mark's blog.

Sicko

I just saw Michael Moore's new film, Sicko.

He hit the nail on the head, to say the least.

While not a expert in public health or economics, Moore is able to use film to get across a message that the experts - armed only with statistics and analysis - often cannot. The premise of his film is that our health care system doesn't work, and that we would be better off by switching to a system that is not driven by profits. Rather than focusing on the nearly 50 million uninsured (although they come up regularly), he focuses on the failed state of health care for those of us that do have health coverage.

For the providers of health care in America, insurance companies, the intrinsic goal as for-profit corporations is to make the most money. Health care, people like Moore and myself feel, should be driven by the desire to make people better.

Moore presented story after story of denied claims leading to ruined families or even death. I think that many people can relate to these stories, having personally experienced difficulties with the health insurance system or knowing others who have. This, I believe, makes Sicko much more accessible than Moore's previous films such as Fahrenheit 9/11 or Bowling for Columbine, as anti-Bush or anti-gun rhetoric is not as personally relevant as health care.

While it is easy to criticize the health systems in every other industrialized country in the world, it is also easy to criticize a system that leaves 1/6 of the population uninsured while posing a huge financial and emotional burden to many others. Rankings of our health care system, as well as life expectancy and infant mortality rates, demonstrate that our for-profit system doesn't do anything better for us when it comes to results, while we spend more on health care per capita than any other country in the world.

Instead of sending our health dollars to stockholders, we should be sending it to doctors. Instead of corporations handing money to insurers as a benefit to their employees, that money could be diverted to the government to distribute to providers. Sure, it would mean new taxes, but it wouldn't have to mean more money spent overall; money would simply bypass the mess of private insurers. A successful health care system doesn't have to be government-run, but to be effective and humane it should be universal and non-profit.

Mental Health Parity

"While I understand the importance of addressing a patient's mental health needs, I remain concerned that adding any new mandates in health care coverage will send already sky high health care costs even higher. Recent studies have shown that a portion of the increase in health care costs is directly correlated to increases in new mandates in health care coverage. As the costs of health care rise, some small businesses have been forced to drop health care coverage for their employees, and other individuals who receive employer-sponsored insurance increasingly face higher out-of-pocket costs. I firmly believe that the marketplace and consumer demand should be the driving force behind changes in health care coverage, not additional government mandates."

-Congressman Peter Hoekstra (well, his staff member) responding to me on his plans to oppose Mental Health Parity.

Pro-life is about more than abortion (taken from an election issue group I created on facebook)

Life is precious. But 'life' refers to so much more than an unborn child. What about the other 6.5 billion people living today?

1.1 billion people on the planet have no access to safe drinking water.
An estimated 400,000 people have been killed in the Darfur region of the Sudan in the past several years, and 2 million more have become refugees.
In 2005, 46.6 million Americans had no health insurance.
Due to the U.S.-led invasion and post-war occupation of Iraq, an estimated 44,000-48,000 Iraqi cilvians, 2,786 American soldiers, 235 non-U.S. soldiers, and dozens of journalists, aid workers, and contractors have been killed.
In the past 30 years, over 1,000 people have been executed in the United States.
In 2005, an estimated 38.6 million people were living with HIV.

To us, pro-life is not just anti-abortion. And you don't have to be a Christian or a fundamentalist to be pro-life, as the debate on these issues would imply. To us, pro-life also means pro-human rights, anti-war, anti-poverty, anti-HIV/AIDS, anti-captial punishment, and fair and quality healthcare for all, just to name a few. And anti-abortion doesn't necessarily mean we think that abortion should be outlawed in the U.S. It might for some; this group is still for you. There are others who feel that there are other ways to decrease the number of abortions; this group is for you, too.

It's about time we change the direction of this debate.

Sources for statistics above:

http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/mdg1/en/index.html
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=19948&Cr=sudan&Cr1=
http://www.census.gov/prod/2006pubs/p60-231.pdf
http://www.iraqbodycount.net/
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/tables/exetab.htm
http://data.unaids.org/pub/GlobalReport/2006/2006_GR_CH02_en.pdf

All sources accessed 20 October 2006.

"Memories" ..?

What's the deal with everybody tagging all of their friends in a note and asking them to post something about a memory they've had together? I have the hardest time understanding such Internet phenomena. This one goes right along with the "love truck" so common on Facebook walls last year, the Facebook groups whose sole purpose is to attain the largest number of members, the e-mail forwards claiming "true love will come your way!" if you forward the e-mail to 10 people within 10 minutes, and my personal favorite (if by favorite I mean the most annoying): the end of grammar, mechanics, punctuation, and spelling as we know it. Please forgive me for my honest mistakes, because I certainly do make them... I'm talking about the frequent, blatant slaughter of simple sentence structures, the shrill sight of a mixup of 'their,' 'there,' or 'they're,' and the the superfluous use of abbreviations such as the ubiquitous 'ur,' 'g2g,' and 'l8r.' With text messaging, I can understand the need for abbreviations because there's no real keyboard. But on a computer, if you want to save time while typing, pass on using capital letters. But, please, use real words!

Just when I think I've seen it all, something new always comes along to befuddle me further.

NOTE: I am just kidding around! I don't actually get mad!

An Open Letter on Mental Health Parity

Dear Friends,

I write to you today asking for your consideration of an issue that has had a profound impact upon my family and many others in our nation: the disparity in health care treatment for the mentally ill. To address this problem, Congress has been considering a bill on mental health care parity for several years that would require group health insurance plans to provide coverage for mental health at the same standards as for other areas of health care. For example, a health plan can limit the number of annual visits to a psychologist, even though the plan does not limit visits for non-mental health illnesses. To give you an idea of the status quo, Congress passed the Mental Health Parity Act in 1996, which required that insurance companies place equal dollar caps (lifetime and annual) on mental health and physical health benefits. The legislation, however, does not prohibit insurance companies from restricting the number of therapy visits or days of hospitalization for mental illnesses, or raising co-payments for mental health care. Some states have passed their own parity laws, but many have not. Also, some of the state laws are not comprehensive. This discrepancy creates a huge burden to receiving care for those with mental illnesses; in my opinion it amounts to nothing less than systemic discrimination.

I have seen the first-hand effects of this disparity as I have watched my parents fight a continuous battle to provide care for my younger brother, who has several psychological disorders. At times, they have been left with no choice but to pay for treatment out-of-pocket because the insurance company limits the number of visits per year to a psychologist. There are so few options available for so many, unfortunately. In America today, tens of millions live without health insurance. Now imagine an America where those that are fortunate enough to have health insurance, but are living with mental illness, are denied treatment and can't afford to continue. No choices remain except amassing debt or just forgoing treatment altogether. Those who can't afford their own treatment are sent further along on a downward spiral. According to the American Psychological Association, 44 million Americans live with a mental health disorder, but only one third of those Americans receive treatment. Of those who don't receive treatment, 87% say that lack of insurance is a leading factor for not receiving treatment, and 81% say that cost is a leading factor. This, I'm afraid, is the America we live in.

The main opponents of mental health parity argue that it is too costly. The research on the matter paints a quite different picture, however. The estimates for the rise in health care premiums if parity were required range from one to four percent. However, the loss of productivity due to untreated mental illnesses is far more costly than the direct financial cost of parity. Estimates for the cost of lost productivity range from the tens of billions of dollars to over one hundred billion dollars annually (according to a 2000 surgeon general's report, indirect costs of mental illness were $79 billion in 1990).

Why is it that in the United States today, a person can have a broken bone or cancer and be reimbursed to one standard by their insurance company, but have a mental health disorder and be held to a different, lower standard? Why is it that our society has decided that mental illness is not as real as any other illness? After years of progress in research on mental illness and after proving wrong all of the preconceived notions about a non-biological cause for mental illness, isn't it about time that the health care system in the United States starts treating mental health to the same standards as other illnesses?

Thank you for listening to my opinions on this issue. I hope that you will consider these facts and arguments. If you agree that insurance companies should have to hold the same standards for mental health care and non-mental health care, this is a great time to become involved and do something about it! You could call or write your Congressional representative, and ask him or her to sign discharge petition 0018 so that this bill can be brought out of committee and receive a floor vote in the House of Representatives, or at least tell them that you support mental health parity and urge them to support it too. The bill has been stuck in committee for years, and if discharge petition #18 can receive 218 signatures (it only needs 53 more right now!), the bill will bypass the committee and go straight to a floor vote. The bill has the bipartisan support of 229 co-sponsors, a majority, and would likely pass if brought to a vote. You could also let other people know that this is an issue that matters to you , such as by adding "mental health parity" as a campaign issue that is important to you on Facebook (the issue can be found in my profile!).

If you have any questions or would like to speak with me about this, let me know! I've included a few sources of information below for anyone interested. I have also attached a PDF copy of a very informative journal article about this topic.

Thanks again for your time,

Mark Poll

A Few References on Mental Health Parity
Text of House Resolution 1402 - http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.R.1402:
Discharge Petition 0018 - http://clerk.house.gov/109/lrc/pd/Petitions/Dis18.htm
American Psychological Association Info on Mental Health Parity - http://www.apahelpcenter.org/articles/article.php?id=26
Census data on health insurance statistics - http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/hlthins/hlthin05/fig07.pdf
National Mental Health Information Center Info on Parity - http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/cmhs/ManagedCare/Parity/default.asp
National Mental Health Association Parity Fact Sheet - http://www.nmha.org/state/parity/parity_fact_sheet.cfm
National Mental Health Association: Why Parity Makes Economic Sense - http://www.nmha.org/state/parity/parity_economy.cfm
Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General (see Chapter 6, Section 2 for the costs of mental illness) - http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/mentalhealth/toc.html

Reflections

People are everything.

If there's anything I'm learning right now, that's it.

A friend recently asked an open question: 'how do you give your life meaning?' I thought about this, and quickly realized there are two things: my idealism and the dreams that go with that, as well as my friendships and relationships.

The thing is, my idealism mostly revolves around people. Mostly, around the idea of there being people who are inherently good. Few things make me happier than hearing about someone who does something good, whether big or small, for no reason other than they just want to be nice, or they want to make somebody happy, or they simply think that's the way things should be. I imagine the kind of world we would live in if many lived such a way. The possibilities are endless. We could get eradicate hunger, preventable disease, save the planet, and all with time left over for tea.

Imagine a world like that.

But there are people out there doing more than imagining. And they are my heroes. In one of my classes, I'm learning about a doctor who started a health operation in Haiti to provide effective health care to the peasant class, and how they have essentially eradicated tuberculosis in this area, and are now actively battling AIDS. I've met people who have gone out into the world, whether through the Peace Corps, some other organization, or on their own, to go fight injustice in areas such as health care and fighting AIDS. And you don't have to look hard to find people around home who are fighting for something, people who care. My fricken heroes, you are.

I, however, am not doing that. There are lots of excuses: I have to go to school, I don't know anything yet... the list goes on. But the goal, the thought of maybe one day achieving that, gives me hope for the future. I want to help people. I just don't know how I'm going to do that yet.

But, hell, what good are dreams if you don't have anyone to share them with?

I need you, my friends. I'm finding that I really need to talk to people often. I want to learn about other people, and let them learn something about me. I've had so very many different people to share my concerns and my ideas with lately, and it has been wonderful. There's very little more fulfilling in life than people, I'm finding. So thank you, thank you, to everyone who has carried me through this very rough time in my life.

It has been enlightening, and I have grown a lot as an individual. I'm as happy as I've been in a very long. So thank you, to everyone who has chatted with me, whether online or in person, at 3 AM or while passing by as we go about our lives.

Thank you.

Backyard fun with Diet Pepsi, Mentos candy, chemicals and produce

To see more, check out
http://umichigan.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2092452&l=6b94c&id=2233729

Mini-Vacation

This past weekend I was able to share in the fun of Jake and Mike in the end of their week-long vacation from Burger King! We approached Thursday night unaware of our final plans.. whitewater rafting (which was the plan earlier in the week), Washington D.C., theme parks all over the midwest, and a big city like Chicago or New York all entered our head, but we ended up deciding on a day-by-day basis what to do. Unable to decide if we wanted to immediately leave across the country Thursday night, we decided to hold off and find things to do on Friday. We ended up going to a friend's cottage up north to go tubing on a small lake and use fireworks! 60mph tubing with a driver who is constantly trying to throw you off is not a boring time, that's for sure. We were all so sore when we were done... I think I fell off almost a dozen times. Between holding yourself on to the tube while your body is dragging in the water, trying to pull yourself back on, failing, and pulling yourself back on the tube when stopped, tubing is quite the upper-body workout. That was a whole barrel o' fun. We decided Saturday to try out the Muskegon Air Fair .(sorry Nathan... I totally forgot until after the show that you had called me and were going to be there. Apparently from Facebook you got to meet Dick DeVos while there, too.) Anyways, that was a pretty exciting show, especially when I looked out at the horizon and
saw a black line approaching from the distance. The shutterbug inside of me immediately grabbed my camera and started clicking the shutter, because I realized immediately that a B-2 Stealth Bomber was about to fly over us. It's pretty funny.. when you go through those pictures in order, it's almost like an animation showing the Bomber fly from one side to the other. We all decided that the B-2 alone was worth the $17 to get in, and there was also an F-16 demo and a fake Vietnam battle and some other things. Just for the heck out it, here are some more B-2 pictures.

After a trip to Old Country Buffet, we traveled to Mike's house to shoot potato guns and use chemicals for the purpose of reaction, but I think those are best described with pictures (coming soon; I need to get them from Mike).

Sunday's trip started at 5AM, and lasted over 24 hours. We left for Wisconsin Dells, WI, with a destination of the Mt. Olympus water/theme park/go-kart complex. They have 9 multi-level go-kart tracks, roller coasters, and indoor and outdoor water slides.. which add up to a fun day. The multi-level karts were amazing! The first ones we did were this tower that winds upward and then takes you down these hills. It was crazy, though, because the person in front of you (and the track) all of a sudden disappeared from view, and then you're suddenly almost leaving the ground in your go-kart, because the hill is so steep. They also have a track, keeping with the greek theme, that involves driving through a 60-foot tall Trojan Horse. To top it off, they have a new wooden roller coaster that has a 140-foot drop and goes through a tunnel underneath the parking lot, such that the coaster has hills on both sides of the parking lot. So that coaster breaks the new record for largest coaster for me! It was after 5AM Monday when we got home, just in time to get some sleep before work for all of us.

To leave you, here is a picture of a roller coaster as we left the park.

Crash

Today, a semi-truck hit an asphalt truck on the road adjacent to my neighbor's home. The semi-truck wound up in my neighbor's backyard! The top picture is the view from my backyard (visit this page or click the title of this post, "Crash," at the right under "Recent entries" to view the complete pictures).

a unique week.

This was, certainly, a unique week. Tuesday morning, I traveled back to the lovely city of Ann Arbor to go to the Preventive Cardiology office at the University of Michigan Hospital for my annual cardiology exam. I will be going to get a stress test/echocardiogram in late August right around when I'll move in to the apartment (I get to run and get ultrasound pictures taken of my heart). The more interesting and unique thing about my visit was that I was given a peculiar privilege: the ability to ride any roller coaster I want to. Previously, I was only allowed to ride small roller coasters (no Cedar Point for me), and according to my previous doctors I would only be allowed to ride small coasters for my entire life. The fear was that my heart would literally rip apart at the weakened surgery sites from the G-forces of the rides. It's one of those weird social things I've always dealt with at amusement parks: "Oh, that ride would be nice, but I'll just need to stay back and wait for you here." Luckily, I have had some wonderful friends over the years (and a wonderful girlfriend now) who have been willing to skip out on those rides just because I can't ride them. Thank you Shawn, Paxton, Eric Day, Elizabeth, and everyone else. It means a lot more to me than you might think for something so trivial. Anyways, that is now the past, and I can be a normal person again. It's a weird case of psychology messing with my brain, though, because for my entire life I have associated large roller coasters with images of the surgical sutures still in my chest ripping apart or the patched hole in my heart tearing open right at the bottom of a large hill. When I get on a large coaster for the first time, it will certainly be strange. I'm going to go to Michigan's Adeventure in Muskegon with Elizabeth in a few weeks to celebrate my new freedom. If anyone else is interested in going later in July or August, maybe.. to any amusement park anywhere, to celebrate.. just let me know. The ability to ride roller coasters is something most people take for granted (I know I would if I didn't have a heart defect). It seems like a strange topic to be writing about, but it's something of a good sign to me: less to worry about regarding my heart troubles.

This week has also been unique because today I received my first speeding ticket, which was also the first time I've ever been pulling over. I went to East Grand Rapids this morning with Elizabeth for a checkup appointment with my oral surgeon (from my jaw surgery for last summer), and on the way home, I drove on Business I-196 after I got off the expressway. In case you were wondering, Elizabeth came with because we don't have much time due to me working 2nd shift, and it was a way to spend time together. Anyways, there's construction on Bus. 196 Westbound after it curves after 7-11 and McD's.. for those of you who know what I'm talking about. I didn't see the signs for "Reduced Speed Ahead" and started slowing down when I reached the sign for speed limit 45 mph, and I was still going 60 because it's normally a 55 zone. The sheriff was pointing his radar gun directly after the sign, and clocked me at 60. So he pulled me over and, without any questions to me wrote me up for going 5 over. So that's a $90 ticket. Luckily, today was all overtime pay at work for me, so I made almost all of the money to pay off the ticket at work tonight.

Until next time,