Hands off my health care?

Interesting how the Republicans and the Blue Dogs are framing the debate over health care. Without a government option I don't really see what the point is - or does this become a bail out for private insurance companies?

It is morally wrong that the quality of a person's health insurance is almost completely dependent on who they happen to be employed with. Obviously in the current employment environment, a company does not have to compete too hard on the benefits front - of which health care is a major factor. The companies that are responsible and generous enough to offer health care find themselves fighting the rapidly rising costs as well. So you have companies actively encouraging younger people to take high deductible policies on the assumption that they are healthy and won't need the benefits. However, I would think that this merely kicks the can down the road by having less money in the system to cover people who do end up having to use the insurance.

Another way that companies encourage a reduction in health care costs is by asking employees to be "smart consumers" of health care benefits and to live healthy lifestyles. Healthy lifestyles is always a good idea but not something that can or should be enforced - unless it is hands off my health care but hands on my life. Also, as I have stated before, you cannot be a smart consumer of anything if you cannot know the cost until well after you accept the service.

Things to watch

Well that is odd, two posts in one day. If you liked Ferris Bueller's Day Off (and I did) you may find this fascinating (and I did). It is Ferris Bueller scenes set to Requiem for a Dream and, well, wow, how sound affects perception (via kottke.org) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Vy2aJY6rq8

Also via kottke.org, this one is Sita Sings the Blues. I have not watched the whole thing yet and it is getting late but I find it hard to tear my eyes from it. These are the kinds of things that make you surf and want to create things at night. The way a trip to a museum or a great movie or concert might have once in a while inspired certain people for a moment this stuff is available all the time.

http://www.thirteen.org/sites/reel13/indies/indie-sita-sings-the-blues/241/

Me retracto de todo lo dicho

I have to track down the author - did I see this through Kottke.org? I thought it was funny. A poet who ends his readings taking it all back. It seems like a reasonable option to give to people and yet in our ever recorded world we tend to allow no one to take back anything. So far, I don't think it has led to an increase in revenge homicide but you never know. So, I will have to find the original author and context and maybe, based on this sense of humor I will have to check out some of his poetry. In the mean time, I may change the tag line of my blog to read "Me retracto de todo lo dicho" - you know, just in case I ever want to run for office or something.

Electronicalitosis

How much of an online presence makes sense? How much is too much? Clearly these questions should depend on different factors. Maybe you need to keep in touch with people in widely spaced areas. Maybe it is a creative outlet for you. Maybe you see business opportunities. Maybe you are just reaching out. Maybe you are using the many web 2.0 tools that are popping up as a means of keeping your finger on the pulse, getting used to making your writing vulnerable, and, well, find it kind of interesting.

Unfortunately, with all the randomness we put out here I can't help but notice that a lot of it (mine too I am sure) just kind of stinks. Ah, no matter. With mindful practice I can tighten up the writing, determine what uses this might have for me and mine and the community at large, and just maybe learn to properly freshen up my words.

Wheels in Wheels

Coincidences are often interesting. They are statistically likely in most cases yet still appear to be evidence of deeper things. This one somewhat struck me in that manner. I came home from Aikido practice and then sent an email to my teacher regarding some dojo business. After sending the email I decide to surf on over to Kottke.org to see what was new today. One of the articles was titled "Mike Leigh's Collaborators." He is a filmmaker and the article was about how he works with actors. What caught my eye was the mention of the concepts of "relaxed concentration" and "deliberate practice." My first thought was that these links were going down a zen or buddhist path. However, the links on the relaxed concentration page covered so much more. It was mostly about sports but also about thinking in general.

With just the concept in mind I thought that this was a type of thing that I could incorporate into my Aikido. I then scroll down to the article called "A post by Jonah Lehrer about Thinking" which discusses how thinking about a putt helps a novice golfer but hurts an expert golfer. The idea is that experts had to think in a more holistic manner about what they were doing - rather than concentrating on the position of their wrist they needed to focus on "descriptive adjectives like smooth or balanced." Once again, I think, how could this help my Aikido. The next part of the post recommends the book "Mastery" by George Leonard. I click that link to see how it is described on Amazon and find that George Leonard is also the author of "Way of Aikido, The: Life Lessons from an American Sensei: Life Lessons from an American Sensei."

Not a giant coincidence but it completely fits in with what I was thinking about and takes me down a circular path. So, is it a message from the universe about taking my Aikido practice to a higher level and fighting to help keep my dojo in operation? Or is it damn clever marketing from Google and Amazon watching what I like, watching what I seem to be interested in, and then constructing a series of links that leads me to feel like I really must purchase a book that I have never heard of? There is some good paranoid potential in that line of thought. I wonder how the internet is affecting the sufferers of delusions....what the? Clicking over to "The Mask of Sanity" I don't know why...

I really have to turn off 1-click ordering.

Health Care reform

I see that people want to throw money at health care. That they want to make files electronic. That they want single payer options. Etc...

These ideas may all have some value but until you can go into a doctor's office and be told a) what a procedure or test will cost and b) whether it is covered by whatever insurance you have, you will never be able to make intelligent choices about health care on the spot.

What other item in your life are you expected to agree to buy without knowing the cost? A very irritating aspect of health care is how the doctor orders, for example, blood tests, and you start getting bills a couple weeks later where you find out that not all of them are covered, or not all of them are covered at the same rate or some of the work was done by people not in your network even though they were in the same building or, finally, there is no relation other than the patient's name and the date that you can see between what is on your statement of benefits for the visit and the doctor's description of what was done. If you cannot read these things carefully, you are out of luck. Our daughter was sick in the summer. The first visit, before she was diagnosed correctly, they sent her home as having a bad cold, and no blood was drawn. After she was diagnosed with mono two weeks later and the bills started coming in we found they had retroactively claimed to have done a blood test on the first visit. Which we would have paid for twice if we had not noticed.

So, my idea is no non-emergency work without knowing what it will cost and what the true value of the test is. I don't want a battery of tests to save a trip if the odds are that two or three will suffice.