Office of Management & Budget Jeffrey Zients, Deputy Director whitehouse.gov/omb (cont'd) The following information is available at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/organization_missio ...to continue the definition of "clearing"... President’s Executive Orders and Memoranda to Agency Heads Other OMB Offices
I expected the main argument that would come from my efforts in this thread would be that the government is too big. I disagree, and view the government as expanding, yes, but necessarily so.
Maybe a reality check is in order. Last year, maybe the year before, I began having heart attacks. I didn't tell anyone, not my family (until several months had passed), and definitely not my doctor. If I tell my doctor, he would likely be required to hospitalize me and perform tests that I cannot afford. "You can't afford to die!" I agree, as the expenses after death are considerable, what with morgue freezers costing money to keep cool, and funeral homes needing to be paid, body needing to be ....disposed of. That's why, after not being able to eat, and losing some 35 pounds of weight in a month, I had to make a decision: Tell my family (but not the doctor) or wait for a snowstorm and walk away from my home and into the woods. You get that? I was going to walk into the woods to die, like any good dog, beaten and despised, would do. Why? To save money. No body, no costs. My family insists I don't do that. So I've been putting everything I can into not dying. I believe my heart issues are the result of dental nerves overloading one of the nerves that instruct the heart to pump. The attacks feel as if one of the muscles in my heart isn't "firing", as a result of nerve-confusion. For poor people, there is almost no service for dental issues. Most dentists are allowed to refuse Medicaid and Medicare payments, by not being part of the network. I may be incorrect on that, but in my case the point is moot, I'm self-paying. Dentists will not work on you unless you can pay, and usually you must pay half up front. Most poor people cannot magically produce the money, and so they do without. My case is somewhat different, as I began putting as much money into repairing my teeth as I could as a teenager. Since my parents are both dead, I had no one but myself to rely on for that. I've spent an easy $20,000 (estimated to likely be more than that, but I haven't actually recorded all of it) on teeth in the last 25/30 years, and I probably needed twice that, maybe triple that, to actually be healthy. I paid what I could afford, when I could afford it, but it wasn't enough. At this point in time, my teeth are done. There isn't much more I can do, and have begun having them pulled. About ten days ago, I had three taken out, and my heart has only occasionally failed a few times since then. I have another appointment this week, but it's unclear if more will need to be pulled at this time. That cost me $600, btw. $600 that my family is now without, but at least my heart has a chance, right? The dentist, my doctor, and the pharmacy...in the meantime... are squawking about my need for antibiotics. I had run out, about a month ago, and had to jump through hoop after hoop to get more. The dentist was gone on vacation, and they wouldn't refill my prescription without his OK. He'd be back in a couple days, but I was having heart attacks, and needed them to stop the attacks. They didn't prescribe me any more, and the pharmacist I had come to rely on in these times of need had retired. His replacements were unsympathetic. I had to go to a clinic and "bribe" ($50 charge) them to prescribe me enough antibiotics to last me until the dentist returned. The woman who examined me gave me ten-times the amount I requested and wished me good luck. I thanked her, and as I looked into her eyes I could see that she too has lived a life of suffering. We can recognize our own kind, particularly when we have a flare-up of pains. Her eyes reflected massive amounts of it. I hope this little story will give you some insight into what being poor is like.
Most of the outreach programs I'm familiar with are part of a larger network, networks that include medical professionals in virtually every specialty. Based on my experience, dental work (especially in extreme cases) is about the easiest need to be accomodated. My question is why did you wait so long? Why didn't you seek help earlier? Wasn't medicaid available? What about your support network? Friends? Family? You took offense to this earlier but didn't you once tell us that your girlfriend worked for the IRS? Being a gov't agency, wouldn't the health benefits cover basic dental care? If I'm not mistaken, in the case of your heart issues, hospital emergency rooms aren't allowed to turn you away. Hey, I can feel for folks with health issues, I've got 'em myself, but your story sounds like there's much more going on that you're not telling us.
(originally posted in wrong thread, sorry for any confusion) BTW, I'm experiencing quite a few heart attacks right now, and am considering calling the dentist for more antibiotics, but I doubt he'd prescribe them. Some of you may be thinking: "Leave the site, if that's what's causing them", but I don't think that's what's causing them, otherwise I would. Of course, I'm sure some of you are wondering why I don't tell my doctor...immediately, as I should...but once again, I believe this to be a dental issue, and am working on that first. Next week, maybe the next, if I'm still having issues, I promised my family that I would inform the doc. Wish me luck lol
Good questions, but you assume too much. We are in different parts of the country, and care is not uniform. As for not telling you everything that's going on....well yeah, of course I'm not....I couldn't if I wanted to, just from the sheer volume of information. I've tried to be concise, and to the best of my knowledge I've given the info that I'm aware of. Now, you say there are programs, but then if I used them you'd complain that I was a leech. There very well be programs that can help me, and I've done considerable research into that, but bureaucracy is difficult to manage, especially one that is intentionally designed to be difficult. By that, I mean the efforts of republicans, concerned about costs and the appropriateness of assisting the poor, have made the system very difficult to access, and receive that assistance. I'm also not very interested in assistance, in that I do without it as much as possible, something you should appreciate, as in personal responsibility.
Personal responsibility should always come first but there's certainly a Plan B in the cases of real need- if I didn't wholeheartily believe in brother helping brother I wouldn't do what I do...sadly, though, I've just seen too many cases of people just being too sorry to do things for themselves. I'm sorry, but the story you tell just isn't one I can fully believe. What about your personal network? Have you considered (and I'm 100% sincere when I say this) a mental health aspect to your needs?
Sorry for not clarifying this sooner. I didn't actually take offense, though it can look that way. What I was doing was attempting to keep family out of any conversation here (so much for that lol) since Pete (via De Orc) has made it very clear that such things are to be avoided. While I don't mind occasionally revealing personal info about myself here, I do not wish to include family (mine, yours, etc.) in any comment. That said, none of my family works for the government.
Yep, but to what end? Mentally, I would run circles around anyone trying to evaluate me, and ultimately they would deem me sane, as I'm not suffering from mental issues (though it would be fun giving the examiner a chance to be completely ...frustrated...lol). Free will means you decide what you wish to believe though. All of us have it, all of us use it to the best of our abilities. I have done the best I can given the tools I have, but what it comes down to is greed. There is an unwillingness among half the people in the country (or the World, if you prefer) to assist the less fortunate. That is unlikely to change. I have to say, that is one of the gentlest ways I've ever seen to call someone off their rocker lol
Re-read what you've written. Most people, in full possession of their mental faculties, probably wouldn't need to "run circles" around a mental health expert unless they were in denial.
Is that your opinion. Please verify the lack of a question mark. That means: It wasn't really a question. A sane person doesn't attempt to destroy a system millions depend on simply because they hate the idea of other people receiving assistance for free. But, that's what happens when one of the two, more-or-less diametrically opposed, political groups wind up doing while arguing over the wording within law. Your group has been largely successful in preventing those in need from receiving the goods and services they need. That's one of the reasons I feel free to call you nuts. Well, that and the squirrel above your head.
It's difficult to have sympathy for someone who has spewed so much unreasonable hatred on this forum for so long and, try as I might, I just can't feel sympathy for someone like that. It seems to me that someone in the top five percent of the income bracket could come to the rescue. But, maybe it's unrealistic these days to expect someone of wealth to help someone so desperately in need. Also, if someone can't stand the heat, get out the cage. View attachment 1676
So Davy, would you be willing to share the name of the larger network or perhaps networks to which you refer in post #84? If good work is going on I think it would be nice to get the word out so that people with the necessary skills or sufficient financial means know that there is an opportunity here to perhaps make a contribution.
And, I will bet they have been taught to be responsible for their own actions and not to take from others!
A couple of years ago, when I was on Facebook, I mentioned my dental ailments. A long-time friend responded excitedly that she was able to get one of her teeth pulled in a city about three or so hours from here for $50, and that I should go there if I was having issues. I didn't know how to respond lol She explained that she was receiving Medicaid (I don't qualify), but NO dentists in the area accepted Medicaid patients. While I tend to doubt that is 100% accurate (some years earlier I used a dentist who appeared to provide service for poor children), I am certain the percentage of dentists that do accept Medicaid in my area is exceedingly low. A search of local dentist's accepting Medicaid patients revealed this: Granted, that's their clinics, and not private practices, but none are what I would call "local". The source (link below) was old, from 2010. Crystal Falls isn't too far away though, maybe an hour or so. "Not all"? Read on lol 1 out of 5. If that ratio is the same locally, there should be two or three that do. Expanding out say, to a fifty mile radius, that number may double or triple. This is just an estimate though, and since I'm not on Medicaid, I didn't call them to ask, but she did...and she said none would accept her. I still think she missed one somewhere lol You may have to read a few paragraphs that came before this but, the gist of it is that poor people get poor service, and that is better than none. She didn't mean anything by that but, we don't "let" our teeth go, we simply have no other option. There is an office in Hancock, but there is some debate about that, according to my gf lol So I found a couple other sites with info on that. Which appears to confirm my (via my friend's) earlier claim that there were few local dentists that accepted Medicaid patients previous to this clinic opening. There still may be a couple, but that's unknown to me, since I'm not in a safety-net program and don't really need to look lol This clinic was delayed for well over a year, btw. This quote was published on 11-11-11. No, that's not a typo lol...The other quote I'm referring to was from 10-22-10. The article states that the clinic was now set to open completely "in 2012". Five bucks says David will comment on this quote lol "Make an appointment, the mental services are available!" LOL Which has since been reauthorized, according to the article. Sources: http://capitalnewsservice.wordpress.com/2010/10/22/no-rush-yet-for-medicaid-dental-care/ http://www.mininggazette.com/page/c...Rural-health-clinic-set-to-open.html?nav=5006
That must be real hard for a rich, retired 45ish year old to say. Where did you find the will? You must have the stamina of a chimp.
United States Trade Representative Ambassador Demetrios Marantis www.ustr.gov Mission: Our expertise Working with other agencies
