Concierge Doctors & Private Insurers Versus National Health Care

When the Congress gets through tinkering with our health care system, we will be left with Concierge Doctors who only take patients on a private membership basis for large yearly fees that only the wealthy can afford, high cost private insurance, and a public health care option that provides only minimal health care coverage to the masses – that’s you and me. Who do you think is going to get better care?

The only exceptions will be members of the Congress who are on the best private insurance plans money can buy, paid for at taxpayer expense. In other words, don’t live as I do, take the leavings that Congress gives you and be happy that out of the goodness of their hearts they are bothering to cover you at all.

If you don’t want to endure long lines, and health care service rationing, as in England and Canada, or a decrease in your benefits similar to what Medicare will and won’t pay for in the future, you had better scrounge up the small fortune it’s going to cost you to get a Congress type health care plan. If you don’t, your current doctor will no longer be able to treat you. He or she can’t afford to treat you or spend time with you at the rates the government will eventually dictate they be paid for their services.

There won’t be enough doctors left to treat the general population, who haven’t opted out of the system, so we will probably have to outsource patient care to India, Mexico or Thailand as we currently do with telephone customer service responses for major corporations and some cosmetic surgery operations.

Don’t worry, with the advent of the new Electronic Medical Records, your new long distance doctor will be able to treat you on the phone, if you can understand him or her, or over the Internet. The best part is that you will spend less time in the hospital because many of the hospitals won’t be able to afford to keep you, if they don’t go bankrupt to begin with, from the lower fees the government will allow them to charge.

In the future, do it yourself operations in the comfort of your own home will probably be available in kit form as long as you can read the instructions and individual details in your Electronic Medical Record. That’s assuming the government allows you to view your personal information, and hasn’t sold all the pertinent parts to telephone marketers trying to sell you over-the- counter drugs and herbal remedies that promise to cure what ails you in pill popping form. Don’t believe in miracle cures from telephone marketers or painkillers from members of Congress or the Administration instead of needed operations for you and or the elderly. There is a cost to everything. In this case it may be your good health.

Please be sure to keep a ready supply of sharp knives, painkillers, and surgical gloves on hand in case you need to give yourself an emergency operation, especially if the alternative is getting on a long, around the block, line at the hospital emergency room.

I almost forgot to mention, sooner or later Congress is going to have to form a bipartisan committee to determine if your do-it-yourself medical emergency treatment can be assisted by the support of a spouse, loved one, or significant other. I suppose a lot of thought will have to be given by the committee to what constitutes a loved one or significant other, and whether or not your spouse might have a hidden motive or agenda in volunteering to assist in your self-help operation. Please have your affairs in order before you attempt any of these proposed procedures.

Don’t be upset by any of the aforementioned. This is not a false scenario of the Martians landing. This is simply a warning of what may actually happen in a new health care system if Congress has its way.

If worse comes to worse, you can treat most of your ailments yourself with information gleaned from the Internet. The most important thing to keep in mind is the best plan is to prevent disease before you get it. That way you will be safe from any medical malpractice you may foster on yourself or your loved ones while attempting to cure yourself from what ails you. No wonder a big part of the Administrations plan for a new and improved health care system is centered on Disease Prevention. It’s probably the only hope we have left to live a long, happy, and healthier life at practically no cost. You don’t want to be a burden to the government, do you?

Otherwise, I think we are going to have to let Congress form another committee to decide how long it is economically viable to allow you and I to live. Strange, I thought they were doing that already. Maybe they are, and no one has had the time to read the four thousand page document that will, or has been supplied to members of Congress as an amendment to the new proposed health care bill twenty-four minutes before the final vote is taken, or was it taken or agreed to behind closed doors already. I get confused.

But this is no time for you to get confused. Sometimes I find all this so frightening that I wonder if any of it is really happening. I think that is what members of Congress are counting on: that you and I are weak and confused, and won’t do anything to protect our rights. You know what to do. Voice your opinion. Get out and vote for people that will represent your individual rights. We want the same type of insurance policy that members of Congress have, or we want Congressmen to have to convert to the same national health care plan they offer us. We want freedom of choice. Tell Congress and the Administration to stop trying to control our lives. We want our constitutional freedoms preserved.
*****


Hi, this is Arthur Levine, private citizen. I am also the author of the novel Johnny Oops about a young man who doesn’t know whether he is a prophet or a charlatan or if in fact he is real. Read more about Johnny at http://johnnyoops.blogspot.com.

Mind Meld of The Magic Genies.

Sometimes it takes a little fantasy to help us understand that the conflict between different religious beliefs in the East and the West has reached critical proportions



“Stretched across the vast ineptitude of my soul, I see the ever present temptation of resurrection. I can take no more of new beginnings. Can you not see how vague is our horizon? Doesn’t the glare of mankind’s failure wrench you from your thoughts of a better tomorrow? Glorious, my irascible Magic Genie brother, where are we in the cosmic theme of things? What is there left for us to do? Standing here on a transparent cloud of nature’s quirky design, what can we hope to find in the future? When will God tell us what to do?”

“My old friend Gali, my magical soul mate, my Magic Genie brother, you are as ever the old world philosopher. We can try again. We can search for a better time. We have less than nothing else to do. We can put our minds together and deduce a new beginning, if not at the very beginning, at least not at the end of humanity. Let’s meld our purpose and share the provisions of our hearts and minds to reinstate the possible. God will give us guidance.”

“I see nothing but shadows Glorious. My thoughts are too disheartened for a meeting of our minds to do any good. Woe is me, where has all the magic gone?”

“It has left us at the entranceway of a new beginning my dear friend Gali if we can only find our way. We must try again. It is God’s will.”

“But they are all gone Glorious, all our friends, their culture, their very humanity. We cannot expect to resuscitate civilization with our own shaky salvation.”

“ I guess Gali there is nothing left to do but have faith. What else is left to us?”

“Maybe you are right Glorious. What else can we do but have faith. I will try again with you. Come, join your thoughts with mine and we will try to begin again. Together we will resonate as one voice; one thought in our attempt with God’s help to resurrect humanity.”

“That’s the spirit Gali. After all, we are nothing if not free spirits.”

“This mind meld must be working Glorious. You are starting to sound like me.”

“And you Gali are starting to think like me. Isn’t it wonderful? Together we shall find the power for humanity’s salvation, and maybe even our own redemption. I can feel it, can’t you? The old magic is coming back. A new future is in the making. May we find a better way to be civilization’s guardians this time under God’s good grace. May we begin again.”

“Can you perceive it Glorious? Can you sense the strength returning to our spirit? Can you not see the vale of despair lifting? Where shall we start my old friend?”

“We must start before the final bombs fall Gali. We must go back in time. We must change the ending to find a new beginning.”

“I see, would that it were ever thus. Can we do this Glorious?”


“Do we have a choice Gali? “What are they waiting for?”

“They are waiting for final instructions Glorious. Here on the frozen Tundra of Siberia they are waiting for the command to let loose the final bombs that will end the world.

“Where will the orders come from Gali? What can we do to stop them? Why are they fighting?”

“They are fighting for different ways of life. They are fighting for religious principals. The orders will come from bunkers buried deep in the earth far from here where men of fanatical endeavor will give the orders. We can only stop them if we can show them that there is no one right way. We must show them that there has got to be a better way than destroying humanity to prove whose way is right. We must reinvigorate them with the possibility of a better tomorrow. We must give them hope Glorious. And we must do so quickly. Time my old friend is not on our side this day. We will have to split up. You must go to the West. I will go to the East. We must get them to stand down. Hurry, we are almost out of time. They are about to destroy the world. There will be nothing again - no humanity, no civilization, no hope for the future. I do not believe this is how God would have it.”

“How will I know what to say Gali?”

“Remember we are of one mind Glorious. We shall know each others thoughts. We shall speak as one mind. Hurry, we must find a better way. God will give us the words.”

Excerpt - Husband Hunding

CHAPTER 8 – IF HE DOES CALL


OK so he called again. It took a week. He says he desperately wants to see you again. He can’t live without seeing you again. If this is how he reacts when he’s desperate can you image how long it’s going to take to get him to the alter? Be of good faith. These things take time. He is just moving more like an elephant than a tiger. You should have no trouble keeping up. Here’s what to do and what not to do on your second date.

• All the dos and don’ts from the first date are still in effect.
• Do not act like he is doing you a favor by asking you out again.
• Do act like you’re happy he did ask you out again.
• Don’t ask Mr. Coward why it took him so long to call.
• On the basis of your current history with him, don’t expect him to make the first move. He is not even sure why he called you again.
• Try and make him think this is a natural thing and help him to relax. He is not naturally an initiator of social interactions.
• What you want to accomplish on this date is to make him feel that this is the way things are supposed to be. He is supposed to want to be with you.
• At this stage don’t worry too much about frequency. It is going to take time to get him into the groove of dating you on a regular basis.
• Just to be safe, it’s OK to get Mr. Bravehart’s telephone number this time in case he loses his courage and you have to call him.
• Please try and remember that at this point he doesn’t know why he is dating you, but he is starting to get a nagging feeling that he is getting too involved.
• You must make him feel that this is natural – no big deal.
• Do not mention long-term commitments.
• Do not act too serious. Act like as much of a birdbrain as he is. This will make him relax. Then you can move in

… “No honey, I didn’t mean into his apartment. Take is easy. Don’t rush things.”

To find out more about Husband Hunting please leave your e-mail address in the comment section with a short message.
*****

Thanks,
Arthur Levine

Consumers Are Alive And Well And Hiding

Except for a small group of people – maybe five percent of the population – consumers are alive and well and spending about as much as they usually do, but they are hiding what they are doing from a critical and disgruntled public scared about high unemployment and a weak economy, and tired of being taken advantage of by the rich.

It has become fashionable to wear last years gown to the charitable ball, but that doesn’t mean the dowager in question doesn’t have the recently purchased latest in fashion from Paris sitting in her closet waiting for the appropriate opportunity. The problem is that when she finally wears the new frock, it may be next year, and last years gown that she is wearing.

Buying habits die hard. Yes there is much token switching from high price brands to private labels, and those that do buy new cars are opting in some cases for smaller and Ford or Toyota over Cadillac or Mercedes. The days of ostentatious show are over at least for a while.

Reminds me of many splendid villas in Mexico. What you see from the road is a crumbling gatehouse, but when you get past the high walls ad tall shrubs you will find a magnificent, freshly painted villa with tennis court and swimming pool and hordes of servants beckoning to the owners every whim.

The big spenders are still there. What has been eliminated is the fringe element that tried to live beyond their means with borrowed money. Those with inherited wealth are still spending just as they always were. They of course were never ostentatious about their spending habits to begin with. Their household checking accounts are not affected by reduced credit card debt limits, or a decline in the value of their multiple dwellings. As long as their monthly trust fund checks come in, they don’t care or count. They don’t have mortgages anyway.

The people who are really in the middle are the new middle class. They were squeezed by a past administration hell bent on favoring the rich and eliminating regulation, and now they are being over taxed and over regulated by a new administration hell bent on favoring the blue collar worker and the poor at their expense. They don’t know whether to try and maintain their spending habits to impress their neighbors or become frugal to save for the coming winter of their financial discontent.

Most people faced with these conflicting circumstances, and a faltering economy, are hiding what they spend. They don’t want the public to know that they are still all right economically lest the government try and take away what they have left in a massive redistribution of the wealth scenario.

It’s an economic and social anomaly brought on by the times we live in. The dream isn’t dead. It is only in hiding. Our innate desire to consume is still there. Our instincts are unchanged. We’re just scared, but we’re still big spenders. It’s our nature just like tax and spend is the government’s.

What are you hiding? Please remember to keep that forty-dollar pound box of chocolates in the back of the refrigerator, right next to the caviar and that special bottle of Champagne you’ve been hording for a special occasion, or the candies might melt. While you’re at it stop hiding that two hundred dollar pair of brand new running sneakers at the back of your closet. You have nothing to be ashamed of. Who are you running from – yourself?
*******

Homegrown Terrorist

CHAPTER 1 – IT’S A BOMB


A short, thin young man, in a dirty khaki colored raincoat and badly scuffed faded brown shoes pushed his way through the crowd propelling a baby carriage in front of him like a weapon. He was sweating profusely.

“Get out of my way,” he shouted. “I have to get through. Get away, move out of my way, damn people. It’s your fault,” he cursed in a hoarse voice. The smell of liqueur reeked from his breath as he continued up an entrance ramp spewing saliva and curses.

The two security guards, lounging against the railing on the far wall of the entryway, started to move toward him to see what the commotion was about. Then the bomb went off.

The bomb blast killed thirty-two children and their parents on the way to an in store miniature Merry Go Round. Another one hundred and twenty four, many of whom were children, were injured as the blast slammed its way full of shrapnel and nails to the fourth floor. Eventually, the sheer force of the bomb, blew a five foot wide hole in the roof as acrid black smoke forced its way out into a cold rainy night at the Times Square branch of the Bangles and Bows Toy Store in New York City.

It was the first suicide bomb detonated in New York City by homegrown terrorists, and things would never be the same.

You could see it in the rapid blinking eyes of the people. Fear griped the inhabitants of the City of New York and the Nation as a wave of copycat bombings took place in retail department stores, malls, sports arenas, railroad and bus terminals, and anywhere else these terrorists could strike terror into the hearts of the people.

The first attacks were designed to scare the population, and convince them that no one was safe and nobody was sacred -- not even the children. Sometimes the bombers blew themselves up with the bomb, and sometimes a remote triggering devise was used, but in all the cases where a suicide bomber caused the explosion, the police and the FBI had determined that the terrorists were homegrown natives and citizens of the USA. It was almost too much to fathom.

Who were these horrible ingrates that hated this Country so that they would sacrifice their own lives to kill innocent strangers and children? What had we done to create such hatred for our Country by people who grew up and lived here? How could we fight terrorists who didn’t even value their own lives? Who would be next on the terrorists list? Where and when would they strike again? Did they all belong to one terrorist network or were they working in individual cells or alone? How did they communicate with each other? Who or what organization was teaching them how to make bombs? Who was in charge?


Hi, this is Arthur Levine. To read more about the new novel, Homegrown Terrorist please visit http://johnnyoops.blogspot.com

The Debt Riots Of 2020

Hordes of young people in their twenties were storming the barricades erected outside of Congress. They were protesting a special personal income tax equal to seventy percent of their incomes that both houses of the legislature had just approved on poor and rich alike in an attempt to solve the economic crisis that was sweeping the Country, and forcing America ever closer to the brink of declaring bankruptcy.

Signs and placards bearing the slogans – It’s Not Our Debt. We Didn’t Create The Problem, Stop The Big Spenders, No More Taxes, and Bring Capitalism Back, were being stabbed in the air by grungy looking bearded young men and tattooed young women with a preponderance of nose, eye, and mouth piercing. These people looked unwashed and unfed, and were absolutely hysterical. They had no jobs, and no hope for a better future.

The police, backed by a large contingent of National guard troops flanked by tanks were using water cannon, tear gas, and dummy bullets to try and turn back the rabid crowd numbering over one hundred thousand.

Eight years of one party control of both houses of Congress and the Presidency had created spending levels that were unsustainable. The Country was being crippled economically by the cost of a national health care system exceeding forty percent of our shrinking gross domestic product, and socially by wave after wave of inhibiting regulation that stifled incentive.

Cap and Trade Carbon Taxes were making us unable to compete in the international arena as our cost of goods sky rocketed. Our government bonds had lost their triple A rating due to the fact that our annual deficit and borrowings were now more than equal to our GDP. The ranks of the unemployed swelled to more than twenty-five percent as business retrenched and downsized, unable to prosper in an era of fifty percent corporate taxes and thirty percent capital gains taxes.

Inflation was running at over ten percent a year and interest rates showed no sign of peaking at nine percent as the government scrambled to sell more and more bonds to pay for an ever widening federal deficit. Interest payments on Government debt alone were now more than seventeen percent of GDP.

The building of new roads and infrastructure had come to a standstill. There was simply no money to pay for it with entitlements growing at an annual rate of eighteen percent.

Everyone was effected by the cycle of tax and spend that had taken on a multiplier effect of its own. The consumer was on a constant spending strike in fear of their economic ruin by a nation hell bent on trying to spend their way out of their problems, and in love with the creeping socialism that had overtaken the will of the people to live free.

Everyone was hoarding the few dollars they had stashed away in the form of gold, mostly under the mattress. The banks couldn’t be trusted. They were stuffed full of toxic assets, both old mortgage bonds and new ones from Cap and Trade Carbon Certificates that were mostly worthless. The value of the dollar was now worth less than twenty percent of a Euro, and Countries like China were desperately trying to unload their US government bonds even at a fifty percent discount to face value. We no longer traded with China or Japan or India. We couldn’t afford to and they wouldn’t finance our out of control spending any more. And the price of gas had surged to seven dollars a gallon as Saudi Arabia and other oil producers adjusted their pricing to the decreased value of the dollar.

Financial markets were breaking down, hedge funds and private equity firms were a thing of the past as speculation became a no, no, and capital formation shrank. The Dow Jones Averages had retraced to less then 6000. Credit in the form of credit card debt or home mortgages had been legislated nearly out of existence as Congress fell over themselves trying to protect an unwitting public from themselves. They had just about succeeded in regulating them and protecting them out of their very way of life. America had become a third rate Country in just ten years – an international laughing stock.

The public was out of hope, desperate for an end of changes that were protecting them out of everything they owned, and wanted a return to the old days of Capitalism, individual initiative, and prosperity based on hard work and innovation. Government sponsored salary caps had driven most of our financial services industries overseas, and many wealthy people were taking out duel citizenship in England, Canada, and France for protection. Many were taking up residence in Mexico where rules and regulation were often a matter of what you paid for and how close you were to the Ruling party. The influx of illegal immigrants had reversed as the US unemployment rate rose.

The crowds, disregarding the potential of harm to their own lives, stormed the barricades, overwhelming the police and national guard and rampaged into the buildings destroying furniture, overturning statues, cutting up rare paintings, and physically attacking Senators and Congressman alike. More than a dozen were seriously injured. Those that survived unhurt were forced to sign a pledge of no more taxes and no new spending before they were released stripped naked into the streets and the ever-watchful eyes of the TV cameras.

Older citizens, hunkered down in their homes, awaiting needed medical care that never seemed to come in time, commiserated with each other over the good old days, and what they had lost, and watched the TV in horror as the scenes of the Debt Riots unfolded.

All but a power hungry few fanatics had stopped voting at national elections, convinced that it was hopeless and that democracy was dead. A small group of party faithful determined the fate of the Nation.

How could this have happened in so short a time? Why had good intentions gone so astray? Were the intentions really good to begin with, or were we just sold a bill of goods? One thing was for sure – the change we got was not what we counted on.

Riots and Anarchy and Debt Riots had come to America.

A Whole New Country

It’s a whole new Country we are living in here in America, and I don’t like the changes.

The freedoms our forefathers fought for are giving way to supervised doled out living by the Federal Government.

A new Federal monster called National Healthcare is on the way, which will become the largest government agency; swiftly outgrowing social security, and reducing benefits to the elderly under Medicare.

Capitalism is almost dead, creeping socialism is on the way, and life as we know it may never be the same.

Freedom of choice is quickly becoming obsolete. The age of big brother is upon us. Soon we will probably all be embedded with a federal ID chip, and our movements will no longer be private.

For those of us who need supervision and cannot make it in our lives on their own, these changes may be welcome.

For those of us who prefer to rely on our own abilities, these changes spell the death knell to our dreams and hopes.

Quality doctors will opt out of the system, preferring to treat only private patients rather than be told what they can and cannot charge.

Waiting up to six months for a heart operation as in England will become the norm, but Congress won’t give up their excellent health care coverage to join the masses in this boondoggle of bureaucracy.

Clerks that can hardly speak or write English or Spanish properly will be in charge of the forms you have to submit to get medical care. Mistakes can be appealed in an endless futile procedure.

Our banks will be downsized, eliminating moral hazard, and our ability to compete effectively internationally.

Credit card debt will be constricted. Home ownership will be restricted, and savings will rise as inflation and interest rates become seven percent and seven percent within three years as a result of the federal reserves massive injections of money into the system and the Federal Government’s deficit creation, and huge spending splurges that go on and on, as wealth is redistributed from rich to poor to pay for the expenditures. There will never be enough.

Employment will be permanently downsized, as small business sees no incentive, or reason to expand. Staying under $250,000 in earnings to limit tax liability will become more important.

By the time the younger generation wakes up to the fact that change they counted on has turned us into a third rate economic power with no ability to produce anything worthwhile, it will be too late. The damage will have been done, and the economic horrors that will be wrought on their children who will inherit an unsustainable debt, will lead to the possibility of anarchy.

It’s a whole new Country we are becoming, and I don’t like the direction it is taking one bit. I cherish freedom of choice. I love the ability to make my own decisions. I like it the way we had it, but for now I’m in the minority.

As more and more Americans become aware of the freedoms we are losing, the picture may change. I wonder if we will come into reality in time to stop a catastrophe from happening. I prey that we do.

Don’t take away our incentive to live free. The Country will be the loser if you do. Don’t take away our freedom of choice.

If this is the new reality we are living in, I’d rather be in a virtual reality world.