I don’t understand people who don’t/won’t watch the news.  I need to know what’s going on—I check out all of it:  CNN, PBS, MSNBC, FOX even, to see what’s up with their take on things.  BBC news to get the view from the other side of the pond…

Being a visual person, I’m still fascinated by the fact that I’ve got moving pictures in my own living room.  I’m with Mary on this—we were also among the last to get TV in the Fifties.  Silly, maybe, but I love TV. I’ve spent most of my adult life working at home, and it’s great company. I won’t watch the trashy "reality" junk, but then I am addicted to "Project Runway"—I love it because it’s great to see people actually creating something.  I love Cold Case, Law and Order reruns, Mad Men of course…Masterpiece Theatre…I DVR programs if I’m not going to be home.  I lamented the (fabulous and appropriate) end of Six Feet Under, one of the most complex and compelling series ever.

I think it was Mark Twain who wrote, "Never take a job that requires new clothes."  I paid attention to this when I was about 12, and have managed to accomplish this feat ever since.  

 I don’t know who said this, but I love it—it’s funny and it strangely comforts me:  "Time is nature’s way of keeping everything from happening all at once."

Well, here in central Texas it was 106 degrees today.  Broke a record. I kinda like the heat—I like to call the effect "sensual."  If I’m honest, I stay in with the AC most of the time, but my boyfriend lives on the river and so we kayak and swim around with the turtles.  Being a nightowl, I tend to do my grocery shopping in the middle of the night, and there’s nothing weirder than opening your front door at one in the morning and a wave of 90-degree warmth blasts through from the outside.  Almost makes me laugh.  Trouble is, we’re also in a really awful drought, so the yard ends up looking like shredded wheat.  The good thing is, you don’t think about makeup or clothes—just throw on the thinnest T-shirt, your longest shorts, and flip-flops.  Too hot to deal with anything else.  Even the neighborhood cat-that-isn’t-really-mine was meowing like crazy and throwing himself against the door so he could come in a hang out on the cool hardwood floor.

The solution is simple.  Screw the for-profit insurance companies with their inflated CEO salaries, enormous advertising budgets, paper-pushers, agents, their priority of enriching investors, etc.  Expand Medicare for everyone.  Everyone pay SOMETHING into it, via either a basic low premium or added taxes.  Any added tax would never be as costly as the myriad premiums, copays, etc. we’re burdened with now.  Hence, an expanded risk pool that involves EVERYONE, with the ability to negotiate costs. The medical profession wouldn’t involve having to hire a herd of people to process all the incomprehensible forms and coding that stands between patient and care.  It really boggles my mind that our country has put up with our so-called health "care" system as long as it has.

For those of you blessed with good insurance through work, you may be next to be "downsized" out of your job, and booted out of your plan. That happened to me, when I was nearly 60 years old.  Try to find affordable private insurance on your own at that age, when you’re trying to live on unemployment benefits.  I couldn’t.  I knocked on wood until Medicare kicked in, and I was lucky—no health problems. Thank God for Medicare.

(And no, I don’t believe in taxing those who do have employer-based benefits—whatever "gold-plated" means.) 

It was for a dog.  Most of the people funerals I’ve attended were sad, strained, or the wrong venue with the wrong people giving the wrong eulogies.  White Dog (that was his name) was special—he belonged to friends of mine who lived a block away.  He knew dozens of people, and would wander around town visiting us all.  He’d nose open my back screen door, come in for a pat on the head and a nap, then leave to go see someone else.  When he died, we all went out to the country to a carpentry shop where one of my neighbors worked.  We buried him under a tree there, and all stood around the grave and told our stories. It was somber, but sweet.  An acquaintance (I lost respect for her after this) was invited but sniffed, "That’s stupid, it’s just a dog."  He wasn’t JUST a dog.

I could write a book about my thoughts on our wretched healthcare system.  The first shout-out I’d like to express is to those who complain about "government bureaucrats" who would dole out care if a universal system were to be established:  insurance company bureaucrats are doling out your care right now.  Haven’t you heard of anyone or their doctor having to argue with their insurance company over whether this or that procedure will be covered?  It’s a nightmare.  My boyfriend’s wife of 26 years died of cancer six or seven years ago, and even though they had "excellent" insurance through the university here, he had to spend hours and hours on the phone with the insurance company trying to get things covered.  All this while he was exhausting himself caring for her at home, since the insurance would only cover x number of days in the hospital at a time. Her illness lasted several years. He was a saint, dealing with the ugliness of cancer—the pain, the mess, the emergency drives to the hospital.  And when the company refused to cover a life-extending procedure on the basis it was "experimental," he contacted a state legislator he was fortunate to be acquainted with who wrote an uncompromising letter to the insurance company and the problem got resolved. Not everyone has a connection like that.  Now my friend is looking after his 95-year-old mother (she’s in a nursing home).  She’s had lots of health issues, but is on Medicare, and he has had no problems dealing with them.

I am grateful I am on Medicare now myself.  When I got laid off/downsized from my last job of 15-or-so years, I was informed I was being bumped off the health plan.  But there was COBRA—which is a joke, really…I was on unemployment benefits, and because I was over 50, I suppose, the premium was over $500 a month.  Like you can afford that when you’re not working.  Just try to find an affordable private plan at that age.  I went to a broker, applied for the one high-deductible plan I could manage, sent in my check, and back it came a few weeks later.  The plan said they couldn’t cover me because I was "too expensive."  This because I actually told the truth on my application form and said I had one on-going prescription, which at the time cost me $11 a month (hormone replacement pills). I’d been in good health and rarely had to see a doctor, so there were no other "pre-existing conditions" in my history.  What a crock.  So I basically thought, "screw them all" and decided to knock on wood until I hit 65.  I practiced denial and self-medication.  The only thing that happened was when I almost tore off my big toenail (I know, arghhh!) trying to kick the front door shut when my hands were full with groceries.  My sandal was full of blood. I cleaned and wrapped my toe and managed to drive to the drugstore to look for a splint thing to protect it, but they only sold finger splints and said to try a medical supply store.  It was Labor Day weekend and those were all closed.  So I went to my local old-fashioned hardware store in case they had some first aid thing that carpenters might need if they drop tools on their feet.  I told the first guy I saw about my situation and he immediately went to aisle number 4, pulled out a little plastic drawer in the nuts and bolts section and picked out a little pack of something that was encased in a short cardboard tube.  He got down on his knees and gently slid the tube over my poor bleeding toe.  It fit perfectly.  I felt like Cinderella.  He didn’t charge me anything and I gave him a big hug.

Well, that was then.  Bottom line is, Medicare works.  The solution is simple.  Extend Medicare to everyone.  People have to buy car insurance to drive.  Have everyone pay into the plan. Much less for younger people, but everyone pay something.  The risk pool will encompass every citizen, hence, more money into the plan.  Costs negotiated.  If rich people want to have expensive private insurance, let them have it. 

I’m with B Clark on this one.  I’ve never been a "clean freak," never use a hand sanitizer, don’t worry much about germs.  I do remember to wash my hands after a trip to the market, take basic vitamins every day, but that’s about it.  I have lots of bad habits: up all night, tons of coffee, cigarettes even—but I’ve hardly ever been sick.  I believe in building up one’s immune system the natural way—playing in the dirt as a kid, sleeping with the animals, etc.  As another poster reminds us, many people get very ill and/or die as a result of the flu in general every year and nobody blinks.