A few thoughts on "Medicare For All"

There are 3 main parts to Medicare currently: A, B, and D. Part A covers hospital inpatient stays, and if you've been working and paying into Medicare long enough (through payroll deductions) you don't have to pay a premium for Part A. If you don't qualify for free Part A, (usually because you or your spouse paid in for less than 10 years - 40 quarters) then the premium is between $240 and $437 per month. Part B covers medically necessary doctor visits, outpatient care, durable medical equipment, home health, and mental health services. Part B premiums start at $135.5/month if you earned less than $85K in the tax year 2 years prior to the plan year and increases in 5 tiers to a top premium of $460/month Part B also has a $185 deductible, after which you pay 20% of the Medicare approved amount for any procedures you have. Part D covers prescription drugs. Most Part D plans have a premium, but nothing is listed on the Medicare site, other than the 5 tier add-on which starts at $12.40/month for incomes over $85K in the tax year 2 years prior to the plan year. The Part D deductible is also variable, but not more than $415 in 2019 and $435 in 2020. You can check all this, and details of what's covered here; https://www.medicare.gov/your-medicare-costs ________________ Some of the things Medicare doesn't cover are:

• Long-term care (also called custodial care )
• Most dental care
• Eye exams related to prescribing glasses
• Dentures
• Cosmetic surgery
• Acupuncture
• Hearing aids and exams for fitting them
• Routine foot care

----------------------- Most Medicare Advantage plans don't charge a premium and provide some services at no cost. Some also include vision, hearing, and dental care -- but it's limited and carries a copay. ____________ So right from the get-go, let's dispense with the idea that Medicare is "free". It's not and for some people, paying the premiums and deductible is a real hardship. Medicare also has a massive amount of bureaucracy, and if it was expanded to cover the whole country, that bureaucracy would also be expanded. And bureaucrats aren't cheap. If you're working, you'd still be paying the Medicare payroll taxes, as well as premiums and deductibles. ----------------------- If either Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren's plans are adopted and private insurance goes away, everyone on Medicare who has a Medicare Advantage or Medigap plan would be kicked back onto basic Medicare and lose the benefit of the low or no copays they currently have. For example, the Medicare Advantage HMO I have has a $0 copay for PCP and Urgent Care visits, $20 specialist, vision, dental, and hearing, and $120 ER visits. This is actually cheaper than my last health insurance! --------------------------------------------------- Then there are a few other issues.

1. Medicare pays less than commercial insurance to both doctors and hospitals. This will be a problem. Operating costs (rent, utilities, equipment maintenance, insurance -- both facility and malpractice) aren't getting cheaper. Staff have to be paid. Doctors, nurses, techs, janitors, and all the other people who make hospitals, clinics and doctors offices run don't work for free. As things stand, smaller hospitals and clinics -- especially in rural areas are having a hard time making ends meet.
2. Medicare doesn't cover everything. If you need a drug that isn't on the approved list, or a procedure that's not covered, you're S.O.L.
3. Medicare was designed for senior care and end of life care. Most people spend 60 years give or take before they need a lot of the care Medicare is designed to provide. This means that before it can be implemented, there's going to have to be a whole lot of revision undertaken.
4. Dumping the private insurance system, cumbersome, expensive and inefficient as it is will put a whole load of people out of work. Between 6 and 10 million people are employed in health insurance and related areas. I think Warren's estimate of 2 million jobs lost is an understatement, but even that is a lot of people to suddenly find themselves out of work. -------------------------------------- Yes, we need health care reform, but "Medicare for All" isn't it. In fact, "Medicare for All" isn't a plan or a policy -- it's a slogan. The Devil, as they say, is in the details. And there are A LOT of details.

I'm happy to report that Phoenix is now slightly cooler than the surface of the sun. In fact it's reached the point that I need to wear socks in the house and have put the summer weight duvet on the bed. It's also weather that calls for warm food.



I've been making a really nice curried roast butternut squash soup with corn & wild rice for several years. However, I needed a slightly lower carb option. This is what happened.



Chicken & winter squash curry

1/2 dozen or so chicken thighs - boneless, skinless, cut into chunks, tossed in the spice mix and browned

A couple of leeks -- sliced into rings

A chunk of ginger -- chopped finely

A handful of garlic -- chopped finely

1 carnival squash -- roasted, then peeled, de-seeded, and cut into chunks

A couple of cups of chicken stock (I probably used about 1/2 cup too much)

Curry spice of your choice. I used National Keema Mix

Chuck it all in the crockpot, deglaze the pan you browned the chicken in with some of the stock.

Let it do its thing for 3 hours or so on high.

The squash had essentially become a puree and thickened the sauce. It was pleasantly spicy, with a little sweetness from the squash.

I used a bit too much stock, so I had to eat it from a bowl with a spoon (Oh! No!) My sinuses have been cleared into the middle of next week. And best of all -- there's about 3 more portions!

I've been making good progress on my new socks. I turned the heel yesterday. I'm loving the colours, they're very warm and seasonal.

This year, the 10th Annual Freeze Your Gas Off run will take place on December 7. I'm going to fly up to NH, do the run in the Widow, then drive her back to Arizona.

Here's the Rolling Living Room doing the run in 2011. At that point I still had street tires on her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ-fjlcST7s

On Wednesday I finished my first pair of socks since I moved. This is yarn that I bought at the NH Sheep and Wool festival earlier this year.

So of course I started a new pair. This is a cotton blend, which I thought would be more suitable for Arizona, which as we all know is hotter than the surface of the sun. Unfortunately, they are made of fail. In addition to not knitting up into a nice fabric, they're also coming up much too large. They should be 4" across, not 4 7/8.

I decided to frog them, and do something else with the yarn. Then I started a new pair out of some different yarn. Same number of stitches, same needles, but a much better measurement.

The color surprised me. Here's the ball of yarn, I started knitting from the center of the ball and while I knew there was a little red in the yarn, I didn't expect to see quite so much. More pictures in a day or so, when I've made more progress.

Except for the guest room, I'm finally unpacked and pretty much settled in.

This bookshelf houses history, philosophy, religion, and other assorted non-fiction (mostly).

I've added more books to this unit. Top left is cookbooks, middle left assorted non-fiction, bottom left more non-fiction (dictionaries, grammars, etc.) the right side and the top -- both of which have been completely filled since this photo -- are all fiction.

Behind the doors are mostly CDs, and some art materials. This was also filled after the photos were taken.

This giant IKEA unit holds most of my ceramics collection and various oversize books. The books on the left side are all fiber arts related: knitting, spinning, tablet and inkle weaving, embroidery, kumihimo, sprang, crochet...

When you unpack books you end up with a lot of empty boxes. This is the box cascade. I broke most of them down and stuffed them in to the unbroken down ones then walked them to the recycling. I resisted the urge to toss them over the balcony...

Then there's the bookshelves in the guest bedroom. These are now completely filled, except for the very top. Because I'm short and hate using my step stool. Because I'm short of both shelves and the attachment bars, I'm using the bottom of this unit as tub storage.

 The rest of the guest bedroom is full of tubs of stuff that need to be sorted and arranged logically.

Domestic camping

While I arrived on September 10, my assorted impedimenta in the pod did not arrive till the 16th. I hired unpackers to come on the 17th, but for that week I was essentially camping out in the apartment. I had my camp bed, a folding chair, a zero gravity recliner, a small folding table, a lamp, one skillet, one spatula, a kitchen knife, a set of paper cups and plates, and -- of course -- my coffee-making equipment.

It was a little spartan, to begin with, then I started buying the additional furniture and things that I knew I needed. First was internet. Then I made an trip to IKEA and bought a TV stand, two folding chairs and a folding table. The chairs and table were intended for the balcony, but initially made a decent dining set.

Here's the almost empty kitchen:

And the coffee station (after I'd found a mug or two in one of the boxes from the RLR.

My camp bed. The funky light patterns are from the over head light in the bedroom. 

The main living area. There are ceiling fans her and in the bedrooms.

 The dining area with my IKEA balcony furniture.

IKEA TV stand and TV.  Cable is included in the rent. Internet is not, so I had to find that myself. It wasn't hard Cox is a lot easier to deal with than Comcast.

So there I was, camping out in my own place. It was almost fun. For a week. Longer would have been more than a little annoying. 

Here are some more of the "before" photos. This is the main living area the front door is at the back left, the corridor off the entrance hall leads to one bedroom and the laundry closet.

The guest bedroom. Currently a box repository. It will, eventually, be a combination guest room and craft room.

The guest bathroom. Which now has been equipped with a shower curtain. And a cat litter box.

The other bathroom -- both bathrooms have long counters and big mirrors.

There are also lots of closets. Both bedrooms have walk in closets, plus there's a floor to ceiling set of closets outside the guest bathroom. I have never lived in a place that had this much closet space! 

About Moo.

Moo is the name of the cow skull featured in the header photo of this blog.

I inherited him from my late friend Paul (aka The Paul Dude) and have promised to take good care of him for ever.  The header photo shows Moo in my old house, hanging above the fireplace in my Renaissance ManCave (all books, and fiber arts tools, no TV!).  Moo made the journey across the US happily ensconced on the front passenger seat of the Rolling Living Room (my much beloved Land Rover RL3).

Supported on a pillow and with Hat, about whom more later, for company Moo was a very pleasant, if quiet traveling companion.

At the Cameron Trading Post, I saw a couple of cow skulls that had been decorated and a Very Bad Idea struck me: Moo should be decorated for all holidays. This would have both amused and infuriated Paul no end. So it absolutely Had To Happen.

The first problem was finding somewhere for Moo to live. He's too heavy to hang up with Command Strips, and I'm not sure I'm allowed to make holes in the walls here. The answer: a free-standing coat rack. I found one at Home Depot, and set it up in a corner of my dining area.

I'm really happy with the way it's worked out. Unfortunately you can't see the detail of the lights -- they're little skulls. Totally Halloween. Paul would love hating them.

Hat lives with Moo now. Paul bought Hat some 30+ years ago and wore it every day until it became too battered to wear, at which point it was replaced with Hat 2.0. After Paul died, Beth -- his widow -- gave me Hat to accompany Moo, while she kept Hat 2.0.

The window in my dining area faces East. The semi-circular top section of the window has been tinted to keep the worst of the Arizona sun out. The kitchen is off to the left of this photo, the guest bedroom off to the right.

The final leg

On Monday, September 9, I set out after breakfast for the final leg of my cross-country journey.  Jackie (sis-in-law) had suggested a scenic route, which took me over Wolf Creek Pass. It was most certainly scenic. Also very high altitude, and would have been quite a challenge to a self-driving car.

Once I was through the pass, I was in the flat lands. Miles and miles of long, straight roads through open country. There was a long detour at one point. Not a lot of traffic by New England standards, mostly 18-wheelers.  I got to 4 corners, drove about a mile or two in New Mexico, before reaching Arizona. I briefly considered a quick diversion into Utah, just because, but didn't as by then I was pretty much done with driving.

Spent the night at the Cameron Trading Post. It dates from 1910, and was a trading post in the days of the Wild West, but is now a bit of a tourist trap. That being said, the rooms were clean, the bed comfortable, and the food while nothing spectacular, was decent.

That bridge is I89 over the not-so-grand end of the Grand Canyon. This was the view from my hotel room window.




Clean and comfortable, I got a good night's sleep here!

The Trading Post had all sorts of mostly tourist stuff for sale in its huge store.  There were several decorated cow skulls (of which more later), lots of rugs and other hand-woven items. This rather fine, and apparently fully-functional, warp-weighted loom was on display in the hotel restaurant. It was nestled about 6' up on a ledge in the huge fireplace. So I couldn't get a better look at it.

Tuesday morning, September 10, I headed out on the final, final few hours. It was raining in Flagstaff much to my surprise.  I arrived in Peoria just about lunch time. And then the fun began...

Elk Dinner Theatre

My brother and his wife live in Evergreen, CO. Up in the foothills of the Rockies, west of Denver. Elevation 7,400 ft. (They moved there from Coral Gables, FL -- just a little gain in altitude!). They share their neighborhood with a bear, who we didn't see, coyotes (also absent), humming birds by the dozen, and elk.

Sunday evening, as we were having dinner, a parade of elk came down the road, followed at a distance by a scruffy-looking young bull. He was working on acquiring himself a harem, but the girls weren't having any. We soon saw the reason: a mature bull who was not interested in sharing.

It was still very early in the rut, so the two bulls didn't get into it, beyond some posturing and elk-style muscle-flexing. After Big Daddy had ushered his girls away, Mr Scruffy took out his frustrations on the neighbor's trash bags.

We took our after dinner drinks out to the front patio, to watch the fun. The cows were completely oblivious -- one of the was grazing almost in arm's reach. My sis-in-law complains that they'll eat anything, so she's having a hard time establishing a flower garden.

On August 30, 2019 I retired from my job of 19 years.

On September 3, 2019 two charming and energetic young Hungarian gentlemen loaded most of my worldly goods into a Pod.

On September 4, 2019 the Pod headed southwest. I then loaded the rest of my worldly goods into the back of my beloved Land Rover (AKA the Rolling Living Room) and set out for fresh woods and pastures new.

The following is a summary of my travels.

One of my co-workers, Linda, gave me a travel journal, which I kept while I was on the road.

Here are the journal entries.