That about sums up my life and why I haven’t written.  I have so many different social networking sites to keep up with now that I only keep a few of them updated regularly.

Eventually I’ll catch the Xanga bug again.

The Interview – if you are not on my “SherylM” account protected list and would like to be, please send me a message (either to Kallioph or SherylM)

I am really worried about this “single payer system” that our current administration is trying to push through.

I don’t mind taking care of our country’s indigent (I’m not a complete right-wing conservative – in fact, being liberterian, I’m smack in the middle economically, while on the legislative axis, I’m for much less government.)  But for those of us who are happy with our health care – everything from doctors, to hospitals to drugstores to insurance companies – it just looks like the government is jumping inside our personal lives trying to gain total control. (I was going to say jumping into our underwear and shoving a thermometer where the sun don’t shine but decided against it since I’m making this a public post.)

My sister (in Michigan) just dealt with what it will be like if the “state” takes over our healthcare.

Because she works ~30 hours a week at $8 an hour, she doesn’t qualify for medicaid (she’s not low enough on the poverty scale, evidently) but she did qualify for some type of “state” aid, where the “state” will pay for 75% of her treatment.  But she has to go where they tell her to go.

She had excruciating pain in her side.  She wanted to go to the emergency room, but last time she did that, she ended up working for months for practically nothing because her part-time $8/hour wages were garnished (she couldn’t pay her hospital bill and still keep a roof over her head.  Damn good thing she had a big sister who came to her rescue).  So she called a number in Michigan that was supposed to be a source of help for those low-income people who didn’t have health insurance.  It was a month before she got in to see a doctor.  The doctor wrote a prescription for some tests.  It took her 13 days to get in for the test.  It took her another 15 days to get another appointment with the doctor so she could get her test results (they wouldn’t call her with the results and when she tried to call for them, they told her they couldn’t give them to her over the phone.)

Her doctor told her she had pancreatitis and they found “a spot on her lung” and ordered another test, for which she had to wait another 10 days.  That was July 31.  They STILL don’t have her results available for her – 11 freaking days later! (My own doctor always has my results available within a week and SHE calls ME with the results.)  All of this started two months ago.  When my father was diagnosed with cancer, he was gone 6 weeks later.  The amount of delay that my sister went through could have had catastrophic effects had she been in a more serious stage of her illness.

I don’t want that kind of health care. I don’t mind my some of my taxes going into Medical care for those who can’t afford health insurance.  But for those of us who can, or whose employers provide us with low cost options, I think we should still have that choice.  But with this new plan, eventually private insurance is going to be edged out and I will have no choice but let the government decide my health care.

Next, we’re going to have single payer life insurance, single payer homeowners insurance, single payer auto insurance.  Eventually a single-payer employer.  Pretty soon I will be working to support my less fortunate neighbor who has four kids to put through college (while I remain childless).  Won’t matter that he has no ambition and still works for a low wage and his wife works for minimum wage.  Won’t matter that I worked my ass off and put myself through college so that I could earn a decent, comfortable living (which, BTW, is what has allowed me to help out my less-fortunate siblings.)

Back to my sister.  She also has osteoporosis and had a complete hysterectomy when she was 30.  Eventually, she will no longer contribute to society.  Will the government decide then that she is no longer eligible for health care?  Will they tell her to “take two aspirin and call me in the… never”?  What about all the years she DID contribute to society?

And what about ME?  I’m diabetic.  What if I live complication free well into my 80s and then have a mild stroke or something else?  Or what if my kidneys fail?  Will it be determined that because I’m diabetic and 80-something that the “state” doesn’t think it’s worth the money to allow me to have dialysis?  My mom was a diabetic and had total kidney failure.  Without dialysis she would have died much sooner than she did.

We’re ALL going to die someday.  Should the government decide when? Will an otherwise healthy 40-year-old be given treatment because he still works and pays taxes, while an otherwise healthy 80-year-old be denied treatment because he no longer works and no longer pays taxes?

I think our current administration wants to have complete, absolute power over our lives.

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
– John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834–1902).

“From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. “
– Karl Marx (German political Philosopher and revolutionary, 1818-1883)

Do you believe in reincarnation?  Was Karl Marx reincarnated on August 4, 1961?

And isn’t there a web site somewhere that you can report people who disparage anything the government is doing?  Will I get reported?