It is a beautiful morning, and today is my birthday. I have so much to be grateful for. My husband bought me flowers and picked out a beautiful card. We are working on sealing the deal for a small group tour to Italy in September: Venice, Florence, Rome, Sorrento, and Amalfi Coast. On my free day in Sorrento, I can grab the ferry to Ischia and visit the island where my maternal grandfather comes from. I am so looking forward to a visit to my homeland. My middle grandson, the pizza delivery kid with tattoos and low hanging pants, got a job as a budtender/asst mgr in a Detroit pot shop and is going to be paid a fortune. He starts in August when the new law kicks in. We are all keeping our fingers crossed it doesn't disappear. If it sounds too good to be true....meanwhile he's landscaping to pay the rent. Grandson #1 got a full three year scholarship from the London School of Economics to get his PhD, and his Swedish org is going to let him keep his job and work pt time remotely from London. The only not so sunny spot in my life today is grandson #3. He graduated a week or so ago from Michigan State University with a BS in Astrophysics and can't find a job. Apparently a 4 year degree with advanced math and science skills just isn't good enough for all of these talent starved employers. One of his profs is going to hire him in a grad student job for one year as a lab resource assistant and have him work on some big data medical project with him that will hopefully give him enough ummmph to get an entry level job as a Data Analyst somewhere else. You know the same occupation new college grads with computer science degrees get with no exp. He eventually wants to be a data scientist for which there is no clear path. Other than this, life is great... which makes me nervous. There is always a shoe somewhere out there waiting to fall. Until it does, wishing us all sunshine and puddles to play in when it rains. Life is great when its great. Enjoy your day.

Had to miss a week because of way too much garbage going on. Then I've got some time working on the forge this evening. (I am taking pictures, and will show when I have something I am proud of. ) Overall, feeling pretty good, and hope that everybody else's day goes well!

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvRZxn7e3hc]

Saturn once, weird car, but the plastic body panels were cool, in their own weird way. Trying to plan shady NE corner of garden, fenced N&E and mid sized conifer shading S. I had been thinking of just growing mulch, and still might, but Italian parsley can also grow in shade, hmmm. Farmers' market today, always gets me thinking about the garden.

Trimmed and cleaned up camillia out front yesterday and it took all damn day. That's scary because our yards are generally shrub city and always partly out of control, I foresee weeks of trimming even working every day. Seems to get worse every year.

Greenpeace ranked the Democratic candidates on "greenness" the other day. Much to my non-surprise Biden was dead last. No doubt that is part of why the party PTB like him so much; tribal totem name == "warmonger who rocks no boat". Heh - ironic twisted mind takes me here:

Oh yeah.

Have a great weekend.

Out all day walking yesterday. Sore calves. But exhilarating.

Here are a few pics. Stunning day, slightly overcast, and the rains left many late wildflowers. Critters rejoice.

Today is travel day. Have a good one, all...

tether, so I could add something that I forgot to mention when I messaged you, earlier.

I 'think' I posted this blurb (at C99) within the past couple weeks, but, wanted to make sure 'you' saw it. This is how the May 2019 CBO Report (which analyzed Sanders' Universal MFA proposal) sizes up the effect that his proposed 'reform' would have on Traditional/Original Medicare beneficiaries. While Mr M has me working on our very pressing project, will try to Tweet out this excerpt, since I haven't noticed anyone talking about it, in the progressive blogosphere. The Report was touted as positive on a progressive website (Common Dreams). My 'guess' is that they're betting--perhaps, correctly--that most folks won't bother to read it. Naturally, I did.

From the May 2019 CBO Report, here you go--

Utilization Management

Utilization management refers to methods used by or on behalf of payers to manage health care costs by steering patients toward appropriate care. Utilization management can include care coordination and utilization review.

The administrator of the single-payer plan could enforce utilization patterns that are deemed appropriate by monitoring claims and identifying outliers. Under the current U.S. health care system, with its fragmented payment and delivery systems, coordination of care is difficult, and a comprehensive review of care is challenging because no centralized utilization database exists.

A single-payer system that collected comprehensive data on patients’ use of health care services could potentially manage available resources more efficiently. But the transition to a standardized IT system across all providers would require considerable efforts, such as reaching a consensus for a standard among stakeholders, enforcing that standard, and addressing privacy issues related to data sharing.

(Note: Bolded phrase above--the reason that we recently received new Medicare cards. Taking our Social Security numbers off the cards was the only way that the Feds could track our personal health care data (and pool it) without breaching federal privacy laws. Nice that they were 'transparent' with current Medicare beneficiaries. /snark)

In the United States, public programs have implemented few utilization management programs, but private insurers have increasingly used them to lower costs.

Some private insurers require prior authorization for patients seeking expensive therapies, for example, and Medicare Part D plans offer low or no copayments to patients who use cheaper generic medications. Many of those strategies could be continued under a single-payer system.

The utilization management in such a system might not be much of a change for people who were previously enrolled in a private plan, but it would impose new constraints on the choice of health care services for those who were previously enrolled in the Medicare FFS program..

Gonna try to copy and paste this blurb to some of the OTs in the next few weeks, to spread the word. Again, if folks will read the Bill, they'll see that it will reshape the current FFS (Fee-For-Service) Medicare program, making it resemble the private, managed care version of Medicare--MA, or Medicare Advantage. No thanks!

(That is, for us. Of course, "to each his own." Have no problem with anyone willfully and knowingly enrolling in MA. That's their right, and their business. Just don't want to be forced into it, myself.)

DK - Have a nice rest of your Birthday!

BTW, I'm a first-of-the-monther, too! Which was cool, regarding Medicare coverage, since it began a month before 65th birthday.

Phew! Took me forever to type this--need to give bum finger a rest, already!

Again, best of luck with therapy, and have a nice weekend!

Mollie

“Dogs have given us their absolute all. We are the center of their universe. We are the focus of their love and faith and trust. They serve us in return for scraps. It is without a doubt the best deal man has ever made. ”
~~Roger Caras

“In every moment, a choice exists.

We can cling to the past, or embrace the inevitability of change, and allow a brighter future to unfold before us. Such an uncertain future may call for even more uncertain allies. Either way, a new day is coming, whether we like it or not. The question is-- will you control it, or, will it control you?”
~~Fictitious Character Klaus Mikaelson

(Bolding/Italics - my emphasis. )