An Answer For healthcare.gov

"One Good Idea Can Change History."

So, just for fun, here's my idea for fixing the problems with healthcare.gov.

Why not use the geeks at the NSA?

Since they aren't allowed to tap cell phones of foreign heads of state, and aren't allowed to spy on the U.N. anymore, and are obviously smart enough to do those things,

Why not reallocate their obvious talent and ingenuity to making the Health Insurance Website work properly?

Just a thought.

Sleep

"Somnum puer, somnus et non evigilabit donec dicitur."

In the early or mid 1990's, I sold and installed our medical practice management software in the first Sleep Disorder Clinic I had ever heard of. I quizzed the staff what their practice, and what a sleep center was all about. I remember thinking that this was silly, and a total insurance scam.

I thought that trouble sleeping would be a result of some other problem. Find the real problem and fix it, then the patient will sleep better. Be it digestive, stress related, sinus issues or any number of other problems, it just seemed to make more sense to find and fix the underlying cause of poor sleep, not work on the sleep.

Now, of course, there are sleep centers all over the place.

About 7 years ago, my brother had a sleep study, and got a CPAP machine. He said it made a world of difference. I was skeptical. So a couple of months ago in San Francisco, the guy who let me camp out in his hotel room mentioned that I stopped breathing a lot at night, then gasped for air. He suggested I get a CPAP too, and has bugged me constantly about it since.

I found a practice that does the sleep studies at home without all of the fuss of a night at the hospital. We're doing my sleep study this week, but the Dr. already told me to get ready for one of those machines. I've been asking around, and found 10 people within my circle who have such a device. Exactly five of them say it is the greatest thing ever. They talk about their sleep mask the way I talk about vaping. Their enthusiasm and testimony about how much good these devices really do is encouraging.

The other five went through the study, got a machine but don't use it. They're uncomfortable, too much trouble, don't work, blah, blah.

The ones who use them say that they get a full night's sleep in about five hours, wake up energized and rested and ready for the day. I don't think I have ever - ever felt that way in the morning. I need a pot of coffee and half a pack of smokes (before I started vaping, anyway) before I can even focus on waking up. Hmmm.

I have never felt that sleeping is on the list of things I'm no good at. I sleep a lot. I have always considered it fortuitous that I have the luxury of sleeping 7+ hours at night. I always thought this is something I did pretty well.

Maybe it's time I considered a different perspective. Is there a possibility that my sleeping IS the underlying problem? Or is it all hocus-pocus?

Struggles

"The results of struggling with oneself: Victory, Failure or Frustration!"

Seems like life has been extraordinarily easy lately - cept for the struggles I'm having with myself. I hate times like that, but they are inevitable at times, I guess. But just now, on every front, I'm facing opposition. Not opposition from outside, just from myself. What the hell do I do about that?

SMOKING
I haven't smoked so much since last December when I started vaping. I've always had the mindset that I'm not quitting smoking, I'm choosing to vape instead. And overall, that works really, really well most of the time. There are times when vaping doesn't cut it. First thing in the morning, I don't want to philosophize, negotiate, compromise or be reasonable. I want a cigarette, NOW! So I have one. At first, I smoked 2 or 3 real cigarettes a day. Now it's five or six and maybe more if it's a really bad day. Not sure why all of a sudden I want to smoke more, or how to fight it.

Plus, even smoking 5-6 cigs a day is a helluva lot better than two and a half packs. In context, I'm still doing really well, but I want to do better. And I was a few months ago.

WEIGHT LOSS
I'm trying not to eat too much, and concentrating on eating the right (or better) food this year. I lost over 20 lbs. and really have changed my eating habits. I went from 221 to 200 lbs. by eating better and working out. But the momentum stopped there. I don't know why. I'm still eating better and less, and I'm still working out. But I'm back up to 206 lbs. and continuing to gain. I can't figure out why or what to do about it.

If I eat less, I want to smoke more. I can't handle being hungry and wanting a cigarette all of the time. I want to lose another 20 (now 25) lbs, and have absolutely no idea what to do from here. I think I'm doing everything right for the most part, and not experiencing the results I want. Now What?

WORKING OUT
I'm still doing it, but I hate it more now than ever. I don't like my trainer very much, but am doing everything he says without complaining (too much). But I am disliking the medicine, and (see previous paragraph) and not getting anywhere. I really am getting stronger. I can easily do stuff now that I could never have done last year. I am losing fat. I am wearing clothes that I haven't been able to wear in years. There is progress from a certain point of view, but I'm not where I need to be.

The obvious answer for all of the above is, "Try Harder". If I had any more to give I would have already. Try harder is no help.

PLAYING TROMBONE
I'm having a ball. I'm loving playing again, and am not as bad as I thought I would be. But I don't have enough time to play as much as I want or progress to the level I want to be. I am doing well, but could do so much better if I could find another half hour each day to invest in this area.

My emphasis this year is "wellness and strength". I'm not depressed about my progress, but I am growing more frustrated at the slow pace. I need an answer to this dilemma, and a way to get off of high center.

And I may have found one. Stay tuned.

Obamacare Impact So Far

"Republicans might have been better off to let Obamacare fail all on its own."

I'm not a fan of Obamacare. It makes no sense. The first object of universal healthcare should be to improve public health. Obamacare does nothing on this front. Forcing people to buy auto insurance doesn't lead to better driving, and forcing people to buy health insurance doesn't lead to better health.

If people living in the U.S. would live more healthy lifestyles, eat better, exercise now and then, drink less alcohol and vape instead of smoke, there would be less need (demand) for healthcare. The supply/demand equation would work the way it should in free market economies, and prices would go down.

If you want to increase access to healthcare, you either have to reduce demand or increase supply. Nothing else will work. I do not think Obamacare is about health, healthcare or access to healthcare. I think it is about money.

Oklahoma's FY-2012 budget for medicaid is around $4.5 Billion dollars. Statistics indicate that each nondisabled Oklahoman covered by medicaid costs the State $4,500. In Oklahoma, 679,000 kids and well over a million people total are covered by medicaid. This one program consumes 13% of the state budget. There are only 4 million people living in the state. Medicaid covers One out of Four of them? Obamacare wants to expand medicaid coverage. How the hell are we going to do that?

At my company, we're cutting back insurance benefits this year. We're increasing deductibles and co-insurance, therefore increasing each employee's exposure if something bad happens. We're also not providing spouse or dependent coverage for free anymore. But what choice do we have? I pay the bills here, and I know that insurance costs are two and a half times higher now than they were four years ago. If we keep our insurance plan that we've had for the past 10 years, our rates will go up again in January.

Insurance costs for all of our employees have gone from $4,000/month 5 years ago to $10,000 per month next year. We're bailing, not increasing coverage. It's sad, but unavoidable.

At least we're not cutting staff...yet.

So The Democrats "Won"?

"When the game's over, it all goes back in the box."

Well, the government is back open. The radical House Republicans were put in their place. The democrats won hands down. All's well?

Remember, I'm a political cynic. I don't have any respect for most republicans, democrats, politicians, bureaucrats, lobbyists or any of the other labels you can place on people who think they run things. Government, now more than ever, is something to be avoided and to work around. As an institution, it does not have my (or anyone's) best interests in mind on any level, and any benefits we receive from government is incidental to the process.

Government can only limit or take away freedom. Freedom is built in to the human equation. God gave each of us free will, and life provides consequences to our actions within the paradigm we live in. Government claims to improve that paradigm, and to the extent that it does, I'm all for it. But that's not inherently what any government, now or at any time in the past has done.

Government does not create wealth (sorry, Mr. Obama). Government only redistributes wealth. Again, the paradigm argument goes here. Government creates the paradigm under which I can create wealth, and give it to the government for redistribution. But for every example of that principle, there is an example of government limiting or eliminating my ability to create wealth.

So the Democrats won the showdown. What did they win?

An extension of the argument for a few months (same as they won last time?).

The ability to deepen the debt problems we face because all of government spends trillions of dollars we don't have. (Is that a victory?).

What did the Republicans lose?

Face. Not because they lost the battle, but because nobody (not even the leaders of the party) knew what they were trying to accomplish anyway.

I think we all lose. But it's just a game. God never created us to spend our whole lives chasing dollars. This money game is just a made up game, played with money that has no intrinsic value. And the game's almost over.

Pretty soon, it will all go back in the box and a new game will start. And we can do it all over again.

Illusions

"The Sooners Laid An Egg."

Gathered around the TV, I did, with a couple of folks Saturday morning. Ready to watch Mack Brown's final, dismal performance as head coach of the Longhorns against the Sooners in the infamous Red River Rivalry, I was. Alas, maybe next year.

What should have been an easy victory for the Sooners turned instead into an embarrassing performance - even for the mediocre team OU has this year. It's one thing to beat Texas when we're good and they're not (see the last three meetings between the two). But to soundly beat them when we're not very good would have been even more delicious. I can, even now, smell the cremated flesh of Bevo, bar-b-Que sauce and all the fixins. Ummm. How many times have I had the pleasure of indulging in that particular feast!

But it wasn't to be. We dropped touchdown passes, threw interceptions and got beat up on the offensive line bad. Our defense looked like they haven't seen a running play since little league. Even for a mediocre team, we played poorly.

And UT came to play football. They beat us in every facet of the game.

Now the Sooners will displace some worthy JuCo team (TCU?) at this year's "Sorry You Suck" Bowl.

And it will be up to OSU and Baylor (Gawd!) to prove to the world that the Longhorns really are as bad as all of the UT fans thought they were going in to last Saturday's game.

And the saddest part is that the casual observer might be under the illusion that Texas actually has a pretty good team or that Mack Brown is actually a good coach. What a bunch of crap.

As I shake my head at Stoops and the Sooners, and chuckle at the Longhorns, I feel the urge to talk about something of actual importance. Did anyone see Duck Dynasty last week?

Music: Audible, Emotional, Intellectual and Intrinsic

"Experiencing Music and a whole lot more."

I tripped over the perfect book as a companion to my return to the trombone after so many years. The book is called "Common Sense for Comeback Chops". I found it totally by accident when I looked up my Jr High trombone instructor. He wrote a book that I bought just for the nostalgia of it. This book was on the same website, so I bought it too. It's fun to find a good read. But to find one apparently written just for me, totally by accident is awesome!

I've read exactly one page of it. Already I have enough to occupy my small mind for several days. In discussing the hunger to return to playing after an extended absence, especially a number of years, the author discusses the intrinsic expression of music as something completely different from hearing, thinking about or even being moved by it.

We hear music all the time. We listen to it on purpose now and then. We think about sometimes - maybe a certain piece's place in history, the message it presents, the beauty of it or something. We are moved by it often. Music invokes a reaction as an association with events or circumstances that have meaning for us. For example, hearing our college fight song takes us right back to the stadium in the middle of a good game. The song we share with a significant other rekindles a whole lot of emotion sometimes good feelings and sometimes regret.

But creating music, at the time and place of one's own choosing, and shaping it and forming it with one's own lips is a completely different way to experience music. Expressing oneself through it (as opposed to responding to someone else's expression) is intrinsically different. Even if I've played a song before, I've never played it like I am now. Just as there are millions of apples and each apple is different and unique, so it is with playing music.

The author of the book expresses this concept better. But for me, it is exactly what I am so hungry for. I want to play - even if nobody ever hears it. I want to create, to imitate, to belong to the music I play, and know it intimately. I can almost (but not quite) get there with the guitar and piano. (It would be easier if I could play better.) But for me, I will again be able to do that with the trombone. I can't wait to get there.

And it occurs to me that the concept presented on the very first page of this book applies to a whole bunch of different paradigms. Playing basketball on a team is intrinsically different than watching it, studying it, cheering for a favorite team or player, or critiquing it.

Building a business is a completely different thing from taking business classes or working in a cubicle for someone else's business. Being a parent is a completely different experience than being around kids or studying early childhood development.

I can experience God through Christianity. I can know what the bible says, and can think about it, study it, try to figure out ways to apply it, etc. But intrinsically experiencing Christ, with the intimacy with which I play a song on the trombone, the passion for creating it, the hunger for belonging to it is something else I used to experience more of.

And I want that back too.

The "Nay's" Have It.

"I therefore did it anyway!"

I looked at the opportunity to buy a trombone and start playing again every way I could think of, and just couldn't figure out how to say, "Yes".

I don't think the world needs another trombone player. The only way to get rid of one standing on your porch is to pay for the pizza you ordered.

I don't think I have an hour a day to practice with this thing. I played in school for 2-3 hours a day, and hardly ever found time to practice outside of that.

I have other things to do with money right now besides investing in a fantasy that came out of nowhere, and could return there at any moment.

I already have both a guitar and a piano. I can invest my musical energy into those.

I can't think of an excuse to buy one and start playing again - other than I want to just now.

It was still a close vote. The committee in my head argued passionately. The discussion was strange: Everybody was arguing in the affirmative, but whenever they voted, the decision came out the other way. It's almost like each committee member wanted everyone to vote, "Yes" so that their own "No" vote would be irrelevant. That's about the strangest argument I've ever had with myself - and there have been many over the years.

Finally there came a breakthrough. Somewhere in my head, someone made the following speech:

"Of course it makes no sense to get a trombone and pretend you're a musician. That decision was made years ago, and nothing in the whole universe is indicating that the decision was wither incorrect or outdated. Forget about that.

"But there has never been a more beautiful piece of art than a Conn 48H trombone, with a rose brass slide and a nickel, bright silver bell. We can justify buying one out of the 'art' budget, not out of the 'hobby' budget (as if either budget actually exists). In that these horns haven't been produced since 1969, their value will only appreciate. So let's buy it as art. And we can play it too if we want"

The motion passed unanimously and enthusiastically.

I got the horn last Friday and have managed to cause every cat in the neighborhood to flee to Texas. So far, I am not unimpressed with the results.

The Government Shuts Down

"...and I've got a picture of Richard Pryor!"

Sometime back, so long ago I can't remember the source, someone was babbling on about something meaningless. Not wanting to be rude and say, "Who gives a shit?", somebody interjected that they had a picture of Richard Pryor.

That has now become the standard way around our office of politely telling someone that you're not interested in whatever they're talking about.

"I saw the coolest thing on Duck Dynasty last night!"

"Really? Wow! I've got a picture of Richard Pryor!"

I have personally used that line many times on telemarketers. It stops them cold.

I used it once in the middle of a company meeting when by brother announced some actually important event. Once everyone quit laughing, the announcement was actually much more effective.

So now our government is supposedly shut down. and who cares?

People who count on the government for handouts care. They may not get the government cheese.

People who work for the government and are furloughed care. Don't they know this is just the flip side of all of the free holidays they get?

People wanting to visit the U.S. care. They can't get visas.

The only impact we've seen on our lives in and around my office is that we can't buy any airplanes because the office at the FAA that registers them is closed.

I have thought for years that we would not see another shutdown because nobody involved - Republicans, Democrats, Congress, the President, the media, the military - nobody wants the American public to know how irrelevant most of the Federal Government is to our daily lives.

I guess the morons in Washington forgot that they don't want us to know that.