latest health rant

10-13-2009

Well, here I am...40 years old...and denied my final appeal for Disability.
Borrowed $$$ and got an MRI that a blind man can read....to no avail.
Right hip is trash.
Avascular Necrosis...(that means dead bone due to lack of blood supply)
Left ankle is toast...one pound of metal and numerous fractures and "Loose Bodies"...X-Ray looks like a gravel pit.
Right knee is screwed as well....damage from the wreck, 20 years ago, plus wear and tear from cooking all these intervening years...damaged ligaments from falls, no cartilage to speak of.
My lawyer says to reapply...start all over.
Only problem is i haven't worked in almost 4 years (I’ve been disabled…duh.)...my "credits" will run out in December, and I will no longer be "eligible" for Disability.
But i can't work...at least at a real job...
Sure, I can do things that need doing around the house/farm (within limits)...but "working" for 4 hours then laying there, in pain, for 2-4 days isn't exactly what most employers are looking for, I think.
4 hours is what I can generally handle...if I stay clear of heavy lifting, ditch-digging, etc...and if I have the option of sitting or laying down, when needed.
I'm talking here about housework....laundry, dishes, cooking.
If I am required to do "real" work, (because if I don't ,it won't get done. like slapping together a porch/future utility-room, patching the roof, etc)..I'm worthless for several days.
The Judge at the video-hearing had an “expert” with him, who determined that I was capable of two jobs….”Cut and Paster” and “Order Clerk”. The former, I have no idea….seems like computers do that kind of thing. The latter is usually found in a warehouse…and in my experience, requires lifting and walking and 8 hour shifts. No one seems to have noticed that most employers have not exactly been pillars of social responsibility these past 30 years…and, regardless, there are no such jobs within at least 40 miles of me.
So what am I to do??
A Doctor I know suggests that I "establish residence" with a friend or relative in San Antonio, or somewhere...and get into the County Health System.
Of course, this would be Fraudulent...at least to me.
I can't afford to move to the big city....let alone live there.
Another tack...
Divorce my wife (on paper)...
In Texas, where we are all Christians, following His Teachings to the letter (snort),an adult must make less than $231.00/month in order to qualify for Medicaid.
My wife brings in around $900 every month....ergo, we are deemed too well off for Public Assistance.
So, we reasoned, we could pay the $300 for a divorce, and I could "live in my truck" with "no income' and, theoretically, qualify for healthcare….save that I’m pretty sure that one needs an address to get Medicaid.(How someone making under $231/month can maintain a residence is beyond me…)
And, once more, fraudulent...
The three surgeries I need would cost around $18,000 in Cuba, I'm told....
as opposed to $100,000+ , here...
But, I have no money...
In theory, the Emergency Room is forbidden from turning someone away....one hears this on the news all the time.
I'm not sure I'm confident enough in that assertion to test it....I mean, I could jump off the roof, thus (inevitably) breaking my damaged hip, and calling for an ambulance.
With my luck, they'd check my credit score, or something, before handing me an advil and pushing me out the door.

I have been uninsurable since I was rebuilt, after that wreck, almost 20 years ago...the insurance I had then paid all but $100,000, and dropped me.
Haven't had insurance, since.
And....now, it's not only the big three...(hip/ankle/knee)...
It's my back, my neck, my wrists, my elbow, my thumbs, my shoulders....and my "good" hip.
Wear and tear...compensation for my damaged parts.
You're suppose to lift with your' knees...but what if your' knees are fubar?
Ergo, damaged back,etc.
Of course, I have no "proof" of all of these newer ailments...MRI's. X-rays and doctor's visits are expensive. Too, when I fractured my thumbs in a fall, for instance, I wrapped them up, drank tequila and endured…no records….no documentation.
So when I reapply for Disability, I'll just have my word.
And if my previous experience with the system is any indicator, they won't even process my application until I'm no longer "eligible".

So, while my "Representatives" are yelling about "Socialism" and generally standing in the way of any real reform of this fucked up "system", I deteriorate.
And get more broke, and broken.
And wonder why my country has abandoned me.
At this rate, I don't think I can make it another 23 years, till I am eligible for Medicare....assuming that that program hasn't been misused and defunded and destroyed by that time.
It is disappointing, in the extreme, that my best "option" seems to be to rob a bank, steal a boat and make my way to the nearest Communist country.
What does it say about our System that that becomes a more and more reasonable choice?
When varying degrees of Fraud and Grand Larceny are the best, most cost effective path to health? Or even the only path.
What does it say about us? A self-described "Christian Country"?
When I review the four Canonical Gospels, I can't find any mention of taking care of giant Corporations at the expense of the Poor and Sick.
Nowhere is it mentioned that we must make sure the rich get richer.
Jesus didn't buy stock options in the money-changers....he kicked them out of the Temple.
The various Parables don't say the Rich will inherit the Earth, but the Meek.
Jesus was a Liberal...
And it is the height of hypocrisy to call oneself a Christian while supporting a political party that, at every turn, does just the opposite of what Jesus would do...as deduced from His Words.
War is not Pro-Life...neither is the coddling of the Super Rich...
But Universal Healthcare is.