My choices have increased due to this legislation.

• I now do not have to stay in a job only in order to keep my health insurance
• My chances of being discriminated against in the insurance world are greatly diminished
• My opportunities for affordable coverage without a small lifetime cap on treatment are increased, not decreased.

I can perhaps even reveal my “chronic condition” to a potential employer without fear of being “too expensive to hire” or jeopardizing their insurance plan that has few workers.

This part of the Patient Care and Affordable Coverage Act is a good step forward for the more than 2.5 million breast cancer survivors that were alive in 2007 and today.

(On January 1, 2007, in the United States there were approximately 2,591,855 women alive who had a history of cancer of the breast. This includes any person alive on January 1, 2007 who had been diagnosed with cancer of the breast at any point prior to January 1, 2007 and includes persons with active disease and those who are cured of their disease)

Contrary to media reports-the legislation has not been changed to read “Job-Destroying” instead of “Job-Killing” in the Thomas system for Congress.

I just heard a new alliterative term, “Trillion-dollar tragedy” from a Republican member.

A Democratic member from Oregon, Representative Wu, finally brought the D’s into the rhyming fold with two phrases, “Amend, don’t end!” He also used “Mend, don’t end!”

I could pay my monthly COBRA premium with a dollar for the number of times I have heard the phrase “donut hole” and “hurt small businesses” today, from both side of the aisle.

Rep. John Fleming (R-FL) from the 4th District created a new phrase in calling the bill’s accounting system, a “Disney fantasy”. Did he mean the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report?

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) from the 7th District used a repetition technique when describing the effects of a repeal:

NO CARE, for young people under 26

NO CARE, for pre-existing conditions

NO CARE, if you are in the donut hole (extra square here)

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) from the 6th District used the phrase “Enron accountant”, thus linking a previous scandal linguistically to the current legislation.

A Democrat,  Jay Inslee (WA-1st District) gets the last word here for giving a floor speech without using any of the previous phrases, but introducing sport to the House Floor by suggesting that PPACA asks “Americans to jump without a parachute”. He did go on to mention some health successes in the state of Washington, which include Providence Everett hospital reducing the stay of cardiac patients by almost one full day; and reducing the rate of infection by almost 50%.

Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL), of the 13th District began his speech with this statement:  “This bill …has nationalized 1/6 of the national economy!” Since all of the for-profit health care and insurance stock prices went up immediately upon passage last March, I hardly think that is the case.

Good day for English majors and bingo players-lots of fiction on the floor today, some rhetorical devices, a little poetry and some ,but not enough non-fiction.

For the center Bingo square: feel free to use “let’s be clear”.

I’d only like to address one part of the column and proposed legislation (HR2) in this post.

So which jobs will PPACA (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) destroy? The House Republicans offer no evidence-just assertions about losses to small businesses and assumptions about new government jobs. In fact, a repeal of PPACA would eliminate tax credits for small businesses. (This credit is available from 2010-2013 for non-profit and for-profit businesses of fewer than 25 employees and and average annual incomes of less than $50,000.)

Some businesses would lose jobs-some would be in the administration of health care for profit businesses that the US has. With 32 million more people covered, it seems obvious that more health care workers would be needed to serve them. There is also a provision in the bill to add slots in nursing education, which would lead to growth in the number of nurses we could train and add to the workplace.

A recent column in the Journal of Nursing Administration (JONA) article describes the additional opportunities for nursing education as a “watershed moment for the nursing profession”.

In workforce development reports, allied health professions and health care jobs are routinely in the top growth areas for the next ten years.

Can it be that the Republicans are only worried about pleasing their lobbyists (including 55 former members of Congress as of 2009)?

According to Bloomberg News, 1.5 million dollars per day was spent in the first quarter of 2010 on health care reform lobbying….

1. Overnight Sleep Study (for sleep apnea)
2. Regular Physical (mammogram, cholesterol, Pap)
3. 2010 3 in 1 Flu Shot (no shortage this year)
4. Visit to the Optician
5. 2 Massages for October (lymphedema)
6. Cancer study appts: ultrasound, plus CA 125 blood test

Here’s how it is going:

Sleep-see separate post today…

Flu shot: easy-peasy and no side effects.

Cholesterol test. Each one of these begins with a great phlebotomist. How easy is it to voluntarily submit to a blood draw, while hungry and uncaffeinated? These phlebotomists should get combat pay!

(my secret-a number 23 needle)

Results-could be better. Fewer carbs?

Mammogram: Normal (what is normal, anyway?)

Pap test. (TBD-a couple of weeks). Good news for women! New policy. If one year is clear, then you might get a three year pass until the next one! (in my home town, at least)

Note: Each appt. cost includes parking, time away from work (whoops not any more), opportunity cost then, and a $20 co-pay (except for an appt. labelled annual physical exam), in the name of prevention. No co-pay at the optician and the parking there is free.

Cost for last week: $6.00 (parking)

Week before (sleep study) $14.00 parking plus TBD

Two days before sleep study: $4.00 parking for consultation that led to sleep study

(was physician maximizing his/her revenue for September?) hmmmm.

To snore, or to snore some more?

This week, I will learn more about my sleep and the connection to my eating habits, how much I weigh and my age.

The not knowing part, (bet you thought it was the condition, didn’t you?) is that I don’t know how much it cost me to spend the night in the hospital and

• be observed by a technician (caseload-two patients) for eight hours. I asked if they called my insurance company and trusted that it was
• pre-authorized.
• I wonder what the 20% cost-share will be;
• if I will max out for the year;
• if it was a 4 figure number; and
• if it was deemed “medically necessary”.

I will let you know. Please don’t wait nine months, as I did,to investigate this potentially hazardous condition of sleep apnea.

“Oh, when newspapers had money.”

TR poses three questions to his audiences:

1. How do other countries provide universal health coverage for their citizens?
2. Why do they provide this coverage for their citizens?
3. And lastly, why doesn’t the United State feel that we need to provide universal health coverage for its’ citizens?

He stated, that if we could answer that moral question, then it would be easier for the country to move forward. Read more about T. R. here.

PS: A “bonus” slide show included different types of cigarette warnings on boxes in Germany, France and Canada. The point was how much bigger the warnings are in other countries, [just like their health care coverage]. Here is a similar one:

And a Russian one:

Will any  Republicans have the ovaries to run on the platform of “No children should be insured”? Repeal that!

Will any Republicans really defend a parent’s “right” to stay locked into an employer they don’t want to stay with, because their child as a “pre-existing condition”, and is insured under that employer’s group plan? Repeal that!

Will any Republicans try to run on the premise that their call for repeal of the Affordable Care Act is really based on the call in the legislation for more dollars to be ued for patients, instead of adminstrative costs? Let’s repeal that too.

And Democrats, you might need some ovaries too.

I’m just sayin”….

Want more factual information about this bill? Check out this link, to see the entire bill history, the committees that worked on it, the CBO cost projections, etc. This website is a service of the Library of Congress called Thomas-in the spirit of Thomas Jefferson.