not yet

NOT YET



its not made a name change
not yet

the aca insurance is still called
obamacare

once it gets all changed
i dont see how it can be made better
it will be called
trumpcare

now this obamacare
even if you dont like it
its important

it provides insurance to close to 20 million folks
those numbers can vary a lot based on who is
writing about it and what points they want to make

for all of us
what happens to this obamacare insurance
it bleeds into the nonobamacare insurance
it seems
most folks i know or my relatives
are all on
medicare and supplements
military retirement
veterans
work health insurance

its the work health insurance that seems to affect
most of you
as the price on obamacare goes
so does the cost of your work health insurance

my biggest worry
is the lack of support for the obamacare
will leave us with poor expensive policies
for those having to buy plans on the market

if this all falls apart without support
a lot of folks like many of you
wont be able to get affordable good health insurance
no
there will be what i call junk ones
that will be taunted by many politicians
as proof of low cost insurance
that are not worth what you pay for them
plus
those preexisting conditions will hurt all of us

so
i decided to go online to search for what i could get
as insurance through the exchanges
if i lived in three places i used to live

rural arkansas
rural texas just 40 miles north of austin
santa barbara

note califronia has the best website available for this
the healthcare.gov site is sketchy at times
the difference is california has tried to make theirs work
the us government has tried to make theirs fail

so
i pretended i was 42 with a 40 year old wife who was not pregnant
with a 12 year old son and a 5 year old daughter
with a family income of $75,000

i looked at the different companies that were offered
choosing the silver plan
since you need that one to get the subsidies
i filtered out the ones that i felt like would not be a good
dependable insurance company

in california where we live there was only one choice
in texas and arkansas there were several choices
i chose long established companies
in these cases the companies were blue cross blue shield ones

so
in california
the only choice was blue shield ppo
cost per month was $605 with a monthly tax credit of $928
it had a $2500 deductible per individual $5000 per family
yearly premium around $7200 with lots of out of pocket costs

in rural arkansas
the choice i made was arkansas blue cross blue shield ppo
cost per month was $711 with a monthly tax credit of $636
it had a $8000 deductible with a $14000 maximum out of pocket limit
yearly premium around $8532

in rural texas near austin
the choice i made was blue cross blue shield hmo
from talking to folks in the healthcare provider side this one
has a restrictive choice of physicians
cost per month was $798 with a monthly tax credit of $386
it had a $5000 family deductible with a max out of pocket of $14700
yearly premium around $9576

all of these policies had a lot of extra costs involved like
copays for office visits extra costs for drugs some had limits on
office visits some had limited choices of providers

when compared to the one i helped my son buy the first year
obamacare came out
a plan that was better than the one my wife she got from work
his was a much better plan than whats available now

now
the obamacare or not yet trumpcare or aca policies dont have
the same quality as they did in the beginning
which
i have noticed is the same as those policies folks get
from their work related policies

now all this is for folks who qualify for tax credits
if you dont qualify then you really pay a lot for insuance
well over $15000 a year for this family of four

i dont see any fixing going on of all of this
getting rid of it without replacing it with a more workable system
will leave a lot of you without coverage
due to
the costs
the available only of bad policies
the preexisting clause that will affect most of you

for now i am safe from all of this
since i have medicare and medicare supplement
but even that is climbing in costs
i can afford that
many retired folks cant

the solution
a complete revamping of our healthcare system
in a bipartisan way so it can withstand the changes
of who is in control in congress at a moment in time
well
i just dont see that happening

i guess what i am saying
is
there may not really be a solution
since too many powerful influences will come into play
if a change is proposed

it would definitely suck to be a small business person trying
to make it so you are protected from a medical expense disaster

as i have said before
its our fault if this happens
since
we elect those folks who wont change things up for the better

the organicgreen doctor

alzheimers news-the alzheimers week that was

ALZHEIMERS WEEK-THE ALZHEIMERS WEEK THAT WAS

it started with our santa barbara walk to end alzheimers last saturday
i was doing ok helping set up the walk
since i am on the committee for the walk this year

now
i was doing ok
until i had to get up and talk for a few minutes
since they asked me to carry the blue flower
the blue flower represents those of us who have alzheimers

now
ive got up and talked before a lot of these walks
like this
in fact i pretty much say the same things each time

this time
as i stood on the stage
looking out over the crowd of close to 500 folks
my granddaughter looked up at me
i could see her pretty little face with this look on it
granddaddy she said out loud
what are you doing up there

well
that was when the dam broke
on my tears
which flowed all the way through my two minute talk
it flowed from me to the audience to the other speakers
to the two emcees

i managed to get through it
barely

i guess folks will remember me talking after all that

then
this week was our ucla trip
to get my infusion #9 of the experimental drug aducanumab
that hopefully will slow the disease down some

for these trips
its only 90 miles
but its into the beast of the 405 in la
a drive that can take 2 hours or 3 1/2 hours
sorry
but this day we got the long version

we leave while its dark
after about an hour we start hitting the beast of the 405

the last 15 miles takes longer than the first 85 miles

so we eventually get there
i get settled into my bed i have to lay on

they start my iv

then
draw all this blood work
then
i see the neurologist
then
i wait for the pharmacy to mix it all up
the pharmacy knows what im getting
no one else does

i always tell them
please dont give me that placebo one
on you know you got the real one the nurse says
she says that to everyone i bet

then
they hook me up to the iv
it takes an hour to run in
i feel nothing but a salty taste in my mouth
after an hour they flush it with saline
then
im out of there 3 hours after it starts

my wife she says as she sees me
you know
your face is always real flushed when you finish
those infusions
yes
i said
any side effect i can get is a good one

i have somewhere around 50 +- more of these to get
hopefully a lot more

then
yesterday the biogen folks presented the results of
their phase 1a study that had been extended for two years
on around 150 folks

this phase 1a study was the one that looked promising
the fda allowed it to get fast tracked to phase 3 studies
so if it helps it can reach the market quicker
the phase 3 study is the one i am in now

this phase 1 study when they extended it these two years
is pretty much like the study i am in

so those folks some of them have been taking the aducanumab
now for 3 years
so these results give us a glimpse into whether this stuff will work

basically in layman terms
my terms that is

the 10 mgm dose worked the best but also had more side effects
so in my study they only are using the 3 mgm and 6 mgm dose
so if i am not getting placebo then i am on one of these doses
when my phase 3 study gets extended in 15 months
i will definitely be on one of these doses

here is what they found in layman terms
after 3 years the aducanumab removed enough of the beta amyloid
from the brain so that the amyvid pet scan for the amyloid
 are now mostly negative
or close to negative on the lower doses

now
the big determinant of whether this works is
does the memory get better or does its decline slow down

now this is my interpretation of listening to the webcast of the presentation
and reading articles on the results

none of the doses stopped the decline in the memory based on
two memory tests one being the mmse
but
the high dose the 10 mgm
slowed the decline of the memory significantly compared to the
decline seen in the folks who got the placebo
the 3mg and 6 mgm also slowed the decline in memory
but not as much as the 10 mgm
lets just say it did it half as much

so
in alzheimers years
3 years can be a long long time
and any slowing of the mental decline over the 3 years
i know any family member would take that

compare that to aricept (donepezil) the alzheimers drug most folks
get put on at first
there is no comparison to the aducanumab

so
my laymans impression
it removes the bad stuff the amyloid from the brain
by doing so the aducanumab slows down the memory loss
enough that if it does this it will be used in the future to
treat someone with early alzheimers

also
my impression is even though the amyloid is removed
there is destruction and some disease process thats going on
that has already started snowballing and may not be stopped
that may be why the memory decline isnt stopped completely
but
man i would take this stuff knowing that
it could give me extra time with my family
time that i would remember also while its happening

just think
if your loved one could have gotten something like this
they might have
made a wedding
maade an anniversary
seen a graduation
seen a birth

yes
i think it would have been worth it


if you havent donated to a walk to end alzheimers
consider donating to my younger brothers familys
team for tomorrows little rock walk to end alzheimers

here is the link
#joe nash

i was thinking just now
what if he could have gotten this medicine early on
what things would he have not missed in his familys life

the organicgreen doctor

thos stros

THOS STROS

it is only right that they won
for the devastated area from harvey
the area that will take years and years
to totally recover
if it ever does

the astros were in this long long drought
since 1962 when they were called the
colt 45s
they changed their name
to the astros after the houston nasa programs

thats 55 years of waiting
for a world series champtionship
ok so the cubs waited a lot longer

it wasnt long ago they were the worst team
in baseball

finally
it all happened last night
there are a lot of folks in that area
that are basking in this victory
to have something
to grab a hold of
that can make the whole area proud
something that will be talked about
and felt for years to come

it transcended race
transcended politics
transcended religion
transcended sexual orientation

none of that really mattered
as they won last night

all together the astros fans celebrated
united as one

they deserved it
they desperately needed it

now
if
our country
could somehow do the same thing
have a win
that we can all come together on

yep
we could all learn from baseball

the oganicgreen doctor