Health Insurance and Healthcare

Since the State of the Union is on in a few minutes, and since I have no intention of watching that dog-and-pony show, then here I am! Hah!
I have watched 3 State of the Union speeches in the past 30 yrs. The last one was the one Bush gave a few months following the attack on our country on Sept 11th.

The other day I received some very valuable information for all of us over the age of 50, and actually, for everyone of voting age. Please feel free to read the info at this website:

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=115617

Don and I have never been members of AARP, so gladly we can claim that we were not among the unwilling enablers that helps to give AARP their clout.  Back in the 90's, when AARP came out in favor of universal healthcare, I knew that this organization was NOT looking out for the welfare of the senior Americans.  After living in Germany for 10 yrs and talking to the many Germans that I worked with for the US Army, national health insurance is not a good thing and the main example is Medicare.  For those seniors that have very little income and need something to get by, the social workers should be lining up information on low-cost or free clinics, charities, various agencies, pharmeceutical eligibility, etc. to enable these seniors to be taken care of as best as possible. 

While it is true that none of us has a guarantee of good health and happiness, it behooves all of us to be educated medical consumers.  We must all learn where to go and for what, how to approach issues and when and why.  We need to learn if there are alternatives even if the alternative is harder to do or takes more work.  Many of us tend to take the easiest means which is often medication, when ,more often than not, the smart thing to do might be to alter our diet, change our activity level, practice positive thinking, look into herbal supplements approved by our M.D., or even just something as simple as maintaining good posture and sleep habits.  This is true of all ages, not just the elderly. 

The insurance companies are among the lowest profit corporations, unlike the oil companies.  Some of us are locked into our insurance whether we want to be or not.  Hubby has cardiac/lung issues and I'm a cancer survivor; both of us carry "pre-existing" health concerns that 99% of health ins. companies won't accept.  It is people like us who should be irate about the healthcare debacle in this country, but we aren't.  We pay too much for our insurance, but are unable to change, however, we just go on and help each other and look out for each other.  We confide in each other, our family, our doctor/nurse team, and reason out our decisions.
It is not up to the government to decide whether Don has surgery on his lungs or not, it is up to Don (and me! 0;-}  ) 

We had a friend in Germany that had torn his ACL to an extent that he had to have knee surgery.  The surgery was botched somehow and the therapist told him that his limp would be permanent without a corrective surgery.  Guess what?!  The national health ins. in Germany told him that at age 52, he couldn't be given another surgery on the same knee, but he was eligible for govt. issued canes.  This is not what we, as a free people, want in this country.
We'll talk about this some more later...