AI Bad for Health

 https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1B8kkyRd74/

This is American. 

It's a video of AOC discussing how AI is determining if humans get health care. 

Seriously. 

Zentastic #AtoZchallenge #AdForRoomatesStory #LGBTQIA+ #HealthInsurance

This month-long story, “Ad for Roommates,” told in twenty-six parts, is an urban fantasy intended for readers over age fifteen. Liv, the main character, is an adult in her thirties. This is a prequel to a forthcoming book and my theme for the #AtoZchallenge. To meet another character from from this story world, visit the (adult) blog of co-host Jayden R Vincente.



“Never say never. I’ve seen Zentastic do amazing things. I wouldn’t sell it otherwise,” the sales clerk spouts.

I shake my head. “Then you’ve never been desperate for a paycheck. My mom would have sold pills filled with horse manure if it meant keeping a roof over our heads. And plenty of people were mean to her when she took jobs like yours. That’s why I’m trying to be polite as I decline your offer. I’m going to roll away now.”

“You can get a free raffle ticket just for giving your phone number. I don’t even have to verify it!”

This is why I have to work on meditation. “610-555-1212. I’m Miss Bath. Anita.”

“Anita Bath at the number for information?” The sales clerk laughs.

Wren Noel and I head off.

“You’ve dealt with that type before, eh? Someone is probably going to call from an autodialer to follow up,” Wren Noel points out.

“Maybe. And the computer will say that it needs a bath. Which will be hilarious in that computer voice.”

I look over at the empty space where the bookstore once was. “There are worse money making ideas. I read Rich Dad Poor Dad and wondered what kind of perfect health that guy and his family were blessed with to be calm when they hit rock bottom. No power to keep the life-sustaining machines running, no money for prescriptions and doctors. I wonder if there could be a book like that for people with chronic illness in America. Is it even possible to avoid going broke, to not need public assistance at some point? My mom wouldn’t have taken half the jobs she did if it weren’t for my bills.”

Wren Noel stops, turns, and kneels beside me. “Hey. Don’t do that.”

My eyebrow shoots up. “What?”

“Feel guilty about the cost of being. Or blame yourself that your mom had to do things to keep you going. There are places in this world where the larger community would have helped. Where “it takes a village” has become “it takes a country” and they are able to provide healthcare to all citizens because it isn’t about survival of the fittest. You live in America, not in those places. That isn’t your fault. One day, maybe all life will be valued equally, and the fight for survival won’t include a fight to prevent poverty. It isn’t here yet. So, instead of letting the guilt eat at you, go fight for that. Okay? It isn’t your fault.”

I feel my chin quivering. “Keeping saying stuff like that, people are gonna think you’re proposing to me or breaking up with me.”

“Here,” Wren Noel pulls a napkin out.

“I don’t know if I can let you be my roommate.” The tears slow as I regain my composure.

“Why’s that?”

“Kinda think I’d rather date you.” I laugh lightly. It isn’t really a joke, but I need a buffer in case rejection is coming. Wren Noel hugs me.

*** 498 words

(Language note: Anita sounds like "I need a", which is the joke. I need a bath.)

Thank you so much for reading this month-long story. If you'd like to be notified when the book comes out, please leave contact information with myself or Jayden.

Tenth Anniversary of the April Blogging from A to Z Challenge bloghop.

A Cruel Tease

My husband is type 2 diabetic. After seeing three different doctors, one gave him a sample of Tresiba to mix/ add in with the other drugs.
This worked. My husband's blood sugar numbers were in the 80s. (Adult normal sugars are 70–99 mg/dl.) It was like he wasn't even diabetic! (Other than, you know, taking a bunch of pills and stabbing himself with several needles a day.)
Fantastic! Things were working as they were supposed to work. Then the sample ran out. I went to CVS for the refill.
That was the first week of December, over a month ago.
It wasn't filled. They weren't sure why. Phone calls were made. Computers were stared at. More calls, faxes, etc. I went back, week after week, to check (IN PERSON) if there was any change. Nope.
Today CVS claimed that the hold up is the insurance company. Aetna, they said, won't allow the prescription to be filled because a generic of the drug does not exist yet, and they just don't want to pay for a brand.
Mind you, I also have to get one of John's diabetic pills from the manufacturer because the "three pills that sort of make up a generic, kind of" (and cost more, combined, than just buying the one) include something that irritates my husband's stomach lining to the point of him becoming a non-functioning adult. (If you crap your time away because you spend more than 15 mins every hour, meaning you also don't sleep, going to the toilet, then yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and call that non-functioning. He couldn't keep the crap in long enough to get from the toilet at home to the toilet at work, and at work he couldn't do his job because he couldn't be too far from a toilet... and he couldn't spend two hours in there per shift... so, yeah, non-functioning.)

My husband has a full time job. He has health insurance through his job. And yet, here we are, with this as our reality.
The system is broken. The insurance company would sooner pay massive hospital bills --if my husband were to go into a diabetic coma-- than just be sure he gets the medicine his DOCTORS agree, and have PROVEN, works.
It's messed up. I just needed to vent. It feels cruel to me to tell a patient, "Well, we've got something that will help. Here, try it! See? It helps. Okay, glad you enjoyed that... sorry, you can't have it."

Polygamy for Healthcare

Weird title, right?
Wait, wait! Hear me out.

1- Pass a law requiring all health insurance has the FREE option to also cover spouses and children for FREE without a penalty for having a spouse or offspring.

2-  Allow polygamy. Legal in all 50 states. Consenting adults can marry as many consenting adults as they the consent to do, consensually.

Before you condemn me to Hell, hang on. See, this is like the new "beard" function. Recall when lesbians and gay men married straight people  (or an opposite gender couple) for health insurance?

Now picture that on a massive scale. And I mean MASSIVE. See, then we'll find out which company has the best health insurance, who really has the best health of Americans as a priority. And that company is gonna get a HUGE influx of people. And the companies that overcharge, that figure death is better for their bottom line... they'll go gentle into that good night.

3- Then,  after this going well, find a way to reward the health insurance companies that have made people actually feel assured, the ones that made sure people had regular doctor visits, dental, vision, mental, etc. The ones who found a way to make sure everyone could afford prescriptions without having to give up their food, transportation, or shelter to get the money. In other words, the ones that do what was once promised.

Of course, if they fail, Big Papa/Mama #1 spouse is going to take his/her whole family to someone else...
But I'm suggesting an incentive as well as the threat of consumer kills.

In theory, all Americans have the option now to go to any health insurance company they want. But that's not a reality. You get what your work provides and hope for the best. If work doesn't provide, you pick off a list (once you stop crying at the rates, which are like 1/3 of your income).

The healthcare industry does not compete on a consumer level. They make doctors compete sometimes.

Competing for consumers is what America is all about for big businesses. That's how the people control what stays and what goes. The idea has nothing to do with marriage, actually. It's just the armor.

This isn't a perfect plan. But it's better than others I've heard. ("Good health is only for those who can afford it." No. That's terrorist talk right there. Shove it.)

An ER visit for my friend, for example, is a reasonable price, an amount she earns in probably 3 hours (salary, hard to say exactly). For me to go to the ER, it's almost 1 week's pay. It would take 34 hours to earn the money to pay for the same visit. Upon learning this, my response was,  "you're pretty, I love you, marry me!"

We're both happily married to our guys. But I can love my husband a lot longer if I'm not dead. See the pologomy side? He and I could marry into her family and,  viola, afford to see doctors! ~Access~

I shouldn't HAVE to get a thought like that in my brain. But look at that, I found a sneaky way around the system. Ha ha.

Some of you may say I'd go to Hell for it, but you know what, I could get sent there anyway, this would at least buy me time beforehand! Time to repent, if you are set on that. Wait, putting life first, that's not a sin, is it? Well, maybe the devil will understand.

👹

Health non-care in 'Merica

I just saw this on Pinterest. My immediate comment was to ask who DOESN'T say these things,  other than the ridiculously rich. Being twenty has nothing to do with it. We thirty-somethings and the forty-somethings, and my fifty and sixty-something parents also say it.

I can see how other countries might be surprised and confused, but who the hell in America  ('Merica) doesn't know that this is the state of things? Do we have a citizen that's been in a coma since the Carter administration or something?

Seriously, this is the most "no shit" pin I've seen. Toss in a note about the sky being blue and the moon not actually being made of cheese and maybe you've got something.

What the heck was the point here?!?

Another Political Post

I'm including a screenshot of a post written by my friend.

He's 100% right. His point is valid.

He has a full time job. He is an average American citizen.

And this is why we NEED to fear bio terrorism. This is why it would be so effective.

Yeah, we've got some great doctors here. Maybe some of the best hospitals. Probably a bunch of ground breaking awesome. And the CDC is kickass awesome.

And that's great.

But PLEASE see the problem.

I had a friend in Canada. She didn't feel well at 3am. She got free transportation to an emergency room, was seen and treated, and came back home within 3 hours already on the mend. This cost her ZERO dollars. She did not need to wait for the bank to open to apply for a loan for $300, and subsequently be turned down, and then go try to buy some over the counter stuff that doesn't work, infecting others along the way.

If you watch The Walking Dead and wonder how anything could spread so fast, here you go.

This is the thinking not just of my one friend, but of everyone I know who isn't 100% covered by some government provided insurance or isn't sitting on a bank account around the billionaire mark.

And the promise of the incumbent, Donald Trump,  is that we'll have less access to health insurance and it'll cost more.

Our military is so powerful that we could take on everyone and not even blink. Our military technology is so up to date that we sell our old crap to anyone because we don't have space to store last year's junk.

But sneeze and it's good bye 'merica.

And that's why I think it's so important that EVERY LIVING HUMAN in this country have access to fully funded health care. So if anyone in our borders feels a sniffle coming on, they go deal with it.

That's how you fight bio terrorism. That's it.

We could build 10 nuclear weapons for dropping on each and every country out there. Not only would that kill us all (MAD), but it still wouldn't fix a bio terrorist attack.

I'm not a politician or military strategist. So if I can figure this out, you can be certain that our enemies have too.

And given our ethics of NOT staying home when ill, it's guaranteed that it'll spread. No one can afford quarantine,  especially if they might need meds. We'd need Marshall Law to keep the sick home. And the ones trying to enforce it would get it. There's only so many bio suits. Containment breaches would happen.

This isn't a plot bunny. It's not the basis of a book, movie, or tv show. (Though they exist.) This is reality. This is what happens when everyone doesn't have equal access to health care. It happens when the sub-par care is all you can afford, so you avoid that because you have a job and shouldn't have to take from those worse off, plus the wait is ridiculous.

The whole system is broken. Top to bottom. It's not fair to patients or doctors or other care givers.

I don't care if it's fair to health insurance companies, because a computer should not decide what care is best and what medicine a person is entitled to take. The computer didn't go to med school. The computer hasn't met the person. The computer is NOT QUALIFIED to make the choices. Skynet bad, remember?

Hopefully the politicians,  who have access to great medical care and therefore aren't directly affected by this,  will fear the janitor getting sick from an attack. Or the wait staff. Someone they pay little attention to but who might spread it because they don't see a doctor. That fear might, maybe, get health care access improved. Hopefully before I turn out being right.

I'd rather not have an "I told you so," about this.

Skynet, Artificial Intelligence, Matrix - We are ruled

There are many movies that show Man creating a machine, giving it a way to "think," and then being conquered by the machines. Terminator,  Artificial Intelligence,  The Matrix, ... Seriously, it's a long list. We watch them and ask if it could happen. Then Robin Williams in Bicentennial Man makes us feel all better.

But here's the thing... Maybe we need to look more at where we are right now. Because people aren't going to be conquered directly. We rise up,  we fight back, we have spirit. Only someone or something that can break that can rule us.

John and I have health insurance. It is mandatory in the US to have. Not just because of some Obama Care law-- that is just what made it easier to get. You need it because without it, getting health care is like trying to eat the moon. I've been there.

Recently, our health insurance sent out computer generated letters that changed our prescriptions. Not just us-- everyone John works with who has a prescription got these letters. Our drugs that we need in order to live well have been changed.

Did our doctor decide this? No. Did any doctor look at a chart and make this decision?  No. Perhaps a pharmacist at least checked into all this to be sure it was safe? Nope, keep dreaming.

A computer made health care decisions. It decided to have people try other drugs. Not because the ones they are on were not working, not because the ones prescribed weren't in the best interest-- the computer looked at costs and decided that was all that mattered. Side effects and interactions be damned. I know this because I had to ask why John was put back on something he had been taken off of previously. It's cheaper. Never mind that it didn't work.

We are only human,  after all. Cheaper to kill. That is the logic of a machine-- to weigh the cost of continued life against the money saved. Numbers.

And because we aren't rich, we must obey. Comply or die. I had to fight in the system to get John the right drugs. His supply ran out in the meantime. My best friend had surgery last month. The products she is supposed to use to STAY ALIIVE haven't come. Computers held them up three times. She's had to call manufacturers and beg for samples. She had to beg for her life.

Tell me again how it's all just science fiction and how the machines couldn't possibly win.

We don't know how to turn them off, but we already can't outwit them.