The Burrow

The 90-something woman in a wheelchair talked about her WWII vet husband, living in a VA facility, supported by services provided through Arizona's Medicaid expansion. The nicely dressed 40-something woman wore her Planned Parenthood button proudly on her chest; she held dozens of pink postcards destined for the Senator's desk. The 60-something gentleman carried a sign:  Sen. Flake, Choose One:  ⌧ Leader ⌧ Lackey The 40-something lady on crutches swung her legs through the open door and into the office with a smile on her face and fervor in her heart. I was there, too, 60-something and sweaty, carrying a letter written on my personalized stationary.  They know my story, but I continue to repeat it. For all of us, the facts remain the same.  Our lives would be quite different if the ACA is repealed. Yes, it's falling apart, but that is, in large measure, due to the uncertainty surrounding continued funding.  If I've heard it once I've heard it a thous...

"Obamacare is in a death spiral." "This is what we ran on; this is what we promised the American people." The bill has not been "scored" by the OMB; the House of Representatives will vote on the bill before the cost is known. I've never been so glad to be on Medicare; I have the AARP on my side and nobody on The Hill wants to make the Granny Lobby angry. I wonder how the Trump voter looking for lower insurance premiums will react when it comes time to enroll in a new plan.  The bill focuses on what we used to call Major Medical - the inexplicable bills which accompany a hospital stay.  Apparently, all that prevention in the ACA - like prenatal vitamins and free wellness check ups - is expendable.  They would rather pay for open heart surgery than subsidize a gym membership. NPR broadcast an Ohio health care official worrying that 25% of the state's hospitals will enter bankruptcy if those formerly-uninsured-now-insured-soon-to-be-uninsure...

I have health insurance. I probably wouldn't have health insurance were it not for the Affordable Care Act. My room-and-board bill after eleven days in the hospital back in January, 2011, was $145,000. That's for the bed and the sheets and the cleaning staff and the food and the aides and the nurses.  It doesn't include any of the tests, procedures, materials, surgeries, anesthesia, physicians, therapists, or consultations. It cost that much for me to sleep there... though I didn't do much sleeping, if the truth be told. I was lucky.  My costs were covered by several government programs which come into play when you are shot standing ten feet from your Congresswoman.  That's called "participation in a federally protected activity" and interfering with my participation in that activity is the reason the shooter is spending twenty of his 140-years-after-his-seven-life-sentences in a Federal penitentiary.  Getting shot is never a good idea.  If it's g...

Can I opt out, too? As I understand it, the Conservative objection to ObamaCare centers around the mandate.  Extending benefits to millions more by requiring the states to expand their definition of need seems to be an easier proposition for the Justices to examine dispassionately.  Telling me what to do has a stickier presence. I get it.  I really do.  the Pilgrims came to our shores because they were peeved - the government was telling them how to live their lives and they wouldn't take it any more. Of course, they got to our shores and began expelling people from their colony when beliefs clashed.  Even in elementary school I was bothered by the hypocrisy of it.  Fleeing your homeland because you couldn't pray the way you chose was a stand-alone good reason.  Sailing across the pond and doing the same thing to others always struck me as the height of hypocrisy.  Didn't they get it?  Were the Pilgrims just looking for a spot of land...