A little reality...

...with your mythologizing.

Myth: Canada's government decides who gets health care and when they get it. While HMOs and other private medical insurers in the U.S. do indeed make such decisions, the only people in Canada to do so are physicians. In Canada, the government has absolutely no say in who gets care or how they get it. Medical decisions are left entirely up to doctors, as they should be.

There are no requirements for pre-authorization whatsoever. If your family doctor says you need an MRI, you get one. In the U.S., if an insurance administrator says you are not getting an MRI, you don't get one no matter what your doctor thinks — unless, of course, you have the money to cover the cost.

This and seven other myths about the Canadian health care system debunked at the Denver Post. Go ye forth and read. And tell me again why the American health system is so great?

Fascinating...

...and infuriating.

An interview with Wendell Potter, formerly a high-level PR guy with Cigna. Among other things he discusses the company's plans to discredit and defuse both Michael Moore's 'Sicko' and the controversy over Nataline Sarkisyan's liver transplant -- which didn't happen, because even though the doctors said she needed one, Cigna said she didn't.

What really got me is the number of politicians parroting the industry's words. They'll say things like 'The government will be standing between you and your doctor', when right now, it's for-profit insurance companies standing between you and your doctor. I ain't a huge fan of the government's efficiency and compassion but they've got to do a better job than some bureaucrat whose job is to make his investors more money.

Go, and see what the enemy is saying. Go, and read what we're standing against. And go, and read the story of a man who realized what he was doing was wrong, and what he's doing about it.

This is...

I am sad.

Disgusted.

Scared, for myself and for everyone else in the US who doesn't have health insurance.

I've been following my friend Branwen's fight with cancer -- much expanded, now, with the discovery of both endometrial and ovarian cancers -- and mixed in with my pride in her strength and my concern for her well-being and considering shaving my head in solidarity (which I'm probably gonna wuss out on, but I'm still trying to talk myself into it) is this occasional, quiet, totally selfish thought:

If this happened to me, I would die.

Not because of any great difference in outlook, or strength, or my body versus hers, or anything like that.

Simply because I cannot afford health insurance.

And then today I was catching up on my blogs, and I saw this post by Wormwood's Doxy in which she tells the tale of a friend of hers, who got cancer, and died, because she didn't have health insurance.

Between the two, I have gone from being angry and frustrated at the United States' health system (but only when I'm reminded of it), to FURIOUS.

HOW can anyone consider this right?

I can only hope that the vast majority of people who support the current system are doing so simply because they haven't thought it through.

I'd rail further, but Doxy (as she so often does) did an awesome job of ranting for me, and there's really not a lot I can add.

Yeah, I needed this...

A wonderful post by Rev. Dr. Kate:

You can't save all the starfish...can you?

In the You Could Have It Worse department...

My dear friend Branwen has been dealing with health issues for a while, and on top of everything _else_ has just found out she has cervical cancer.

So to heck with me. Send your prayers her way; she needs em bad. Mother Laura, if I could request a mass?

Thanks.

Time. Brains.

Been a lot going on, most of which I haven't been talking about.

Been going to church again. This is a goodness. I've needed it.

On the other hand, it's shown me how little spirituality I manage to weave into the rest of my life. I look at those of you who even attempt daily prayer with envy. I get good intentions every once in a while, and they usually don't last the day. I _really_ need community of one sort or another to have a proper spiritual life, it seems.

Which is why it is _so_ very silly of me to fail to read my Godbloggers for a month straight, for which I must apologize. I've fallen off the face of the earth and it's not a good thing. :/

I'm not sure where Tim and I am, mostly because, I think, Tim and Ray aren't sure where they are, and are spending a lot of time working it out. I've been giving them space -- which is hard sometimes, and easier at others. I'm enjoying all the alone-time but it leaves me very uncertain of my relationships with them.

Money still isn't great, though it's not as bad as it was. I just keep breathing and keep making soap.

Just feeling...unsettled. Up in the air. Not sure where I'm going. Feeling a call to some sort of ministry -- and definitely to those who aren't welcome elsewhere -- but still not sure what form that'd take, though I do have the image of offering Sunday morning mass at SCA camping events, which is amusing if nothing else. I wonder if I'd get any takers?

Hm...camper. Cat. Travelling the country selling soap and offering mass at campgrounds and parks all over.

Must contemplate.

In the meantime, I have been neglecting y'all, and if any of you are still reading, I apologize. (Okay, I apologize anyway.) I intend to try to get more involved again -- y'all have helped me through a lot of journeying, and it'd be foolish to lose you now!

My friends, they rock.

I have the awesomest friends on the planet.

After some discussion, Mer made me a musical composition. She's not sure it counts as a prayer, but I'm convinced.

Many of my friends have bought things, told their friends to buy things, or both. I ain't rolling in money but I made the rent and I'm surviving.

Another friend helped me sign up to sell Worm Factories, which are composters that don't smell and that will happily replace your shredder in addition to turning your veggie scraps into nummy nummy compost. About which more later, cos it's vaguely possible someone here might buy one (I will be, once I have moneys).

And a whole bunch of my friends -- and you know who you are -- have kindly come up with about 345,5368,34576,23 ideas for new soaps. Because apparently I DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH DIFFERENT SOAPS ALREADY.

So in a while there'll be a lot of new soaps.

And lastly, Dani sent me a picture of her cat Boo with a muppet on her head.



I have awesome friends. :)