More Delights and Disdains . . .

of a diminutive nature of late . . . Number 25

Disdains:

Watching the video of Brian Thompson being gunned down in cold blood. The victim and the shooter were among our brightest. Both were valedictorians of their respective high schools but apparently did not receive a complete education. Maybe we should go back to teaching the value of virtue or, at least, the value of positive conflict resolution. Throw in little bit of basic morality, like don’t murder people or don’t take advantage of sick people for profit. In any event, they definitely didn’t learn to think about the consequences of their actions. And no, I am not blaming the victim for his own death and I do not believe that the shooting was justified. I do believe that health insurance companies have victimized patients. I also believe that health care needs to be recast into a more physician/patient driven model.

Reading about the high coverage denials issued by United Healthcare that allegedly led to Thompson’s death. I have dealt with United Healthcare and Bluechoice, and believe it or not, Bluechoice is worse. If I were a patient oriented physician, I would be very frustrated having to defend my diagnosis of a particular patient to the insurance company’s doctor Stasi to get my prescribed treatment covered.

Delights:

Receiving the approval notice from my health insurance provider stating that my son could start taking a new type of clotting factor that reduces the number of infusions to one per week - down from two per week. His veins are happy. We started this process back in April but were denied coverage the first several times that we tried. Though it was very frustrating to fight those bureaucratic swamp monsters of No Prior Authorization and Coverage Denied, I never thought about shooting someone over it . . . seriously.

Attending my office Christmas lunch. We used to have a Christmas dinner party until COVID took down that tradition, but the format is not important. The people that I work with are. I started the company 24 years ago with the proverbial one client and with me doing everything. The company grew and my nephew joined me along with several people who still work with me to this day. One of my smartest decisions was bringing my nephew on board. He has made all of the difference especially in allowing me the time to manage my Parkinson’s symptoms. He understands Parkinson’s ebb and flow since his dad also had it. Another smart decision was recruiting people who could appreciate my laissez-faire approach to managing people and who would take responsibility for their work. I am extremely thankful for them.

Reading about the experiences of heart transplant recipients whose emotions, preferences or memories were changed after their surgery Apparently, research suggests that the heart may store memories through a complex connection with the brain. But we already suspected that. Thousands of poets across thousands of years from Solomon to Jesus to Shakespeare have noted the connection, not just the heart being representative of our emotions, but that the heart is physically involved in the thought process.

Brings to mind the old joke about the heart transplant patient who wanted his donor heart to come from an insurance adjuster because he knew that it would never have been used . . .

“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he” Solomon (Proverbs 23:7)