October 24: So Damn Sleepy, Daughter's Ear, Piece of Mind

...It wasn't that I was bored or anything--I wasn't--but I was so damn sleepy all of a sudden...

That pretty much describes my current state at the moment.  The members of my book club left about an hour or so ago.  We had a good meeting about Stephen King's sequel to The Shining.  Everybody loved Dr. Sleep.  My sister, who didn't read it, loved the reviews about Dr. Sleep.  (My sister rarely finishes the books for book club, but she spends a lot of time reading about the books we read for book club.)

Today, I'm supposed to give you a piece of my mind.  I'm too damn tired to voice a strong opinion about anything.  However, I am a little disgusted by the high costs of medical care.  My daughter ripped the earring out of her ear this morning.  She did a pretty good job.  She split her earlobe in two cleanly.  My wife took her to the pediatrician.  The pediatrician wouldn't touch it; he said she needs to see a plastic surgeon.

So, I went to the office of a plastic surgeon I know, and I found out that, to get my daughter's ear fixed properly, I have to pay $250.  It's considered cosmetic surgery, so the office won't even bill my medical insurance.  Obviously, that's going to be a problem.  I can barely buy a stamp at the moment.  I don't have an earlobe fund in the bank.

Medicine in this country is too damn expensive.  Way too expensive.  I guess I'm considered middle class.  I make too much money to qualify for food stamps or to get my kids free hot lunch at school.  Yet, I can't afford to get my daughter's ear sewn back together.  That's pretty depressing.

The healthcare industry in the United States needs to be scrapped.  It doesn't need to be reformed.  Reformation indicates that it used to work and needs to be returned to a former state.  The healthcare industry in the U.S.has never really worked all that well.  And now, when a twelve-year-old girl has an open wound on her head, the fix is so expensive that she may have to live with it for a while.

President Obama didn't go far enough with healthcare reform.  He should have mothballed the whole system.and started over.

That's a piece of Saint Marty's mind.

I don't know how to get to either of these streets