Health Care 2009

I'm not a doctor, and I'm not a member of congress. And I would love for the US to be able to cover all Americans. I just hope a national health insurance program would not work like the US Post Office or the current HMO systems we have in California which feel like national health care but definitely aren't free. Here in California, I often have to wait months to see my doctor or get a mammogram. Here, even though I have a PPO, my doctors are in an HMO. Many doctors here in California are in HMOs to deal with malpractice insurance. And many doctors have 2500 patients. That's right. They deal with a huge amount of patients -- quickly.

It can take weeks to get shots. Sometimes I deal with nurses, the first line of defense, who insist I go to a general practitioner for my immune disorder -- though my GP looks at me with a complete lack of comprehension regarding my disorder. This is how the HMO deals with me even though I'm on a private insurance plan and have been seeing a specialist in my HMO for over ten years. So if this is the future for us all, fasten your seat belts because it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Yet, the French have national health insurance and been very successful with it. They have a progressive program which has given them top status in health care and the best population longevity in the world.

I just hope things improve here, because I miss the old days when you entered a hospital and your doctor came in to do "rounds" and visit you.

Now, if I call my HMO doctors to say I'm ill, they tell me to visit an emergency room. They don't say, "Come in right away."

Even with private insurance, I face hideous staph infections in a hospital and health care workers who refuse to wash their hands, a simple solution to infections.

Mystery Group

It recently occurred to me that the mystery group I facilitate has read quite a few books. I decided to see just how many we read and review just how different our selections have been. For our October selection, I just chose a Steven Saylor book, Last Seen In Massilia, a mystery of ancient Rome.

Before this we read: The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain, Missing Witness by Gordon Campbell , Farrier's Lane by Anne Perry, Straight Into Darkness by Faye Kellerman, Bride's Kimono by Sujata Massey, Secret Servant by Daniel Silva, & Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.

The idea behind the group is to encourage people to read and enjoy doing so. We try to read a variety of mysteries while supporting a wonderful, small bookstore here in Del Mar, California, The Bookworks.