Healthy Care

Most (if not all) of you know that we had a scare last week with our baby. For a couple days, we had an increasingly fussy infant on our hands, followed by a very lethargic day of him mostly sleeping. As Saturday afternoon became Saturday evening, his symptoms increased to the point where we realized that he HAD to see a doctor. In the emergency room, the staff appropriately informed us that if he was going to need extended care, he would have to be taken to Las Vegas, as Lake Havasu City does not have the facilities to care for an infant (a different discussion for a different day). Later, they informed us that he would be flying to the child care facility in Vegas, as it required immediate attention.
As with any good mother, my wife's attention was completely on comforting and caring for the little guy. As the father, my mind starts processing through the many other issues we are now facing...
-what to do with the other kids
-did my wife eat dinner?
-how to politely, but firmly, tell the doctor that my baby is not flying to Vegas without his mother
-how to efficiently get myself to Vegas (cause I would be driving) with the things we need for our stay
...and not the least of my concerns...
-how much of this is my insurance going to pay?

In short, at that point (as far as insurance claims go) we were facing:
-the trip to the Havasu ER
-an ambulance ride to the airport in Havasu
-medical flight from Havasu to Vegas
-ambulance from Vegas airport to Sunrise Children's Hospital
-urgent care surgery
-recovery in the hospital.

This all leads me to the topic of this post... health care. First off, let me say that I am categorically against state-run programs. I don't see the logic behind paying more of my money to the government for them to decide how to spend it. I know it sounds great to have "free" health care, but all that really means is that the people who are paying most of the taxes in this country will be paying more, and the pool of individuals who are actually getting truly free health care (already receiving health care through the government and not paying their portion of the bills, i.e. taxes) will just increase in size. Let me also say that I have been on state health care. In fact, my wife and kids are on a modified state care program now (we pay our premium directly to the state). I understand the benefit of welfare medical insurance. This is difficult for me, considering my ideals; while we are not a poor family, we certainly can't afford to pay the $492 a month it would cost to cover my family.

Now on one hand, I can say that my family and I haven't historically required a great deal of medical attention. When you consider the the amount of money being spent each month by myself and my employers towards insurance over the years, I have got to think that the insurance companies are making a killing off of my family. On the other hand, this little trip to the emergency room combined with the air ambulance, etc., surely cost the insurance companies a lot of that money they have made off of me over the years (not sure the cost of all this stuff, but of what I can find, the transportation alone probably cost around $30,000).

So, what is the deal with this? I can't be doling out close to $500 per month on health insurance. Still, the insurance companies need to charge enough to pay our claims. And, yes, it is a business for them, too; they need to make some money off of us. I appreciate that President Obama is trying to reform health insurance, as it clearly needs reforming. I just obviously have concerns over how he plans to reform health care.

The way I see it, one of three things needs to happen:
- Either we need to just accept - as citizens - that it is going to cost A LOT of money to insure ourselves (and I recognize Americans have been doing for some time now), which will (continue to) result in millions of under- and uninsured Americans... which will effectively mean that taxpayers will be picking up the tab anyway as these uninsured can't pay their hospital bills.
- Or government needs to step in and make a pay schedule that will be (what they believe to be) fair to everyone so all can receive "free" health care.
- Or... the cost of health care needs to drop into a range that allows insurance companies to lower their rates, thus making it possible for people to be able to afford health care. This would also mean that insurance companies need to pay the claims as they are billed, so there isn't this circular problem of over-billing to compensate for underpayment, and underpayment to compensate for over-billing.

I recognize that I may be oversimplifying this, but it seems to me that when considering all things, the third option would be best for our country. The hard part is figuring out how to make that happen (maybe someone who reads this will know and leave a comment, cause I certainly don't know). I imagine at the very least it would require people in the medical fields and the insurance companies (and the ambulance-chasing lawyers) to function within a moral and ethical fair zone in regards to money. Again, I just don't know how that is going to be enforced, but I take consolation in the idea that there are representatives for us right now working on this trying to do the right thing and give us strong, positive health care reform... and I hope (I am trying very hard not to being cynical here) they make the right long-term decisions that are best for all Americans.

What I can say is that my little boy is doing better and I appreciate all the love, prayers, and concern over him.

My not-quite-a-movie-review movie review

I love movies - all kinds. Well, most kinds. I've never liked musicals (I could never figure out how a group of people could spontaneously stop what they are doing and do a dance in flawless unison). But, for the most part, I really enjoy all kinds of movies. I enjoy movies about sports, like Hoosiers. Funny movies, like Young Frankenstein. Fantasy, like Lord of the Rings. And I like funny movies about sports with fantastic elements, like Field of Dreams. I love deep, thought-provoking movies which cause me to reflect, like The Dark Knight. And still, I often love to sit and watch a silly, turn-off-your-brain-and-laugh slapstick, a la Dumb and Dumber.

What I love most in movies, however, is when people are taken to their limits, causing them to rise above what they previously thought they could do or achieve, and they "overcome"... the Rocky concept. However, as much as I love sports (and Rocky), underdogs winning in a competition takes second to the sub-genre of man fighting for his rights of freedom and/or life. Of course there are so many movies based off of this concept, and like any other sub-genre, some are good and some are bad - some are simple and some are complex. Here's a short list: Independence Day, Braveheart, The Matrix, Gladiator, The Great Escape, and of course, The Terminator franchise.

For a long time I have based all action movies on the T-2 (Terminator 2, for the unenlightened) scale of satisfaction. It's funny ("You were gonna kill that guy." "Of course. I'm a terminator"), it has great action, an iconic hero, a bad, bad, bad, kick-some-serious-butt female lead -- remember Sarah Conner repeatedly pumping and firing that shotgun at the liquid metal terminator with her one good arm to protect her son. But above all, T-2 is (save the snickering) deeply philosophical for a blockbuster action movie. Without getting too into the plot (cause if you don't know the plot of T-2, you should immediately go to your local movie rental store and check it out - and then get back to this post), one of the main points of the movie is that our future is up to us. Fate or bad luck or poor choices may influence what happens to us, but ultimately we are in charge of our own course. We are in control, and if we want something badly enough, we need to act. Do what it takes to make it happen rather than sitting passively by as the world acts on us.

A couple days ago I went to see the new Terminator movie. I know a lot of people were disappointed with it - I wasn't. I loved it! I loved the action, the storyline, the acting, the climax, everything. I even loved the new philosophical bit we got from this movie.

The main character and leader of the human resistance against the machines is John Connor. His words to the destitute, desperate people: "Above all, stay alive. You have no idea how important you are."

Back in our world, we are living in difficult times. Life is hard. Sometimes it is hard to know what's right, and it is often hard to do what's right. It can drag you down. It's easy to step onto the slope that takes us into a zone of indifference to the world around us.  My wife and I were just talking about this the other day. We are frustrated about some of the things going on in our country and world. And now, more than ever, we feel like we have no control, no voice to express our disapproval...  

Then we realized... now, more than ever, we must express our voices and opinions and we must act.  We must do what we feel is right and stand up against the things that are wrong, against the Terminators (of freedom).  Sounds cheesy, I know, but I couldn't resist. 

John Connor's words to his people brought optimism and encouraged his followers to always maintain some control over their lives so they could act and do what's right.

Some of us may feel that, like the human resistance in Terminator, The Matrix, and Star Wars, that we are being taken beyond our limits of what is acceptable and what is expected as a human being and an American.  For you I say, "Stay alive. You have no idea how important you are."  We will rise above - perhaps higher than we previously thought we could - and we will overcome the challenges facing us.