There comes a time in your life when you have to admit you simply aren’t what you used to be.
Several weeks ago in this column I wrote about a step ladder fall. No serious injuries except a noggin bump, dirt in my mouth, ear and nose and some head blood, but otherwise no broken bones.
I have had no fewer that four surgeries on my left ear to open extremely weird ear canals. This is ironic since I need a hearing aid on the right side only.
Recently I developed ear pain in the left ear that simply would not go away with over the counter medicines like it normally does.
A trip to the ear doctor (Yes, I actually have a dozen different specialists on my call list) proved I had a severe ear infection. An very expensive antibiotic ($125 or just over an inch bottle of liquid) was required.
The doc asked if I have fallen recently. I admitted there were a few mishaps in the past, but chalked them up to pure accidents and clumsiness. She then suggested I see a specialist in balance and an exercise regimen. Yes, I discovered there is a doctor specializing in balance and related issues.
Wife Patti is kind with her evaluation of my balance, but I know she witnesses the balance issues, the ones I have denied for so long.
I still maintain a sharp wit and full recognition of my somewhat questionable mental capabilities. In fact, I now write and tackle both complex and short stories with greater enthusiasm. I do so from my home office and dread having to drive for stories, especially at night.
The day will come when I realize driving days are kaput. And I have no intention of climbing any more ladders.
No, I won’t quit working, but am making drastic changes to ensure I get to see more holidays and grandchildren growth.
This is leading to the real problem for all of us.
Luckily, I have the funds to afford health insurance, but there are way too many in this country who simply cannot afford the high premiums of premium health care.
Most industrialized countries and many developing countries operate some form of publicly-funded health care with universal coverage as the goal. According to the Institute of Medicine and others, the United States is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not provide universal health care.
Obama Care was passed to partially fill in the gaps in medical care, but Trump has already promised to undo any moves towards socialized medicine.
More recently, American conservative critics of health care reform have attempted to broaden the term by applying it to any publicly funded system. Canada’s Medicare system and most of the UK’s NHS general practitioner and dental services, which are systems where health care is delivered by private business with partial or total government funding, fit the broader definition, as do the health care systems of most of Western Europe. In the United States, Medicare, Medicaid, and the US military’s TRICARE are attempts that fall under that definition.
Thanks to a move by the Biden administration. U.S. consumers will no longer have medical debt appear on their credit reports under a new rule the Biden administration recently finalized.
The change, which administration officials had proposed over the summer and is set to take effect in March, means some $49 billion in medical bills will be struck from the credit reports of about 15 million Americans. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said lenders would also be prohibited from using medical information in their lending decisions.
“People who get sick shouldn’t have their financial future upended,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a statement. “The CFPB’s final rule will close a special carveout that has allowed debt collectors to abuse the credit reporting system to coerce people into paying medical bills they may not even owe.”
About 1 in 12 adults in the U.S. had medical debt as of 2021, according to an analysis by KFF, a nonprofit group that researches health policy issues.
The agency expects the rule will lead to the approval of some 22,000 additional mortgages every year, and that Americans with medical debt on their credit reports could see their credit scores rise by an average of 20 points.
The move came as Biden administration officials raced to safeguard aspects of their work weeks before President-elect Donald Trump took office.
During his first term as President, Trump touted getting rid of Obama care and replacing it with a Republican health care plan. The Republicans failed to garner the support from within to change or better the law.
It is expected the Trump administration will likely bring changes that scale back the nation’s public health insurance programs — potentially increasing the uninsured rate, while imposing new barriers to abortion and other reproductive rights.
This could include an erosion of the Affordable Care Act’s consumer protections, the imposition of work requirements in Medicaid and funding cuts to the safety net insurance, and challenges to federal agencies that safeguard public health. Abortion restrictions may tighten nationwide with a possible effort to restrict the mailing of abortion medications.
In an NPR news piece it was noted: Trump’s victory will give a far broader platform to skeptics and critics of federal health programs and actions. Public health authorities worry that in a worst case, the U.S. could see increases in preventable illnesses; a weakening of public confidence in established science; and debunked notions — such as a link between vaccines and autism — adopted as policy.
Trump said, in an NBC News interview on Nov. 3, that he would “make a decision” about banning some vaccines, saying he would consult with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s inner circle of advisors on public health interventions, calling Kennedy “a very talented guy.”...Time will tell.
