but why these people felt such intense justification. 

 

Labeling al-Qaeda 'a group of radical terrorists', essentially dismissed Osama bin Laden's motivation which had a root-cause that went back five decades. [This is 'not' justification for any terrorist retaliatory actions, but it explains them.] With 9/11 came a harsh opportunity for American-leadership to learn a huge valuable lesson, but instead of a targeted hunt in Afghanistan then into Pakistan for bin Laden, ego-leadership lost focus and failed again. Though bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan--Pakistan was [on paper] an ally, so out of bounds. But in an attempt to 'show' that our elected leaders were proactive came the inane excuse for invading Iraq [2003] due to an 'engineered' threat for Weapons of Mass Destruction. Every one of our NATO allies questioned us. 

 

I send this out into the void with the sincere hope that it alerts more voters - more WeThePeople - to question more. American citizens can't ever expect to be safe, we can't ever expect global peace or Homeland Security, if we fund activities that seek to disrupt the security of another nation's homeland.  

 

American leadership making international decisions must truly "walk their talk". We look like fools calling out other nations for their civil rights violations when many of our clandestine policies have done the same. America is a nation with laws, but far too many of those laws are ignored by those in positions of authority. And every time there is a political backroom deal or strategy or economic decision that unfairly favors one business over another or one country over another [eg. more Palestine territory taken by Israel] - we're all put at risk - again. 

 

Expecting and insisting on open, State Department ethics in all relations between America and each nation with which we share this planet then THAT form of conduct - and only THAT form of conduct begins to make us safe...

https://medium.com/@BraveNewFilms.org/heres-how-to-contact-all-535-members-of-united-states-congress-call-email-tweet-20b8a1c54195

 

 

 

 

*Sherrie Todd-Beshore is a mystery suspense novelist and former journalist...

 Via amazon.com or patchworkpublishing.com 

Suspense-Thriller: "The Count Of Baldpate"

Suspense-Thriller: "Year Of The Dog"

 

 

 

TERM LIMITS IN AMERICA

Dear George...I have perhaps reached an age in life where I can look back far enough to give reflection some value...Each of our passing years becomes a form of 'hindsight'...

And...lately due to Covid2020 and due to election2020 and the U.S. political climate since 2016 and the constant media dust-storm of the last four years - I've been 'reflecting' on leadership...

In what direction did my contemplation on leadership take me? We do not need to be led.

The vast majority of humans who walk upright with opposable thumbs over the age of 16 on this planet are able to; learn a skill, find shelter and food, pick a mate and raise a family...We do not need a 'clan' chief to cut a path through a jungle or find a trail across a desert - we're only conditioned from centuries past to believe we need governing. 

What people do need is simple coordination - something similar to the typical qualifications of say an orchestra conductor. Think about this; the conductor doesn't need to tell the violinist how to play the violin or the trumpeter how to play the trumpet the only element these musicians/people need - is - someone who can assist them to play in harmony...

Twenty years and counting, into the 21st Century the vast majority of people can finish their education, start and nurture a career or business, go on a date, fall in love then marry, lease or buy real estate...Why is that? Because, in the 21st Century the vast majority of people can read, write, add and subtract.

Historically knowledge and learning was restricted to only those in the upper ranks of the clergy. Many wealthy members of the nobility, even royalty had limited education. A number of kings, queens and emperors could not read or write so relied on the advice of a bishop, cardinal, rabbi or imam. All science, medicine, geography, literature, music, geometry, engineering was cloistered in the exclusive domain of a limited few. Therefore, knowledge was control and control provided ultimate authority. Which is almost the mortal equivalent of a magic wand! And what could anyone with wealth and/or knowledge do with that...

Globally - about the time of Columbus - with an increase in navigation and European greed - more knowledge began to reach more of the masses. With more knowledge reaching the masses superstitions began to dissolve - well not completely because we still have ball players who don't shave during playoff season. However, the discovery of North and South America began an unstoppable, steady decline in hundreds of years of African and European class systems.

Royalty all over the eastern half of the globe began to lose their exclusive authority in favor of citizen run parliaments and republic legislatures.

Seeking to escape a subservient life under the dictatorial thumb of a feudal lord - over the span of three hundred years neglected tenant farmers and mistreated tradesmen headed across the Atlantic by the millions.

What happened after former surfs and peasants arrived? They got land of their own and they built villages and towns and schools so they too could read and write!

However, as societies matured and developed in South and North America - it wasn't long before certain people-types whose beginnings were quiet humble began to envision something much grander for themselves. Seeking leadership roles as tax collectors and mayors then governors then senators those same certain-people developed an attitude of entitlement and privilege. Ooops. Has liberty in our republic caused us to slip backwards into a form of class-system?

I offer this personal reflection as fodder for you to reflect because in America [and around the globe] ordinary people chose careers that led to politics. Then after [too many] years holding public office too many of these ordinary people have come to believe themselves above the peers who voted to put them in their position. Politicians too soon no longer serve - they - begin to self-serve. Term Limits...Term Limits...Term Limits... 

https://medium.com/@BraveNewFilms.org/heres-how-to-contact-all-535-members-of-united-states-congress-call-email-tweet-20b8a1c54195

*Sherrie Todd-Beshore is a mystery suspense novelist and former journalist...

  Via amazon.com or patchworkpublishing.com 

Mystery-Suspense: "24 Sussex Drive"

Romantic-Suspense: "Shadows And Light"