Tag Archives: health care

Like a Pig Through a Snake.

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CharlieQ at Across the Great Divide has a little fun with my medical odyssey.

Deportation Can Solve Our Health Care Crisis.

Illegal aliens are supposed to be overrunning our health care system,
swamping the nation’s emergency rooms with their sick kids,
tuberculosis and organ transplants. [The typically hysterical linked
article references a “report” in the American Journal of Physicians and
Surgeons, the obscure (9 total Google hits, including one in Russian) publication of a fringe organization the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons.]

But I think I know the real reason medical costs are out of control. It’s because of people like David

Strom and my friend, Bob.

………

Illegal aliens, my  foot.

This is a bi-partisan problem that could be solved if we deport the right people, and I know just where to start.

I can take a joke, and he uses my example to illustrate an important point. The problems with our health care system isn’t a result of any influx of immigrants. Or at least it’s not that simple.

If my experience “in the system” taught me anything (other than ‘be careful on crutches’) it’s that we depend on immigrants to fill the jobs taking care of us. Our generation is like a demographic pig going through a snake, and we’re getting older and less healthy by the day. We’re retiring, and there are not enough people in the country  to take the jobs, especially the less desirable jobs we’re leaving behind. I heard a scholarly fellow on MPR (I wish I could attribute this, but it’s just one of those things floating around in my addled brain) extend the theory that in 20 years we’ll be begging immigrants to come to our country. There won’t be enough people around to do the work! As our economy cools and the Mexican (for example) economy improves, there will be less incentive to leave Mexico for work. Plus the vaunted Latin American population explosion is slowing down and slowing down quickly. Fewer people competing for jobs in Mexico. We’re just not going to have enough workers to keep the gears turning. Already the roofing industry, health care, and agriculture depend heavily on immigrant labor just to get the job done.

The lower rung jobs at the hospital I was in were largely held by Tibetans. Don’t ask me why Tibetans happen to land at that particular hospital, but there they are. The aids at the rehab center I was in were mostly Africans. In most cases the people that I dealt with did there jobs with competence, hard work and a cheerful attitude. The remarkable thing about that is that they’re working the lowest paying jobs in the building. Of course I also encountered immigrant RNs and doctors, a trend that is lamented by many, but applauded from my perspective. We, the boomers, are going to need these people to set our bones, to sample our blood, to sooth us in our dementia, and to wipe our butts.

I understand that the influx of immigrants has caused some problems, the wage structure of the meat packing industry has really gone down the tubes. But economies are dynamic systems and they seek equilibrium, they adjust themselves to the needs of the times. If we’re lucky.

Pain and torture and the other roommate

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Exchange this morning between me and my physical therapist:

Me: That hurts my knee!

PT: I don’t care.

On my last night in rehab, I got a new roommate. Jim, kind of a crusty looking old guy (is that redundant?) wearing blue jeans and a Red Socks cap. I asked him if he was a Red Socks fan. He was the bat boy for the Red Socks in 1936, he had a great view of Jimmie Foxx’s huge year at the plate. He was a lifer in the military, first the Navy and then the Air Force, and airplane mechanic. He was on the Bunker Hill at Midway, so he saw some real gritty action. When he retired he worked with a horse trainer at Canterbury Downs. He wasn’t supposed to walk around by himself, but he was constantly getting up to go to the bathroom without anyone around.

And then there was the other Jim. He was in his mid seventies, younger and more lucid than the rest of the inmates, he had been in the hospital and at that home since early June. He got hit by a car while riding his Harley, among other injuries, he had a crushed pelvis. He probably be able to walk eventually and he certainly will ride again. He’s already going through catalogs, picking out his next Harley. I’m don’t think his wife is too keen on that idea though.

Jim was kind of the leader of the pack at the home. He always got to meals early and sat in the same seat. That made his table the “cool guy’s table.” It was just like high school with guys jockeying for seats, everyone wanted to sit by Jim. Include me because he was by far the most lucid guy in camp. Although I was one of the few guys who actually sat at the Women’s table. I managed to get some good conversations with some of the ladies there.

Another guy, Werner, had fought in the German army in WWII. He was captured by the Russians and spent four years in the Gulags. When asked what that was like, he simply replied, “Weird.”

Well, Rebecca is headed down state to attend her High School reunion. She’s leaving me to the mercies of my daughters. Pray  for me.

I go to the doc today and will have some blood work done. If it’s all clear, I may get my new knee in a couple of weeks. It’s ballroom dancing by the first of the year!