Healthcare and Me

My son is on his fourth day of the flu. On the doctor’s advice, we took him to an urgent care center, as his temperature kept going up and down and he wasn’t feeling any better. The doctor at the care center basically told him he had the flu. So now he is home, drinking fluids, taking Advil and Tylenol, and blowing his nose on a regular basis. And learning nothing of any use only cost us $15, thanks to my insurance. A great improvement over the last time he sought medical care. A little over a year ago, he started getting sharp pains in his left side. I finally took him to the ER. We waited almost four hours before he was seen. It was another two hours before he came out. The pains had subsided, they had no idea what the problem was, and they suggested if the pains returned that he should return to the ER the next day. The bill - $1235.00.

Fewer things have made me happier than the new health care decision to allow parents to add their children to their insurance up to age 26. My son will be covered from January to September of this year. After that, unless there is a significant change in the law, he will again be uninsured, as is his older brother. Both my sons are adults, and even though both of them have been pretty regularly employed, neither has worked for businesses that provide insurance. This also means they weren’t being paid enough for them to afford their own insurance.

If you are a parent, I’m going to assume that health care for your children, whatever their age, is a concern. Maybe you’ve already had that talk with your kid where you tell him he needs to go to the doctor to check out that lump on his neck, and he tell you he can’t afford it. In larger communities there are usually clinics with an income-based sliding scale, but it can take several weeks to get an appointment and you will usually wait for at least an hour past your appointment time. Most young adults aren’t interested in investing that much time.

Now I will be the first to admit that I don’t know all the ins and outs of the Healthcare Law. I tended to focus on those areas that were most important to me. Fortunately, I have decent (although not wonderful) insurance through work, but it is expensive and it doesn’t cover quite enough. In November, I had a blood test done. It was just to check my cholesterol and iron. It was nothing special but I was billed $135. I really have a problem with not knowing up front how much something is going to cost me. I was to have another test run this month, but it’s going to wait. Is there anything in the new law that requires providers to let you know how much a test or procedure is going to cost you? I certainly think there should be.

I know a lot of the arguments against the Healthcare Law had to do with the portion requiring everyone to have health insurance. I didn’t really understand all the to-do. It was my understanding that those who had no income would have a special provision. Reading an article in Newsweek, entitled “The Justice Will See You Now” by Ezra Klein, I noted that he described the individual mandate as a requirement that those who could pay to purchase insurance would have to do so. So what’s the problem with that? Mr. Klein also wrote that this alternative went back to 1999 when it was first proposed by a group of conservative academics, and was what the Republicans were proposing up until the advent of the new law. So why are they now so loudly against their own proposal? If this is another case of obstructionism, it needs to stop now. When you are talking about healthcare, you are talking about people’s lives.

Three of my friends are no longer alive because they either did not have insurance or they could not afford to pay what the insurance would not cover. My children are facing threats to their health because they do not have access to the kind of care that – Yes, I’ll say it – wealthier citizens can easily obtain. I can only hope that when the dust settles, the people whose job it is to oversee the safety and well-being of all our citizens, will be assuring that everyone can get timely and adequate care without having to worry about whether or not they can afford it. No one wants to hear that your child, your spouse, your friend, has only a few months to live because it is too late to treat the disease.

Cleopatra: A Life

I recently finished reading Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff, and I recommend the book to anyone who has an interest in ancient history or powerful women. Admitting that there is little hard evidence of Cleopatra’s life, Ms. Schiff uses her knowledge of history and human behavior to assemble a very readable biography. It was refreshing to see Cleopatra as a careful and savvy ruler, rather than the dependent sexpot we more frequently see in the movies.

The book develops the history of the Roman Empire, and their admiration for Alexander the Great, and the history of the Greek Ptolemies who controlled Egypt. It is the history that lays the groundwork for the lives and behaviors of Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra. They were all products of their cultures: historical, social and religious. Understanding these influences makes it easier to see them as real people with real goals and real battles. The struggle for power in Rome and in Alexandria seems to have been the real motivating force in the lives of the main characters. Striking a balance between the Roman overlords and the need of the Egyptian people to feel autonomous was the real challenge for Cleopatra.

Ms. Schiff points out that most of what we know of Cleopatra was written by men, and much of it years after the events of her life. It will surprise no one to find examples of male authors who were eager to describe Cleopatra as a witch or a harlot, while at the same time admitting that she was a capable ruler. While the people of Rome were rioting for food, the Egyptian people were enjoying relative prosperity and calm. She was obviously doing something right. But the consensus of the writers (male) was the same that held sway for centuries afterwards. There is nothing more dangerous than an intelligent woman.

I found the book to be very readable and well researched, but that is no surprise from a Pulitzer Prize winner. For me, Cleopatra has now become a real woman, no longer the archetype of the woman who uses sex to obtain power. I think we may be fairly certain that she is not alone in the list of historical women who were much more talented, intelligent and clever than they were portrayed. Perhaps in time, more of them will be brought out of the shadows by excellent historians like Ms. Schiff.

If you decide to pick up the book, or have already read it, I’d enjoy hearing your impression. That’s it from the frozen wasteland – let’s hope the Groundhog knows what he’s talking about.