Imagine developing a serious illness, seeking medical care, presenting your Medicare card and receiving it without denials or appeals or copays or deductibles. When your healthcare team suggests a medication that will likely cure your condition, you receive it at no cost.Such a scenario describes a system that would be more fair and empathetic, and…
I began to write this column because I learned that one-third of U.S. citizens didn’t realize that the Affordable Care Act was the same as Obamacare, so I thought there was a need for enlightenment about healthcare in our country. It was my intention to base my comments on facts, but also to encourage readers…
I am writing this on the 52nd anniversary of the official signing by President Lyndon Johnson of the legislation enacting Medicare, generally regarded as the most successful and popular U.S. government program ever. Just as many of us take inventory on our birthdays, this seems like a good time to consider what Medicare is and…
Do you ever get overwhelmed with gratitude, with the feeling that you must be the luckiest person in the world? Followed, of course, by the feeling that you don’t deserve it, but let’s focus on the positive. It started on July 4th; a great parade in a great town in a great state in a…
The visit to Idyllwild by seven Rotarians from South Africa and Botswana last week was a great experience for all. Imagine hearing lions in your backyard at night instead of coyotes. But as different as some of our experiences are, the similarities were more numerous. One of the visitors was a university professor, a couple…
Two interesting things happened last week — besides the other really interesting thing that I’m not going to talk about (much) — both of which revolved around people named Sanders. First, Bernie Sanders was widely condemned for questioning Russell Vought, the nominee for deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. It…
I’ve got a really strange idea and here is how it happened. I read a news report about Ben Carson, our secretary of Housing and Urban Development, in which he was quoted as saying that poverty is a state of mind. I took that to mean that poor people are to blame for their own…
A weird week, wasn’t it? Here is some food for thought. Off the wall, maybe out of touch. But, in the immortal words of Jimmy Buffett, “If we weren’t all crazy we would go insane.” • Since no individual can really afford to be sick, it follows that the relative pittance we contribute to insurance…
Imagine that you run a U.S. small business. You have long-term employees to whom you are loyal and vice versa. You have an anniversary coming up, but it is not one you look forward to because it is that time of year when you renew the health insurance you purchase for your employees and yourself….
Medical care in the U.S. is so much more expensive than every other country. How can we fix that? A dollar in U.S. medical spending looks like this: 31 cents goes to hospitals, 20 cents to doctors and clinical services, other personnel get 15 cents, prescription drugs account for 10 cents, nursing care and home…