FaithNet NAMI | NAMI FaithNet

FaithNet NAMI | NAMI FaithNet

Interesting premises from my current perspective taking baby steps in my walk of faith and hope.

Chapter 5 Jacobs Room

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)

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Wednesday, November 24, 2010 THE STATE OF DEATH PANELS We were told over and over again that the horrors of Obamacare would leave people dying in the streets as bureaucrats would decide who lives and who dies. The reality of states taking over Medicaid plans and outsourcing them to private insurers is that the insurers do the same thing now, only with the goal of maximizing a profit from it. Case in point: One of the most destructive practices of private health insurance companies is the practice of denying care to customers for frivolous reasons. Earlier this year, the Department of Health and Human Services started including denial rates on its information section about health insurance companies on HealthCare.gov, in an effort to inform the public about this practice by the industry. It was this practice of frivolous denials that ended up costing Jacksonville, Florida woman Alisa Wilson her life. For months, Wilson, her family, and the surrounding community had been pleading with her HMO to approve coverage for a liver transplant. Although Wilson was enrolled in the state’s Medicaid program, she was not guaranteed care because she was “forced to join a private plan as part of a Gov. Jeb Bush-era experimental overhaul of the program,” meaning she had to deal with a private, for-profit insurance company to get her care, not a government agency accountable to the public. Bush’s overhaul made “Florida the first state to allow private companies, not the state, to decide the scope and extent of services to the elderly, the disabled and the poor, half of them children,” the New York Times reported in 2005, as the move was being considered. “[N]o one is proposing changes as far-reaching and fundamental as” Bush, the Times noted. After “scores of e-mails and…the help of a Florida state legislator,” the HMO, Sunshine State Health, finally gave in and approved coverage for Wilson two weeks ago. Yet her health was too severe for surgery by then. On Friday evening, Wilson passed away. And the fact of the matter is in nearly all states, some or most Medicaid plans are administered by for-profit private insurers as managed care plans. The bureaucrats getting between you and your doctor on Medicaid aren't government, they're unaccountable private insurance companies. A large part of health care reform is to hold these companies accountable when they administer Medicare and Medicaid, but of course they've talked millions of Americans into "repeal tyrannical Obamacare!" and whatnot. Unless you have the money to pay for health care when insurance companies deny it, you already have faceless drones deciding who lives and who dies for money. They're called "claims approvers". There's a reason why some states want out of Medicaid: so they can funnel patients to insurance companies, and not have any federal accountability to go along with those federal dollars.

The Third Coast International Audio Festival

The ThirdCoast Audio-Festival presents a wonderful pod-cast highly recommended for all listeners of all ages and stripes!  It is easy to forget that audio offers so much in this contemporary "Visually Stunning," World, yet, there are amongst our midst those who appreciate radio, audiowork, audiobooks, and in that category blind, and dyslexic persons certainly fit.  Excellant site, excellant podcast!

The Offstage Voice

The Offstage Voice

I am hoping this Tumblr site I created, ironically, will POST to "tumblr?" I guess, this should look, feel, be a nested dolls type of situation, if it happens. Ist.

Aeonic45 (45 is looming largeness) :) Liz

Customize | Tumblr

Customize | Tumblr

I tried to add the following to the page I created at Tumblr, however, I keep doing something wrong and it isn't working! :(

I spend so much time online, I am going to finish this up right now by pasting in what really amounts to a blog post anyway.

Time always passes. Here it is another day. I was granted a ONE MONTH EXTENSION by my Ulysses "BC" (Book Coordinator) Gesine. I feel very grateful as I wanted to ask for a month but whimped out and guiltily asked, in exact terms for "two weeks" saying I was certain I could finish both chapters from the "Sirens" segment of "Ulysses" by James Joyce within that time.

However, in the course of my typically ramblin' stylized letter, I did, toward the end "defer" to the better judgment of my "BC" and said what amounted to "Gesine, as the BC, I'd just like it if you give me some time to permit me to complete my part of the project. Obviously, you'll make any decisions, and will do so based on your longstanding experiences at Librivox which led to your assuming a difficult position like that of a "BC" fills. If you feel I must complete this within less time, you will, or if you can offer me even more time, which would be just great, you will do that. In fact, if you do not feel that you can extend my project with me any longer...but must "orphan" it now, (in other words-- take the project from me, or make me give it up as an "orphaned child" which they say at Librivox of chapters that are not "claimed" using just such language ;) then you will do that clearly! I will go by whatever you tell me to do, obviously, as you are da "BC!" What you say ultimately goes :)

And, yay, Gesine has alotted me the month I didn't have the cojones to ask for up-front. Maybe he read between the lines and figured I was actually asking for this, or, as I think actually, he just really figured that a) there's time left to complete this very long-term project and b) I will need the month to complete this.

He wrote that it takes three times as long to do the editing for him than the actual reading. He also wrote that I will get the hang of the editing as time goes on and I gain experience and that I will get so I can read the "waves" (soundwaves) in print as if they were legible themselves, as he is now able to do, in order to know what is happening and scrutinize the recordings and figure out the needed tweaks, and find the bells and whistles that are messed up or in need of placement or changing out.

As with any job, this is really a tall glass of water to drink! There's a lot of "Insider language" or "shop-talk" that must be learned in order to deliver and make good on promises and "end-products."

Also, on the best side, I received word today from my other BC Amy from "The Marble Faun" that ALL of my chapters are "a-okay" enough to go onwards without any corrections being called for. She says things are acceptable after "PL" (or "Proof-Listening") as they stand! I was thrilled! She says that soon the whole thing, as an "audiobook" will be made available through the Librivox catalog of books. I am psyched by this, extremely psyched! I will be able to listen to my own contributions through my "Audiobooks for Free" link that Librivox offers as an application to IPod Touch and Iphone consumers. Alternately, persons that want an audiobook from Librivox can listen to "The Marble Faun" for free on any computer with speakers (internal and/or external) which is pretty much everyone's set up and has been for a very long time. People can hear all of my chapter together and fast forward or book mark the chapters as well, I believe, even on laptop or desktop through the Librivox formatting. Yay! "The Marble Faun" will soon be offered in the Librivox catalog as a complete audiobook.

I could not be more pleased, nor more proud.