Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Thursday, October 15, 2009

Adventures In Health Care

By Ron Beasley



You may have noticed that I haven't been around the last few days. The reason is I had a medical adventure.  Yes, it involved an ambulance and a hospital and since I have no insurance the second part of the adventure is still to come.  What happened to me could have happened to anyone and what happened to me could have been fatal.  I am 63 years old and in pretty good health.  I had never been in an ambulance or admitted to a hospital prior to last weekend. My age was a pre-existing condition and made it impossible for me to get an individual policy.  We will look at how that will impact this adventure in a latter post when I have more information.



This Could Happen To You!



Last Thursday I woke up with a head cold.  It was your run of the mill head cold - sneezing, runny nose and throbbing sinuses. It continued through Friday.  I woke up Saturday morning and my head has cleared - good news and sooner than I anticipated.  About noon on Saturday I had the first indication that my head cold may have move to my chest - coughing and wheezing.  It continued to get worse as the day went on.  About 7:30 I decided to go to bed.  I woke up at 1:30 Sunday morning and I was unable to breath and called 911.  When the ambulance arrived the wonderful EMT's checked oxygen saturation and it was at 80, 90 is considered the minimum.  They put me on oxygen at once and they were very helpful in helping me take care of some things before taking me to the hospital.



Once I arrived at the hospital they took X-Rays and ran some other tests.  They determined it was not the flu or pneumonia but a virulent bacterial infection in my lungs.  They started anti-biotics, steroids for my lungs and bronchial treatments and I was breathing fairly well and my oxygen saturation was in the 90s within a couple of hours.  I was admitted to the hospital and had continued bronchial treatments until about three Sunday afternoon at which point I was given prescriptions for tetracycline and a bronchial inhaler and allowed to go home.  Except for the havoc the tetracycline has caused to my gastro-intestinal system recovery has been rapid.



Since I have no insurance I will be faced with an ambulance bill, a hospital bill and bills from two doctors.  In fact I received the ambulance bill today and at $731 was a little less than I had anticipated.  They will allow may to make payments of $35 a month.  Ironically by the time I have it payed off I will be on Medicare.  I have not received a bill from the hospital as yet but I have talked to them and they too are willing to come up with  a payment plan and will give me a discount because I am uninsured.



Before I turned 60 I was able to get an individual policy.  It was $1,200 a month and would at most payed about half .  Bottom line - This adventure will cost the equivalent of two or three months of insurance premiums and would have payed half the bill.



Update: 



Many thanks to my friend Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Est�for cross posting this over at The Moderate Voice



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1 comment:

  1. KevinOctober 16, 2009 at 7:20 AM

    you better get a discount. the list price is 10x what they usually get. You are dreaming if you think the hospital bill is 3,600k. It will be more like $36,000 dollars, less say 6 grand.
    whatever bill you get, offer to pay 20% to settle it. borrow the money somewhere to pay it and you will be ok.

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