Re:Health Insurance-

[Guest guest]

There but for the grace of God, go I. - Judge not lest you too be judged.

These are words that impressed me in my youth and I try to live by. It is easy

to sit in our Ivory towers and look out and judge all those poor slobs who are

obese, unfit, poor, uneducated, drug addicted, unemployed and say it is just

their fault and if they would just do as I have they would not have these

problems.

As a physician treating these people I have had the opportunity to peer into

their lives and hear the tragedies that the are reasons why many are in the

predicament they are in. As I stated in one of my posts " many times through no

fault of their own " they have come down on hard times and need the help of

others. And sometimes the only helping hand might be our government. In these

hard times, when he need is greatest, the charities are seeing a steep decline

in contributions.

Some are born with lower than normal intelligence and can only hold down low

paying jobs and even if they had a second job they might no be able to make 40k.

At $7.00 an hour an individual would have to work 6000 hrs a year to gross

$42,000. That is 120 hrs a week for 50 weeks a year.

Some where born into dysfunctional families and suffer severe anxiety resulting

in their turning to drugs and alcohol to treat their symptoms simply because the

only example in their lives might have been alcoholic or drug parents. The child

did not ask to have these parents.

Some had a decent income and insurance until their company went bust and laid

them off along with hundreds of their fellow works all of whom now have to go

out and vie for what few jobs are left and they may not be qualified. Perhaps

they worked for 20 years as a machinist and their job was moved from the north

to some southern state. Their skills no longer needed, jobs not available not

enough money to pull up stakes and move family with no guarantee that there will

be a job where they are going.

The person who has to commute 2 hrs to work and working 60- 70 hrs a week leaves

little time or energy to exercise and because of his/her sedentary job and

perhaps lack of sleep begins to gain weight.

The husband/wife who is forced into a divorce because of a cheating or abusive

spouse and is left with 1/2 their income and assets if they are lucky.

At this time of year we should thank God for the blessings we have and instead

of looking at others less fortunate with disdain, and say to ourselves " there

but for the grace of God go I " and an reach and give them a helping hand.

While we all hate taxes they are what makes our society function. Someone

mentioned the fireman and what would it be like if we had to pay them for

protection. Look up your history books or tune into the History channel. The

original firemen in the cities worked for private companies and people would

have to pay a premium to have their house covered. That did not work out too

well if your neighbors house was uninsured an caught fire and as a consequence

your house burned down as well.

Next time you go to an Emergency room and have to wait 4-6 or more hours because

it is crowded with uninsured people, who waited until they were extremely sick

to seek medical care, just think how much better medical care would be if they

treated their severe asthma when is just a minor wheeze.

It doesn't matter if you have insurance, you do not go to the front of the line.

You are triaged according to the severity of your illness.

I don't have an answer to all the problems of our healthcare system but let us

pray that our elected officials have the wisdom to find a better solution.

In the 60s there was an uproar against Medicare by many including physicians

yet, with all its flaws, where would our senior citizens be without Medicare.

Even the prescription Medicare part D with all its flaws has been a tremendous

help for many of our seniors who can now get medications they could not

previously afford.

Enough of my ramblings-

I hope you all have Happy and Healthy New Year

Doc

Ralph Giarnella MD

Southington Ct USA