In Defence of Health Insurance Companies

I just got off the phone with my insurance company. I spend a lot of time on the phone with them. Somehow earlier this week there had been a miscommunication between CVS and Blue Cross/Blue Shield of SC, and CVS's computers keep telling them that I’m not insured anymore. It might have something to do with the switch to COBRA, I’m not sure. I’ve called four times this week about it.

I wish I had a dollar for every hour I have spent on the phone with health insurance related matters over the years. A lot of it has centered around my children. With my policy, Blue Cross only includes children over 19 in the family policy if they have proof of being full time students. We have had to provide that proof many many times. Half the time the letters get lost in the bureaucratic haze. It can be a pain.

Not only that but we have had to be very very careful during coverage transitions to understand and play the system right in order not to get stuck in the “pre-existing” condition limbo. I am very glad for laws which guarantee continued coverage during certain kinds of transition, but there is a life fear of being cast out into the “pre-existing” darkness. I feel deeply for people stuck there.

And we would certainly qualify as a family whose financial struggles have had more to do with medical costs than anything else. Some years it has been almost crushing. We’ve helped a lot of doctors make a living over the years. And now, in between careers as I am, medical insurance remains one of the most important things on my mind day to day.

But I want to speak up for the health insurance companies.

First of all in all the years of calling and holding and waiting the customer service people at Kanawha and at Blue Cross have been courteous and helpful. I would think that my family would be an insurance company’s worst nightmare. Nonetheless I have only ever had good service.

Second, my insurance company has helped to keep down health care costs more than my doctors have. Blue Cross is always rejecting the number submitted by the doctors’ offices and hospitals and such. If I were a doctor I don’t think I’d like insurance companies at all.

Third, though we have had more medical expenses than average, we certainly have paid a whole lot less in premiums (well, actually, until recently my employer paid the premiums, but the idea is the same) than has been paid out to us in coverage. Faced with several surgeries (mostly athletic) along the way, baby deliveries, wisdom tooth removals, prescriptions, physical therapy,, braces, contacts, dental costs, plus my recent stuff, well, we’d be out of luck and out of money for sure by now.

Fourth, I am often surprised that the insurance companies cover as much as they do. I do wish that we as a society had some sort of universal basic coverage for everyone, and this reflection is not (yet) addressing the issue of the uninsured. But we as individuals and as people do have high expectation that we should be able to have this and that treatment or procedure or medication and that it shoudl be convered. But do we really have any sort of fundamental right to “covered” medical care? Many of the things our family has paid for, and to which insurance has contributed, well, we could have lived without, suffered without like people have all through history. We simply cannot have the medical care expectations that we do and expect medical expenses not to be significant.

I think that most of us except perhaps the chronically uninsured and under insured have unrealistic expectations. It amazes me that the system can absorb as many of these expectations as it does.

I am grateful for the health insurance we have had. I don’t think health insurance companies are uniquely evil as compared with everybody else, including those of us who are insured. There is plenty of darkness to spread around.

I just don’t see the point in demonizing the insurance companies, doctors, the pharmaceutical companies, lawyers, hospitals, the insured, those that are expensive to care for because of bad habits, or anyone. We’re all in this mess together and most every participant has a mix of good intentions/expectations and bad intentions/expectations, including me, and probably you too.

Each and every one of us who has had the privilege to participate in the benefits of our medical system needs to be willing to carry a portion of the burden in insuring the uninsured. I personally would rather see this shared burden take place through mutual agreement by all concerned. I am open to considering various plans as long as I am given reasonable chance to understand them. I wish Obama would quit demonizing the health insurance companies. I don't think that helps. If we really as a society want to see medical care extended to more people we will all have to pay for it one way or another, so let’s go into the process thinking and knowing that up front. Let’s spread the burden around as evenly as possible without making demons out of the other participants in the system. We will all have to pay a little more or make a little less. It's not very complicated.

That’s what I think.

Clemson in Snow, 1977, Old Hotel Hill

I posted this in honor of a few new Facebook friends who went to Clemson. This was a great snow fall, and we had a blast. I think I just happened to have B&W in my camera. More B&W Clemson in the snow pictures here (along with Clemson football pictures, Downtown Clemson at night, Issaqueena Dam, etc).

King Cat Receives His Kiss

Over the last few days our orange male in-door-out-door cat Curdoroy has taken to sleeping on top of the piano. He had been sleeping mostly on a towel or blanket on the living room couch. I am thinking that the surface of the piano is cooler. He sleeps in between the lamp and the metronome. The latter is as light as a feather and close to the edge of the pianotop, but Corduroy hasn't knocked it over yet. That has always amazed me about cats. Can you imagine a small dog on top of the piano? There would nothing left up there.

In the picture above Corduroy is sleeping on the carpet by the back door in winter. I just wanted you to have an image of Curduroy in your mind.

Corduroy makes many interesting vocalizations that I have learned to understand. There is "I want out," "I plan to jump in your lap," and "come overt here and rub my ears" etc.

I like rubbing his ears and head and talking to him. I think my voice is soothing. This morning he did manage to kick over the stand that holds the piano music. It is very light and is on a delicate pivot. He must have stretched and bumped it and it pivoted and fell flat with quite a bang. It startled me, and when I looked over at Corduroy he was sitting up wild eyed, like, "what was THAT!" So I started talking to him in the soothing "good boy" voice I reserve for animals, and it seemed to settle him down.

When I got up a few minutes later I walked over to pet him, and I noticed something kind of cool. The usual routine involves rubbing his head and scratching under his chin. Sometimes he rolls over, the command to rub his tummy. Anyway, I usually talk to him in that voice reserved for animals, and pretty much always give him a kiss on top of the head before I leave.

I noticed something today. As I was bending over to give him the kiss on the head he slightly lowered his head and extended his neck giving me a clear target. I thought that interesting and ten or fifteen minutes later before I left the house I went through the same routine, and again he made that slight motion with his head. Clearly he understands that there is a routine.

I wonder why he does that? Is it to make the whole thing less annoying? Is he trying to make sure I don't contaminate his head except right on the very top? Does his cat brain have some sense of this as a gesture of something - does it mimic an action in the cat world or in cat families? I have noticed on occasion our other male cat Socks licking the top of Corduroy's head. Now Corduroy is the numero-uno cat in our cat world. He is the boss. Is receiving a lick (from another cat) or a kiss (from a person) on the top of the head a way of acknowledging his role as head cat? As King? From his standpoint is my kiss on the head an act of subservience on my part?

Animal behavior never ceases to amaze me.

It's All About Me -- Reflections on Social Networking

The other day Kim Burgess and I were talking in a Facebook thread about the great music of the 60’s and 70’s. I think we both feel privileged to have grown up during such an explosion of creative popular art. I have realized recently that there was SO much great music coming out SO fast during that time, that it is simply taking a lifetime to process it. That doesn’t mean the music in the present isn’t good. Nor does it mean that there is not great music to look forward to. It just means that there is ongoing processing yet to do, trying to wrap minds around a culturally unique chain of events and the art it left behind.

Such sharing is one of the blessings of social networking.In making mention of Steely Dan I have made a ”connection” with someone whom I may never meet but with whom I have much in common. And that is just the point of saying anything in this medium really – to make connection.

Someone was on my case about the pictures of younger days I had put up recently, thinking it weird, like I was stuck in the past. I don't think so. In fact, I had recently had a chance (finally) to finish one of a hundred life projects – going through my old slides, this time with the extra “eyes” of one of my daughters. When we looked at them we tried to discern what had merit as a photograph, what had merit as a record of events, what had merit as encapsulating a moment in time, and what had merit in potentially making a connection with or bringing blessing to some other person or people. I posted a few pictures of Clemson football games in 1977. There is historic and aesthetic value in such things, but also shared memories with many people. These shared memories are a connection point between me and them. It's really cool.

Sometimes I write about more personal aspects of my life – my job search, my health, my musical interests, my religious faith and so forth. I actually don’t find my life terribly interesting. I am a pretty dull average middle class southern boy. What I do find interesting is the portion of the human experience in which I get to share, and the connections to history and to other people that such experience gives me. I have a list of 150 story topics based on events of my childhood that I hope one day to turn into memoirs. The point of such memoirs would not actually be me at all, but the era and the slice of history that is revealed in the life of one average person. It may seem indulgent to some, and if I ever write the book they would not need to read it. The ones who will enjoy it will be the ones who either see themselves in its stories, or who appreciate the chance to step back and understand a period of history through the experiences of one minor participant.

I've just left one twenty year long year career as a pastor (Oh dear, there I go again, talking about me). The pastoral ministry is pretty all-consuming. There are a lot of things you must simply put aside to be able to do it, There are many rich things you gain, most importantly the privilege of studying and teaching the Scriptures, and even more for me the amazing privilege of being with dear people at some of the most significant moments of their lives.

But coming out of that world for me has involved a kind of re-engaging in aspects of life I had laid aside, of taking things up that I had set down, of doing things I hadn’t much been able to do and seeing people I haven’t much been able to see. One of those things is live music. In case you missed it, I LOVE live music. I hope I get to go see live music on a regular basis until the day I keel over. In fact, right in the middle of a ripping guitar lead would be a great time to keel over. They could just carry my body to the back of the building mosh pit style and keep on rockin’ as far as I care. I don’t much see the difference in a fifty year old guy liking life folk-rock music than a seventy year old female liking the symphony. Whatever.

Ailments provide great connection points! Whether it is migraine or plantar fasciitis or foot in mouth disease, nothing connects with other folks like common suffering. It’s kind of fun to see how different people deal with and process ailments that are “common to man.” I find the connecting points fascinating. I find the ways that people talk about and process and handle different life challenges fascinating. Life is rich. Snippets of life-richness leak out all the time in this medium, which is one reason I think people engage in it.

Pets, oh my, do they ever provide a platform for human connection. When I was a kid and a teenager I used to walk with my dog all over the place. Well, I walked and he ran, up and down and in and out of yards and creeks. The cool thing was that I could hardly ever get through a walk without stopping to talk to people. Inevitably Algeber or Clancey would sense their cue and run over and say hi to the neighbor and the neighbor's dog. I knew almost everyone up and down several streets, just because of my dogs! I also mowed half the yards in my area – guess where I met most of those people? Going on walks with my dog. You might see an analogy here - I hope you do.

Facebook and Twitter and Flickr are no substitute for “real” face to face conversations and community. I put “real” in quotation marks though because some face to face relationships/community aren’t real at all (they can be very superficial and phony), and some online relationships/community can be quite “real” (and not superficial and phony). Yet one of the factors that can make online presence more authentic can also make it more irritating and upsetting. Many of the normal real life cues, such as facial expressions, body language, and tone and volume of voice just aren’t there online. It’s easier to be a jerk. So, on balance, I think people should probably spend at least as much time with people in the flesh as they do online, well, if they can.

Maybe all this is just an “apology” for confessional writing. There are many other kinds of writing. I am probably best at arguing and debating, but I’d rather do that on a blog, or, actually, in person. I find a good argument very stimulating and fun as long as people keep their cool. But just not in the social networking medium.

Well, life to live. Got to go. Thanks for reading, and if it annoys you, hey, just don’t read my stuff.

Clancey - One Beautiful Dog

This is a picture of Clancey, our Irish Setter back when I was in high school and college. Clancey and I were down at the spillway between Spring Lake and Forest Lake in Columbia SC, and he had been for a swim. I have no idea what he was looking at.

I can relate to the one stanza of Mr. Bojangles, except I guess I would have to say "after thirty years." Clancey was a great dog.

Of Mr. Bojangles, the song says:

"He danced for those at minstrel shows and county fairs
throughout the south
He spoke through tears of 15 years how his dog and him
traveled about
The dog up and died, he up and died
And after 20 years he still grieves"

Check out my photostream, including more recently posted pictures of Clancey

Looking for Work in All the Right Places (I Hope)

Dear Friends,

I thought I would go ahead and post the basic content of a letter I have sent out to several friends and also posted on FaceBook. Basically I am seeking the help and prayers of those who are so inclined as I continue to look for work.

I am very thankful to have had the privilege of tutoring several students from Caldwell Academy in physics over the last six weeks or so. It was a joy and blessing and reminded me of how much I like teaching and working with young people in that setting. I also have had the opportunity to help a local company redesign their web/blog site and integrate social networking into their overall web based presence. I’ve learned a lot and think I have been helpful to that company.

I continue to network, talk to people, wait, and pray as to my "third career." Given the state of the economy and the inherent challenges transitioning out of a career in pastoral ministry, I am taking a patient and longer term approach. Meantime I must pay the bills of course so I am concentrating more on finding work in various areas where I have skills and can be of service. I am open to teaching being that third career (or first career reprised), but this isn’t the greatest time to re-enter that field.

So, here is a list of things I am competent to do. If you are a praying person your prayers would be appreciated. Feel free also to disseminate the list to others who might have interest in these services. I would appreciate it. Oh, rates vary according to the nature of the individual task.

Tutor – Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Physical Science, Algebra, Calculus, English Composition

Teach – most of the above (though I am only approved at GCS for Biology and general science)

Edit – Pretty much anything – technical documents, essays, work proposals, difficult personal letters, and research papers, etc.

Write – Pretty much anything except fiction -- technical documents, essays, work proposals, difficult personal letters, research papers, syllabi, etc

Integrate – web/blog with social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIin, etc. Testimonials or recommendations are available upon request

Digitize (and edit where needed) – slides, negatives, prints, old pictures, albums, and cassettes (videos soon)

Digitize (and edit where needed) – documents of all kinds and all lengths (such as medical records, legal documents, family letters and documents, old typed papers) from one page to hundreds of pages

Build – a Blog/Web Site using the WordPress platform (I have to subcontract complex graphic customization)

Mediate -- all sorts of personal and professional quandaries (pre-lawyer)

Consensus Build – with all sorts of groups that strive toward unity of vision

Speak – advocate, teach, sell, articulate, explain, officiate, guide group meetings, etc.

Take Pictures – of anything you want (not weddings or people portraiture), by the day or hour or subject, handing over the memory card to you, or processing the photos for a fee.

Degunk - older or slower computers equipping them with free utilities for ongoing maintenance

That should be enough for now

Thank you,

Joel

PS - Please feel free to follow me on Twitter (I'll follow you back), subscribe to my Blogger site, or visit me on Flickr. Links are below.

Joel Gillespie
301 S Elm Street, Suite 516
Greensboro NC 27401
336-207-0196
e-mail: gillespie.joel@gmail.com
blog 1: http://joelgillespie.blogspot.com
blog 2: http://joelgillespie.org
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/joelgillespie
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joelgillespie
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LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/joelsandersgillespie

Obama Natural Born Citizenship Qualification

There has been a lively discussion over at Jeffrey Sykes’ Facebook page about the Obama citizenship question. Jeffrey wanted to know whether any of his readers actually knew personally any other people (especially Republicans) who did not think Obama was born in Hawaii and did not thereby meet the Constitutional qualifications to be President. Polls say that such people exist, but Jeffrey (a Republican) doesn’t know any. I don’t know any either. Do you know any?

Jeffrey thinks (rightly I believe) that the issue is a distraction from the much more important issues which we all face.

As for myself I am quite satisfied that Obama was born in Hawaii and meets all constitutional qualifications to be President. I do not believe for a minute that the posted copy of the certified birth certificate is a forgery.

I do think however that Obama should take the initiative and release a scanned copy of the original birth certificate. As far as I can ascertain (based on what I have read and on my own experience) the “certified” copy is an official document certified to be true to the original. Original birth certificates around the time Obama and I were born were often messy affairs with semi illegible writing and more information than is needed for a legal certified copy. If I am correct about this then it interests me why Obama does not allow release of a copy of that document.

OK, I realize that some people hell bent on being a pain in the neck will say it’s a forgery; I just think the number of people who have nagging concerns would go way down.

So the question of why Obama won’t call for a release of a copy of the actual original birth certificate interests me. It must be either that he thinks the ongoing issue works in his favor, or that he has concerns about some of the other information on the original certificate.

All this gets me to my real point. I think the “natural born citizen” requirement in the Constitution needs amending, again. First, it is vague on the surface of it. After two amendments and several Supreme Court cases it is still unclear exactly what it meant or means. Second, its original purpose seems dated. Do we really think for example that a person who moved to Ohio as a child from Poland is going to be a Polish spy or more or less likely to uphold/undermine the Constitution than a person born in Ohio to Polish parents on the same date? Do we think that a child born to an American citizen living briefly in England is more or less likely to uphold/undermine the Constitution than an older or younger sibling born in the United States or in a US territory or at a US military base?

My third daughter was born in Vancouver. That makes her a natural born Canadian citizen. She also was granted U.S. citizenship by virtue of the fact that she was born to an American citizen. But she does not meet the qualifications to become President. Laurel would make a great President, at least as good as any of her two older or two younger sisters – all born in the US.

I think that there should be a citizenship requirement, an age requirement and a significant residency requirement. I think we should get rid of the “born citizen” requirement altogether. Again, a citizenship requirement, an age requirement and a significant residency requirement should be enough.

And then there is another matter: no current statute as far as I know specifies what kind of documentation is required to meet whatever birth or citizenship requirements that are there. If we keep things as they are in terms of that article of the Constitution at least there needs to be a uniform documentation requirement.

Well, that’s what I think anyway

Escape to a Beautiful Place

So, you're stuck there at your computer, and you're tired, and you want to get away and rest your mind and heart, and you need to take a deep breath and feel like you're in a different place and space. Well, if that describes you then check out a web site called Luminaire Images. Luminaire Images is meant to highlight the photographic work of it's author, Molly Ann. I do not know Molly Ann - she lives in California. I came across her site via a link on Twitter. I have found it to be one of my favorite places to stop in for a "rest." Her photography is beautiful, and she has arranged slide shows with music that together are both beautiful and soothing. I hope you will check it out. Oh, and she is available for weddings and such - just a short plane ride away.

What If...Oragantans

I was looking at the web site of an organization devoted to the preservation of orangatans when I had the thought...what if the Creator's most special treaures were His creatures like the organtans and we were placed here to look after and take care of them, and given the special and necessary gifts of rationality, creativity, and conscience ((being created in God's image) in order that we might do so... I mean, maybe we look at things backwards. I don't know, maybe...

Twitter Down

I have been trying to get on Twitter off and on all day. Are they having a crash? Anybody know?

Today's Picture: Clemson Team on The Hill, 1977, Joe Bostic, Jeff Bostic, Charlie Pell, Archie Reese

I took this picture on "The Hill" at Death Valley in the fall of 1977. This was year of Clemson's ascendancy to national prominence under coach Charlie Pell. That is Pell in the white dress shirt. Behind his left shoulder is Greensboro's own Jeff Bostic. In front of Pell is Archie Reese. Behind Pell to his right is another Greensboro native - Joe Bostic. Archie Reese, Jeff Bostic, and Joe Bostic went on to NFL careers, Jeff winning three Super Bowl rings with the Washington Redskins.

By good fortune I have been able to find and scan some really cool stop action shots, including a couple of the well known game between Notre Dame and Clemson in 1977. The detail is amazing. Go to my flickr site, click on the picture you like, and then click on "All Sizes." I think you will find it pretty cool.

I even have a picture of North Carolina in a pre game warm up.

If anyone knows the Bostics send them the link - they might like the shot with Coach Pell

Today's Lyric: Old Friends (Today's Theme)

Can you imagine us

Years from today,

Sharing a park bench quietly?

How terribly strange

To be seventy.

Old friends,

Memory brushes the same years

Silently sharing the same fears

from "Old Friends," Simon and Garfunkle (By Paul Simon), from Bookends, 1968

Today's Picture: Old Friends - a Moment in Time

Arlene, Margaret, Grace, Calvin, and Kathy, in a field in the NC mountains, November 1977. I love this little "moment in time" capture. There were nine of us on that trip - not shown are Sherb, Bill, Van, and myself. The links are to pics taken on that same day in black and white.

Today's Quote: "You only get one set of old friends" http://ping.fm/q4ZrG

Today's Quote: Only One Set Of Old Friends

"You only get one set of old friends" An old friend of mine's husband. July 2009

Today's Picture - How I Wish I Still Looked :-)

Me, On Train in England, from Oxford to London to Liss, June 1978. I was 20.

Helping Allison move from Oxford to a flat near Greatham near Liss. Scanned from a 3 by 5 black and white print. Taken by my Allison with my Fujica ST 801.

More pictures of me along the way.

We'll call this a combination of birthday nostalgia and narcissism. Wish I still had the hair.

Today's Lyric: One Day Closer to Death. Gee, Thanks - http://ping.fm/jNuWp

Today's Lyric: One Day Closer to Death - Gee, Thanks!

I love this Facebook Happy Birthday from Rock 92! Cheery, eh? I do like the song...

"Happy Birthday To Our Favorite P1!

'The Sun is the same in the relative way, but you're older

Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.'

(Pink Floyd - "Time" from 'The Dark Side of the Moon', 1973)

Have a great birthday!"

Today's Quote: Not a Toilet Head

"She's not a toilet head" The boss of a friend's daughter about his daughter who remembers things from one day to the next - i.e. no brain flush

Driving back from the homeland. Sunny and green on 85. Cooler too. No backups so far. Goodbye for now SC.