Been there, seen the mess UPDATED

I am inspired by Janette's post on health care. I can never begin to compete with the plethora of logic she dispenses there - I only want to add to it for one reason. I worked in health care and since I am a queen of forming an opinion - I formed a strong one about the Government's hand in health care.

The argument that scares me the most is that a government run health care plan won't take away from the private market. IT ALREADY HAS!!!

I'll speak about the therapy world because that is what I know. MEDICARE dictated all of what would be paid and not paid in the therapy world. My job was a constant learning process - not of what were the best practices in Occupational therapy at the time, but of what would and would not be paid for by Medicare. All other insurance plans rapidly followed suit on what Medicare was paying so the idea of free market competition was all but dead already in my opinion.

The other frustration was that each company I worked for was all about how to capitalize on Medicare's inefficiency. Instead of case by case authorization - Medicare had four or so categories that patients fit into - Like:

In-patient rehab candidates that can tolerate 60 hours a week of combined therapies earned the facility $10,000/ month

Candidates that could tolerate 40 hours a week earned 8000.00 and so on and so forth - down to those who could only tolerate 20 hours a week and it didn't pay enough for the facility to accept the patient so they told the family they were ready to go home or to a nursing home (which wasn't really the case but it's all about the money).

Then because Medicare rewarded the path of least resistance, which was tolerating 60 hours a week of therapy whether or not performance increased - we kept patients as long as possible without overall concern about when they could go home or not (unless they stopped tolerating therapy - then they were out!)

Now I have to interject here that I worked with an excellent team of therapists who were all trained excellently so we did care about the well being of our patients and we worked to get them all as independent as possible - but this was for our own intrinsic value - not because it was what the system created by medicare wanted or even cared about.

I was trained immediately to be creative with billing and to overcharge Medicare at every opportunity. For instance I was taught that when I put a heat pack on a patent's shoulder for 20 minutes and have them squeeze a ball at the same time - I was to charge 20 minutes for the pain relief and 20 minutes for the "exercise" - saying I had worked with the patient for 40 minutes when in reality I had only been with them for 20 minutes total. This is why I HATED my job. I loved what I had learned to do, I loved working with patients - but at the end of each day I had to do my paperwork. If I was honest and billed according to how much time I spent with each patient I "failed" in comparison to all my peers in productivity. If I lied I was rewarded with praise but was heavy hearted in church every Sunday. And it was all to bow down to the Medicare god.

I always felt like if the government run machine would just be reviewed by a few efficiency experts the system could save billions and billions it no time at all. But what I daydreamed about even more was what if the system was to be done away with completely. Therapy centers would compete for RESULTS not billing codes and government reimbursement.

Without huge Medicare cuts from every one's paychecks - people could save for their own health care and then have a choice in where they and their loved ones receive care. And with the money they saved they could give to their charities of choice to assist those still in desperate need for care.

I had one patient when I worked in home health that I had the freedom to work with as I saw fit. On the way to see her I read the summary of her care - A woman in her 40's had suffered a severe stroke - she had regained the ability to walk but she had no use of one hand and her speech was impaired. She was a single mother of three boys (one with Cerebral Palsy), she was a full time teacher. Her insurance had lapsed at the time she had her stroke.

The notes said that her church was covering medical bills and they asked for regular updates on her condition and that the focus was on her regaining as much independence as possible.

It wasn't until the end of my first session with her that I had enough courage to ask her what church she was a member of -- She said "Mormon" with difficult speech and my heart swelled.

What a joy to be part of an organization that really takes care of its members.

That is my plea in this national argument. We do need organizations that take care of the nation's weak and to arrange health care for those in true need of it.

People do need health care.

BUT THE GOVERNMENT IS NOT THE ANSWER FOR THIS DILEMMA.

We need more of our paycheck so that we may give - give to our churches and charities so that we can OUT GIVE THE GOVERNMENT.

Out give the government - let that roll around in your brain for a bit.

That is a right we have - a right more important than health care.

The freedom to give our money by choice not by force to help our fellow man.

Here is Janette's post that was so inspiring to me - Since her blog is private and many of my blog friends won't get to her blog I got permission to re-post it. She managed to summarize how I feel on many levels so almost anything else I would add to this topic would have just been a repeat of what she said so without further ado:

This has not been approved by Gary ... which means that he'll be embarrassed later when he reads it. I was really upset at the time. I've since chilled out. There was something so comforting about getting my thoughts out of my head. Continue at your own risk.

1. I don't give a rip if any President of the US wants to deliver a speech to my child during school. Looking back to when I was in school ... I would have slept through it anyway. Any child of mine would do the same.

However, if I am lucky enough to foster a child with Gary's intelligence level, and said child DOES stay awake ... and listens ... and then remembers it enough to come home and tell me about it ... and I don't agree with what the President said ... I'll say something. And if my punk kid doesn't listen, I'll just tell said kid that the President isn't real. And if my punk doesn't believe me ... then I'll ask him if he'd like to give the {current} President 40% of his hard earned money so that the kids who don't work/won't work/refuse to work/or are currently 'in between jobs' can have his hard earned money instead. When he says 'no', that will be sufficient.

2. I really wish that people would quit voting based on moral ethics, ie: abortion, gay marriage, etc, and start voting on actual political and economic issues; we fought against all odds to earn this free country ... where people had the right to be rich or poor. Their desires and work ethics decided their destiny; not whether or not the current President was going to offer a supplemental income in the form of a welfare check or not.

3. Democracy has been tried hundreds of times throughout history. It fails every. single. time. Every time. The United States' democracy is the oldest/longest running democracy in history ... and it's hanging by a thread. Why? Because we have now hit the point where the 'have nots' out number the 'haves' ... and said 'have nots' will continue to elect whatever President promises the most handouts. It's a simple, historical, mathematical equation.

4. I have very little sympathy for people who are out of work ... insisting on some inflated pay check because their education and/or experience warrants it. Guess what? My husband and I both have degrees. My smarty pants husband graduated with the highest GPA in his major (Finance), and graduated Summa Cum Laude (less than 2% of graduates graduate SUMMA cum laude). Gary is brilliant. The smartest guy I know. And when he found himself unemployed, he took a job making less than half of what society would say he's worth. And he's getting ready to start his second job, working for UPS ... to make up the difference. To sacrifice. To sacrifice so that our kids will have better. That's what being a dang grown-up means. Start baggin' groceries, selling pest control, or loading up freight trucks, why don't ya?

5. When I hear democratic figures telling me that we aren't headed for socialism ... and that the rich can afford to help out the poor ... it makes. me. want. to. scream. READ THE STUPID DEFINITION OF SOCIALISM ... and THEN tell me, straight faced, that our government is not acting like a socialist economy. Who do these clowns think they are?! We live in the United States of America. And somehow, we've elected a President who thinks he has the right to take taxpayer money ... and then distribute it amongst people who refuse (yes, I said refuse) to work hard. Nothing is off limits in this country. Nothing. If you want it. There is a man at our church, also with a finance degree, who works hard and provides a wonderful home for his family. AND, when he gets done with his first job, he heads over to his second job -- bagging groceries for less than $10/hour ... because that's what it takes. He (and his wife) decided they wanted a nice home/cars/life ... so he makes sacrifices for it to happen. When did {so many} Americans forget what it was that our ancestors fought for?

6. I'm not really sorry for this rant ... this is just what happens when I read the following comment {on Facebook}:

"__________ is tired of the obamanoia and socialismobia"

and then the reply below it:

"I think we are suffering from mine-o-phobia. The fear of sharing."

Un. Freakin. Believable.

News Flash:

I'm not over here taking in 18 kids a week to teach colors and shapes to ... and Gary isn't working from 8a-5p and then heading straight to another job to work 5:30p-9:30p; leaving the house at 7am and getting home at 10:30pm ... just so that we can 'share'.

AND, for the record ... I share all the time. I don't think I could possibly count the number of paintings that I have done for. free. Or the times I've watched some one's kids for. free. There have been times when we have had plenty ... and during those times, I've given and given and given.

REVISED TO ADD:

7. Politicians who promise handouts and health care and boat loads of government spending (democratic or republican) are only promising those things because ... they need a job! They're in a job interview. They're promising the world, the moon, the stars, etc. ... because they don't want to lost their jobs and they know what it takes to stay employed.

8. I know that Gary and I do not currently fall into the 40% tax bracket; however, for my entire life, my parents have. AND ... I plan on following suit when it comes to monetary success. And I hope that by that time, we've gotten back on the path that our ancestors started for us. The brave men and women who fought to make this a free country (free from GOVERNMENT running people's lives, free to be able to be filthy stinkin' rich without someone deciding they were 'too' rich, etc.) have GOT to be cringing at what the US has become. The entitlement kills me.

9. The current administration believes that health insurance is not a luxury, it's a right. I agree. That's why you pay for it before you pay your mortgage and car payments. If you can't afford your mortgage and car payments after it ... you 1. get another job, or 2. move & down grade your cars.

10. If health insurance is a right ... how come housing isn't? Someone should pay all of our mortgages because we live in America and we should all have housing. No one should be homeless. And how about clothes. I suppose that clothing is a right too. And food ... and in Texas, air conditioning. We're on a very slippery slope. Trust me, health insurance is just the first hurdle towards providing everyone everything ... so that we are all equal ... and the 'have nots' can have the same things as the 'haves' ... without having to actually work for it.

I sorta go a little crazy ... when I hear things like $900 BILLION to pay for other people's health insurance because they refuse (yes, I said REFUSE) to take care of themselves ... I get a little heated. I understand that we do need to take care of the handicapped ... and those wholiterally cannot take care of themselves ... but the population of people who fit into that category is so unbelievably small ... it would be a drop in the bucket to care for them. And that, is how it should be.

When/where the crap will the sense of entitlement end?

And please, don't bother arguing with me. I will never, ever, ever, see your side. Never. (But we can still be friends ... because there is more to life than politics)

It's been said that you can measure the character of a man based on what he does when he's backed up against the wall. Does he sit down and cry ... or come out swinging?

I choose to come out swinging. Every. Single. Time.