ACA and Beans

Good morning! And a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! to Laura who is an ancient 22 today. And yes, if she is ancient at 22 and I am her mother, I am aware of what that makes me. Just so you know.

Busy, busy weekend so I didn’t get to this but you can be sure that I haven’t forgotten my topic for the day now that I am here. Laura can handle it; she’s a big girl. And you know what’s great about that? I feel like I’ve at least partly done a good job with Laura because I feel that she can think for herself. It just so happens that many of our thoughts and feelings regarding politics and birth mimic the other but I believe this is not because Laura is a blind follower but because she has learned to think for herself. That is a wonderful thing.

So, the following I ‘borrowed’ from a friend, Lena Sansom (who is an awesome woman: she is beautiful, has three terrific children and an awesome husband; she has not had an easy life and has had many trials but has risen above those in the past and I am sure will rise above those yet to come—I am honored that I can call her my friend), from Facebook:

“The following is about Obamacare/Affordable Care Act. I am definitely not one to proclaim that I understand the entire scope of what it is and what it means for our country. I recently read a post/rant from an old Army friend about how his insurance rates are going up exponentially fast because of it. $1000 a month (ish) to cover people who can't afford it otherwise. What's it going to cost for those who can't afford it?

“Anyway, this got me thinking about when I lived in Sweden about 10 years ago. They are a socialistic country and I’m afraid we are on that path. Everyone can go to the doctor AND everyone can go to college for as long as they want-all on the government's dime...well, on the people's dime. At first I thought that was so smart-"everyone can go to college?!!?"-but the longer I stayed there, the clearer the negatives of that system became. Swedish citizens just accepted that 48% of their income was going to be taxed. They just accepted that they would never become wealthy. Not many people could afford a license to drive a car (over $1000 US dollars), let alone afford the car to drive. Because Sweden takes in so many refugees from the Middle East, Africa, Asia and South America, the native Swedes have developed a new kind of racism. Possessing NATIONALISM was outlawed. On their independence day, they are not allowed to outwardly celebrate it. Their colors are blue and yellow and on June 6th, you see less of those colors. It's apparently offensive to the refugees. These refugees have the same rights as native Swedes and can do all these things for free. They also don't have to work, since that would be morally wrong to expect them to do. Are you drawing parallels yet?

“If you are an alcoholic, the government sees that as a medical disability. If you're drunk in the morning, you obviously can't work. So, the government gives alcoholics a monthly stipend to live on AND money for beer, since you can't deny him/her that - he/she has a medical condition! It’s very common to see refugees in this situation. Speaking of the government, because everything is on the extreme side of political correctness, the government, by law, requires that it be made up of 51% female personnel. This includes law enforcement and the fire department. As a female American Soldier, I have seen women trying to do “men’s jobs” and VERY RARELY have I seen another succeed. I’m sorry if that’s offensive and hurts someone’s feelings, but that has been my experience. If my house is on fire and my family is stuck inside, I want a man to come get us out. It’s very rare that a woman can match a man’s physical strength. Since they have to honor the 51% rule, if there's a man who is better qualified for the job (government, police or fire), the less qualified woman will get the position.

“So let’s take a peek at some other law-related things. Since the whole country of Sweden runs on people paying taxes, the punishment for not paying taxes is YEARS in jail. I can’t remember exactly how many, but I remember it was around a decade or more. How does this compare to murder? I had the pleasure of meeting a man who was involved with the Russian mafia who was ordered to kill two men. He served FIVE years in prison and, at the time I knew him, was working as a train conductor. Another interesting story concerning the government and other cultures: A Muslim girl, around 17 years old, was dating a white Swedish boy, also around 17 years old. Her father forbade her to see him. She disobeyed so the father and her brother beat her to death. Neither of them went to jail, since it is their custom that if she disobeyed, they could beat her. I only know this story from a Swede who went to school with the girl and boy.

“I hope and pray that we are not headed down this road. The Swedish people are the offspring of the VIKINGS, for crying out loud!!! How sad it is that they are not allowed to be proud of their heritage? We, as Americans, are the children of our forefathers and I can’t imagine a day where we would be fined for flying Old Glory on Independence Day. We need to do more than rant on Facebook and other social media sites, though. Start organizing your thoughts and get involved with your local government, call your mayor, governor, senator, or whoever and hold them accountable for what’s going on in our country and where we are headed!”

It seems to me that we are under the erroneous opinion that the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, is socialized medicine. This does not compute. Socialized medicine is, ‘by definition, a health care system in which the government owns and operates health care facilities and employs the health care professionals, thus also paying for all health care services. Examples abroad include the British National Health Service, and national health systems in countries such as Finland and Spain, but NOT including Canada’s Medicare system (which is publicly funded but which does not own all of the health facilities). Closer to home, the Veterans Health Administration is, as one author points out, “actually socialized medicine, where the government owns the hospitals and employs the doctors.” ("Health Insurance Glossary." Health Insurance Resource Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.)’

This is just one example of a definition I have found. There are many more and they are all similar and they all indicate that the Affordable Care Act is NOT socialized medicine. What the Affordable Care Act is, is this: “A federal statute signed into law in March 2010 as a part of the healthcare reform agenda of the Obama administration. Signed under the title of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the law included multiple provisions that would take effect over a matter of years, including the expansion of Medicaid eligibility, the establishment of health insurance exchanges and prohibiting health insurers from denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions ("Affordable Care Act." Investopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.).

Health insurance exchanges are not socialized medicine. Countries with socialized medicine have tax rates of around 50% of income. We do not have that. Even in countries with socialized medicine, there are some private practices that do not come under control of the government. In Great Britain, for example, you can have a homebirth if you’d like but if the midwives are too busy in hospital, you have to go there as well because there just aren’t enough midwives to cover all the pregnant women. You can, however, hire a midwife out of pocket and she will attend your birth at home and you won’t have to worry about her not being able to come (generally speaking).

My only point here is that there seem to be a lot of people who believe that what we are getting with Obamacare is socialized medicine and this just is not the case. The government neither currently owns our health care facilities nor employs our health care professionals. What Obamacare does seem to be is the springboard or a stepping stone to socialized medicine. So, if you like the idea of socialized medicine, you should hop on board and help it come to pass. If you do not like the idea, then you should stand up and fight for your rights and encourage everyone else to do the same.

My personal belief is that we should completely do away with insurance companies. Doctors who do not bill insurance (and they do exist and do practice in the United States) are able to charge much less because they do not have to pay people to bill insurance and are not responsible for keeping insurance companies in business. The only insurance that might be useful is something along the lines of catastrophic insurance for when something really big comes along. Still, it would be insurance and as such I would be very hesitant to embrace it. It might be better if we all learn to live frugally and save money and have a few thousand in the bank for when really big things happen. I know, I know, like that will ever happen.

What Obamacare represents to me is legislation gone amuck. When only 40% of the populace is in favor of something, Congress is not doing its job in representing we, the people.

I’d really love to take the time to discuss cesarean-sections more but I have other things to do today than sit at the table in front of a computer so that will have to wait for another day. I’d also love to discuss the little black boxes that Democrats in Congress want us all to have in our cars so they know exactly how many miles we have driven so they can tax us for them and so they can know exactly where we have been going. No way, man. This is still a free country. Right?

Cedric, Jospeh and Seth. Blinded by the sun.

Saturday we had three soccer games. All in Hubbardston. Seth and Joseph were both at 9:00. Seth’s team won and Joseph’s did as well. Seth’s score was 4 to 0. They played Barre and Barre did seem to learn from the last time; they didn’t lose by as much. Seth played well. Joseph’s score was a tie 6 to 6. Joseph did alright. He doesn’t seem to like soccer as much as his brothers. I know he’s younger but I’m thinking that next fall if he doesn’t want to play, I’m certainly not going to make him.

Cedric was sure the socks would be itchy. He was surprised that they aren't and loves them! (Groovy non-period hat, eh?)

Cedric’s game was good. His team also played Barre but lost 0 to 4. However, for the first half, they only had enough players to have a full team on the field—no subs. Ryan showed up just before the half so they were able to have someone out in order to give the kids on the field a break every now and then. To Cedric’s credit, he was never out. He was very tired at the end of the game though. All four of the points they let Barre get were in the first half; they allowed none in the second. Cedric almost got two goals and other than that there were three almosts. It’s too bad they were almosts and not actual goals. Cedric was awesome.

Seth loves his outfit; he even wore it to church yesterday.

I had almost finished outfits for all the boys. I got them all done after Cedric’s game. I was going to make a cake and cheddar chowder for the chili cook off at church Saturday but when I got home from Cedric’s game and saw that someone had adulterated my beans, I was in no mood to do any more baking or cooking. I did finish the bread that I’d started Friday night but it didn’t turn out as well as it does when either I have time to let it rise more or the house is warmer. Still, it won first place for the bread. When I left for Cedric’s game the beans filled my 8-quart Pampered Chef pot about 2/3 full and were on the back left burner and it was turned to 1. They were looking good and I figured if they needed any tweaking, I would have time to do that after the game. When we got home, they were still on that burner but it was turned to 2 and they had boiled over. Who messed with my beans!?! I was not happy. I actually threw two empty jars into the sink. Noone has confessed. Paul made spaghetti for the four missionaries for lunch but says he did not mess with my beans other than to turn them down from 3 because they were foaming up. Cedric wasn’t here. Amena and Sarah Trivett were here and Seth and Joseph were here. SOMEone messed with them.

Pretty cute, I'd say.

Anyway, we had beans and cornbread for supper last night and that is what we are going to have them again tonight. I’m not excited because they don’t taste anything like I wanted them to and the reason I didn’t even make a whole pot is because I didn’t want to be eating them for a week.

Cedric being himself. Loves the hat.

Other than eating beans yesterday, it turned out to be an okay sort of Sunday. And today has the potential to be an okay sort of Monday. Another busy one, but that’s okay.

He's quite the boy.

Have a wonderful day!