The Medical Freedom Channel

First off, a disclaimer of sorts, addressed to those who read this page regularly: This “editorial” space has been pretty inactive of late, due to several factors (including a bout with that lovely flu bug that’s been laying others – including many who “got the flu-shot”? — so low this season). The most significant of these has been the editor’s attempt to restore his financial position, which required taking on two more jobs of varying size and schedule. It is hoped that these conditions will soon let up allowing for the weekly entry of a fresh editorial; at very least you should see no more unchanged page-content in our regular (Mon-Fri) updates. We now return you to our regular programming.

Well, I finally did it, at least in some sense of the word. As of sometime this next week, your editor should be at least partially “covered” for medical emergencies, and even some routine procedures. Long story short, one of several working opportunities includes a basic health plan (even a rider for dental and vision, which is at present far more useful), at a very affordable price, so after some hemming and hawing I signed up, and will begin being covered for both some catastrophic events and some regular processes, when my next paycheck arrives.

After all the ranting and raving in this space and elsewhere about the evils of employer-based health insurance, does this make me a hypocrite? Perhaps in some part, although the level of the premiums and the copays involved certainly justify some consideration here. For about $30-35 every two weeks (taken straight off the top of the paycheck for the part-time job in question), I have a limited policy that’s supposed to allow me the annual checkups and preventive care that I’ve been searching for all these years, at a sharply reduced rate, with a ceiling of sorts on potential expenses.

(Barring a major catastrophe, or extended hospitalization, I should be able to breathe a bit easier in paying for doctor visits in the future; I should also feel much freer to avail myself of such visits if I encounter some otherwise ignorable, suffer-through-it malady like this season’s creeping crud – the one that turned out to be a flu-strain different from the one so may got “inoculations” against over the last few months.)

Near as I can figure out, the policy under which my risks have been so slightly reduced is very much the kind of thing I’ve been lobbying for … and all along there was at least one large corporation providing it anyway! This is open even to part-time workers for the company, and since it’s the employee who’s paying the premium (reduced because of the size of the coverage-pool, not because the company is picking up the tab), the “third party payment” factor is somewhat reduced, although it could be said that one is still being encouraged to use the plan when in doubt, since “I’m already paying for it.”

I could say more about this plan, but it might involve disclosing both the specific job I’ve taken on, as well as the particular employer involved, neither of which is anyone’s business, nor of any relevance to the readership of this Medical Freedom Channel. I’ll attempt to take good notes, and report back on the success of this experiment, over the next few months as I avail myself of its benefits.

Stay tuned.

(And if you’ve read this far, there is a bonus feature: an update report on the subject of the editorial I posted about two months ago, ED is for everybody … or is it?. I had a bout with that flu bug for a while, which laid me low on so many levels that the “potency” issue became academic; however, up0n my recovery from that ailment, I discovered an even more energetic aspect of … err, libido. To put it bluntly, I coulda hung my laundry … not bad for a man rapidly approaching 60 (or at least 59), with nothing added to the routine besides some exercise and better nutrition … and a little stress-reduction!)