Health care ramblings

The US' health care system is pretty effed up.  We and our employers shell out a lot of money, most of which seems to go to the insurance companies.  I know a few doctors and they say they aren't getting all that rich because the insurance companies cap how much they'll shell out for the various procedures.  I guess the really lucrative doctoring is plastic surgery since the insurance companies aren't all that involved.

The real issue is most of us aren't getting squat for our money.  You make an appointment, you show up early, you fill out a bunch of paperwork by hand (why can't we just have a medical card with all of our relevant information and medical history?  Because companies are making money storing your data so why should you get it for free?) and then you wait and wait.  You finally get seen and the doctor spends about five minutes with you asking basic questions, pokes you a bit and then orders up a battery of tests or prescribes something.  When I was a kid, I remember longer doctor visits where he asked a lot of questions and spent time figuring out what was going on.  Are people getting sicker these days?

Another problem is malpractice.  Doctors are afraid of getting sued for missing something so they order up the aforementioned battery of tests.  Do I really need a chest x-ray just because I have a cough?  Maybe if I've had a cough for six months or something, but sometimes we cough.  The other issue is an over-prescription of antibiotics.  They're less effective now because the doctors will prescribe them for nearly everything.  I was sick for a couple of weeks with a possible sinus infection.  People kept telling me to go to the doctor to get antibiotics.  Guess what?  The NIH recommends doing nothing for a couple of weeks and seeing if you get better.  If you don't, then you go get it checked out.  Besides, antibiotics all have nasty side effects which are worse than the sinus infection.  The last time I did a course, I had nightmares every night.  The previous time I felt like I was going to crap my pants since the antibiotics kill the bad and good bacteria.

I'm not really sure what the solution is.  A lot of Europe seems to be doing ok with socialized medicine, but Americans are pretty reluctant to embrace that system.  They fear the waits will be longer (is that possible?) and that health care will be rationed.  Guess what, Sparky?  That's already done except now it's done by the insurance companies (we won't pay for that procedure) rather than the government.  The end result is still the same.

I just know that no one should die just because they're broke and that the system needs a major overhaul.

Project Tree: Day 26

Friday links

Just a couple of links for you today:

• This dude has some pretty amazing pencil drawings.  I'm not quite sure what hyper-realism entails, but I like the results.  
• The Avengers will hit theaters in just a few short months and it looks awesome, especially since I'm a big fan of the Hulk.  Courtesy of Fark.com here's a trailer from Japan.

Purification

I had to leave work early this afternoon to come home because I got sick to my stomach suddenly.  I was lazy today and bought lunch at the cafe in our building.  I guess the chicken salad wrap I had did not agree with me or something.  I still feel pretty funky which sucks because it's going to be nice this weekend.

I need to regain my health again so I'm going to be vigilant with my diet and exercise.  I need to beef up my constitution for sure because it seems like more and more people are getting sick every year.  I'll go back to drinking just water and I'll probably give up alcohol once I finish off what I've got in the beer fridge.

Someone once told me her goal was to have a "clean body, but a dirty mind."  I can get behind that life philosophy.

My apotheosis continues

This morning I did a pullup test and was able to bang out 7 which means I can start Phase I of the 50 Pullup program.  I did P90X and wasn't able to do more than 3 or so pullups and couldn't even manage that many with my initial test, but I did the five week prep program.

I'm feeling pretty strong these days and have some nice definition going on everywhere except around my middle.  It'll be the last chunk to come off, but come off it will.

Project Tree: Day 25

Project Tree: Day 24