American Healthcare Hassles: Diabetes Issue

    This post is a flat-out rant against the bullshit that some people must go through in order to receive any medical attention, or help in getting medicine (s ) which they need in order to stay alive. I seriously doubt that the following example  happens in any other industrialized country, and I note that this is happening as I type this. This is my very own experience in trying to get medication ( Insulin )  in an emergency situation here in Tampa, Florida without having to use an emergency room.
   First, a little background.
   I have lived in Tampa since the summer of 2009, and I arrived here with a pretty messed up I.D. card. It had broke into 3 pieces after being wet while working on water fixing and cleaning pleasure craft. Obviously, it was not a Florida I.D., so I naturally made that much dreaded trip to the nearby D.M.V. office to get an I.D. card, only to discover that I needed my birth certificate. I lost my certificate while moving down to Florida, I guess, because I was not able to locate it.
    Going through the I.N.S. and all of the other agencies has been nothing but one big cluster-fuck due to the fact that some information is required on their forms that I have no way of getting, yet.  I was adopted by a German mother and an American father, so getting any info on the adoption has been a real pain in the ass, to say the least. My father was U.S. Army, so one would think that the military might be able to help, right? Nope.
    Back to the health care issue.
  With no I.D. card, I have not been able to enroll in the Hillsborough County healthcare plan that many are enrolled in. I have not had a complete physical in over a decade! Hell, I couldn't get a doctor to do one even when I had a handful of cash. The Salvation Army and other groups such as them will do nothing for you if you do not have a current I.D., so they were of no use to me. I should note that I do have an 13 year old N.C. expired driver license that I somehow ended up keeping. It is expired and of no use, even though I am not expired as of this post.
    I have lived in Tampa 3 times and there are medical records of me in at least 3 area hospitals, but it seems that even that is not good enough for identification.  Past employment and even current employment records are of no use either, it would seem. not that current employment would be of any help, since I have not worked for at least half of 2011. There is not enough work to go around here in Tampa. If there was, I would not be searching for ways to get my Insulin for free. I've been doing Insulin for 40 years and have always been able to buy my meds without government assistance up until now. Now I can't get the help because of an out of state invalid I.D.?
    I was able to register to vote here in Florida, but I will not be able to vote in the 2012 elections unless I somehow can get my I.D. I was also able to get SNAP benefits ( food stamps ) without an I.D., but no medical care or meds? WTF?
   I have had a Florida driver license in the past, and they can't just look that up with a few keystrokes?
   Here is what is going to happen unless something changes real quick.
   I am going to run out of Insulin on Friday,when all of the state offices will be closed thanks to the kindness of Governor Rick Scott, and then I will slowly begin to get a little ill. At that point, I will then be making a trip to an emergency room, where I will be hooked up to an I.V. with an Insulin drip and an Saline drip for dehydration. After about 4 or 5 hours, I will then be sent home, maybe with a prescription for Insulin which will be worthless to me since I will not have the money to pay for it. In the end, I will have a brand new hospital bill of at least $1,000 and no way to pay for it. This means that I will then begin getting collection notices and all of that shit, and it also means that the taxpayer will be footing the bill while my credit rating takes another hit from medical bills. All of this because I have no current Florida I.D. card.
   The really sad part of this whole situation is that I do not use Insulin that one needs a prescription to get. What I use costs only $25 per vial at Wal-mart, and what the prescription that I get from the hospital will cost anywhere from $35 up to $107, depending on what they try to give me, if anything.
    The taxpayers are going to get screwed and I am getting screwed also. American health care. gotta love it!

Technorati Tags: U.S.,Healthcare,Tampa Bay,Florida,Diabetes,Insulin,Emergency Care,Hillsborough County,Obamacare,Current Events,An American Gothic

Those Republican Candidates: A French View

Le Point, France
Difficulties of the Republican Party Candidacies

By Antoine Grenapin    13 December 2011
Translated By Cynthia Perez
Edited by Gillian Palmer

France - Le Point - Original Article (French)

There are still eight of them in the race. With less than a month before the first primary elections, taking place in Iowa and New Hampshire, it is impossible to distinguish a favorite among the Republican candidates.
“It is the first time since the post-war period in which no candidate really stands out,” analyzes Vincent Michelot. Professor at the Political Science Institute of Lyon (France) specializing in the United States, he is the author of several works on American political life, including Le président des Etats-Unis: Un pouvoir imperial? [The president of the United States, an imperial power?] (Gallimard, 2008). Here, he passionately delivers a list of six reasons for all the suspense, a plunge into the heart of American politics.
1. There has been total redefinition of the conservative movement.
“Nixon, Reagan and Bush Jr. each gave a definition to conservatism in their time. Today, this movement, paralyzed by contradictions, staggers mostly along three major lines of division.
“First, when it comes to questions of morality, there is a distinction between ‘social’ values, which aim to defend the integrity of the family, and those of libertarians.
Concerning foreign politics, there are two clashing camps: One favors a projection of American power while the other is more of an advocate for withdrawal, that is, isolationism with the use of force only under direct threat.
“Lastly, in economic matters, there is a divide among those who'll accept a rise in taxes and those who'd prefer to lower taxes, dig the country deeper into debt and effectively ‘starve the beast.’”
2. Voters are much more right-wing than in general elections.
It is a recurring observation during each Republican primary. The candidate must unite the hard right in order to win its vote before broadening its campaign to more moderate voters. But with the emergence of the tea party movement this year, the phenomenon is even more visible.
The paradox is that this essentially populist movement flatly refuses to be represented. They want nothing to do with politicians, though certain candidates, like Michele Bachmann or Sarah Palin, have, without much success, claimed to be their voice.
3. There is a desire for renewal.
It's Mitt Romney who, in spite of the lagging polls, seems to be in the best position for getting the nomination (at 20.8 percent in the polls, following Newt Gingrich with 33.3 percent). But besides being a Mormon (which doesn't delight fundamentalists), he is a part of the Establishment.
The Republican electorate, and Americans as a whole, aspire to a renewal of the political community. They want to see new faces come onto the scene. This is most evident when we look at the approval rating of a mostly Republican Congress: Only 9 percent of Americans have a favorable image of it, an historic low.
4. The Republican Party has not made a decision.
Paradoxically, if the Establishment suffers from its image, it maintains a significant influence in the campaign. Its most important elected officials carry a lot of weight right from the beginning of the campaign. By openly supporting a candidate, it sets the course. Generally speaking, its support goes to the candidate who stands out among the others.
So far, however, no candidate has been exceptional. This explains why none of them have or can receive the party's support at present; each of their weaknesses and quirks can be blamed for this.
5. The eight candidates have many flaws.
A poll leader for a while, Herman Cain has suffered from what is called “bimbo eruption” in the United States. A series of women did in fact accuse the only black candidate of sexual harassment which in the end forced him to give up the race.
As for the current favorite, Newt Gingrich, the eldest candidate (68) in the primary, there is a wide rift between what he says and his private life. He preaches a return to family values and moral conservatism; all the while he is on his third marriage. And each time he began a new relationship, his previous one hadn't been ended.
6. The importance of foreign policy.
The blunders of Michele Bachmann (wanting to close the embassy in Tehran...which has been closed since 1979) and of Newt Gingrich (qualifying the Palestinians as an "invented people"), as well as the once favorite Rick Perry's hesitations on questions over foreign policy, have all helped to weaken certain candidates.
It should not be forgotten that in this field, voters always have qualms about voting for candidates who unsure on this issue because they know they are not only electing the next president but also the commander in chief.
For the moment, only two of the candidates, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, are qualified in the matter. But it's just the beginning the primary election process; the more it advances, the more the candidates will be surrounded by advisers and refine their speech. An election only depends on foreign policy during times of war. But blunders will still ban you from becoming the ideal candidate.

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Technorati Tags: Republicans,Candidates,Newt Gingrich,Rick Perry,Michele Bachmann,Herman Cain,2012 Elections,Current Events,An American Gothic,Politics