Baldies' Blog began originally in the UK by a 26 year old journalist with a blood cancer on a mission to inform the world about bone marrow donation.

He has since died, and I took on the cause of making cancer care more transparent for everybody.

Cancer is a disease that will touch everybody through diagnosis or affiliation: 1 in 2 men will be diagnosed and 1 in 3 woman will hear those words, "You Have Cancer."

I invite you to read how I feel along my journey and
how I am continuing to live a full life alongside my Hodgkin's lymphoma, with me controlling my cancer, not my cancer controlling me.

I hope that "Baldies' Blog" will prepare you to handle whatever life sends you, but especially if it's the message, "You Have Cancer."

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Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Open Market Health Care


I'm like a dog when I'm chemo sick. 


I try to eat to feel beter. 


Its rice then crackers then bread. 


Then I really end up sicker. 


Maybe it's the cesamet, which I love. 


I'm still flat on the coach, but I'm almost pain free and thinking. 

I could almost talk. I'm enjoying my own company. 



I'm also eating and drinking, which means, hopefully, no need for a run to the hospital clinic or a frantic call to my new palliative care nurse.


I'll tell you more about this new change in my care soon. 


Joining palliative care has been such a blessing to every person and business involved. It allows me to relax in my home while drastically cutting costs and time at the hospital while getting equal, if not better, care at home with out the risk of contracting some other awful bacteria from the hospital which would start this whole cycle again. I never knew how much I was doing that I could have had done for me.


Sorry for the tangent. 


Now, stop and think, please. When I was talking about my cesamet, how did you feel about the medication? Did it seem reasonable and prudent that I take it? Especially, when it would stimulate to eat and drink by controlling my chemo therapy side effect of nausea and vommitting?


Cesamet is the new to the market, and much more effective than, the only previously available, THC (marijauna) pill.


Now again, please stop and think if the Doctor handed you a script enscribed Mehylphindate (Methylphenidylacetate hydrochloride) or even (methyln) and say you needed it, would you take it?

Would you know were taking ritalin?

Because I didn't.

Would this be a problem? Ritalin has a stigma against it, but you need it.

In case this allusion is misunderstood, let me clarify: people put medications in their body, completely unknowing of what it is for or if it is safe, by trusting in the prescriber.


The curse of cesamet and marinol are in their name and the historical taboo it implies, conjuring up images of Refer Madness, the pre-quelto DARE, an educational video, Beware signs, and scoldings.



But marinol is what was available by prescription and all we had.


Marinol, which people would take, needing relief immeditaely, but would not kick in until 3 or 5 or 7 hours later.

 
Surprise!!! Imagine that happening in the middle of a PTO meeting. 


And, even better, this is the beauty of allowing the open market to drive down costs, cesamet may not have been created had some states legalized marijuana. 


CA, CL, and MA have legalized medicinal marijauna, requiring doctor's prescription. 


Now the pharmaceutical companies have been forced to create their own, better, more efficient medication to counteract medical marijauna with a competitive cost to keep up with the competition. 


Who knew what a fabulous example for open market medicine this would be? 


That's what this whole health kick reform should be called: Open Market Healthcare.


It is not be socialized medicine. It is not obomacare. 


It is not anything that has been seen or used before, because we are creating something, new based on our experiences as a country.


We can remain true to our history, our financial beliefs and construction and celebrate that within our new health care policies while providing a safety net.



 The two are not mutually exclusive. 

Who says one can only be had without the other. It's not polarized medicine.


It Could be Open Market Healthcare.

 

We can all keep what we have, but then, if we find something better, we can jump ship and enjoy the better care at a lower cost, easily, without fear that the new provider will fail to meet their contractual duties.


The way I see it is like Car Insurance. 


You have to have it, at least a minimum if you hurt someone else, but that's okay because if you're treated wrongly you can leave for an equal or better plan at any time. 


Just ask gieco? Or Prudential? Or State Farm? Or whatever other agency you can whip off in your head?



They'll happily take you. They'll waive previous offenses such as a DWI, car accident or ticket. 

Yes, you'll pay, somehow, but that price will also be kept in check by how other companies charge their offenders.

How many health insurance companies can you whip off your head? 


How many commercials do you see? 


Would Blue Cross show a comparison quote, side by side, benefit to benefit to us on a commercial, on the internet, in a closed door office meeting? 


I don't think so.

 Haven't seen any.


New Hampshire has a site comparing what each hospital charges per procedure so you can price shop, just like you do between target and walmart or Lowes and Home Depot, JcPenney and Kohl's.




See it. It's true.
 New Hampshire Health Cost. That's www.nhhealthcost.org




 I love my state.

This was highly suported by Insurance Companies.


What some people had hoped for was a site like Geico that allowed, not only price comparisons between hospitals, but insurance information as well.


How much would I pay here with this insurance vs. that insurance, kind of like comparing net vs. gross pay.


That's where the brick wall comes in. 

But I guess that's what happens when you try something new; an unexpected, often delightfil outcomes occur. 


I like the changes I've seen made so far. I understand and see the relevance to both sides.

I'm just happy were are finally having this fight, this discussion. No problem can be fixed if nobody acknowledges it exists, and both experience and evidence says healthcare is a problem. 

Our Health care is sick.






Cesamet is still so new that the. But who would you rather have the cash? The corporation or the government?










 If you had a pill that decided whether you would spend the day miserable, aching, taken a minimum of 30 min. thinking about moving before you actually did from the agony

I want to hear beforeI die, Tear this Medical Brick Wall Down!"

1 comment:

Jerry Carlin said...

Hang in there, Hillary, you go girl! You rock!