The Land of Ozz

Better Solutions

Educate people on how to seek jobs that offer good health care insurance plans rather than just giving them the plan for free. Then if employers don’t pony up the plans then they don’t get the quality labor. Like the bumper sticker says, “Share my work ethic not my wealth.”

Prove the cost saving first before banking a new entitlement program on a theory.

Restrict law suites against doctors so they can lower there overheard (liability insurance) and in turn lower costs for everyone. This would also help cut down on unnecessary tests that doctors often order simply to cover their back side.

Now those are common sense ideas.

Reasons why I don’t like it

Health insurance coverage for those who don’t need/want it results in care being slow to delivery for all. It is a natural progression. Some people will abuse the “free” health care because it has no value to them due to never having to work to pay for it. Unnecessary “free” tests for the freeloaders will force those who really need the tests for  the detection of life threatening illness to wait in longer lines at the very least.

This bill floods a struggling system serving the least among us (Medicaid).  Oh…and I don’t want my tax money paying for abortions…PERIOD.

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 had my eye on Fred Thompson at first, but my wife and I ended up giving our votes to Huckabee in the SC primary due to what appeared to be a lack of motivation on Thompson’s part. Duncan Hunter was the first choice for me based solely on my answers to an online survey. If supporters of Thompson and Hunter were following them for their core conservative values, then those supporters should easily shun the remaining republicats and follow Huckabee now that he is the only real conservative in the race. Here are my two cents on each of the remaining GOP candidates:

Huckabee – The only true conservative left. Mike Huckabee is most likely of the remaining candidates to stand up for core family values and nominate conservative judges who will uphold the constitution. Nominating judges is one of the most important and longest lasting reason to choose a person for president in my opinion. The only real negative things he has going against him are the cheesy campaign ads with Chuck Norris and the notion that Mexicans don’t know how to climb fences.

And now for the Republicrats:

McCain – He is one of the most likely REP senators to side with Ted Kennedy on anything and that is more than a little scary. What he has going for him is war hero status and name recognition due to past presidential race experience. I could stomach voting for him in the general election if he could get on the right side of gun control and tax cuts. I actually like him better than any of the rest when it comes to immigration even though I think that immigration should not even be an issue in the race.

Romney – Not far enough removed from pro choice stance prior to entering this race. Seems a little convenient of a switch if you ask me. How is it anyway that his religious convictions will cause him to abstain from alcohol and smoking but leave him to support abortion? (source) And another thing, how exactly did he single handedly turn around dozens (the numbers were stated as high as 100s) of companies in one lifetime? He didn’t. He was CEO of a venture capital / consulting firm that did the work. Never mind that this is a race for president and not CFO of the USA.

Giuliani – Gun control, LIFE of unborn children, marriage protection. Need I say more?

Pon Raul – Who? Anti-war stance sounds like it came right out of the last DEM debate.

The hype on this story has settled in the mainstream media, but it has not left my mind in the past week. I am as knowledgeable as a man can be on abortion without being a physician. I wrote about my history and my personal position on abortion a little over a year ago.

My wife is now approximately 23 weeks pregnant with our third child. She is at about the same place in this pregnancy as she was when we learned about or son Caden’s life threatening heart defects. The heart defects (four of them) were so prominent that an amniocentesis has highly encouraged. I wrote about this experience in the draft for a book that I have been working on.

An amniocentesis is a procedure where they use a very large needle to collect fluid from the area around the baby. This fluid can be used to determine if the baby has a chromosome abnormality. We had but one question, “what is the benefit of gathering this information?” The answer was long and consisted of a lot of beating around the bush. Finally, the answer we got was that the amniocentesis results would empower us with information to help us make a “choice” on what to do next. We determined that what they really meant was that they wanted to know if we were interested in terminating the pregnancy.

Obviously we chose to move forward with the pregnancy. It is my understanding that many parents choose to end the life of their child if defects like these are found and often the decision is made as a result of pressure put on them by the prenatal clinics to consider the termination.

I really did not understand what a partial birth abortion was until a little over a week ago. What makes me sick to my stomach is that my wife and I were highly encouraged to consider our “options” in regards to her pregnancy with Caden. A choice to terminate at that late point in the pregnancy would have resulted in what I now understand to be a partial birth abortion.

Before you follow the links I am about to give you I want to give a firm WARNING that the information you will see and read is very graphic and it is very disturbing. It is all truth and I believe every parent who is considering an abortion should be required to see or read something like this at a minimum. La Shawn Barber has brought together a couple of the best posts on this subject that I have seen. The first post is titled ‘Intact’ Infanticide [WARNING, this is a very graphic description of late term abortion as witnessed by a nurse]. The other post provides a graphical representation of the procedure and is titled Supreme Court Upholds Ban On Partial Birth Abortion[Visual WARNING]. La Shawn has been one of the most faithful bloggers in producing dozens of sobering reports on abortion in a category she has named “child killing”.

It grieves me to think that children’s lives could be taken in this way. What grieves almost as much is the number of U.S. citizens who are sitting on the edge of the seat to cast a vote for a presidential candidate who criticizes the most recent Supreme Court Decision to stop partial birth abortions.

The Senator Hillary Clinton’s Response:

“This decision marks a dramatic departure from four decades of Supreme Court rulings that upheld a woman’s right to choose and recognized the importance of women’s health…”Source

From the Senator Barack Obama Camp.

“I strongly disagree with today’s Supreme Court ruling, which dramatically departs from previous precedents safeguarding the health of pregnant women…” Source

Did they get together for lunch to come up with matching opening sentences that read like they are in stereo surround sound?

Well Senators Obama and Clinton, our experience and many others is that many of the folks recommending this procedure have little if any concern for the woman’s health. The folks giving us the option to bow out of a late term pregnacy simply wanted us to consider reversing a CHOICE we made at conception.

A few months ago I was contacted by the founder of a great outreach project for those parents who face a difficult prenatal diagnosis like we faced with Caden. I almost forgot about this until Mrs. Ozz reminded as we were discussing this subject this past week. Please visit this site and pass it along to any parents who may be getting pressure to terminate a pregnacy as a result of prenatal screenings or tests.

BeNotAfraid.net

“Benotafraid.net is an online outreach to parents who have received a poor or difficult prenatal diagnosis. The family stories, articles, and links within this site are presented as a resource for those who may have been asked to choose between terminating a pregnancy or continuing on despite the diagnosis. The benotafraid.net families faced the same decision and chose not to terminate. By sharing our experiences, we hope to offer encouragement to those who may be afraid to continue on. “

Check out other ProLifeBlogs.

I want to start with a promise that this posting is not going to be a repeat of anything you will read on another blog after the first few sentences. It’s about time that I dedicated a post to this subject. What better time to do it. Tomorrow will be the 33rd anniversary for Roe V. Wade. I want to offer a big thanks to La Shawn Barber for the link and great post today titled Blogs4Life/March for Life.

I write this post as a man with first hand experience on the subject of abortion. I have witnessed more than one abortion first hand, meaning I was in the room with a friend or girlfriend when they got an abortion. I want to make it perfectly clear that these abortions were performed on women before I even met my wife. I will not go any further in explaining the details to maintain the privacy and dignity of those women who were involved. I shared this because I want you to understand that I speak on this subject from a position of experience.

I look back on what I was a part of and regret it deeply. I wish I could go back and have a chance to do things different. So where does that leave me? It left me in a position of confessing and repenting of my sins before God. I have been forgiven by God and I have repented. One definition of repent says, “To feel such regret for past conduct as to change one’s mind regarding it” according to Dictionary.com. I like this definition because it clearly states what I have done. I felt such regret for past conduct that I have changed my mind on abortion. Obviously I once believed that abortion was just another form of birth control.

Let me tell you a story about where I am today now that you know where I come from on the subject of abortion. It was less than 20 weeks into my wife’s pregnancy with our second child that we got some disturbing news. A standard ultrasound found some abnormalities that warranted a level II ultrasound. My wife’s doctor at that time wanted her to go immediately for the level two ultrasound, but I had to leave later that day for a ten day trip to California. We went for the level II ultrasound as soon as I got back into town. That doctor’s visit was where we learned that our baby was going to be born with a very rare heart defect. They found on the ultrasound that his aorta was plumbed up wrong to his heart (interrupted aortic arch) in addition to having an enormous hole between the ventricles called a Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD). The findings were confirmed in a pediatric cardiology lab at the local medical university a few hours later where they performed a fetal echo cardiogram. That was not the end of the findings with his heart, but that really has no bearing on this story. The emotions were absolutely overwhelming as we prepared to leave the room where the echo cardiogram had been performed. I will share with you a very small part of the manuscript of a book I am writing about our experiences.

The whole thing had really not sunk in for me just yet. The staff realized that we were near a state of shock. They told us to sit as long as we needed before leaving. They offered contact information for us to call with any questions that we had after we got home. They scheduled follow-up appointments for Sherry to have the echo cardiograms throughout the remainder of the pregnancy to see if the defect had progressed in either direction. We finished our talk with the doctor and prepared to leave.
A nice lady from their office escorted us to the elevator. What happened next still gives me chills to this day. I started to have trouble breathing. My knees felt as if they were about to come out from under me. I grabbed the wall and asked if there was somewhere I could sit down. The lady walking with us immediately helped me into the nearest room. I sat down and began to sob uncontrollably. Sherry comforted me as she cried. I cried and gasped for air for a while. It seemed that nothing could stop it. The reality of the day’s events had finally caught up with me.

I would guess that you are saying that this is a really emotional story, but what does it have to do with abortion? Well, this is where abortion comes back into the picture. It was made very clear to us that we should come back to the clinic where the level II ultrasound was performed before we went home that day. My wife and I did go back, but we did not know why it was so important. You may have guessed by now. The staff in the clinic wanted to make sure that they offered us an opportunity to get an amniocentesis. We were puzzled as to why an amniocentesis was so important. My wife ended up asking straight up, “What is the big deal with getting an amnio as soon as possible?” Well it turned out that with my wife being at approximately 22 weeks pregnant was on the edge of some threshold for getting an abortion if we chose to “not proceed with this pregnancy”.

If you are curious as to what a baby looks like at 20 weeks in the womb then you will find it in the picture on the right. This picture is from the Option Line which I will talk more about later. I could not put my hands on our ultrasound picture from that day, but it looks very similar only without the color.

The staff in the OB clinic was pretty adamant about presenting this option to us because a rare heart defect like this one could be linked to something genetic that could end up taking the child’s life shortly after the delivery anyway. One big problem for my wife was that she is deathly afraid of needles and she told them so. They made it clear that we had options with or without the amniocentesis. It didn’t take long in this conversation for both of us to say in stereo, “There is nothing a lab test is going to tell us that will change our mind on proceeding with this pregnancy.” Unfortunately that was not the end of the push for an amnio. My wife finally had to request that it be written in big letters on the front of her chart, “Do not offer this patient an amnio again!” Needless to say, she was not offered another amniocentesis during regular office visits.

The pregnancy did eventually have some complications that required an amnio fluid draw. This is where the doctors drew off more than two liters of fluid form around the baby in the last two weeks before he was born. We requested at that point to have the fluid checked since they were drawing it anyway. The test did find a micro deletion of the 22nd chromosome called 22q11.2 which is not a genetic condition not normally associated with death of a newborn.

The follow up to this portion of the story is now a blog called Caden’s Page. I officially started Caden’s Page on the day of Caden’s birth which was Election Day 2004. We chose the name Caden because of its meaning “Fighter”. His middle name was chosen to be Gabriel meaning “God is my Strength”. We could not have picked a more appropriate names for this little boy.

The moral of this story is that an abortion in our case would have robbed the world of a wonderful person. Caden is now 14 months old an absolute joy. He is smart, energetic, and he has a personality that will melt your heart.

I believe that the reality of what an abortion means does not sink in for most people who go through with it. Many are like I was when I was younger. I had never seen an ultrasound. I had no clue what a 12 or 15 week old fetus looked like. I just could not picture the fact that this was a little human being inside these women’s bodies. Then I got married. I went to be at my wife’s side for every OB/GYN visit during the pregnancies of our two boys. I got to see what they looked like at different stages of the pregnancy. I believe that if more people were able to visualize the life that they were about to take, then they would make a different decision. I feel that this is a key starting point to reducing the number of abortions in this country.

There are groups out there who are working to get ultrasound machines in clinics where people go for abortion counseling. There are some great resources on the Focus on the Family web site. The Focus on the Family site links to a great site called Option Line. The Option Line site offers guidance on where to go to get pregnancy counseling. The link earlier in this post points to a page with some great pictures of babies at different stages of a pregnancy.

I am signing up tonight to become an official member of the Pro-Life Blogs. If you are a pro-life blogger then I recommend that you let people know it. If you are pro-choice, then we have something in common. I am pro-choice as well. I believe that every couple should have the “choice” on whether to engage in sexual relations. Once a couple conceives they have pasted to point of choice as it relates to the life or death of the child.

Anyone who exercises their pro-choice rights to have sex are in fact choosing to become pro-life!

This is one of the many:

Another great resource to check out: Be Not Afraid