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.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
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.
-
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.
-
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
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!
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!
Monday, March 4, 2013
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.
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.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
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?
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?
Saturday, March 2, 2013
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.
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.
Friday, March 1, 2013
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.
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.
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