For just one moment… forget about what Jesus would do.

Today was a good day at work.

I cried.

The last time I recollect crying at work was at least 6 or more years ago when a patient of mine – a young black male, who was his mother’s only son – had been murdered, and as I looked into her bloodshot, tired, hollow, intently peering and watery eyes, volumes were communicated though we neither said a word.

I couldn’t bear her gaze, and after what seemed ages, I averted my eyes, and departed behind a nearby curtain in the Trauma ICU to cry. There, my tears flowed like twin rivers, swollen by a storm, albeit an emotional one, which was joined by the two smaller tributaries of my nostrils. Gazing over the city from atop the 11th story of the teaching hospital through tear-drenched eyes, I wondered… was this what dear Mother Mary felt like when she gazed upon her only son as he hung from that cross?

Today, I wept for

“Will that be cash, or charge?”: Many hospitals & doctors offer cash discount for care

Regular readers will recall the entry entitled “Q: Why do hospitals charge $75 for aspirin? A: Because they can.,” which was posted Wednesday, May 2, 2012.

In another venue, I had posted the following remark in response to the exorbitant healthcare costs, “It’s a simple concept, really. Anytime anyone gets in between you & who you’re buying from, it costs more. Insurance does that.”

And it’s true.

It’s not trite.

Let’s consider this example: You’re at the grocery store in the check-out line, about to pay for your groceries which have already been bagged and placed in your shopping cart. When the clerk announces the total, you have some strange feeling because the total is about ten times as much as you imagined.

When you double check the price of milk you find the sticker says $2.50/gallon, but your clerk rang up $25. You double check the price of frozen spinach. The sticker price says $1.37, but the clerk rang up $13.70. The chocolate was $4.50, but the clerk rang up $45.00. And the lean ground beef, instead of the posted $2.60/lb, the 5lb chub was… $130.00.

Talk about sticker shock!

You are aghast at the price, and in frustrated terms exclaim that “there is obviously some gross mistake!” – to which the clerk replies, “Let me check with your Food Insurance Agent,” picks up a phone beside the register, presses one button, and whispers into the receiver. 

Suddenly, out of a door leading to an inside office,

Newt Gingrich supported Obamacare before he didn’t support Obamacare

Colloquially, of course, such behavior could be described as either ‘schizophrenic,’ ‘conflicted,’ ‘incompatible,’ or ‘contradictory’.

None of those terms are positive or encouraging. And certainly, none are like the sound of

House Republicans move to repeal Obama health insurance reforms

The alternate title to this entry is rather lengthy.

“I’ll take ‘How to re-elect the President for $1000, Alex.'”

“Answer: House Republicans move to repeal Obama healthcare.”

But before we continue, enjoy a little-known presidential history fact:

Renown presidential historian Michael Beschloss appeared on an episode of The Comedy Channel’s “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart,  shortly after the November 2010 General Election.

There were many Republicans seats gained in the House of Representatives, leading some pundits to question President Obama’s effectiveness after such a loss.

Mr. Beschloss remarked that “The three presidents in recent times who have had midterm loss like this have been Truman, Eisenhower, Bill Clinton. Every single one of them got reelected.”

Let’s examine elements of so-called “ObamaCare” they want to repeal.

Insurance abuses

Historically, of course, health insurance is a relatively new thing. That is, by comparison to other types of insurance. And as once shared with me by an insurance man, “Health insurance is me saying ‘I’ll wager you stay healthy,’ and you say ‘I’ll wager I don’t.'”

As well, a retired insurance man (one whom developed a very large business and sold it years later) said to me recently, “I could not sit on a jury in an insurance company case because I’d stick it to them!”

The way I see it, is that insurance companies should be regulated to prevent the abuses such as you describe. It’s abusive not just because of unwarranted price increases, but because of the position they’re in (and have a track record of doing) to exercise control over the weak and vulnerable – those whom are sick, or need compassionate healing care.

It’s not just those members of society, either. It’s the physicians and other care providers whom also receive the short end of the stick in payments.

That’s because they’re not the class of people known as “STOCK HOLDERS” in the Wall Street traded industry called insurance.

More than anything else, it bespeaks of greed, even avarice – greed gone wild. Because human nature is to get more of the thing one loves – whether a spousal or other human relationship – when one loves money, they will do whatever it takes to get more of the object of their affection… including hurt other people. That occurs because an inanimate object cannot return love, and is  an imbalanced, indeed warped, relationship.