Recently in Health Category

We hear a great deal about flu and nowadays, swine flu is talked about, ad nauseam, almost every day, on TV, radio and print media. Some of us are afraid as if it will cause a disaster proportional to Black Death of 14th century. The media use H1N1 so freely that one would think everyone in the society knows what it is. It may be of some benefit to create some familiarity with the virus and allay some unwarranted fears. In reality swine flu is not much more than any other flu...

The current political arguments about health care reform remind me of a couple in the throes of a bitter divorce trying to decide "what is best" for their children. Important decisions are at stake that will affect the "children" [us!] for years to come. Yet the "adults"... the debaters and deciders on both sides of the political aisle continue to waste time and money in fear mongering, name calling and immature, boorish behaviors...

As only one individual who has benefited from our system, I feel compelled to tell my story. Both of my parents died from cardiovascular disease, my mother in 1977 and my father in 1978. My mother died at age 72 after suffering a heart attack at 71 and then lived almost another year. She lived in rural Williamsburg County, the wife of a struggling farmer who had taught school long before Social Security came into being. When her heart problems began, she sought medical help from a local physician and was hospitalized after the attack. She followed his instructions faithfully and I am sure he did the best he could under the situation.

In contrast, at age 71, I had serious cardiovascular problems and underwent testing which showed the need for triple bypass surgery. This surgery took place in December of 2004 and was paid for by Medicare entirely. Quite unlike my mother, I recovered fully and was able to resume working after about two months. I continued under the regular care of a primary physician as well as a cardiologist and while I continued to have high blood pressure, I got along very well and worked until retirement at age 72.

In 2009, I began having more difficulty. I experienced extreme shortness of breath and continued high blood pressure. I have been hospitalized four times and been taken to the emergency room two additional times as well as visiting Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville Florida for consultation. This illness has caused bills of over $143,000 during the last eight months. I now have a pace-maker and am well on the road to recovery but the blood pressure continues to be a problem. Without our present healthcare system, I certainly would not have been able to pay for this very expensive care. I do pay for very good supplemental insurance which covers the 20% of the approved amount which Medicare does not pay and I did pay a portion of the Mayo Clinic bill because they are not a Medicare facility. I am deeply indebted and very grateful for a system which in all probability is responsible for my still being alive.

I keep meticulous records and check all charges to confirm that I have received the services as charged. It is a difficult task to keep up with it all and to understand the ins and outs of the system, but it has certainly worked for me. I have no answers as to how to make it work better. I know that the system is sometimes abused and find that distressing. If people would only do what they are supposed to do, not only our healthcare system but the whole world be better off.

If Medicare were used in the way that it was originally intended, rather than so many added benefits, the system might not be in quite such bad shape. I am not in favor of universal health care primarily because it takes away the incentive for individuals to care for themselves in so far as possible. Far wiser heads than mine will be able to find answers and hopefully solve the problem.


To read how other BGTime correspondants view the debate on healthcare click the links below.

To read part one click HERE

Creating a Genetically Modified or Genetically Engineered crop can produce massive changes in the natural functioning of a plant's DNA. Native genes can be mutated, deleted, permanently turned on or off or change their levels of protein expression. No one knows how this will impact human health, but one researcher has documented at least 65 serious health risks related to GM foods.

Since most US research is funded by agricultural businesses, little objective research has been done on genetically modified foods, so one must look abroad to obtain information.

French professor, Gilles-Eric Seralini, a molecular endocrinologist at the University of Caen and a member of two French government commissions evaluating GM food, found that MON 810, a corn created by the American company Monsanto, along with several other varieties of GM crops, showed that the effects of the GM crops were similar to that of pesticides, generating inflammation disorders, and problems with liver and kidneys, two major organs involved with detoxification...