Pete's BLOG-Day 26,431. Deadly Sin #2.

Today is Sunday, March 31, 2013 - Easter Sunday. My stats today: 46 minutes of walking = 2.5 miles for a March total of 60.1 miles. My weight was 162 pounds.

QUOTE from Winston Churchill: "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."

My THOUGHTS are on Deadly Sin #2. Sin #2 is GREED - DEFINED AS WANTING MORE THAN ONE'S SHARE; EXTREME OF EXCESSIVE DESIRE. 

In recent years we've seen the negative side of GREED - things like Ponzi schemes, real estate bubbles, and banking crises.

But J. Keith Murnighan, a professor at Northwestern University, says that the silver lining in greed is that it can have some redeeming qualities. Greed can make you pursue and acquire what you desire and can make you feel great. It can also benefit others around you , including family, friends, and maybe shareholders and society. Just look at Bill Gates and Warren Buffett - their greed has and will benefit millions of people.
And greed for knowledge...What's wrong with that?
The professor said, "It's basic human nature to feel greed. Whether it's a sin depends on the limits we place on it."

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,430. Deadly SIN #1.

Today is Saturday, March 30, 2013. My stats today" 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes on the ball and 37 minutes of walking = 2.0 miles for a March total of 57.6 miles. My weight was 161.4 pounds.

QUOTE from Jim Doyne: "The person who brags that they have a perfect head on their shoulders often have a point there."

My THOUGHTS  today come from the latest edition of the Reader's Digest. I found this article extremely interesting. The article was about the Seven Deadly Sins  as identified by Pope Gregory some 1,400 years ago. But modern science has revealed a silver lining in each one of them. I found it so interesting I want to write about what the silver lining is in each of the seven.Today, I will write about #1 which is WRATH -  DEFINED AS VERY GREAT ANGER, RAGE.

The bad side of wrath is that chronic suppression of anger can cause high blood pressure, heart disease, depression, and sleep disorders.

However, the silver lining of wrath is that it can also have a positive career impact. Research shows wrath can fuel ambition, sway negotiations, instill a sense of control, and confer higher status, whereas those who bottle up their frustration are up to three times more likely to admit to being disappointed and hitting a glass ceiling.

And it can be a life saver for married folks because a U. of Michigan study showed that couples that regularly got problems off their chests lived longer than those who internalized them. (Now I know why Ruth Ann and I are still married after 52 years - we weren't very good at internalizing - so I guess a good old blow-out every so often isn't so bad after all. It helps you live longer.)

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,429. Church HUMOR today.

Today is Friday, March 29, 2013. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes of lifting weights and 74 minutes of walking = 4.0 miles for a March total of 55.6 miles. My weight was 161.0 pounds.

QUOTE from Jim Doyne: " Words of advice...Don't approach a goat from the front, a horse from behind, or a fool from any side."

My THOUGHTS  today: I'm kind of blank these days so just some words of humor  from church bulletins.
- The rosebud on the altar this morning is to announce the birth of David Alan Belzer, the sin of Rev. and Mrs. Julius Belzer.
-Tuesday a 4 pm there will be  an ice cream social. All ladies giving milk will please come early.
- Wednesday, the ladies Liturgy Society will meet. Mrs. Jones will sing "Put me in My Little Bed" accompanied by the pastor."
- This being Easter Sunday, we will ask Mrs. Lewis to come forward and lay an egg on the altar.
- The ladies of the church have cast off clothing of every kind and they may be seen in the church basement Friday.

Pete's BLOG-DaY 26, 428. IT'S GREAT TO BE A HAWKEYE..

Today is Thursday, March 28, 2013. My stats today are zero. My weight was 162.0 pounds.

QUOTE from Joe Girardi, N.Y. Yankee manger: "Everyone has influence, no matter what your personality type or your career, no matter whether you are rich or poor, married or single, young or old. The question is not whether or not you have influence, but what you will do with the influence you have."

My THOUGHT today: The Hawkeye men's basketball team is going to Madison Square Garden in New York City.  Last night they defeated Virginia by a score of 75-64 on Virginia's home court in Charlottesburg. We broke their 19 game home winning streak. The win put us into the Final Four of the NIT.  Next Tuesday they will play Maryland at 8 p.m. GO HAWKS!!

IT'S GREAT TO BE A HAWKEYE.

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,427. GO HAWKEYES TONIGHT

Today is Wednesday, March 27, 2013. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes of lifting weights and 37 minutes of walking = 2.0 miles for a March total of 51.6 miles. my weight was 161.6 pounds.

QUOTE from Jim Doyne. "About the time a person gets his temper under control, he goes out and plays golf again."

My THOUGHT today is a short one: I hope the Hawkeyes beat Virginia tonight in the NIT tournament. If they do they will go to Madison Square Garden for the finals.

GO HAWKEYES.

HUMOR for today is from church bulletins.

Don't let worry kill you...let the church help.
Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our church and community.

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,426. A day brightener story.

Today is Tuesday, March 26, 2013. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes on the ball and 54 minutes of walking = 3.0 miles for a March total of 49.6 miles. My weight was 161.0 pounds.

QUOTE from Jim Doyne: "There is an unusually large assortment of heads on the current scene: Egg, Meat, Fat, Sore, and Swell Head, among others (like s_ _ _)

My THOUGHTS today. I volunteered to be on the Friend-to-Friend church group. We go visit people who are older or younger than me (72) and basically need or want company. My partner is Jim Albrecht and we have good time visiting these people. We try to "Brighten their day" a little and get them laughing and/or talking about old times, etc. Yesterday we visited Ken, age 91, and Doris, age 89.  They still live in their own home and are in good health (Ken is getting a little forgetful). They are retired farmers, had six kids, and have been married 72 years.

I really love talking to these people. I find what they have to say to be so interesting. For instance:
- Doris is remarkable in that at age 89 she leads a fitness class for about 20-30 other women at our community center - three days a week. The other women are all younger than her.
-They got married in 1941 when she was 17 and Ken was 19. They met in country school and only lived a mile or two from each other when growing up. They didn't have a honeymoon - the day after they were married they were out in the woods cutting up wood for the fireplace. But Doris said "We did have a honeymoon ten years later after our first three kids were born." Doris continued by telling us that they actually had two families - after kid #3 reached 10 years they had three more.

-Ken used to make his own wine. He made wines from fruit, (grape, strawberry, apple, peach, etc.)  and  he made a potato wine. Doris said potato wine needed some additional ingredients but it was really good. (I had never heard of potato wine.)

-They even had horses when they started farming. Their first tractor was a 10-20 Farmall. They also milked cows by hand but Ken said Doris wasn't strong enough to get any milk out so he had to do it all. They got milking machines after a few years.

-They showed us the high school graduation photos of their six kids. I had 5 of their  6 kids in my class. One lives in Arizona and one North Carolina - the rest are in Iowa. They are all doing well - they are assets and not liabilities in American Society.

-Doris said she comes from a family of long-livers. She has three sisters that are ages 102, 96, 92 and her Grandpa lived to be 105. She said he decided he had lived long enough so he quit eating and drinking until he passed away. Nobody could make him eat or drink - if they tried he would hit them. She said he was ready to go.

As I said before- I really like talking to old people. I love history and I love to get people talking abut their own personal history. I look forward to these visits every month. One thing you need to do something like is to be able to ASK QUESTIONS and then LISTEN. I like to think I'm pretty good at both of those.

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,423. I'm grateful today.

Today is Saturday, March 23, 2013. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes on the ball and 37 minutes of walking = 2.0 miles for a March total of 46.6 miles. My weight was 161.2 pounds.

QUOTE from Jim Doyne: "Never in the history of America have so few messed up so much for so many."  (I'm thinking of the Tea Party)

My THOUGHTS  today. Every morning I look at the obituaries to see the ages of the deceased. Yesterday, after reading them I decided I should be grateful for reaching the age of 72. Here are the ages of the deceased that were younger than me in the March 22, 2013 edition of the Cedar Rapids Gazette.
- Julie, age 56     Charles, age 61     Larry, 66     Linda, 66     Esther, 34     McKale, 19  Gerald, 69. There were eight others that were older than 72 - the oldest was 94.

After reading the ages of the deceased  I'm grateful to have reached the age of 72 in good health.

HUMOR for today:
The sex of the bee is hard to see, But he can tell and so can she.
The queen bee is a very busy soul, She has no time for birth control.
So that is why in times like these, There are so many sons of bees.

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,422. The long cost of U.S. wars.

Today is Friday, March 22, 2013. My stats from Tuesday to today are 9.1 miles of walking for a March total of 44.6 miles. My weight today was 161.0 pounds.

QUOTE from Jim Doyne: ""How long a minute is depends on which side of the bathroom door you're on."

My THOUGHTS today have to do with the high cost of fighting our wars. In the paper yesterday was a front page article entitled LONG COST OF WAR. The AP did an investigation  through the Freedom of Information Act to find out what the U.S. government is still spending and will spend for our wars from the Civil War to the Iraq and Afghan wars. Here are some of there findings:
- Civil War: Two children of Civil War veterans (one in N.C. and one in Tenn.) are receiving payments of $876 each. Their ages are around 93 and 83 which means their fathers would have had to have been 70-80 years old when they fathered these two kids.
- Spanish-American War: There are 10 living recipients of benefits at a total cost of $50.000 per year.
- World War I: It costs U.S. taxpayers $20 million a year. There are 2,289 survivors of WWI , about one-third are spouses and dozens of them are over 100 years in age.
- World War II: It costs taxpayers $5 billion per year.
- Korean War: About $2.5 billion per year.
- Vietnam War: Above $22 billion a year.
- Persian Gulf War of early 1990s, the 10 year war in Iraq and the Afghan War: About $12 billion a year to compensate those who have left military service or family members of those who have died. Those post-service compensation costs have totaled more than $50 billion since 2003, not including expenses of medical care and other benefits provided to vets, and are poised to grow for many years to come. About 45% of vets are seeking compensation for a variety of ailments.

Experts are predicting we will be paying for Bush's War in Iraq and Afghanistan for over a century - to the tune of at least a couple of trillion dollars. Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney told Americans in 2003 that the war in Iraq would be over in a matter of months and would cost around $60 billion dollars.

I was right - I knew they were wrong in the first place and had no understanding of the Islam religion and didn't even know the difference between a Sunni and Shiite. In fact, one advisor told Bush before the invasion that if we invade Iraq we would stir up old hatreds between the Sunnis and Shiite and it could head to civil war. Bush looked at the guy and said, "I thought they were Moslems over there."

It is hard to imagine a President of the U.S. being so damn stupid and then leading his country into war. But we can thank the U.S. Supreme Court for stopping the recount in Florida and giving the presidency to Bush and Cheney. Do you think they're proud?

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,418. What should be done about America's medical mess.

Today is Monday, March 18, 2013. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes of lifting weights and 45 minutes of walking = 2.5 miles for a March total of 33.5 miles. My weight was 160.2 pounds.

QUOTE for today: "Good judgment comes from the experiences you get from bad judgment."

My THOUGHTS today are on my last post on the U.S. medical system. According to Steven Brill, the author, here are his suggestions for getting out of this mess.

- Start Medicare at a younger age.
- Control prescription drug prices.
- Tax hospital profits at 75% and regulate their prices.
- Reduce the over ordering of tests and other procedures.
- Spending on outpatient clinics and labs owned by doctors could be cut by a third by regulating fees or taxing profits.
- Tighten antitrust laws related to hospitals to keep them from becoming so dominant in a region that insurance companies are helpless in negotiating prices with them.
- Have a tax surcharge on all nondoctor hospital salaries that exceed $750,000.
- We should outlaw the chargemaster.
-  We should amend patent laws so that makers of wonder drugs would be limited in how they can exploit the monopoly our patent laws give them.
- We should tighten what Medicare pays for CT and MRI tests a lot more and even cap what insurance companies can pay for them.
- Reform the medical malpractice laws.
- Limit administer salaries at hospitals to 5-6 times what the lowest paid licensed physician gets for caring for patients there.
-Require drug companies to include a prominent, plain-English notice of the gross profit margin on the packaging of each drug, as well as the salary of the parent company's CEO.

His final words were: Over the past few decades, we've enriched the labs, drug companies, medical device makers, hospital administrators and purveyors of CT scans, MRIs, canes and wheelchairs. We've created an island for these people in an economy that is suffering under the weight of the riches those on the island extract. We've allowed those on the island and their lobbyists and allies to control the debate, diverting us from what a health care economist at Johns Hopkins says is the obvious and only issue: "All the prices are too damn high."

What do you think the odds are of any of these ever happening? Don't bet the farm on it?  The medical industry (doctors, hospitals, medical device makers, drug companies_, etc.) spend more on lobbying than any other industry, including the military-industrial complex.

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,417. Good News for Pete.

Today is Sunday, March 17, 2013 - St. Patrick's Day. No stats today. My weight was 161.4 pounds.

QUOTE from Jim Doyne: "About the time one learns how to make the most of life...the most of it is gone."

My THOUGHT today is a happy one. This past week, besides a colonoscopy, I had my annual PSA check-up for the possible spreading of cancer from my surgery in May of 2007. I asked why they had to keep doing this when I do not have a prostate - the answer was to see if cancer had spread to nearby tissue.

The good news was a reading of 0.0 which means there was no detection of any cancer cells. I'm good for another year and then if I get another 0.0 reading I can quit having the PSA test. That means I won't have to have his finger up my butt anymore.

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,416. The salaries of nonprofit hospital administrators

Today is Saturday. March 26, 2013 (the day after my colonoscopy). My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes on the ball and 45 minutes of walking = 2.5 miles for a March total of 33.0 miles. My weight was 161.8 pounds. (Yesterday morning I weighed 159 pounds after cleaning myself out the night before - I guess I was full of 3.2 pounds of s_ _ _ .

QUOTE from Jim Doyne: "A conviction is that commendable quality in ourselves that we call bullheadedness in others."

My THOUGHTS  today are back to the American medical system. When reading the article about the American medical system I was shocked at the salaries of  nonprofit hospital administrators. Here are some examples of CEO salaries.
- $5,975,462 -  U. of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
- $2,564,214 - Cleveland Clinic.
-  $2,335,882 - Barnes-Jewish Hospital. St. Louis.
-  $4,356,039 - Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, New York.
-  $2,080,779 - Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital, Indianapolis.
-  $2,925,356 - Florida Hospital in Orlando.
- $2,244,110 - Orlando Regional Medical Center.
- $4,065,194 - Montefiore Medical Center-Moses Division Hospital, Bronx.
- $2,180,962 - Methodist University Hospital, Memphis.
- $2,206,401 - Norton Hospital, Louisville, Ky.
- $1,800,000 - Stamford Hospital in Conn.
- $2,500,000 - Yale New Haven Health System.

Here are other examples of administrative salaries - not just CEOs.
-At Sloan-Kettering in N.Y. there are 14 administrators paid over $500,000 a year, including six who make over $1 million.
- $3,243,000 - chief financial officer at Montefiore and $2,220,000 for the executive vice-president.
- Seven executives were paid more than $1 million each at Mercy Hospital in Oklahoma City.

ARE THESE HUMUNGEOUS SALARIES REALLY NECESSARY? CAN'T PEOPLE LIVE COMFORTABLY ON $500,000? I THINK SO.

As the author said, "Health care is eating away at our economy and our treasury.

-

Pete BLOG-Day 26,415. I'm glad it's over.

Today is Friday, March 15, 2013. No stats today I went to the hospital. My weight was 159.0 pounds.

QUOTE from Jim Doyne: " Remember this before you burden other people with your troubles. Half of them aren't the least bit interested and rest are delighted that you're getting what they think is coming to you."

My THOUGHTS today: I'm glad it's over. Last night I took 4 Dulcolax pills at 4 PM and drank a gallon of "purge solution" between 6 PM and 8 PM to clean out my intestines and bowel. This morning at 10:30 I had my colonoscopy. It went fine - they put me under and I never felt any pain. It's 4:30 right now and I'm doing great. I'm relieved.

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,414. Fun day tomorrow - colonoscopy

Today is Thursday, March 14, 2013. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes on the ball and 37 minutes of walking = 2.0 miles for a March total of 30.5 miles. My weight was 162.2 pounds.

QUOTE from Jim Doyne: " The most difficult instrument to play well is the second fiddle."

My THOUGHTS  today are what I'm been thinking about all week (and surprisingly, it's not medical bills). I have a colonoscopy tomorrow at 10:30 AM. The preparation is much worse than the actual procedure. For instance:
- Last Saturday I had to quit taking my baby aspirin and fish oil pill.
- On Monday I had to quit eating any of the following: fruit skins, fresh fruits, dried fruits, seeds, corn, popcorn, all vegetables, raisins and nuts. It ain't been easy because I eat 4-6 fruits a day, 4-6 vegetables a day, and a handfull of mixed nuts two times a day.

So the big prep day has arrived. Between 4 - 6 this afternoon I will take 4 Dulcolax tablets.
At 6 PM I start drinking the purge solution - it is a 1 gallon jug.

I've had two before so it is not new to me. Anyway, 24 hours from now I should be  done - and then back to my fruits, veggies and nuts.

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,413. Some more unbelievable medical bills.

Today is Wednesday, March 13, 2013. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes of lifting weights and 45 minutes of walking = 2.5 miles for a March total of 28.5 miles. My weight was 162.6 pounds.

QUOTE from Jim Doyne: "When a person gets too big for his britches, their hat doesn't fit either."

My THOUGHTS today are about some more unbelievable medical bills.
- MD Anderson charged Sam Recchi $7 each for ALCOHOL PREP PAD. This is a little square of cotton used to apply alcohol to an injection. A box of 200 can be bought online for $1.91.
- MD Anderson charged $1,791 a day for a 'specialized and personalized" room.
- Biogen Idec-Genentech can make, test, package and ship the cancer drug RITUXAN  for as little as $300 - then sell it to MDAnderson for $3,000 to $3,500 whereupon they  sold it Recchi for $13,702.
- A cancer patient in California (Steven) was treated at Seton Medical Center in Daly City, CA. He got his first bill for $348,000. He was charged $18 each for 88 diabetic strips that Amazon sells in boxes of 50 for $27.85; $24 each for 19 niacon pills that are sold in drugstores for about a nickel apiece; four boxes of sterile gauze pads for $77 each; $13,225 a day (2 days)  in the intensive-care unit; 12 days in the critical unit at $7,315 a day ; one day in a standard room (all of which totaled $120,116 over 15 days). And he was charged $20,886 for CT scans and $24,251 for lab work.
- Steven died 11 months after his diagnosis in January, 2011. His wife, Alice made $40,000 a year running child-care center in her home.  Needless to say there was no way Alice could pay these medical bills. So a lady named Patricia Stone came to her aid. Patricia is a billing advocate who helps middle-class people with their medical bills and insurance claims. Patricia persuaded Seton Medical Center to write off $297,000 of its $348,000 bill. Her argument was simple - there was no way Alice could pay now or in the future, though they would scrape together $3,000 as a show of good faith. With the $3,000 and the $50,000 paid by the United Healthcare Insurance, she got a 85% discount.

Maybe there is a God afterall.

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,412. Steve H and his back problem bill

Today is Tuesday, March 12, 2013. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes on the ball and 60 minutes of walking = 3.3 miles for a March total of 26.0 miles. My weight was 162.6 pounds.

QUOTE from Jim Doyne: "Today when Grandma sits at a spinning wheel, chances are she's at a casino."

My THOUGHTS  today are about the medical bills of Steve H. (in his 30s),  a blue collar worker in Oklahoma City. Steve had back problems and was told a stimulator would have to be implanted in his back - and it could be done in a day. Steve didn't ask how much the stimulator would cost because he had $45,181 remaining on the $60,000 annual payout limit his union-sponsored health insurance plan imposed. Steve figured how much could a day at Mercy cost, five thousand? Maybe 10?
Steve's day at Mercy contained all the usual and customary overcharges.
- MARKER SKIN REG TIP RULER FOR $3. That's the marking pen to mark his back
where the incision was to go.
- STRIP OR TABLE 8 x 27 IN for $31. That's the strip to hold Steve to the opersting table.
- BLNKT WARM UPPER BDY for $32. That's the blanket to keep surgery patients warm.
- GOWN SURG ULTRA XLG  for  $39, for the gown the surgeon wore.
- In all, Steve's bill for these basic medical and surgical supplies was $7,882.
- But the real biggie was the stimulator for $49,237.
- His total bill was $86,951. His insurance paid $45,000 and he was left with over $40,000.

This is another sad story of the wonderful health care system in America.

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,411. Still more medical horror stories.

Today is Monday, March 11, 2013. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes of lifting weights and 36 minutes of walking = 2.0 miles for a March total of 22.7 miles. My weight was 162.8 pounds.

QUOTE from Jim Doyne: "One good thing about middle age spread is that it brings people closer together."

My THOUGHTS  today continue with medical care in the U.S. This story is about Emilia Gilbert, a school-bus driver who slipped and fell on her face one summer in the small back yard behind her house in Fairfield, Conn. Her nose bleeding heavily, she was taken to the ER at Bridgeport Hospital. "I was there 6 hours, until midnight," Gilbert recalls, "and  most of it spent waiting. I saw the resident for maybe 15 minutes, but I got a lot of tests."
In fact, she got 3 CT scans (head, chest and face) that totaled $6,538 (Medicare would have paid $825 for all three.) Plus a doctor charged her $261 to read the scans - she had a hairline fracture of her nose. Gilbert got the same troponin blood test that Janice got - the one Medicare paid $13.94 for and for which she was billed $199,50 at Stamford Hospital. But Bridgeport Hospital charged her 20% more = $239.00.
She was also charged for: basic instruments and bandages and even the tubing for an IV setup. Medicare and insurance refuse to pay anything at all for these. They are supposed to be part of the hospital's facility charge, which in this case was $908 for the emergency room.
Emilia Gilbert' total bill was $9,418. Her health insurance carrier, Starbridge, only paid  $2,500 for the  hospital visit, leaving her on the books for about $7,000 of a $9,400 bill. Gilbert's $1,800 a month in earnings was too high for her to qualify for Medcaid. She appealed to the hospital for help and was turned down. A judge ordered her to pay $20 a week for 6 years.
Oh, how wonderful our health care system is in America.

Pete's BLOG-Day 24,410. Still another medical horror story..

Today is Sunday, March 10, 2013. No stats today - my day off. Total miles for March so far are 20.7 miles. My weight today was 163.2 pounds.

QUOTE from Jim Doyne: " Tact is making people feel at home when you wish they were."

My THOUGHT today is about more medical horror stories in the U.S. health care system.Yesterday I wrote about Janice, the 64 year-old lady from Stamford ,Conn., who went to the hospital by ambulance (4 miles) because of chest pains. She was sent home after doctors decided she had indigestion with a $21,000 bill after 3 hours in the ER. Now, some more details about Janices'a bill.

- On Janice's bill was this:  An "NM MYO REST/SPEC EJCT MOT MUL" was billed at $7,997.54. That's a stress test using a radioactive dye that is tracked by an X-ray computed tomography, or CT, scan. Medicare would have paid Stamford Hospital $554 for the test.
- Janice was charged an additional $872.44 just for the dye used in the test. The regular stress test patients are more familiar with, in which arteries are monitored electronically with an electrocardiograph, would have cost $1,200 and Medicare would have paid $96 for it. Many doctors consider this test sufficient instead of the CT one.
- Stamford Hospital probably paid $250,000 for the CT equipment. So the more CT scans the doctors order the sooner they will get it paid for and the quicker it begins profiting from its purchase. Doctors in the U.S. order 71% more CT scans than THE GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM IN GERMANY. And the cardiologist in the ER gave Janice a separate bill for $600 to read the test results on top of the $342 he charged for examining her.
- The use of CT scans had more than quadrupled in recent decades.

- There is a bill before Congress that would discourage doctors from ordering multiple CT scans on the same patient by paying them less per test to read multiple tests of the same patient. Guess sho is opposing this bill by running a fullpage ad in the POLITICO newspaper  on Nov. 14? The answer is -  THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF RADIOLOGY. The health care industry spends more on lobbying that any other group in the U.S.

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,409. Another medical horror story

Today is Saturday, March 9, 2013. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes on the exercise ball  and 45 minutes of walking = 2.5 miles for a March total of 20.7 miles. My weight was 162.8 pounds.

QUOTE from Jim Doyne: "Sound does really travel slower than light. The advice parents give to their 18 year-olds doesn't reach them until they're about 40."

My THOUGHT today has to do with another medical horror story from the March 4 TIME Magazine. This true story is about a 64 year-old lady (Janice) from Stamford, Conn. One night last summer she felt chest pains. She was taken by ambulance for 4 miles to the ER at the Stamford Hospital, a non-profit hospital.

First, the GOOD NEWS - After 3 hours of tests and some brief encouters with doctors, she was told she had indigestion and sent home.

Now, the BAD NEWS - she got the bill and it was: $995 for the 4 mile ambulance ride; $3,000 for the doctors; and $17,000 for the hospital; The total was $21,000 for a false alarm.

Janice had no health insurance, she had been out of work for a year. Among the hospital's charges were 3 "TROPONIN 1" tests for $199.50 each. The TROPONIN tests measures the levels of certain proteins in the blood whose release from the heart is a strong indicator of a heart attack. Some labs like to have them done at intervals. When the author talked to Stamford spokesman Scott Orstad he found out the $199.50 charge was taken from what Orstad called the hopital's CHARGEMASTER.

What is the CHARGEMASTER? The "chargemaster" is the hospital's internal price list. The "chargemaster" lists what the price/cost should be for every conceivable procedure/service done at a hosptial. It used to be the size of a phone book but now it is a massive computer file, thousands of items long, maintained at every hospital.

If Janice had been on Medicare the hospital would have been paid $13.94 for each TROPONIN test rather than the $199.50 she was charged.  The total would have been $41.82 instead of $598.50.

Janice was also charged $157.61 for a CBC (complete blood count) - Medicare would have paid $11.02. According to Stamford's tax filing (2010) it listed total expenses for laboratory work in the 12 months covered by the report was $27.5 million. Its total charges were $292.2 million. That means it charged about 11 times its costs.

AND THIS IS A NON-PROFIT HOSPITAL!

Pete's BLOG-Day 26, 408. More U.S. outrageous medical stories

Today is Friday, March 8, 2013. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes of lifting weights and 58 minutes of walking = 3.2 miles for a March total of 18.2 miles. My weigth was 163.4 pounds.

QUOTE from Jim Doyne: "If you kick the very person responsible for any of your troubles, you wouldn't be able to sit down for a month." (I like this one).

My THOUGHTS today are some more facts on the outrageous medical system in the U.S. Here are some more goodies.

- Ronald DePinho's, president of the MD Anderson, total compensation as president is $1,845,000. (That does not include outside earnings where he maintains unspecified 'financial ties with his three pharmaceutical companies'".) His salary is 3 times the salary of the president of the U. of Texas.
- In the U.S., people spend almost 20% of the gross domestic product on health care, compared with about half that in most developed countries.
- We spent $60 billion helping people clean up from Hurricane Sandy - we spent almost that much LAST WEEK ON HEALTH CARE.
- We spend more every year on artificial knees and hips than what Hollywood collects at the box office.
- We spend 2-3 times that much on medical devices like canes and wheelchairs, in part because a heavily lobbied Congress forces Medicare to pay 25% to 75% more for this equipment than it would cost at Walmart
- Health care is eating away at our economy and our treasury. And the health care industry seems to have the will and the means to keep it that way. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the pharmaceutical and health-care product industries, combined with organizations representing doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, health services, and HMOs, have spent $5.53 billion on lobbying in Washington. That dwarfs the $1.53 billion spent by the defense and aerospace industries and the $1.4 billion spent by the oil and gas interests over the same period. So the truth is, the health-care-industrial complex spends more than 3 times what the military-industrial complex spends in Washington.

QUESTION: Do we really have to pay 1.8 million dollars to the president of a non-profit?

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,407. More medical bills.

Today is Thursday, March 7, 2013. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes on the exercise ball and 45 minutes of walking = 2.5 miles for a March total of 15.0 miles. My weight was 163.2 pounds.

QUOTE from Jim Doyne: "I adore my bifocals, my false teeth fit fine, my hairpiece
fits swell, but I sure miss my mind."

My THOUGHTS today continue on medical bills in America. I'll report on some more of the medical bills for Sean Recchi at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. The author, Steven Brill, went through the first 300 lines of Recchi's hospital bill printed across 8 pages. Here are some of the charges:
- 1 acetominophen tabs 325 MG. The charge was only $1.50, but it was a generic version of a Tylenol pill. You can buy 100 of them on Amazon for $1.49.
- ChEST, PA and LAT 71020 - that'a  a simple X-ray. The charge was $283.00 for which MD Anderson is routinely paid $20.44 when it treats a patient on Medicare. But Sean was only 42 years old.
- ROUTINE VENIPUNCTURE - that's withdrawing blood. The charge was $36.00 each time a nurse drew blood. The $36.00 charge was accompanied by charges of $23.00 to $78.00 for each of a dozen or more lab analyses performed on the blood sample. In all, the charges for blood and other lab tests done on Recchi amounted to more than $15,000. Had Recchi been on Medicare, MD Anderson would have been paid a few hundred dollars for all those tests.
- 1 RITUXIMAB INJ 660 MG - that's an injection of 660 mg of a cancer wonder drug called Rituxan. The charge was $13,702 for one injection. The average price paid by all hospitals for this dose is about $4,000.

MD Anderson is supposedly a non-profit unit of the University of Texas. In 2012 it's operating profit was $531 million - revenues were $2,05 billion - that's a profit margin of 26% - an astonishing result for such a service-intensive enterprise.

Are any of you readers getting a little angry. I will report on many more in the days ahead.

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,406. Medical bills - they're scary

Today is Wednesday, March 6, 2012. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes
of lifting weights and 45 minutes of walking = 2.5 miles for a March total of 12.5 miles. My weight was 163.4 pounds.

QUOTE from Jim Doyne: "It was not the apple on the tree, but the pair on the ground that caused the trouble in the Garden of Eden."

My THOUGHTS have to do with medical bills in America. Last week TIME
Magazine had a 25,000 word article about medical care in the USA. It was written by
Steven Brill who spent 7 months researching this story. I want to share some of his
findings about the outrageous costs of medical care in America.

The author's first story was about Sean Recchi, a 42-year-old man from Ohio who, last
March, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. His wife Stephanie decided to
take him MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. There own insurance only covered
$2,000 a day for hospital care. She called for an appointment and was told the
following by a billing clerk at MD Anderson, "We don't take that kind of discount
insurance."
- Then Stephanie was told that the estimated cost of Sean's visit for 6 days, in which a
treatment plan  could be devised - would be $48,900, payable in advance. Stephanie
got her mother to write a check.
- A week later, Stephanie had to ask her mother for $35,000 more so Sean (her
husband) could begin the treatment the doctors had decided was urgent.
- Nonetheless, Sean was held for about 90 minutes in a reception area, because the
hospital could not confirm that her mother's check had cleared. Then Sean was allowed
to see the doctor only after he advanced $7,500 from his credit card.
- The total cost, in advance, for Sean to get his treatment plan and initial doses of
chemotherapy was $83,900.
-MD Anderson communications manager Julie Penne, said "Asking for advance
payment for services is a common, if unfortunate, situation that confronts hospitals alkl over the U.S."

This is just the beginning - I'll have several more horror stories in the coming days.
-

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,405. Time to clean this house.

Today is Tuesday, March 5, 2013 - another 5" of snow today. My Stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes on the exercise ball and 46 minutes of walking = 2.5 miles for a March total of 10.0 miles. My weight was 164.4 pounds.

QUOTE from Jim Doyne: "Good music is the kind we enjoyed when we were kids.
Bad music is the kind our kids like."

My THOUGHTS today. I don't have time to record anything inspirational or educational today. I'm going to spend the day cleaning this house and shoveling snow. 
It's been quite a while since we gave this house a good cleaning - it's getting to us. Like
Norman Vincent Peale said - Just DO IT. So I'm going to DO IT. Goodbye.

HUMOR for today:  They say that one in every four Americans is unbalanced. Think
of your three closest friends...if they seem okay, then you're in trouble!

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,404. Relief tomorrow.

Today is Monday, March 4, 2013. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes of lifting weights and 45 minutes of walking = 2.5 miles for a March total of 7.5 miles.
My weight was 163.4 pounds.

QUOTE from Jim Doyne: "He who toots his own horn has everybody dodging him."

My THOUGHTS today: THERE WILL BE RELIEF TOMORROW. We endured
political ads for two years in 2011 and 2012 - and now, for the last 2-3  months we've
had to watch "vote yes" or "vote no" ads. The "vote yes" ads want people to vote FOR a casino in Cedar Rapids and "vote no" ads want the opposite. The ads have been
constant and sickening and nearly as vicious and bitter as the political ads we endured
for two years or more. The vote is only for residents of Linn County - so I can't vote. If I did vote I would vote NO because I feel Iowa already has enough casinos. I think there are 18 casinos in Iowa already - we don't need anymore. Plus people in
Linn County can already go to eight casinos within a 45 to 90 minute drive.
So the vote is tomorrow. If the people vote yes then the State Gaming Board would
have to approve a license - and that is not a sure thing. If the people vote no then
another vote cannot be held for 8 years. I hope it fails - but the polls show it may pass
by a slim margin.

HUMOR for today: Keeping your chin up also keeps your mouth closed.

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,403. I don't trust 'em.

Today is Sunday, March 3, 2012. No stats today - my day off. My weight was 163.6 pounds.

QUOTE from Jim Doyne: "To err is human: but to really louse it up takes a computer."

My THOUGHTS  today. Leonard Pitts Jr is one of my favorite op-ed writers. This morning he wrote an opinion piece entitled Voting Rights lAW (of 1965): Now it's
racial entitlement? He was reacting to a statement made by Justice Anthony Scalia last week.
The statement was that Scalia had branded the voting rights law a "racial entitlement." Pitts said "a chill crawled down my spine." Pitts said: "That landmark 1965 legislation
gave the ballot to black voters who had previously been denied it by discriminatory laws, economic threats, violence and registrars in court houses who challenged them
with nonsense questions like. 'How many bubbles are in a bar of soap?'"
Shelby County, Alabama, is appealing the part of the law that makes 9 southern states get federal approval before changing their voting procedures.  Officials in Alabama say
they are cured of the attitudes that made that provision necessary (for those 9 states). The Alabama Attorney General said, "The children of today's Alabama are not racist and neither is their government."

 A LAW PROTECTING THE VOTING  RIGHTS OF A HISTORICALLY DISENFRANCHISED MINORITY IS A "RACIAL ENTITLEMENT?"

Pitts went on to say, Lord, have mercy.  In the 1870s, the South convinced the federal
government it could behave itself without oversight. The result: "nearly a century of
Jim Crow laws. Now here comes Shelby County, saying in effect: We've changed. Trust
us. Yes, the South has changed - thanks to the Voting Rights Law of 1965. Now they
want to gut that law. After  seeing the GOP shenanigans in the 2012 campaign to try
and suppress the vote, do you think we can trust conservative Republicans to
not continue to suppress the black and Hispanic vote? It would be a lot easier with the
Voting Rights Law gutted, wouldn't it? The GOP is at the point where it will do
anything to win back the presidency and the Congress - including gerrymandering, shortening early voting (hours and days), voter ID laws and tougher voter registration
rules.

I'm hoping and praying this conservative Supreme Court doesn't screw up the Voting Rights Law like they did with their Citizens United decision to allow unlimited
corporate money to try and influence our elections. Do you understand why I'm no
lover of the present-day Republican Party?

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,402. Quit paying them!!!

Today is Saturday, March 2, 2013. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes on the exercise ball and 46 minutes of walking = 2.5 miles for a March total of 5.0 miles. My weight was 163.2 pound.

QUOTE from Jim Doyne: "  A committee of 3 gets things done if 2 don't show up."

My THOUGHTS today: I'm sick of the Tea Party, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell,  Eric Cantor and Lindsey Graham. The shouldn't even draw a paycheck - people get
paid for doing work - these people don't work - all they do is obstuct and create
problems. How in the hell do idiots like this get elected in the first place?

HUMOR for today: The average man's life consists of 20 years of having his mother ask him where he is going; 40 years of having his wife ask him the same question; and
at the end, the mourners asking the same question.

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,401. The sequester has begun.

Today is Friday, March 1, 2013. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes
 of lifting weights and 45 minutes of walking = 2.5 miles for a March total of 2.5 miles. My weights was 164.0 pounds.

QUOTE from Jim Doyne: "Mother Nature always provides. By the time we reach the
sitting stage, she gives us a bigger cushion."

My THOUGHTS today have to do with the sequester. President Obama just had a
news conference. The President laid out what some of the mounting problems are going to be. Many of us will not notice anything but there are many who will as the weeks and months go by. Everything from pay cuts for government employees to lay-
offs to less days of school for military schools to cutting the number of pre-schoolers going to Head Start to lay-offs in factories producing goods for the government, etc. My question is why can't Boehner and the Republicans in Congress sit down with Obama and come up with a comprehensive/compromise 
to stop this insanity - and it would include more revenue as well as cuts. I really think
Boehner is afraid of the Tea Party members in the House and the Tea Party members in his home district threatening to bring him down in the Republican primary in 2014.
In my opinion, the Tea Party is going to bring economic disaster to the U.S.