welcome to the organic green doctor blog

i am a family physician who was diagnosed with
early mild cognitive impairment(mci) amnestic type on december 21, 2010
this is a precursor to alzheimers disease
because of this diagnosis i have opted to stop practicing medicine
this blog will be about my journey with this disease
please feel free to follow me along this path
i will continue blogging on organic gardening, green living,
solar power, rainwater collection, and healthy living
i will blog on these plus other things noted to be interesting

Thursday, July 17, 2014

just say it seems to be working

JUST SAY IT SEEMS TO BE WORKING
recently i was in arkansas for our annual family reunion
while at the motel i picked up the statewide newspaper
and glanced at the headlines

it was about the new obamacare option that was approved
in the state and how it was aiding the state

thought this was interesting for a red state and for a newspaper
not known for its liberal bent to its news

ive written about this before but im repeating it
the state got approval from the feds instead of getting the federal
funds to use for medicaid for folks between medicaid and the
new obamacare policies
instead they would use the money to purchase private insurance
for those folks

the feds gave them approval

and it seems according to this article that its working in arkansas
there have been 187,000 signed up
and
40,000 got subsidies so they could buy their insurance
eg ive helped folks get through the system so they would pay $80
and get a subsidy of $140 a month
this is all based on their income if it goes up the subsidy drops

the private option is  for folks making less than $16,000 a year
as an individual


in states like texas those folks dont qualify for subsidies and must
pay the full price while those making a few hundred more get the
subsidy
thanks rick for screwing them
ie
those folks who get help in arkansas if they lived in texas would
not get any help at all unless they make more money

now in arkansas it seems that close to 12,000 new jobs will be
created because of this new coverage
8,900 new paps will done
5,600 new mammograms will be done
20,800 new cholesterol tests will be done
386,00 new office visits will be done
these are basic preventative tests that we all should be having done

now im sure that as we enter the fall and the politics all heats up
that the rhetoric will be all over the place
most of it not true
like
where are all those death panels anyway

someone needs to just step up and tell us all the truth of where
the new obamacare really is
it wont happen on fox news msnbc cnn etc
it will all be distorted one way or the other

i know that the obamacare is not what i would have wanted
but its what we got now to work with
we need to improve it like arkansas has tried to do

i know that the private interest groups got involved and altered
what probably started out as a good idea
like the hospital groups the drug companies the medical products
manufacturers
those who are now benefiting the most


im sorry but i still think that a medicare for all is the best choice
requiring all providers to accept it
the writing is on the wall from the fed programs and the insurance
companies their incomes will continue to fall
requiring us all as consumers and patients to realize that here in
the united states we cant afford the cadillac health care that we
all want
choices need to be made

eg like when i get alzheimers disease and am in its final stages
please dont allow me to be hospitalized put in icu or treat my pneumonia
aggressively
maybe we dont need mammograms every year
or cholesterol levels so much
or knee surgeries or hip surgeries so much
or maybe we need to use more nurse practitioners to deliver care
or maybe we need to eliminate the drug companies and insurance
companies control of our healthcare system

thats what i think
maybe arkansas will figure it out for us

the organicgreen doctor

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