Political Rant

Well it seems like everyone has a political opinion to share these days and Eva and I certainly have ours. Now this may come off as a little self-centered, but I figure that is one of the privileges of having a blog- sort of what it is all about. Blogs are not exactly beacons of humility. Anyways, I apologize if it comes off as fairly self-serving. I am also sorry for the lack of photos and the length. There is a local endorsement towards the end. Is that enticing? Hopefully.

What an amazing time that we are living through. Of my few years, this just feels like the most historic time that I have ever lived consciously. Either way that the presidential election goes, it will be historic. We have not seen stock market gyrations like this since the thirties. A Republican has just authored and approved one of the most socialist moves in our nation’s history. Again, what an amazing time. Something that really strikes me is that the citizenry is more informed than I have ever seen. I hear Obama’s and McCain’s names in conversations between people on the street, in restaurants, and in almost every other public place I might frequent. It seems like more people have an opinion one-way or another now and it is very rare to meet someone who is either oblivious to what is going on or apathetic. Don’t get me wrong, these people are still out there but it seems like their numbers have dwindled and even if you are tired of the 24 hr news channel’s minute by minute election coverage, your probably are leaning one way or another.

One big factor, which really seems to bring home this election more than the ones before it, is that it actually seems like this election matters. That real people will be directly affected by its outcome. With this consideration, I would like to mention the factors that will directly affect my life and urge you to consider them when you vote. In the interest of full disclosure, I consider myself very liberal but definitely open minded towards conservative ideas. I would hope that I weigh both sides evenly though I know that we all have a strong disposition towards seeking out views that confirm our own philosophies. One of my favorite books on the subject is Matt Miller’s 2% solution which proposes achieving a number of liberal goals using conservative means and visa-versa. Very progressive and it seems like while we are overhauling some of these institutions maybe we should look at doing it in a methodical, thoughtful way, so that we do not end up here again.

Anyways, as this blog has primarily concerned itself with my health, the issue that will affect me most is health care. There are distinct differences between the candidates that will impact my life in a very real way.

1.Pre-existing conditions. Under our current system I am basically a leper as viewed by the health insurance companies. So far, Raytheon has been amazing and has treated me more fairly than I could have imagined, but if something happens between me and Raytheon, I basically have no chance of picking up another private health care policy. There would be ways around this like if Eva had health coverage through her work and she could include her spouse or, since I have end stage renal disease (ESRD), I qualify for Medicare, but it is hard to know how much of the chemotherapy that has given me the last two years would be covered. Obama wants to make it law that people like me cannot be excluded because of pre-existing conditions. They can still make the premiums high, as I would expect and accept, but I would still be able to get coverage.

2. Opening up the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan to all Americans. This would allow anyone to buy into the health insurance pool of the federal government. If something did happen to the benefits that Raytheon has so wonderfully provided, this would allow me to buy health insurance without having to have it tied to an employer. Now employers cannot discriminate based on disabilities, but I probably would not want to hire myself and I totally understand. I am barely productive, I need to take naps during the day, I have trouble focusing, and I occasionally would need to drop what I was doing or leave a meeting abruptly to go throw-up. All in all, I would be a horrible employee. Again Obama has presented the idea of opening up the federal pool to everyone and I like the idea of moving health coverage away from our employer-based system. This should have a lot of appeal to people who would like to start their own small business (often conservative) as leaving a big company with good health insurance is often a risk impeding that jump. An Obama administration would remove this hurdle.

Now, McCain had some decent ideas, too, but the two mentioned above trump everything else for my personal situation. Actually Matt Miller and McCain have the same idea about subjecting the benefit part of what your employer pays for your health coverage to federal taxes. McCain does give a $5K tax credit that would offset the tax burden and then give most people about a thousand dollars to spend on their own health care. In my situation, under this plan, if I lost my Raytheon based health coverage, I doubt if the $5K would cover a policy for me or if I could even get a chance to buy a policy. In this case, my chemotherapy would be a huge burden to my family and me and everyone would probably end up paying for me anyways as I would probably end up in the ER more often than now. People are not going to want to hear this but, the idea of opening up what the employer pays for your benefits to being taxed, is one way that the government could generate some revenues, hopefully they would be used to combat the spiraling costs of medical care, or keep Medicare solvent, or be the basis for some government pool that would offer health coverage to those who do not have it through their work place.

I am just about done ranting. I appreciate your strength of character if you are still with me. Just a couple more points…

We are ok with $85 billion to save an insurance company, and $700 billion (plus $100+ billion of incentives to get votes) to save our banking industry and the broader economy, yet we cannot find $5 billion to insure every single child in the richest nation on earth. That is a crime.

Fire fighting is not a profit seeking business. Why is health care? I trust my doctors, but the only way they get paid is if they perform a test or a procedure. Guess what? They have to do a whole lot of tests and procedures to make a decent living. If we applied this to fire fighting and paid them when they actually put out fires, we would either be continuously burning so that they could get paid, or be devastated by a huge fire because it was not profitable for them during “dry spells.” I don’t know how to do it, but we need to change our goal or mindset in the medical industry. We need to find a way to make it profitable to keep people healthy (without withholding needed care).


Now, being a democrat, I almost certainly would have voted for Obama anyways, but considering the reasons I mentioned above, my life would actually be more livable with an Obama presidency. You can think of a vote for Obama as just another way of supporting me but don’t worry, I won’t hold it against you if you vote for McCain. Personally, I would prefer if hope prevails over fear. That is what has gotten me this far and will, hopefully, get me through this disease. We all have our own reasons, and had the McCain of 2000 run this year, I would have had a harder decision myself. However you feel, please just vote and make your voice heard. If you don’t vote, you will share in none of the credit if things actually improve and I will blame you for the shortcomings of whichever man get does gets elected.

Thank you for enduring even more political talk, amongst the over abundance this campaign season. I invite any thoughts, comments, or rebukes to be posted. I would really enjoy hearing some thoughtful opposition.

As far as my health, I am still plugging away with dialysis and chemotherapy. We are starting to get into a routine with the dialysis and it really is not all that big of a burden. Chemo has been going fairly well though I still throw-up a few times after every session. The pump is as close to a modern version of a ball and chain as I can think of. I bit more portable but some actions just do not work very well with it- like spinning in circles or hula-hooping. It totally cramps my style.

I have still managed to squeeze in a bit of fun here and there. Eva and my folks saw Steve Forbes speak at the Bona Venture in downtown. That was really interesting. He painted a surprisingly rosy picture especially since the DOW lost over 700 points the day before he spoke. He thinks the feds are actually taking the appropriate action now that they are injecting liquidity into the banks. We will see. Eva and I have enjoyed getting out to see Religulous and W. Both were very enjoyable, though Religulous was much more provocative (and frightening). W was decent in that it did not paint Bush as a total idiot but more of a victim of those around him. Who knows what happens behind close doors but it was pretty entertaining.

Last night I was lucky enough to attend a small gathering for a woman running for congress in my own district, Debbie Cook. It was hosted by Dr. Geisse, an eye doctor that plays soccer with my father. Dr. Geisse is an amazingly compassionate man and has a particular ability to make you feel especially cared about. He was almost certainly my Grandmother’s favorite doctor (besides her son) and when my dad would stop by after soccer, she would inevitably ask…Did you win? Did you score? Was Dr. Geisse there? That said, he fully endorsed Debbie Cook and provided an opportunity for her to speak a bit and then take questions. I was very impressed. She was a nice, intelligent, realistic person who I think would do an excellent job as congresswoman. After most people had left, she took the time to answer a wide range of questions I put to her -everything from evolution to the financial recovery package to climate change to health care to ethanol. The evolution question was more to just determine a baseline of reasonable thought. I hope that my questions were not too smart assy, I just wanted to cover all the bases. A bit of accountability and questioning might have prevented some of the messes we are currently dealing with. I was very satisfied with each of her responses. In fact, I think in the ten minutes I spent with her, I heard more substance in her answers than in all of Sarah Palin’s answers combined. I think Debbie Cook faced more questions from me than I have seen Sarah Palin face everywhere except for the debate and Katie Couric. You should take a look at her if you live in the 46th district (a crazy district that includes Los Alimitos, Huntington Beach, a small slice of Long Beach, a slice of San Pedro, and a piece of Palos Verdes) at www.debbiecookforcongress.com. Her opponent, the incumbent Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican, has quite an interesting wikipedia page. Most of it is fairly understandable when read in context, but the table of contents was one of the most bizarre I have ever read. Anyways, she was pretty impressive and will certainly get my vote. If anyone who knows her and reads this, please thank her for spending a bit of time with me. Small encounters like these really bring government to life and are very interesting to me.

Sorry this has been a really long entry. Obviously I enjoy these topics very much. Thanks again for bearing with me. I hope to see a lot of you at the LA Cancer Challenge next Sunday (the 26th). You all have been so generous with your time and money. Thank you for being such wonderful people.

Take Care and Live Strong,
Tyler