Family

Even though it was under rather sad circumstances, it was good to see members of my family recently at my cousin Terry's memorial services. I got to see cousins, aunts and uncles that I had not seen in a very long time and reconnect with them. In the photo on the left is pictured some of the people who came for Terry's services, from left, my sister Emily, my cousin Tim (Terry's eldest brother), my cousin Mike, my cousin Luke, me and my Uncle Ed, Terry's father. Cousin Luke was the surprise visitor. He came all the way from Providence, RI to attend. I hadn't seen him in a number of years so it was good to reconnect with him again. In fact, I haven't seen most of my cousins in close to twenty years, so it was especially good to reunite with them again. We're spread across the US, from New England to California, so it's tough to get everyone together for reunions because of families, careers, travel arrangements, etc. We had been planning a family reunion to take place in August of this year, planned by my late cousin Terry and my sister Emily. Despite Terry's passing, the reunion will still go forward as planned and will be dedicated to Terry's memory. I'm hoping to meet some of my relatives for the first time. So many of my cousins have kids who I've not yet met so I am looking forward to seeing some of them. I truly hope that my kinfolk from Alaska will come, because I don't think I've ever really met them, or at least haven't seen them in so many years that I cannot remember meeting them. My cousin Beth in Alaska has a son who plays for the Detroit Red Wings hockey team, Ty Conklin, who I have never met, but I seriously doubt that a famous athlete like that would come to the reunion, but who knows? Stranger things have been known to happen, I suppose. Well, even if I never meet him, at least when I mention his name to hockey fans, they rave over him, so it's kind of nice to have a famous relative like that! So here's hoping to see many more of my extended family in August. I'm so looking forward to this occasion, certainly a far happier occasion than when we met a few weeks ago to memorialize our cousin Terry, who will be forever missed by our family.

HEALTH CARE REFORM

I have been following the debate in Washington over the proposed health care reform that is being debated in Congress. Unfortunately, I am not optimistic that an agreement can be met by all parties that will satisfy everyone. The drug and insurance lobbyists are too powerful and monied for ordinary citizens to overcome so I suspect that whatever it is we end up getting will be a shadow of what most of us would like to see. Frankly, nearly everyone I talk to would like to have a single payer plan, including medical professionals, but that seems to have been taken off the table permanently and even the public option being promoted by Obama will probably die a swift death at the hands of the Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats. As someone who currently finds myself ridiculously underinsured ($2000 deductible and high co-pays), I am not too eager to stay with my employer provided plan and if a public plan were available to me, I'd leave my insurer in a New York minute and sign up with that. As it is, I bought a supplemental policy through work, but even that doesn't really plug any real holes for me because it includes a clause that does not cover pre-existing conditions, and just about everything I've been treated for in recent years has had to do with complications of old auto accident injuries from almost 40 years ago, so it really won't do me a bit of good. About all it will do is pay me $1000 if I am hospitalized, which will help cut my deductible a bit, but that's about all it will do to help me. Not that I expect to be hospitalized anytime soon, but one never knows, so better to be safe than sorry. Still, it seems ridiculous to have to carry more than one health insurance policy just to get any kind of coverage. Still, with any kind of power in Washington being bought and sold by drug and insurance lobbyists, it's not likely that we'll ever see any kind of meaningful health care reform. I'm sure Obama had good intentions when he stepped into office, but I've no doubt that he's rapidly found out the realities of being President and how limiting it really is and how in debt to lobbyists you ultimately become, even though he pledged not to do this. Sad fact is, it's a cold hard reality of Washington that you are ultimately in thrall to lobbyists and not to the people who elect you. They have the money that politicians need to get elected. We don't, and thereby hangs the tail. So the reality is that health care reform won't happen until people get so fed up that they demand it unconditionally, and unfortunately, that won't happen, either. So we're stuck with whatever it is we get out of Congress, and I don't expect that to be too much, if anything, at all.