From: jkay@bartlebythepublisher.com
Subject: Fwd: Old Age
Date: July 22, 2010 1:54:03 PM EDT
To: rubimar@nyc.rr.com

Proof for cover.
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In the Senate and the House, rousing debate is now going on (or will be again when they return) on various aspects of bringing health care insurance into the 21st Century. One bitter difference involves bringing down costs. Democrats claim that substantial cost savings can be realized by nationalizing medical records so as to minimize duplicating tests and treatments. They also believe that ways can be found to reduce hospital administrative costs. I agree.

       As an 87 year old senior citizen who visits many  Doctors’ offices and periodically undergoes hospital medical  procedures, I have personally witnessed some damnably wasteful practices. For the most part, these are it’ty-bit’ty mistakes, but I am a single individual. Multiply the waste in time and labor of each error I experience, and multiply that by millions of hospital visits, and you will say, “Huge sums of public money are being frittered away.”

       Whenever I visit a Doctor for the first time, I am given several sheets to fill out. They need my name, address, telephone number and  e-mail address. They also need my age, date of birth, height, weight, Social Security number, supplementary insurance policy number, the name and address of the supplementary insurer, the name and phone number of my General Practitioner and an emergency contact name and phone number. There’s more. Have I ever had cancer, a heart attack, diabetes, a stroke, major surgery, etc.?  I need to list the medications I am taking , strength and frequency of use. I’m sure there’s more, but I can’t remember it all.

       Since I recognize the need for this information, I do not begrudge the Doctor the 30 minutes to fill out these forms.  I deeply resent  that, when I visit another  Doctor the following week, I must spend another half-hour filling out essentially the same forms.A waste of time but, since it is my time, there is no financial cost to doctors, Medicare and insurance companies. Fortunately , when I again visit  the same Doctor, he doesn’t  require that I duplicate my clerical efforts.

       Not true when I register in a hospital. I have recently visited St.Vincent Catholic Medical Center  in New York at least eight or ten times for medical procedures. The forms I am asked to fill are similar to those in  Doctors’ offices, but with one major difference. Each time I am admitted to St. Vincent, they require that I  fill out the same form. Complaining to the Nurse avails me nothing. “We are only following procedure.” I point out that this is costing the Hospital extra money in paper, ink and the Nurse’s time. At the Hospital,  it is not just my wasted time; there is a continuing extra cost to the Hospital. It is an it’ty- bit’ty expenditure, but multiply that by the very large number of patients they service, and the it’ty-bit’ties pile up. Multiply that  total by the number of hospitals in the Country using similar wasteful procedures,  and you have a significant sum.

       It gets worse. I am a member of Medicare, I also carry a supplementary policy covering pretty much everything that Medicare fails to cover. When I sign in at St.Vincent, I write down both my Medicare number and the supplementary insurance company’s name, address , phone number and my policy number.  Invariably, a couple of weeks later, I get a Hospital bill advising me that Medicare has paid a certain amount and that I still owe them the balance –– a balance which my supplementary policy insurance always covers.  

       I then phone the Hospital billing office and explain the situation.  The clerk takes time to look up my record, takes time to write down my supplementary policy information, checks to see that all is O.K. and then takes time to correct the record.  A waste of time and money. Estimate a loss of  30 minutes at at least $10.00 per hour. This does not include the cost of. sending me the bill and, if I don’t phone back quickly, the cost of sending a duplicate bill. Another waste of at least $10.00. Money unnecessarily thrown out. Again, multiply this $20.00 cost by the number of patient in the same situation and multiply again by the number of hospitals with similar slipshod practices. 

       These are just small unnecessary costs with which I personally am familiar. I suspect that these are the tip of the iceberg, and that many other examples of inefficiency and waste exist.What are the losses countrywide?  One hundred thousand dollars.? Half a million dollars? All for it’ty bit’ty errors.

       Costly inefficiencies are not limited to hospitals. More egregious ones can be found among insurance companies. My wife is a member of the Health Incurance Plan of Greater New York (HIP). Her monthly premium is $775.00.  Payments are regularly made by my bank five days before each due date, plenty of time to reach their office.  Almost every month, I get  a three-page letter advising me that the payment is overdue.  I promptly phone the billing inquiries office to check.  Usually,  I’m told that payment has been received. Sometimes, I’m told that they do not yet have a record of my payment, but not to worry. “The company post office is stacked up.” The billing screwup at the Hospital is only three or four times a year. The wasteful office, paper and mailing costs at HIP occur monthly.. At least ten times as much money is wasted  annually. I repeatedly ask HIP to fix this problem but get nowhere. I am sure I would get a similar dismissal at other insurance companies.

       I am certain that my it’ty-bit’ty waste is multiplied ten  thousandfold by other examples of a waste in the medical and insurance industries.

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The world, particularly the political world, is full of hypocrisy, but there should be limits. Sarah Palin is the darling of the fundamentalist right and the anti-intellectual right. These are the very same people who constantly tout family values, motherhood and child care.

       My liberated women friends will hate me for saying this, but I seriously feel that Sarah Palin is a lousy mother. Why? Because she is putting her career ambitions ahead of her responsibilities as a parent. It is wonderful to have ambitions of becoming President of the United States, however  pie-in-the-sky those aspirations might be. That’s fine if you don’t have five children (Track, Trig, Bristol, Willow and Piper), and a grandchild (Tripp) at home. Particularly problematic if one child has physical disabilities requiring special care.

       Wow! I can hear feminists,with whom I usually side,  rising up in outrage.  Don’t you think that a woman  should have the same rights as a man? Don’t you believe that a woman is entitled to a career as well as a family? You of all people should be in favor of women’s rights.

       Right on. I have always believed that women , if they are wiling to undertake the burden, should be able to have it all –– a family and a professional career. I honor women like Barbara Boxer, who has two children as well as a prominent career in the Senate. [For that matter, I equally admire Joe Biden who, as a single parent,  raised two sons while commuting to his Senate job for many years.] But there is a huge difference between two children and five children, not to mention that one has Down Syndrome and requires special time and attention . Not to mention that Bristol, a teenager, has her own child and both are living with Sarah. A rubber band can stretch and stretch and stretch, but there are limits.

       Furthermore, if you want to raise children and have an active career, it is important to choose a career that fits in.  Vice Presidents spend well over half their time travelling all over the country and around the world. A Senator, on the other hand, has a relatively stable residence, perhaps two, not more than that. He or she is able to spend substantial time with young children, when they need you most. [Biden was in the Senate when his children were young. As V.P., he travels extensively, but both the boys are relatively adult.] Sarah Palin apparently has her eye on the Presidency, which also requires a lot of travel and is essentially a 48 hour a day job.

       I know, I know. Her husband Todd can take over the job of raising the kids, though he must keep  quite busy working for an oil company and running his commercial fishing business. Her daughter Bristol can assist. If you can afford it, one can hire nannies. All true but, no matter how you spin it,  it is not the same.  You may dearly and deeply  love your children, and I’m sure that Sarah Palin does, they still need your presence and your time as well as your love if they are to grow up emotionally healthy.

       There are other matters relating to parental obligations. In one of her parting speeches, after turning the Governorship of Alaska over to Sean Parnell, Sarah Palin bitterly criticized the press. She hoped that the media would not attack Governor Parnell’s children the way they had attacked hers. Sarah, I’m sure that will not happen, unless he drags them all over the State as show pieces for political purposes.  Like somebody else we know.

       If my conservative friends really support family values,  motherhood and child care, they should think twice before they stand up at a rally and cheer for Sarah. I’m not holding my breath.

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The press, the media, the internet and the public got it all wrong.. So did the President. This bit of drama was not the result of prejudice against African Americans.  That may have aggravated the situation, but it was not the root cause.

       To explain, let me tell you of the time I was stropped  for speeding on a Pennsylvania highway. I was not certain that I had been going over the limit, but that is irrelevant.  When the officer approached, I did not argue. I politely handed over my licence and my ownership certificate. He and I discussed the situation quietly. In our conversation, I addressed him as Officer. When he handed me a ticket, I thanked him and promised to drive more carefully in the future.

       After the policeman left, my wife looked at me quizzically. She knew from long experience that I was aggressive by nature, so my docility in this situation amazed her. I carefully told that, in dealing with policemen, whether you felt that way or not, quiet respect was the best policy.

       I explained that most policemen come from middle class or lower middle class backgrounds. Once they graduate from the Police Academy, they find themselves, often for the first time, in positions of power.  Power corrupts. Whn dealing with the hoi polloi or anyone below them in social stature, they always let it be known who is in charge, sometimes abusively. When dealing with the upper social classes, the famous and the obviously educated, they take a more muted tone. But never get in their face. Never confront, Never antagonize.  Never arrogantly say, “Do you know who I am?”On their home ground, the police hold the levers of power,; you don’t.

       Professor Gates was obviously tired from his trip and irritated in finding his front door stuck when he returned home.  The police were justified in investigating a report that a burglar was seen entering the house, but none of us knows how they approached the Professor or what words were exchanged. Suffice it to say that, under the circumstances, the professor got agitated and imprudently confronted the police in a loud and aggressive manner. Even after the matter of his being the householder was cleared up, he apparently continued his verbal vituperation, probably convinced that police were treating him badly because he was black.  

       Understandable but unwise. Note that Gates was not arrested for Breaking and Entering. He was arrested for Disorderly Conduct., the fallback charge of policemen, when no other seems viable. Disorderly conduct is normally a charge for abusive conduct in public. Legally, it is a very dicey charge in one’s own home, unless you physically accost someone, in which case a more serious charge is available. Note that the Disorderly Conduct charge was dismissed once the Prosecutors were handed the case.

       Truthfully, Professor Gates was not arrested for Disorderly Conduct. Nor was he arrested for being an African American. He was arrested for talking back to a Police Officer, loudly and aggressively, for getting in the Officer’s face, for making the Officer lose face unless he reacted. So, the Officer reacted; he arrested Professor Gates, handcuffed him and escorted him to the station. That’ll learn ya! 

      A plain and simple fact of American life and one I have tried to teach my Japanese wife.

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Call it a moniker, a sobriquet, a diminutive or whatever, in everyday use, people tend to shorten the names of friends or associates, whether for informality’s sake or just for the heck of it. 

       As a word lover, I have always been intrigued by the fact that the same name, in its informal variation, has so many possibilities.. Why oh why do some people prefer one diminutive over another? And some resist any attempt to avoid using their full name? Following are 25 names with at least two frequently-used variations

Albert Al, Bert

Alexander Alex, Andy

Alfred Al, Alfie

Barbara Barb, Barby

Beatrice Bea, Bede, Trish

Bernard Bernie, Barney

Charles Charlie, Chuck

Deborah Deb, ,Debby

Edward Ed, Eddy, Ted, Teddy

Elizabeth Liz, Lizzy, Beth, Betty

Estelle Essie, Stella

Francisca Fran, Franny

Gertrude Gert, Gerty, Trudy

Herbert Herb, Herby

Leticia Letty, Trish,Tricia

Lillian Lil, Lilly

Margaret Meg, Margie

Morton Mort, Morty

Patricia Pat, Patty, Trish

Richard Dick, Rich, Richey, Rick

Robert Bob, Bobby, Rob, Bert

Roberta Bert, Bertie, Robby

Samuel Sam, Sammy

Sheldon Shell. Shelly

Thomas Tom. Tommy

       If your name is Richard, why do you prefer Dick over Rich ––or Rick or Richey –– or vice versa? Are you offended if someone shortens your name or uses a form you just don’t like?

       Only on occasion do I get an answer. My friend Deborah objects vigorously if you call her Debby. She thinks of herself as a serious, accomplished individual with a serious name. She thinks of Debbie as a brainless character, perhaps the subject of a movie entitled “Debbie Does Dishes.” My niece Judith hates being called Judy.  That’s what her parents called her when she was a child.  She is a grown-up now ––Judith, not Judy.

       Sometimes, people shorten your family name rather than your first name, My son Jonathan Rubinstein, a prominent businessman and engineer, prefers to be called Jon but never objects when many people call him Ruby Here’s a funny observation. Some nicknames or shortened forms skip a generation.  My father was called Ruby, but nobody used that name for me. However, Ruby was resurrected for one of my sons. Not for the other.

Go figure.

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