Insurance

Anyone living in Illinois and reading about issues other than our former governor must be aware of the current insurance mess for State of Illinois employees. My wife has had to resubmit her request twice and probably should have a third time but she decided that if her current provider loses their court case she would have to reapply a fourth time and ......they wear you down. All because, I suspect, some group made a large campaign contribution to get their friends companies added to the list while dropping long time insurance companies from the list. Now it's in court.

I'm reading a book of editorials written by a country doctor from Cuba, Illinois and they are very interesting. His editorial from 1994 about the Canadian health care system is particularly eye-opening since this is the comparison held up by all who think our government should be involved in the health care business. I quote:

"We agreed that the present medical system (1994) needs drastic reform but that we shouldn't burn down the house to fix the front door.
He (Dr. Edward Kendall, Mayo Clinic) spoke of the numbers of Canadians coming to Mayo Clinic for the medical care they can't get in Canada. What will happen, we wondered if the vote-hungry politicians saddle us with the miserable Canadian scheme of socialized medicine? Where will the Canadians go then? Where will Americans go? I thought of Senator Paul Tsongas, that best of all Democratic presidential candidates, who opposes the Canadian socialist scheme and says he would have died in it when he was so ill."

Interesting thoughts from 1994 (Hillary Clinton was advocating national health insurance at the time). As we look around the world at one debt riddled country after another we need to focus our efforts on reform. The "haves" will always receive their medical care because they can pay, the "have nots" will suffer. I have watched the people in Altamira, Brasil line up a day early so they can see the nationalized doctor or dentist when they come to town. They miss work to be sure they are toward the front of the line and what happens, they don't show up. Now the people have have to miss work another day and stand in line for the cheap, nationalized care. In four trips to Altamira I have never seen middle class or upper class people standing in line, only the poor.

Old Dog.....New Tricks

I have been reading, highlighting, rereading, underlining and tabbing the book, Readicide. It is amazing how the author is able to clearly explain why students don't want to read anything. We, as teachers, have taken all the joy of reading away. My focus over the summer is finding engaging readings for U.S. History and allow students to read them without a twenty question study guide. I will provide a "big picture" question for discussion that will hopefully encourage the student to connect the past and present.

Do I have the will to pull it off?