The big hit of the past TV season
was Breaking Bad, so I’m told. This I only know second hand since I don’t do boob
tube. In the past 50 years or so I’ve only lived with one for about 3 years.
Even though I’ve never watched the show I can state with some confidence that
it exemplifies the reasons why I can’t stand TV. It simply doesn’t know how to
ring true or represent what’s actually happening in the real world. That’s in
spite of the fact that it purports to be part of the new genre of ‘good’ TV.
The story revolves around a good
guy who turns bad because of big financial problems. Being a chemistry teacher he
uses his skills to cook meth to make up for going bankrupt, loosing his house
and having a chronic disease, cancer I think. The entire premise of the show is
unbelievable if not preposterous. While it is possible for a person to do meth
on a regular basis and still retain their basic goodness, I might not believe
it if I hadn’t personally known such a person, because speed freaks, not to
mention meth cookers, tend to be on the bottom rung of low-lives. They’re
tense, angry, nasty and short on basic humanity. Of all the illegal drugs, meth
has the most damaging effect on personality and health.
In other words, if a ‘good’ guy
goes into illegal drugs it wouldn’t be as a meth cooker, it’d be making LSD or
Ecstasy or one of the other designer drugs or setting up an old fashioned
marijuana grow operation. Back in the States recently talking to my 21-year-old
grandson about the show I asked him if it was ever mentioned in the show how
millions of people lost their homes because of the unconscionable greed of the
banksters who crashed the economy while getting rich themselves. And how even
as millions of common people were kicked out of their homes and left to fend
for themselves, the banks and their CEOs got bailed out by the government. Needless
to say, that was never spoken of since it’s not part of the corporate TV
narrative. I expect the subject of foreclosures was dealt with as if people lose
their houses all the time with no-one else to blame but themselves.
The other reason why Mr. Good guy
turned Bad is a chronic illness so I queried my grandson further asking if the
show ever mentioned that the US is the only wealthy country in the world that
doesn’t provide universal health care, that doesn’t take care of all its
citizens; thus the only rich country in which people go bankrupt because of
health care costs. Of course not, that would be political, that would mean
talking about the things that real people talk about. I’ve never seen a show in
which the characters talked about the things I and my friends talk about.
There’s never been a conversation on TV that reflected the feelings of real
people, at least those who aren’t totally bought into the corporate program.
It’s pap, time-filler, skim-the-surface thinking, meant to be clever while
keeping watchers stupid, stupefied and uninformed. When asked if they approve
of the Affordable Care Act, Americans say yes. When the same question is asked
about Obamacare they say the opposite even though they are one and the same.
People don’t get that clueless and stupid by accident. They have to be taught
to be dunces.
It’s like during the recent
government shut-down fiasco when corporate media framed the story as both sides
not being willing to compromise as if both were at fault, when it was the
Repugs trying to hold the government hostage to achieve their goals of
repealing Obamacare when they were unable to do so through the ballot box, you
know, democracy. For once, Obama found his guts and refused to go against the
will of the people, who after all had just re-elected him. Too bad he didn’t
bend to the common will when he designed Obamacare, his monumentally
complicated gift to the insurance companies. All polling has consistently shown
very large majorities for single-payer health care, Medicare for all Americans.
(For you non-Americans, Medicare is socialized medicine for people over 65 and
the disabled.) He was afraid if he didn’t get the insurance companies behind
the plan he’d get nothing so in the end the American people got crap. The fact
that it is significantly better than the extremely rotten system that came
before in no way makes it less than crap.
For instance, people have a choice
of plans that range from bronze to platinum. The bronze plan requires a 40%
co-pay which, considering the extreme cost of all health care in America, is
essentially worthless. It only makes sense when Medicaid, the subsidized health
care for low income people is added. Those whose income is too high to qualify
for Medicaid will still be forced into bankruptcy from co-pays. At the present
time 60% of all health care related bankruptcies are from people who had health
insurance.
Obamacare doesn’t do anything to
tackle the high cost of medication. For instance, living in Cambodia where it’s
almost always humid I invariably have a fungus growing between my toes and need
a fungicide to keep it in check. Here I pay 62 cents for 10 grams of
anti-fungal cream, which is manufactured in Malaysia, a middle income country.
In the US, in a discount market, the same cream costs $6.30 for 1.5 grams:
seventy times more. This is a common generic medication; there’s no research necessary
and no patents involved and no reason other than greedy underhanded corporate dominance
and high friends in government that can justify or explain, that discrepancy. Americans
are getting ripped off, clear and simple.
For all his efforts to placate the
insurance industry - Obamacare is modeled after a plan designed by the Heritage
Foundation, a right-wing think tank - all he’s gotten is flack. For all the
shit he’s had thrown at him, he should’ve done it right the first time and set
up a single payer system. That could’ve included an opt-out provision for
crazies who prefer private insurance to Medicare.
I had an opportunity while back in
the States recently to use Medicare for the first time, and in fact got to use
an Obamacare rule-change that only came into effect on October 1st
this year. Now all insurance has to provide free preventative services and so I
thought I ought to get a check up, since I don’t remember the last time.
Previously, Medicare patients who didn’t pay $100 extra per month had to pay
20% of costs for everything including check-ups. Simple as it is, Medicare is
more complicated than it should be. It should be free for everyone all the
time.
Many people back there asked me
about health care in Cambodia. If it has to do with medicine, it’s very cheap –
a course of antibiotics is a dollar or two – and there’s no such thing as
prescriptions. If they have it they’ll sell it to you with few exceptions. For
instance, getting morphine isn’t always so easy unless you say, or they can see,
that you are in terrible pain.
Treatment is also cheap enough,
but also inferior. A friend broke his hand and had it put back together here in
Kampot. It works, he can still play drums, but it’s offset sideways about a quarter-inch
from where it should be. A serious fracture requires a trip to Vietnam or Thailand
unless you want to come out all twisted out of shape.
Another friend had a serious
hernia, size of an orange was how he described it. He didn’t trust Cambodia so
went to a Thai border town. At first he went to a branch of a hospital chain
that caters to foreigners. They wanted $3500. He decided that was too much and
wandered around till he found a hospital for locals. Three nights in the
hospital, doctors and all expenses included, cost $380. In America, probably
100 times as much, though there they’d probably kick him out of the hospital
after one night and it’d only cost ten or twenty grand. I have a hernia issue
myself. It’s a small bubble and if my guts start to pop out I can shove them
back in – makes a strange squishy sound when I do that. Considering my friend’s
experience, I can probably get mine fixed as an outpatient here for far less
than the 20% share I’d have to pay on basic Medicare back in the states.
I know guys back in the States who,
seemingly strong and healthy, had minor heart attacks. I’m not sure how that
would get taken care of here, though there is a new teaching hospital started
by a western doctor near the city. Would I get there in time to avoid
complications? I don’t think about it much… whatever happens. I’ve been to see
a doctor maybe 5 times in the past 50 years, take only recreational drugs and
get plenty of exercise. I’m certainly getting creaky in places, but I’m not
going to obsess or worry about it, just try to take care of it naturally. For
instance, my toes tend to cramp up. When I asked a nurse friend about it five
years ago, she said calcium deficiency. So now I drink milk – not all that much
but for decades previously I only used it in coffee – and almost every time I
cook I include a dark green vegetable which is the local equivalent of spinach
and when I remember I take calcium supplements. My toes still seize up
occasionally but nothing like before.
I can just imagine how decrepit
I’d be if I didn’t exercise and eat healthy. My cholesterol is excellent and my
liver and kidneys are working just fine. My blood pressure is higher than it
should be, but still not in the problem area, and my lung capacity is a bit
short, which is not surprising considering I’ve been smoking one thing or
another for the last 60 years... I can still play sax, so it can’t be that bad.
So, all in all still kicking at 72.
But like with my friends, health
problems can hit you quite suddenly, so who knows what can happen? Worst comes
to worst, I’d have to make a trip back there into the hands of Medicare and Medicaid
and try to survive on $680 per month. Wow, that would be an awful fate.
