Health Care

I'm wondering when the break through for a national health care will happen. Currently the insurance industry and their lobbyist are working hard to defeat any such thing. Strange country we have, a majority of the population supports national health care. Are our representatives in Congress listening? Most of the Democrats are and none of the Republicans. Our current health care system is really an expensive health care market. We pay more than twice as much per capita than France, Germany, UK, Sweden and Italy and get less. If you can afford to buy you can get health care if not you are no better than those in third world countries. At a recent free health clinic in New Orleans 83% of the attendees had a job they just didn't have enough to buy health insurance. So in effect we have a rationed health care system.

When we finally get a national health care system it will become as important to our population as Social Security and Medicare. Personally I prefer Medicare for all.

More on Cycling

No complaints today, just a few observations about cycling. I appreciate those who slow down and pass me with caution. If the opportunity presents itself I try to get out of the way. I appreciate those who wave me through the stop sign even when they have the right of way. I appreciate those who give me room to pass when traffic is stopped and backed up.

Last summer I had to ride home when the temperature climbed to 108. One guy said drink a lot of water, another asked if I would like a lift and a lady asked if I needed water. All this on a ten mile ride. See there are nice people out there.

Cycling

It was a chilly ride today but nevertheless a good ride. I ride because it makes me feel better and keeps me healthy. I try to ride on lightly traveled roads and avoid riding during commute times. Staying away from traffic is of major importance but sometimes it is unavoidable. As a cyclist you get to see the number of people who run stop signs and make unsafe passes. A scary situation is the driver who has to pass me only to turn right, right in front of me. This happens more often than it should. People are always in a hurry and don't realize they are only saving seconds, minuscule ticks of the clock that mean nothing in the average day.

One situation I've labeled the Law of Triple Convergents. Picture a narrow road, one cyclist and two cars approaching from opposite directions. All too often they will all pass each other at exactly the same time. It could be a narrow bridge, cyclist and one car or a parked car, a cyclist and one car going in the same direction, the results are the same. For the cyclist this is a potentially dangerous situation, I doubt the drivers view it as such but then they have all that iron surrounding them.

With that said I want to say I appreciate all the curteous drivers who slow a little when they see me and pass with caution. There are many such drivers out there but we can always use more.

Television/Movies

I have a few TV programs I like, mostly political, in addition to football, soccer, baseball and cycling. I go the to movies about once a year, maybe. What I don't like are the commercials, too much violence both on TV and in movie previews. Most movie previews convince me to avoid the film at all costs. TV commercials are just as bad, but I do make liberal use of the mute button. Recently a member of one of my households watched a movie on TV it went like this: stern talking, screams, shots, screeching tires, panic talking, explosions and so on. Two days later they put on a different movie. Judging by the sounds it was the same movie with a little different dialogue. If you look at my profile a couple of my favorite movies have some violence but nothing like current films. What happened to good stories, good humor and a little drama. Have all the good screen writers died?

Health Care

The battle for health care continues in Washington. Will we get the public option or will we be stuck with the corporate option? If you are not on the side of the public option then you should go to this website http://namesofthedead.com/ and read some of the personal tragedies. These are people who didn't have health care and died. People who didn't go to the hospital because they couldn't afford it. In many cases their illness was treatable and curable but they didn't get the care they needed because they didn't have health care or enough money. These people would have had a much better chance if they lived in: France, Germany, Canada, England just to mention a few nations with national health care.

Email or call your senator or representative if you want to see national health care in the U.S.