Affordable Care Act

As the Supreme Court of the Unites States of America finishes hearing the arguments on both sides of the healthcare debate today, I couldn't help but wonder how everything will turn out in a few days.

It is interesting to note that the decision seems to be a partisan one. The conservative justices are expected to vote against the measure requiring that every American purchase insurance and we anticipate that the liberal judges will vote to uphold the law. With the SCOTUS now being a more conservative bench, we can expect that the law will be overturned and that good healthcare will once again be reserved for the affluent, only.

What a shame.

It's nonsense, really. The United States is the only wealthy, industrialized nation in the world that does not ensure that all of her citizens have medical coverage. Nobody claims that the systems employed in other industrialized countries are perfect but bottom line, they take care of their population. Personally, I believe that healthcare should be a non-profit industry. There is something hugely repugnant about a doctor having to make a decision between the shareholder and the health of his/her patient because fundamentally, these two entities are on opposing sides.

With all of the chatter from the uninformed, inflammatory, wing nuts who employ fear tactics and beak on about the fucking constitution, it must be really hard for the average citizen to truly understand what is at stake. The Democrats, who crafted the current legislation, were pathetic, tragically so, in disseminating the information to the public. The truth is, without some measure of socialized medicine, the healthcare costs in the US will continue to rise without constraint. The insurance companies are in the game to MAKE MONEY and if you and your family look like you might actually have to USE the medical benefits for which you pay heaps on a monthly basis, you erode the profit of the insurance company and thus, at the next renewal, your rates will increase. Then, perhaps one year, you won't be able to afford insurance because, let's face it, you've got to eat and keep a roof over your head so when you've got that itchy, weird looking mole, you don't see a doctor. No, you stop scratching and forget about it because frankly, you can't afford to see a GP, let alone fund the cost of seeing a specialist like a dermatologist. You go on like this for months until one day, something is really, really wrong and all of your symptoms point to advanced stage melanoma.

Then, the fun really begins.

Then, you get admitted to hospital for surgery, chemo and radiation therapy to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars and if you are lucky enough to survive, you file for bankruptcy and allow your home to be foreclosed because you are drowning in medical bills. And, now that you've had cancer, you have a pre-existing condition and good luck getting affordable medical insurance.

Those unpaid medical bills become the burden of the insurance company, hospital, doctors and every ancillary business associated with the industry. They erode the profit and thus, to meet the demands of Wall Street, the cost of services must necessarily increase to cover the shortfall. The next time that you require substantial medical care, which everyone likely will at some point, what are the odds that you will be able to pay THOSE bills?

Imagine what the scenario might look like should universal healthcare be made available for basic services like immunizations, well woman, well man annual visits and their associated lab tests. How many diabetics would we catch before they crush the system? How many irregular moles could be zapped before they metastasize and become so much more expensive to treat? If you are fortunate enough to enjoy insurance through your employer, have a look at the medical plan offered by your company. Your annual check up is likely free or relatively inexpensive, right? Yes, that's because it is a statistics game. On the whole, PREVENTATIVE medicine saves money. The insurance companies are not dummies.

So, what is the problem with mandating that everyone has to purchase insurance? In most states, you have to purchase auto insurance or post a financial bond in lieu of insurance, if you want to drive. It's the same with the medical insurance mandate. Everyone has to have some minimum level which increases the revenue and spreads the costs. Seems like simple economics. It has already been demonstrated to work in Massachusetts. Either way, the average Joe will pay. The pool has to increase to aid in maintaining margins or Joe finds himself with higher premiums. Unpaid medical bills of the uninsured lead to higher premiums for everyone else. Sicker people, who don't see a doctor until the situation is dire, require more care at greater cost. Premiums increase.

While America won't even consider universal healthcare at this point, they should. Socialized medicine works. Take the shareholder out of the picture and everything changes. You ask any citizen of any Westernized country besides the US how they feel about co-insurance, co-pays, deductibles, pre-authorizations, etc and they won't have a clue what you're talking about. Ask them how they feel about their's country's medical care and their access to it and you would be hard pressed to find any one who would trade their medical system for the one we have in the US.

The country is desperate for health care reform and while the current law is not perfect, it is at the very least, a meaningful beginning that does not violate the constitution. I hope Justice Kennedy thinks so, too.

To Yield or Not To Yield

Last month, I was out running errands when "the incident" happened.

Driving here has been a challenge. Getting used to the steering wheel being located on the right side of the car, navigating the roundabouts and cruising on the left hand side of the road has caused my heart to hammer in my chest on more than one occasion. I've often wondered if the transition would have been easier had we chosen to bring our Pilot with us. I was comfortable in that vehicle. I knew how to park the thing, too. Did I mention that I have absolutely no depth perception now that I have to approach everything from the opposite side?

Anyhoo..

So, I head out one morning to the local grocery store and put my signal on to turn left into the parking lot. At the same time, a car is approaching from the other direction with their right turn signal on. I make the turn and hear the blare of the other car's horn which startled the shit out of me. All of the sudden, I'm chewing on my heart, my fingers are tingling and I'm frantically checking my lane to ensure I am sitting on the correct side of the road. And then it dawns on me. I was supposed to have yielded to the car that was crossing traffic, to make the right hand turn. It's one of those quirky Kiwi laws that was put into place years ago to help mitigate traffic flow when all of the roads were just single lane.

So, I quickly park, which was a freak show unto itself, hop out of the car and walk towards the other car, which by this time, had found a parking spot a mere four spots away from my own. Its occupants were just disembarking.

"I am so sorry," I said, "That road rule is the one that I can't seem to remember. I apologize."

The lady (and driver of the car), appeared to be in her late fifties, well-groomed and clearly unhappy as evidenced by the squint of her eyes and the contempt that twisted her mouth into a sneer.

"YOU FUCKING FOREIGNERS," she spat. Her passenger, a man I presumed to be her husband, turned abruptly and fled into the grocery store.

I wish I was kidding.

I felt like she had kicked me in the gut. Her response was so unexpected that my throat tightened and tears threatened. New Zealand just doesn't have mean people. I was absolutely gobsmacked.

Then, I got angry.

I am keenly aware that as soon as I open my mouth, people will know that I'm an import and thus, I am usually pretty careful to be sure that I am representing my own country properly. That day, I didn't manage very well.

"Are you usually this aggressive," I asked, "Or are you just saving all of your love for me?"

Lame, right? Magnificently so.

As the day wore on, I thought up much better retorts but I never quite got over her venom. It was so....personal.

The irony of the whole situation is that this past Sunday, that antiquated yield law was abolished. I thought about that lady and wondered how she was adjusting to the change.

You know, I bet she thought about me once or twice, too.

Back to the Gym...Again

I HATE being gluten intolerant.

It sucks.

You would not believe the things that have gluten in them. It lurks in the most unsuspecting places.

Eating out is such a crap shoot. I would non-scientifically estimate that I get sick once out of every three times that we dine at a restaurant. The effects don't usually hit me until the wee hours of the next morning and then all hell breaks loose. Thank God for cold bathroom tiles because I usually find myself lying on them in an attempt to recover.

This weekend, we had Dallas's new employer and his family over for tea. I made some North American treats like Nanaimo bars and pumpkin pie from scratch. Of course, I can't eat either of these desserts anymore, and I suppose that I should be grateful for the lack of additional calories but for some reason, it chapped my ass this time.

I believe that I did this to myself.

I don't think that you can yoyo diet, binge, drink to excess and generally abuse your body for years without experiencing repercussions. Last Thursday, I went to the gym for the first time in ages. I did a light work out routine using mainly body weight and then I hopped on the treadmill for a twenty minute interval run. I took it really, really, easy.

Friday morning, I was sore but manageable.

Saturday morning, I was in hell. I couldn't walk down stairs or lift my arms above my head.

Sunday morning, the situation had marginally improved.

This morning, I woke up with quads still smarting but not so much so that it will keep me from the gym.

The point of all this drivel is that I was forced to ask myself why it is that I let myself get to this stage? Why can't I skip the gym for fourteen days instead of fourteen months? I am a woman for whom balance is a foreign concept. Worse yet, I don't seem to catch myself in the beginning stages of the decline. I don't ever manage to face the music until I am left without any other choices.

I am hopelessly flawed.

So, today I will trudge back to the gym. I will drink water and take my supplements. I will eat for clarity instead of eating for comfort. I will stop making excuses.

Tomorrow? Who knows but today, I'm going to be kind to myself.

To Blog or Not To Blog

We were having dinner at my in laws last night and discussion about my blog came up. "I don't write much, these days," I said.

My husband, listening on the fringes of the conversation, piped up and explained that the reason for my lack of posts had nothing to do with how busy I found myself these days and more to do with my quality of life. He felt that blogging was a way for me to fill a void and now that I am content and happy, my need to blog has diminished.

There might be some truth in that.

However, it's more likely that I am just a lazy cow.

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I began blogging for a number of different reasons. I found it cathartic to spill it all out onto the internet and put the small absurdities of my life into perspective. When you have an audience of people reading, you become acutely aware of how silly your complaints can sound and this forces you to not take yourself so seriously, which was a really good thing for me.

I thought that maybe I could earn a few bucks blogging part time and for the first two and a half years, I did. It wasn't much, mind you, because in order to make enough money to report to the IRS, you have to have a much bigger reader base than I had accumulated. People like Dooce and The Pioneer Woman are the exception, not the rule. And make no mistake, those women work hard. Their websites are really well done.

As an adult, I've often wondered who my parents were at my age. I sometimes chat with my mum about her thirties and forties but like most memories, the edges of her recall has faded and blurred with the passing of time and I know the same will happen to me. I can no longer remember every detail of the births of my children, which surprises me, considering they were two of the most significant events of my life. I wanted this blog to be a record for my kids, for better or worse.

Behind every blogger, I think you'll find a person who had dreams of becoming a novelist. There was a time when I was convinced that writing was my path. I was going to pen a great book, have it adapted into an equally great movie and retire, wealthy, before the age of forty. Yes, well, we all know how that worked out. The reality is that the world is brimming with people who are much more talented than me and who have better stories to tell than I do. I'm perfectly okay with that.

The magic of the blogosphere is such that I get to connect and have a dialogue with people I wouldn't likely have met under normal circumstances. I read the posts of a guy in the UK who brews beer and devotes an enormous part of his life to sustainably growing food. He gives me hope that one day, I will be able to grow something, too. I read about a woman in the hills of New Hampshire, who is a divorced, single parent and who is renovating her farmhouse, with her own hands, by herself, on a shoestring budget. I am in awe of her. She needs her own TV show. In addition to the USA, I have blog friends in Canada, Australia, South Africa, Sweden, the UK, Hong Kong and Vietnam. Blogging makes you realize that while geographically vast, the world really isn't all that big. I like that.

For the most part, I get to be me here. I don't have to worry that this blog makes my ass look fat or that my religious views might get me fired. I don't have to be politically correct unless I want to be. My husband was partially right. I am definitely a content and happy woman but blogging has always been more to me than just a means to fill a void. It's the place I go to let it all hang out and sometimes, I like to visit more often than others.

Shattered

I had a post written about our trip back to the US last week but in light of the weekend events across the midwest and southern states in America, places we love, I wanted to express how sorry we are.

While in Florida, we spoke by phone to Chuck and Maureen. With my family in Canada and Dallas's family in New Zealand, Chuck and Maureen were our surrogate American parents. They were grandparents to our children. They are the most thoughtful, kind and generous people imaginable. We learned that Maureen's younger sister, her only sister, back in South Africa, has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Time is very short. Understandably, Maureen is inconsolable.

Additionally, we received terrible, terrible, news this morning involving dear friends of ours and the unexpected, accidental, death of a parent. This couple stood up for Dallas and me in our wedding. She is my business partner. He is one of my husband's closest friends. The details of the accident are sketchy but none of that matters.

For the first time since landing in New Zealand in October of last year, we are wishing we were back in Arkansas to be there for our friends.

Our hearts are broken.