October 14: Sulphur and a Little Molasses, Insulin Pump, What to Pray For

Late that afternoon, Lurvy went to Mr. Zuckerman.  "I think there's something wrong with that pig of yours.  He hasn't touched his food."

"Give him two spoonfuls of sulphur and a little molasses," said Mr. Zuckerman.

That is the cure that Zuckerman comes up with when Wilbur isn't eating his slops.  Sulphur and molasses.  Of course, it doesn't really cure the pig.  Wilbur has fallen into a blue state of mind.  He's lonely.  Misses Fern.  Has no friends in the barn.  Then Lurvy shows up and shoves sulphur and molasses down his throat.

Health care on the Zuckerman homestead isn't really state of the art.  More like early Little House on the Prairie.  Of course, back then, home remedies were cutting edge.  Probably every farmer used sulphur and molasses to cure an ailing hog.  My mother used to give me a mixture of lemon, whiskey, and honey as cough medicine when I was a kid.  I used to pray to get sick just so that I could get it.

Health care in the United States nowadays is a broken thing.  I spent 45 minutes on the phone this afternoon with Blue Cross and a company called Medtronic.  Blue Cross is my health insurance company, and Medtronic is the supplier of my insulin pump and its paraphernalia.  Well, my insulin pump stopped working a couple of weeks ago, so I received a loaner pump from Medtronic while they worked out the details of getting me a replacement pump.

What I found out this afternoon:  it's going to cost me two thousand dollars to get a new pump.  I never had to pay out-of-pocket anything for my two previous insulin pumps.  So, after I received that news, I called Blue Cross to see if there was some kind of mistake.  The guy from Blue Cross was very helpful.  He told me that it's going to cost me two thousand dollars to get a new Medtronic pump.  Then he started talking about tiers and percentages and Blue Care referrals and deductibles.  By the time he was done, I could only say, "Thank you.  You have thoroughly ruined my day.  Possibly my entire week."

I don't relish the idea of going back to injecting myself with insulin four or five times a day, but that's definitely a possibility at the moment.  It would be a cheaper alternative.  And that's what's wrong with health care in the United States.  People have to choose between good health or good finances.  Senior citizens have to choose between buying medicine or food.  Cancer patients have to throw spaghetti dinners to raise enough funds for treatments.  People have to file for bankruptcy, sell their houses, and move in with their kids to get well.

For some reason, American citizens are afraid of universal health care.  I don't know why.  Health care should be a right, not a privilege.  And, unless we all want to be sucking down spoonfuls of sulphur and molasses, something's gotta change.

Me, I'm in a really shitty mood since my phone conversations this afternoon.  And that's not going to change any time soon.  I don't even know what to pray for.  Patience?  Hope?  Two thousand dollars?  The slow death of all health insurance executives?

Saint Marty just can't decide.

They're small, but expensive