Nici's Journal

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Location: California, United States

Monday, February 25, 2008

Health Net, Not health Care

February 24, 2008

There was a recent news story about a Breast cancer patient, Patsy Bates who was dropped from Health Net’s health care insurance policy when Health net discovered it was less of a finical burden to deny cancer treatment of this patient. This patient sued, and while she recovered $750,00 dollars for her claim, the judge, Sam Cianchetti leveled a penalty of 8.9 million dollars as punitive judgment against Health Net. I’m not happy about the lawyers getting 8.9 million dollars for this case, but I do feel the punitive judgment against Health Net should come from the personal finical funds of all those involved in the decision to drop this patient from health care coverage and the majority of this judgment coming from Health Net Chief Executive Jay Gellert.

Nataline Sarkisyan, the 17 year old who died from a decision not cover the cost of a liver transplant by Cigna HealthCare due to what they consider as procedure was experimental and outside the scope of coverage only to approve coverage shortly after a mass protest from health care workers and doctors at UCLA. Their decision to approve funding came hours after Nataline died.

Blue Cross sent out a letter to the doctors who are part of their network to disclose their health conditions so Blue Cross could decide if coverage should be denied or if the specific patient could be dropped from health care coverage. Basically, Blue Cross wants all health care providers to violate the agreement of trust between patient and doctor.

Arnold Swartz_Hummer wants to make the process of applying for Medi-Care more complex and burdened with government bureaucracy to prevent individual in need of care from getting it in an effort to save money. It was not long ago when Swartz_Hummer wanted to provide universal coverage for all who live in California. Hypocrite! Like every other politician who survives who are products of political Darwinism.

The California Department of Managed care, seems to be powerless to do anything about this kind of cruel cooperate behavior, if anything, they seem to encourage this specific kind of behavior rather than prevent and hold these health care providers accountable and responsible for what they do. From my personal experience with DHMC, they are a bunch of buffoons and paper pushers with no interest in the well being of health insurance /HMO subscribers.

Every one of these individuals share no personal responsibility for their cooperate or government actions and or cares about what happens to the well being or health of society as a whole. It seems that they are concerned about is making gobs of dollars or saving more dollars. The USA spends lots of money on the health car system only to receive poor ratings for actual health care provided when compared to other developed countries in the world. Fact is, the health care system in the USA is simply broken. A good part of the blame falls directly on the shoulders of lawyers. They have encouraged patients to sue at times for un-reasonable problems that were the part of the course of treatment. On the other hand, lawyers are well justified in supporting the rights of patients in the case of Health Net where they choose to drop a cancer patient from health care coverage. IMO, the settlement should have come directly from the personal wealth of every individual in the decision tree who set up, “find a reason to drop any member and receive a reward for this effort.” I’m pretty sure lawyers are why a friend who is a facial surgeon pays $90,000 each year for mal-practice insurance, that was back in the early 1980’s. Doctors and other health care providers appear to be en-slaved by greedy robber baron management, investors, CEOs and government.

The lack of balance is the real problem here. There are health care providers that are for profit like Health Net, Blue Cross and others who simply see this as another business that must grow and produce a profit number that meets investor expectations. These CEO’s hold no personal responsibility or is affected in any real way by how they treat their health insurance members, which is one of the primary reasons why they are so disconnected from their actions, and most always driven by greed and desire. Regardless of what their actions might be, they will receive their “golden dollars retirement” which many times are in the millions of dollars. As vindictive as this sounds, it might be good for these CEO’s to suffer from some sort of chronic health condition and denied coverage to treat it due to their policymaking. These individuals have become the modern version of the robber barons of the past. How little humanity has grown up or matured.

It is no wonder why health insurance companies generally refuse to cover gender related health care. It always comes down to dollars and where they can make a profit. All this is pretty similar to management making engineering design decisions where they have no expertise in these areas; it almost always results in a disaster. There is nothing to hold these individuals responsible or accountable for their actions and the way government is currently setup, it seems to encourage this repulsive behavior of these morally bankrupt CEO’s and management.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Janeite

February 15, 2008

I’m wondering if I have become a Janeite. It was not long ago when my long time interest in Victorian costuming brought me in touch with an artist who makes period correct clothing and a conversation around a 1980’s BBC production of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice happened. This BBC mini-series got purchased and we watched the entire mini-series in a few days. I was entranced by the literary work in many ways. Not only did Jane’s P&P touch a part of my soul, it brought to light the place in English society women held back in the day that mirrors many of the current beliefs we have regarding marriage to this day.

In Jane’s time, women depended upon her male relatives or husband for her survival among many other social rules that were the norm. This meant that her very survival and her future quality of life depended much on whom she married. Women had few rights of inheritance during that time in history. This was also one of the primary factors of what made marriage in that time a business; it was nearly always about property rights and less about love. One of the on going themes in Jane’s stories were the choices a woman makes about love, money, property rights and marriage. Women were generally not educated beyond what we consider elementary school today and were expected to run a home, have and care for children, entertain the family home with her musical and artistic talents, obey and serve her husband. Much of women’s fashion from that time evolved around helping her to be desirable enough to attract a man of wealth, social status and reputation for her future life was at stake. Balls public and private were battlefields of the marriage game. These social and cultural rituals are what shaped our view of marriage to this very day. It also highlights the meaning of male privilege and female dependency on her male spouse.

In the current debate over same sex marriage, one must keep in mind and consider the realities of property and inheritance rights that are business of marriage, which has nothing to do with the love shared between any couple. Property rights are the same reasons some men who are sworn into some western religious service take on the oath of celibacy. The current political belief marriage being about family and limited to a "Man & Woman" completely discounts the historical context and business of marriage in the western and eastern world. The definition of man vs woman is far from black and white regardless of what some individuals might believe.

What has drawn me so much to Jane’s literary work is her insight into the human condition and her understanding of individuals as portrayed in her stories. What Jane wrote about during the early 1800’s is still basically true to this very day. It is another example of how little humanity has changed and how much we can learn about the human condition from historical art and literature. It as also got me wondering about Jane’s own life and what might have happened if she lived past her 40’s and if her sister Cassandra did not make a bond fire with the thousands of letters written by Jane.

Masterpiece Theater has been running a series of Jane Austen’s work, all 6 of her most well known works and we have been watching this series. The productions do take liberties with her literature as most screen interpretations do, regardless; Jane’s literary genus still comes shining thru. These productions take me on an emotional roller coaster ride along with being able to have a small window into what life could have been like during that time in merry old England.

My current interesting in all things Jane Austen was the furthest thing from my mind when I decided to take up my interest in period correct Victorian clothing again. I just goes to show each road we follow in life’s journey can lead to a very surprising place with a very rewarding experience along the way.