Since 1979 Randolfe Clinton Williams has been dissecting society from a hard-core Rational Leftist position. Most of his contemporaries sold out in the 70’s, leaving him with stems, seeds and a box of worthless fuses. What passes for the Progressive Left today is what Conservatives were 40 years ago. And what has become the Right Wing today has Goldwater turning in his grave. This FOAMING AT THE MIND series questions everything and takes no prisoners.
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Note: All the typewriters shown are in my collection and have been fully restored to original condition and are still in use today, (albeit not daily use).
SHARE YOUR STRUGGLES!
In the next series of articles I will be focusing on the economy, and particularly on the impact it’s having on those of us with disabilities. This is a huge subject, ranging from budget cuts, to the price of eggs, (in the land of milk & honey). Under the booming best of circumstances, “unemployment” merely means the period between jobs. Unemployment and underemployment among the disabled, however, is far more serious. 97% of all disabled women never earn more than $10,000 a year and the stats remain grim across the board for everyone else in the disabled category. Out of the estimated current 15 million disabled Americans who are of working age, only 5 million have jobs and of the 10 million who don't, 60 percent of them have been on disability unemployment for so long that the US Dept. of Labor doesn't even include them on the ranks of the unemployed. A 4.5% national unemployment rate you say? – Now that’s some pretty good weed!
Call the Life Legacies line 24-hours a day and I’ll return your call at a reasonable hour! I would love to hear your story!
SHARE YOUR SUCCESS TIPS & STRATEGIES!!
I am looking for people to interview for feature positive economic stories in the upcoming months. Remember; it’s almost always the combination of all those “seemingly insignificant & small” things you do over the long term that has the biggest economic impact on your life.
Call the Life Legacies line 24-hours a day and I’ll return your call at a reasonable hour! I would love to hear your story!
THE ANSWER
IS NO!!!
The other day I was not in a car, but in my electric wheelchair and headed toward a doctor appointment, when a Lexus pulled alongside me on the street. The window went down and a well-dressed man asked if I was on Medicare. My autonomic response was not uttered in the King’s English, but the two Sales Reps in the car clearly understood me and quickly moved onto an easier target.
It doesn’t matter what anyone says, or does in the advertised political arena, because power will always win. One healthcare plan pitted against the other can flood the airwaves until Wilbur & Orville fly out of Richard Branson’s posterior, but the planets are not about to again align, as they did in 1966. That’s when Medicare & Medicaid reluctantly became reality, after languishing for over 20 years in the halls of government. It was not Hillary who first proposed a national healthcare system, but Harry S. Truman, in 1945. The idea was chopped down then, then again in ’93, and if it’s “expensive” ugly head continues to pop up, they’ll just enlist someone like Tiger to smile & sink it on the 18th yet again! Any plan that does emerge will be skewed against the poor, who will pay the big bills. The middle class & the poor are already paying a disproportionate part of their income towards coverage. And now the highly touted Medicare Part “D” has taken it to the next level, forcing even the most Medicaid poor to pay, with unnecessary new benefits going to the upper echelons. Medicare Part “D” has become Predicare Part “D”, which is part of Medicare in name only. It’s the same scenario as when some unknown company bought the name “PAN AM”! The airline no longer existed, but the name itself sold tickets… Predicare Part “D” has become part of the Predatory Privatization of health care. Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Astra Zeneca, Merk, Abbott Laboratories, Wyeth, Bristol Myers-Squibb, Eli Lilly, Procter & Gamble and many more drug companies are cashing in on today’s “gold rush”. Some of the local companies that are “committed to your well being” are: Amerigroup Florida, Buena Vista Medicaid, Citrus Health Care, Evercare, Healthease of Florida, Humana, Jackson Memorial Health Plan, Personal Health Plan, Preferred Medical Plan, Staywell Health Plan of FL, Total Health Choice, United Healthcare of FL, Universal Health Care, Vista South Florida and so many more!
A few moths ago a local broker from one of these lovely companies managed to schmooze the Office Manager for my personal Primary Care Physician. Yes, I said broker; “someone who gets a commission on every sale”! We, the “beneficiaries” are a commodity. We are officially listed as “equity” in the new & developing healthcare business models. I’m sure the Office Manager for my personal Primary Care Physician was wooed at a fine restaurant, and there’s a pretty good chance that the new relationship was sweetened with a kickback as well. As a result, I was offered the chance of a lifetime to join a wonderful HMO! And because I was special and “Dual-Qualified” for Medicare and Medicaid, there would be no cost to me at all (if I didn’t get any serious illnesses). And if I did get sick I would be covered for everything (upon approval and up to the coverage Caps). The choice given by my doctor’s office was to join an HMO, or pay for every doctor visit, plus a yearly deductible. I arranged for this broker to “pitch me” at home, where I literally sat him down under a 500-watt bank of photo lights, (interrogation lamps), along with two ombudsmen present, who were looking after my interests. I really liked my doctor, (who did write-down my regular visits), but there was no possible way that I was going to hand over life & death control of my very existence to a for-profit corporation!! HMO’s lose money when they render services and profit by denying services. HMO’s don’t answer to patients, but to shareholders. What’s more is that once someone “joins” an HMO, disenrolling and getting back onto straight Medicaid would be like trying to find a good Jewish delicatessen and Yamika Emporium in Iowa. In March, (after consulting with my Support Coordinator), I found a new doctor who would accept Medicare and Medicaid and who specialized in Holistic modalities. I found this approach even more important now. That’s because I’m actually now losing my prescription coverage under Predicare Part “D”!! In a classic case of Bait & Switch, after less than a year into my premium-free plan, and in the middle of the night, without my approval, AARP switched me to a different plan and started extorting premiums for their drug coverage, (which they are free to look for when I get my next Colonoscopy).
NO!!! IS THE ANSWER!!!
If everyone refused to pay extortion charges to these blood-sucking corporations and demanded comprehensive healthcare, plus scientifically accurate & credible health education for the poor, the system would start on a path toward solvency. It’s a simple matter of will and priorities. The actuarial numbers and dire-doom predictions for Medicare and Medicaid mean absolutely nothing, because they are based on just one fixed model. If everyone refused to be used as capital and refused to be abused as humans, these oppressive medical marketing schemes against the poor and unconnected would come to an end. Standing up to these criminals will mean taking risks with your health and maybe your life. But accepting these new & improved forms of corporate tyranny is an absolute guarantee of a life & death dice-toss if you ever need treatment for anything more than a Strep throat. It all sounds good on paper. But when some snot-nosed, Doritos-eating bean counter gets off the phone with his girlfriend at 4:44 in the afternoon and needs to find another thousand dollars to cut in his daily quota, your life could be over. Predicare Part “D” needs to be de-privatized and drug companies need to be scrutinized, so that Vytorin and all the other worthless and dangerous drugs are taken off the market.
Our power is in the marketplace. By choosing a natural lifestyle and a more holistic approach to managing healthcare, our collective demands will prevail.
WALNUTS WIN!!
Giving the pink slip to the pharmaceutical companies, (who are robbing us), can be most effectively accomplished through finding alternatives to their dangerous products. Walnuts are not only delicious, but they’ve also been proven to lower cholesterol, (and that came straight from my doctor). Noshing on a handful of walnuts each day not only curbs hunger, but just might be able to replace the expensive and potentially harmful cholesterol drugs you may be taking. The best part is that, (especially if your current cholesterol levels are on the low end of high), you can’t really lose by adding walnuts to your daily diet, in addition to the cholesterol medicine you might be taking. If your next labs then turn out to be better than usual, ask your doctor if you can try phasing-out your cholesterol medicine and replacing it with walnuts. Unless you are allergic to fresh, shelled walnuts, or hate them with a passion, there’s no real downside in trying a handful each day! You can “economically” buy a big bag of walnuts at Sam’s and keep them in the fridge.
The views expressed by Randolfe Clinton Williams are not necessarily those of waiverprovider.com, or its sponsors.
The views expressed by Randolfe Clinton Williams are not necessarily those of waiverprovider.com, or its sponsors.
