Getting Rid of Medicare

If you think cutting off Social Security and Medicare is not a problem, think about it. If you're under 65, do you want your elderly parents to move in with you? It might not be as much fun as you think.

Look up the retail prices of the medications they take. Ask the doctor's office how much an uninsured patient pays for a visit. How much help with housework will your aging parents be able to provide? Do they have problems like incontinence, short-term memory loss, hearing impairment, failing eyesight, difficulty walking? Will you be able to leave them alone when you go on vacation? Or will you take them with you, and will they (or you) enjoy it? if the day comes when they need full-time care, will you or your spouse be able to provide it? Or can you afford health care workers (strangers in your home all day)?

Do your parents want to move in with you, or would they rather stay independent as long as possible? Do you have a spare room, or will someone have to sleep on the couch? Do you have closet space for them? How many bathrooms do you have? Are you all able to make major decisions together? If your parents are no longer living, will these issues apply to aunts and uncles, aging cousins, or even your older siblings? If you still have teenagers or 20-somethings living with you, can you afford to keep them plus the older relative who needs expensive pills? ^@themrswest

Photo by Christina Victoria Craft on Unsplash

Release the Medical Records?

Get a full copy of your own medical records some time and read carefully. You may be surprised at all the things that are slightly wrong, completely wrong, or weird. I once went to the ER for chest pain (it turned out not to be a heart attack). When I was admitted, they asked me what I had eaten all day. I told the truth, which included a big candy bar at lunch and 1/2 a glass of wine at dinner 2 hours earlier. I looked at my medical records later and saw someone had written, "Patient had been drinking." That phrase, whether intentional or not, made it sound like I was drunk. Imagine what a political opponent would do with stuff like that.

In another case, I was being evaluated for a particular problem, and I was asked more than once if I experienced dizziness or vertigo. I truthfully told them no, I did not have any dizziness. Years later I found that the doctor had written that I was there for dizziness. I don't know why he lied. He wasn't my regular doctor and I never saw him again. That falsehood is still in my "full" medical record.

I've had friends who found records of appointments they never actually had with doctors they never actually saw. It's a very flawed system.

Calling for the release of a candidate's medical records may sound like a good idea, but it isn't. If health is a big concern, then let ALL candidates submit to a pre-campaign wellness exam, and make that public. It's enough to determine fitness. ^@realrkwest

Believing

Long before I ever heard the phrase "Climate Change", I knew something was happening. Everybody noticed. People talked about how summer wasn't the same as it used to be, how winter was different, how the rain didn't seem right, and the wind was weird. Farmers knew something was wrong. The timing was off somehow. Fields dried up. We are all being affected by this, one way or another. More wildfires, more asthma, missing the birds and the butterflies, watching lakes shrink or tides rise. And when someone asks, "Do you believe in climate change?" I imagine a person who's been punched in the face being asked, "Do you believe in fists?"

Free to Be

I always thought I could marry whomever I wanted. As it happens, I didn't want to marry a woman, so I didn't really think of it as an option. But just because I don't want to do that, doesn't mean I should try to stop someone else from doing it. But that seems to be the foundation of many people's opposition to gay marriage. They don't want to do it, they think it's icky, therefore no one else should do it. Hey, I think marrying a Republican would be icky, but I'm not going to try and make it illegal.

Right now, all over town, there are people doing things I don't want to do. They are eating foods I don't like, reading books that bore me, watching TV shows I hate, and engaging in sexual activities that don't appeal to me. So what? It's none of my business. We really don't need laws to make everyone do what I would do (or not do what I wouldn't do). But that's the kind of thing that gets right-wingers all fired up. They've got a powerful desire to make everyone be just like them. They want us all to follow their religion, live their approved lifestyle, ignore truth if it doesn't match their vision of the way things should be. No matter that they like to see themselves as individualists fighting for freedom, the Republican Party is the party of conformity. ^@realrkwest