The Land of Ozz

Riley is a 7 1/2 years old and has been taking piano lessons for just over a year.  MrsOzz made piano practice part of Riley’s 1st grade home school curriculum.  Riley’s hard work and developing his gift has paid off.  I am one proud daddy.

The comparison between car insurance and health insurance fascinates me.  Promoters of mandated health insurance often use car insurance as an example of how government requires citizens to purchase insurance.  What I intend to do here is explain some differences between mandated car insurance and mandated health insurance.

First car insurance is mandated by state governments not the federal government.  Car insurance is only required in my state (SC) if you own a car that you intend to register.  Every car owner is not mandated to purchase automobile insurance.  Yes folks, you can own a car in this area of the country without automobile insurance as long as you do not plan to put a license plate on it. You do not have to insure a car that you buy for the purposes of private use on private property.  The old 1964 Ford Fairlane that I drove around our little 26 acre hog farm as a child required no automobile insurance. THe picture above shows me at about 9 years old chaufering my 3 year old sister and my dog Duke around the farm.  The car probably cost my dad a few hundred dollars and he was willing to risk that investment by allowing me to operate that vehicle without insurance.  By the way, do you think the government insured all of those clunkers that they recently purchased during the cash for clunker scam?

The second and arguably a more significant difference between government mandated car insurance and the proposed government mandated health insurance is that type of insurance that is mandated by the government is liability insurance.  Liability insurance protects everyone except the owner.  Yes the liability insurance does help protect the owners assets but it does not insure the health or car.  That type of insurance is not mandated by the government.  Some lenders require insurance to cover the car as long as a lean is carried on the car, but that is not government mandated.

The president just declared the H1N1 (Swine Flu) situation as a National Emergency.  My experience with H1N1 has been mixed so far and I am curious to see how this announcement affects things.

My 4 year-old Caden tested positive for H1N1 in August.  He subsequently spent 6 nights in the hospital with pneumonia. Since then he has never really shaken the pneumonia and is on oxygen at home (o2 only when sleeping) after another 6 more nights at the Medical University of South Carolina this past week for pneumonia.  His flu test was negative this time. Since August we have had him in and out of the pediatrician’s office and the emergency room with high fevers and trouble breathing.

During one emergency room visit the nurse caring for my son began to “educate” me on H1N1.  The nurse tried to convince me of how much more dangerous this flu was for children.  I asked her if she had actually read any of the statistics and she said she had not.  I went on to explain that the majority of deaths were in the young adults age range.  Children and elderly were actually fairing the best in this strain of flu.  She seemed a little shocked because that was not what she had heard.  I suggested that she take a look at the CDC statistics for herself rather than going off of what she was being told.

Today my wife ran into a nurse from my son’s pediatrician’s office.  The nurse asked if we were going to the H1N1 shot.  My wife responded by saying that we had some concerns.  The nurse then said that every staff member in the practice had declined the shot for the same reason.

During our hospital stay this week our son was put on contact precautions.  This meant that every person who entered his room had to wear a disposable gown, gloves, and of course a mask.  This was even after my son tested negative for everything contagious that they tested him for.  The staff said it was hospital policy for any person coming in with respiratory problems.

The moral of this story is that there are some serious inconsistencies in messages depending on where you go even within the medical community.  How will things change with the announcement of the National Emergency for H1N1?

Also posted on my Wellsphere Page

My wife wrote a comment on Facebook that I want to follow up on. Mrs Ozz said:

“The idea of universal health care for our family is SCARY! At least we would still have Medicaid for Caden but who knows how that would change!”

While the Medicaid program that Caden is on works well for us college educated middle class folk…I seriously don’t know how uneducated (illiterate) people get it for their children.  The red tape and paperwork processes to get approved are horrendous.  You not only have to be able to read and comprehend the applications, but you have to have good records.  I was told to expect it to take 4-6 months to get Caden approved.  I had good records and followed the instructions and got the approval back in a few weeks.  The paperwork was heavy on the front end but has been almost non-existent on the back end.  These government run programs like Medicaid don’t provide specific benefit information like private health care.  You never get an explanation of benefits (EOB) from medicaid and from what I have seen there are no processes for reimbursement if you do pay for something out of pocket.

Caden has been covered by Medicaid (Katie Beckett – TEFRA program) since birth which was almost five years ago.  Children who qualify for TEFRA Medicaid are defined as follows:

These are children age 18 or younger that live at home and meet the SSI definition of disability for a child and meet the level of care required for Medicaid sponsorship in either a nursing home, ICF/MR or an acute care hospital. The parent’s income and resources are not considered in determining eligibility… Source

That definition gives me a reality check on how serious Caden’s conditions have been since birth.  What they are basically saying is that if the family is not willing or able to care for the child then they would likely be institutionalized if a suitable home could not be found.

This medicaid plan has worked for us but it has had some bumps in the road.  Beginning in 2008 the state of South Carolina began outsourcing Medicaid to private industry (HMOs) so this particular “GOVERNMENT” health care is no longer run by the Government in most cases.  We opted out of the HMO choices which were offered through SC Healthy Connections Kids and went back to fee-for-service Medicaid after being forced into an HMO that did not even provide coverage for most of Caden’s care.  The HMO we were auto enrolled into has only one participating hospital within 100 miles and it is not the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Children’s Hospital where ALL of Caden’s inpatient, outpatient, and surgical work has been provided since birth.  As a matter of fact MUSC is the only hospital in the state that performs pediatric cardio-thoracic surgery. So why they choose an HMO for Caden, a child with congenital heart defects, where the only hospital in the state that can provide care is a non-participant in the HMO is completely illogical?

The scariest part of government run health care for me is the lack of equal value on life.  Many health care professionals believe that kids like Caden are a burden on families and society.  For instance, the women’s clinic where Mrs Ozz got most of her prenatal care went out of their way to make sure that we knew that we “had choices” during the pregnancy.  They made sure that we understood how difficult it would be to care for a special needs child and that we did not have to put our family through that.  Never mind that a life is a stake here.  They were basically saying that our family could have lived an easier life if we had chose to end our baby’s life at approximately 26 weeks in the pregnancy.

The mentality behind government health care is similar in that there seems to be no regard for the life of the patient if cost high and end of life are possible anyway.  You may remember that President Obama has made it pretty clear that some life saving procedures may not be worth performing on some patients.  I see this attitude held by some politicians along with their lack of value for all life to be the precursor to a slippery slope into situations like the one Dr. Bernhard Moeller faced in Australia.  The doctor was denied a visa because his son had DOWN syndrome and that would have caused a drain on taxpayers through the Australian government health care system.  And where does it all go from there?  When does the government decide to stop prenatal care or even force abortions on women who are carrying babies with known life threatening conditions that will almost surely put a drain on the taxpayers if the child is allowed to become a citizen?

The assessment of Dr. Moeller’s family medical needs were likely accurate if his son’s care cost anywhere near as much as my son Caden’s care.  Our family takes out at least twice as much benefit from the health insurance system as we put in during an average month even when there are no major procedures or extended hospitalizations.  Major surgeries along with associated hospital stays are particularly draining on the insurance system when they do occur.  Let me provide some personal details to clarify by using the first two months of Caden’s life.  I stopped adding the bills when the total passed $330,000 so we will use that number as a reference since we know that the first two months was at least $330K for Caden’s care.  My current insurance plan premiums are about $13,445 per year for our family coverage for Blue Cross Blue Shied Standard (non-postal rates).  While I was not a government employee at the time of Caden’s birth my plan was similar in benefit and premium costs so the example here is fairly representative.  Like most plans I pay a portion and my employer pays the remainder of the premiums to the insurance company.  At $330K in bills for those two months of care that means that it took more than 24 employees worth of yearly insurance premium contributions to cover the first two months of Caden’s hospital care after birth.  Caden has also had several other major surgeries since birth so these first two months is only a small example of what health care costs for a child with complex medical conditions.  For example Caden’s regular ongoing care today totals in excess of $2,000 per month due to tube feeding supplies, therapies, medications, specialist visits, and associated tests.  That is nearly double the monthly premiums ($1120) being paid in total for my family between me and my employer.

So the scariest part of the government run health care model is brought to light in Australia’s denial of Dr. Moeller’s visa.  If that example runs it’s course in the United States then Caden’s care might be categorized as too costly and the system might have to drop him from coverage if the politicians and burracrates get too involved in the process.

I have been considering this for a while and I believe now is the time.  I will begin a series on “The Father’s Mandate” as defined in Chapter Four of Growing Kids God’s Way.  I will be cross posting these articles here and on GrowingKids.org.  Follow me on Twitter to get notified when the posts go live.

Gingerbread Train 2007

We are building our shopping list for our annual Osborne Family Gingerbread Train. You can see the 2006 Gingerbread Train on Grill’n Time. I realized tonight that I never uploaded pictures of last year’s train. You will have to follow me on Twitter or Facebook to see more detailed pictures of last year’s train.  I will be posting them later tonight.

No, we have not jumped to the Attachment Parenting camp.  My wife jokingly admitted to co-sleeping with our 15-month old for an hour or so each morning during our recent trip to Washington, D.C.  Josiah was sleeping through the night in a pack-n-play in the same room with our two older boys, but he was waking when I left for work.  Sherry brought him in an had him lay with her for a little more than an hour until it was time for the rest of the gang to get up.  Both she and Josiah were able to easily go back to sleep this way without waking Riley and Caden.

Babywise and Preparation for Parenting are pretty clear on the subject of co-sleeping and we completely agree with the Ezzos on this subject. That said, there might be a night or two when you can safely deviate on the co-sleeping issue with an older kid without messing up all the great nights of sleep you have been given by following the priciples taught in Babywise? An yes, I know that a 15-months old is well out of the ages covered by Babywise but I thought the title would be cute and catchy.

This post is really not about co-sleeping an, but it is about the two big C’s of parenting.  The two big C’s are Context and Characterization.  What is the context of the situation?  Are you characterized by this as a parent?  The context of this situation was pretty obvious in our case.  Sherry was considering the preciousness of others and wanting to allow our older boys to get the amount of sleep they needed.  I am sure this was also the easiest way to get Josiah back to sleep for an hour or so without having a big power struggle.

We are certainly not characterized by having our children sleep in the same room with us even though there have been some (a lot of) occasions where Sherry or I would bunk in the same room with Caden for health and safety reasons.  Caden has got very congested with a cold in the past and he has required frequent suctioning at night to help him avoid aspiration of his secretions.  At four years old Caden still does not swallow at all, not even his own saliva.  If we didn’t help him keep his airway clear then we could have ended up in the hospital with pneumonia.  We ended up in the hospital a few time anyway, but I am sure there would have been many more hospital stays if we had not taken the extra precautions.  Other than those occasions I can probably count the number of times we have slept in the same room with our kids on my fingers. Most of those other occasions happened when we were visiting relatives or friends.

So it is not unheard of for a Babywise mama to co-sleep with a child, but you can be assured that in our family it will only happen on special occasions based on the context of the circumstances.

While I understand the arguments from folks including other Christians for and against how to handle Halloween, the bottom line is this.  Whatever your convictions are, no one has a right to come in and harass you over your decision.  When I get the “what are you going to be/do on Halloween” question I respond with a simple “our family does not participate in Halloween”.  Most folks just say “oh whatever” and move on, but it is often the fellow Christians who rise up at me with a bitter response.  For some reason there are some Christians who seem to be offended that another Christian can act on a different personal conviction.

Explaining convictions to our young children is one of the most difficult things.  Finding a way to say that people who participate in Halloween are not bad and most people are just having fun.  It is hard when you are using the word fun not joining the “fun”.  We tell our kids that Halloween is an activity that we choose not to participate in as a family.  This is just one more way that we build family identity and set ourselves apart from the world.

I want to share a note my wife left on a parenting forum this week concerning this subject:

I have found a good book that we read every year to communicate the spiritual issues of Halloween. It is called Mommy, Why Don’t We Celebrate Halloween? by Linda Winwood. I find it gives enough details about the spiritual side of the holiday without going overboard.

I too have struggled with the balance. As a child, I remember sitting under the kitchen table with all lights turned out (and of course not a word was spoken)! Those kind of actions left me fearful of the holiday and in a sense elevated evil’s power over the power and authority of Jesus. I rebelled when I was older and indeed participated fully in celebrating Halloween. My moral warehouse wasn’t being filled with any reason WHY! I had no idea why we were sitting in the dark except the explanation that “Halloween is the Devil’s holiday.” This was hard to understand when on the outside nothing looked “evil” in fact it looked pretty fun!

A couple of years after my oldest child was born I felt my heart being pulled away from participating in the holiday though it wasn’t until a year later that I learned the origins of many of the rituals of Halloween. Even with that being said, we are very careful to include our own fun. Building a strong sense of family identity makes the perfect opportunity to bring balance to this holiday. There are many things we do or don’t do because of our convictions based on the Word of God. Our children already know (and Riley will tell you) “We’re the Osborne family and we do/don’t do _________” and they know why we do or don’t do things.

The balance? I think that comes in creating our own fun as a family! We’ve had a family movie night on Mom and Dad’s bed before with popcorn and candy. This year we are looking forward to games, movie and sleeping in the living room (which is on the back side of the house !) We’ll put up a little tent in the living room and we have a huge cardboard box to imagine with. We’ve been saving that box knowing how much fun they’ll have!! I wonder how much sleep we’ll all receive….?!

Have a blessed Fall season!
Sherry for The Osbornes

For those Christians who are led to ignore Halloween or find other alternatives, God bless you, you are not alone even though it may seem so on some days even within your own church family.  For those who are led to minister to people during this time of year or just have a good time dressing up and collecting candy, God bless you.  You are not judged by our family either way.  You are viewed as folks with different convictions.

Previous posts on the subject of Halloween:

Halloween II – Why Christians should not celebrate
Halloween – Should Christians Participate?

My big boy Caden was hospitalized yesterday.  He was admitted for a “fever of unknown origin”.  The 104 degree fever popped up while Caden was already on a pretty strong antibiotic for a sinus infection.  A major concern is that this illness could jeopardize the scheduled heart surgery that could take place as early as 9/22.  I am keeping my twitter pretty current if you want to follow more real-time progress.  I will be also be updating Caden’s Page with major changes.

The doctors are trying to identify the source of the fever so they can treat it.  We also have to consider potential evacuations with Hurricane Hanna if we do not get discharged before the storm arrives here in chucktown.  The latest predictions have it headed this way (Charleston is in the center of the five day forecast track). Apple pick’n in NC is looking better by the minute.  I just hope we can blow this Popsicle stand in time to beat this storm to the county line.

The good news is that Caden has O2 sats of 96-100.  The bad news is that it is taking 10 liters of blow-by oxygen to get the sats up.  Please keep Caden in your prayers.