While on vacation, I've listened to numerous politicians and talking heads discuss their positions on health care reform in the form of HR 3200. The government would make my medical decisions; granny would face death panels or be euthanized; and someone would decide what care I, as a person with disabilities, would be eligible to receive. It will throw the federal government into trillions of dollars in debt.
However, I have been educated by Democratic congressmen and senators, as well as progressive talk show hosts on MSNBC, and reporters on CNN. HR 3200 is a work in progress and that the president will not sign any bill which does not pay for itself. The bill prevents the insurance industry excluding care for pre-existing conditions--something I especially appreciate. A Republican congressman, who now opposes the bill, inserted the clause promising any senior wanting it can discuss end-of-life care with a health care professional not unlike the Living Will which I drafted with an attorney.
The vast majority of congressmen and senators fighting this bill are recipients of campaign contributions from the insurance industry and big Pharma. Their opposition must be seen in light of this influence. The green of these monies distorts their vision.
Those who listen to the likes of Rush Limbaugh and these politicians are duped. Read the HR 3200 in its present form--not as filtered through Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, or Republican politicians. You will only learn the truth by reading the bill.
God Bless You
Gayl J. Caul
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
The Need for Public Option or Single Payer
My Republican friends don't understand why I strongly support Public Option or Single Payer, so I am taking this time to explain.
First, my stepdaughter has been battling Hodgkins Lymphoma for a couple years now. She has no insurance and my husband and I are unable to help her. The only reason she's been able to get help is that a local foundation for people with cancer paid for her care while helping her obtain a state medical card.
Second, my stepdaughter's fiance wound up in intensive care with a ruptured esophagus and electrolyte imbalance. He is unemployed and therefore uninsured.
I come third. I have a disability and am unable to work. My disability check is small and leaves me with the choice of paying my bills or paying co-pays for medication. I cannot get insurance due to price and pre-existing conditions. Medicare is not a good option because the donut hole would strangle me. I don't have the money to get through that period.
Fourth, my husband wants to retire. He runs himself ragged dealing his his special education students and comes home completely wiped out. We know he cannot continue at this pace, but we depend on job for the insurance benefit. He cannot afford to buy insurance for us after retiring, so he perseveres with his job.
Not that long ago, I needed a life-saving surgery while I had different insurance coverage. The insurance company insisted the surgery was elective and refused to approve it. My lips were blue and I had almost no voice, my heart was seriously compromised. I was dieing. Finally, the surgeon prevailed in his battles with my insurer. He was the only one in the entire state capable of doing the procedure, but the company balked because the hospital was out of network. Lord bless that medical man because he told me, "you've got to have this done NOW. Don't worry. I'll deal with the insurance company and hospital and I'll accept out-of-network benefits." Due to his persistence, I can write this eight years after the fact.
That's only my family. There are millions more families in this country who currently struggle due to pre-existing conditions, inadequate coverage, or an inability to obtain insurance. My voice is but one among the many. We need Single Payer or Public Option. We believe that the co-op is a cop out. Make your voices heard.
Gayl Caul
First, my stepdaughter has been battling Hodgkins Lymphoma for a couple years now. She has no insurance and my husband and I are unable to help her. The only reason she's been able to get help is that a local foundation for people with cancer paid for her care while helping her obtain a state medical card.
Second, my stepdaughter's fiance wound up in intensive care with a ruptured esophagus and electrolyte imbalance. He is unemployed and therefore uninsured.
I come third. I have a disability and am unable to work. My disability check is small and leaves me with the choice of paying my bills or paying co-pays for medication. I cannot get insurance due to price and pre-existing conditions. Medicare is not a good option because the donut hole would strangle me. I don't have the money to get through that period.
Fourth, my husband wants to retire. He runs himself ragged dealing his his special education students and comes home completely wiped out. We know he cannot continue at this pace, but we depend on job for the insurance benefit. He cannot afford to buy insurance for us after retiring, so he perseveres with his job.
Not that long ago, I needed a life-saving surgery while I had different insurance coverage. The insurance company insisted the surgery was elective and refused to approve it. My lips were blue and I had almost no voice, my heart was seriously compromised. I was dieing. Finally, the surgeon prevailed in his battles with my insurer. He was the only one in the entire state capable of doing the procedure, but the company balked because the hospital was out of network. Lord bless that medical man because he told me, "you've got to have this done NOW. Don't worry. I'll deal with the insurance company and hospital and I'll accept out-of-network benefits." Due to his persistence, I can write this eight years after the fact.
That's only my family. There are millions more families in this country who currently struggle due to pre-existing conditions, inadequate coverage, or an inability to obtain insurance. My voice is but one among the many. We need Single Payer or Public Option. We believe that the co-op is a cop out. Make your voices heard.
Gayl Caul
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Kucinich in Aurora, IL
Ted and I had a great time this afternoon. After a quiet morning, we watched the Chicago White Sox lose to the Bronx Bombers.
Later this afternoon, we drove to Aurora, Illinois, to a rally for Single Payer medical coverage (Medicare for all). We saw a number of interesting speakers, beginning with Illinois state congresswoman Mary Flowers who authored and sponsors a bill before the Illinois legislator to bring Single Payer to Illinois. She is a most impressive individual who fights with a passion to bring the best to our state and her district.
Illinois state representative Mike Boland is another legislator who sponsors that same bill. He is a tiger and a fierce advocate for his people. He told those of us assembled that he will not be running for re-election to this post. Rather, he will be running for Illinois Lieutenant Governor. I'd like to know more about him, but he would definitely be on my radar.
The highlight of the afternoon came next. Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich was incredible! Not only did co-author HR 676, a congressional bill to create Single Payer for the nation, but he got the Kucinich amendment into HR 3200, the health insurance reform bill. His amendment would allow for the states with single payer health care to be excluded from any mandate to require participation in this health insurance reform law.
Following his speech to encourage Illinois' fight for state single payer health care, Congressman Kucinich took questions from the audience. The second question was mine. I told him that I had already spoken with Congresswoman Judy Biggert's office which responded with a letter detailing her position against Single Payer, Public Option, and for tort reform. I asked him what I could do. He replied that she did vote to include the Kucinich amendment and suggested that I contact her office again, requesting that she support its retention as the bill continues its way through Congress.
We did hear from a couple Green Party spokespeople who sounded more than a little radical. I thought Progressives like me were lefties. These spokespeople were so far to the left that I almost couldn't see them. Guess I'm more moderate than I thought!
Anyway, it was a most informative and thought-provoking event.
Mom is having her angiogram, possibly an angioplasty, tomorrow morning, so Ted and I will be headed out that way. I cannot expect Ted to spend the entire day at the hospital with me, so I have encouraged him to get in a round of golf and check out the local historical sites. I'll have to post tomorrow about her outcome.
God bless you all--
Gayl
Later this afternoon, we drove to Aurora, Illinois, to a rally for Single Payer medical coverage (Medicare for all). We saw a number of interesting speakers, beginning with Illinois state congresswoman Mary Flowers who authored and sponsors a bill before the Illinois legislator to bring Single Payer to Illinois. She is a most impressive individual who fights with a passion to bring the best to our state and her district.
Illinois state representative Mike Boland is another legislator who sponsors that same bill. He is a tiger and a fierce advocate for his people. He told those of us assembled that he will not be running for re-election to this post. Rather, he will be running for Illinois Lieutenant Governor. I'd like to know more about him, but he would definitely be on my radar.
The highlight of the afternoon came next. Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich was incredible! Not only did co-author HR 676, a congressional bill to create Single Payer for the nation, but he got the Kucinich amendment into HR 3200, the health insurance reform bill. His amendment would allow for the states with single payer health care to be excluded from any mandate to require participation in this health insurance reform law.
Following his speech to encourage Illinois' fight for state single payer health care, Congressman Kucinich took questions from the audience. The second question was mine. I told him that I had already spoken with Congresswoman Judy Biggert's office which responded with a letter detailing her position against Single Payer, Public Option, and for tort reform. I asked him what I could do. He replied that she did vote to include the Kucinich amendment and suggested that I contact her office again, requesting that she support its retention as the bill continues its way through Congress.
We did hear from a couple Green Party spokespeople who sounded more than a little radical. I thought Progressives like me were lefties. These spokespeople were so far to the left that I almost couldn't see them. Guess I'm more moderate than I thought!
Anyway, it was a most informative and thought-provoking event.
Mom is having her angiogram, possibly an angioplasty, tomorrow morning, so Ted and I will be headed out that way. I cannot expect Ted to spend the entire day at the hospital with me, so I have encouraged him to get in a round of golf and check out the local historical sites. I'll have to post tomorrow about her outcome.
God bless you all--
Gayl
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Post Traumatic Stress
I'm recovering from last week's trauma. Believe it or not, my husband and I have still been feeling the stress after witnessing my siblings' vicious verbal assault on my mother. Ted and I are both distracted during our daily activities. We are forgetting things. Time and again, he mentions something about that harangue. Our bodies are reacting to the stress as well. I've had frequent bouts of tachycardia (a rapid heart beat) and mild chest pain. I do have a mild heart condition, so I'm taking it easy.
As we heal from the physical effects of this event, Ted and I have a running conversation about it. We agree that, at this point, we will avoid contact with my brother and sister while we assess our respective relationships with them. More than the peace was shattered that day. Our entire perspectives on who they were exploded with their tempers. We never thought them the kind of people to abuse an elderly person--let alone their own mother.
How can we respect them? How can we trust our own perceptions of people? How do we repair the family relationship? Can it be repaired? How can we learn to trust them? A gulf filled with these questions and more lays between us and them. Building a bridge must be a mutual decision and I am not ready to begin, not sure I want to build it at all.
All I can do is pray for the family and be supportive of Mom.
Gayl
As we heal from the physical effects of this event, Ted and I have a running conversation about it. We agree that, at this point, we will avoid contact with my brother and sister while we assess our respective relationships with them. More than the peace was shattered that day. Our entire perspectives on who they were exploded with their tempers. We never thought them the kind of people to abuse an elderly person--let alone their own mother.
How can we respect them? How can we trust our own perceptions of people? How do we repair the family relationship? Can it be repaired? How can we learn to trust them? A gulf filled with these questions and more lays between us and them. Building a bridge must be a mutual decision and I am not ready to begin, not sure I want to build it at all.
All I can do is pray for the family and be supportive of Mom.
Gayl
Friday, July 31, 2009
My Hubby--Mom's Financial Advisor
Last weekend, my sister and one brother verbally beat the crap out of our mother. Despite my best efforts to stop them, the brutal scene lasted more than an hour, without regard for our mother's health. My efforts were as futile as trying to halt a tsumani with my fingers.
My sister had been Mom's financial officer. In the six days since that brutal tirade, my sister had refused to take my mother's calls, so she turned to us. Ted, a former banker, was her choice for a new CFO. Yesterday, we picked her up, went to lunch and to the bank, where she opened new accounts, Ted as joint, so he can handle her financial affairs.
After I get in my twice-weekly workout at Bally Fitness, we head to Chase Bank so he can help sort out the initial transfers of funds. He's got her mortgage to pay and other bills will begin trickling in soon. Mom has never handled her finances. She is part of the generation whose husbands always took care of the bills, balanced the checkbooks, and required total silence on the Saturdays that followed paydays.
I thank God I am part of the set that grew up with a checkbook and bill-paying duties as a teen. Although Ted and I share our finances, I do have my own checking account and I handle our stock portfolio with Scottrade. Should I become a widow for a second time (Lord may that never happen), I would be able to manage my affairs.
Gayl
My sister had been Mom's financial officer. In the six days since that brutal tirade, my sister had refused to take my mother's calls, so she turned to us. Ted, a former banker, was her choice for a new CFO. Yesterday, we picked her up, went to lunch and to the bank, where she opened new accounts, Ted as joint, so he can handle her financial affairs.
After I get in my twice-weekly workout at Bally Fitness, we head to Chase Bank so he can help sort out the initial transfers of funds. He's got her mortgage to pay and other bills will begin trickling in soon. Mom has never handled her finances. She is part of the generation whose husbands always took care of the bills, balanced the checkbooks, and required total silence on the Saturdays that followed paydays.
I thank God I am part of the set that grew up with a checkbook and bill-paying duties as a teen. Although Ted and I share our finances, I do have my own checking account and I handle our stock portfolio with Scottrade. Should I become a widow for a second time (Lord may that never happen), I would be able to manage my affairs.
Gayl
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