Over-prosecuting the Poor & Disabled

 Handicapped guy 'actively' ADA'ing his RV...

...is told by the City of Muenster that the RV is a "Junked Vehicle" and will soon be towed and crushed, and I'll be charged $500 a day for the violation!

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Backstory: After 25 years in a wheelchair, I could not lift myself and my chair in and out of my Z28, so I decided that it was time to graduate to a vehicle with a lift or ramp. The other problem I have is increasingly less bladder control. This world simply does not guarantee me a bathroom I can fit into, so I decided that an RV with a bathroom and shower made the most sense. This way I'd always have a bathroom and if not, a shower, and change of clothes.  

I found a 1979 Class C with only 67,000 miles and no visible exterior damage. The owner said "it has a little water damage behind the passenger seat. All I would need to do is remove the carpet, cut out the bad spot, and replace part of the plywood. So, I bought "Peaches"...

I took all of my money and invested in the engine, brakes, and transmission. I saved a few hundred for minimal materials.

After spending close to $5,000 on repairs, new fuel tanks, wires, and hoses, she purrs like a kitten. Before bringing her back to my trailer house, I phoned the park manager and the city manager, to make sure my planned activities would not break any rules or codes. At this time, I had no idea how bad the water damage really was and I received the okay to begin my work.

I drove "Peaches" home and began demolition only to find Titanic water damage. EVERY board along every seam was rotten, from the front to the back... My project that was going to take a few months, turned into two years, as COVID price hikes slowed my progress. One piece of Red Cedar (chosen for water and bug resistance) is almost $100! While I am very paralyzed, I can still do some work, and every day I'm either buying materials and equipment, or installing it, but $937 a month does not go far.

Medicaid covers necessary patient lifts, so long as your Doctor signs off. However, under managed care, my medically necessary lift was determined to actually be a convenience elevator, which isn't covered. So, I found a used one for $1250, AND the Knights of Columbus even donated $500 to help me buy it, but I still owe $250. Even if I had the lift, I still need another $200 in wood, so I have something to mount it to.  

Meanwhile ONE neighbor thinks I should be STOPPED and that I should NOT be allowed to continue to build...
Here's my question, "How is this not an inspirational story?"

Hey, look at that quadriplegic, he's not sitting there doing nothing with his life, watching TV...he is building his dream, with his own hands!!!

How do we live in a country where that is illegal??

Dumbfounded by Recent Events,

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*That guy clearly needs help accomplishing his dream, in a reasonable amount of time...Let's HELP him...NOPE, CRUSH IT, ...and his dreams, Oh, AND charge him $500 a day...??? Really?

How to Steal from the Poor and Disabled

United Healthcare Corporation does NOT provide services, they process your request, which is a denial.

Managed care means less care.  

I have been disabled since 1994, when a drunk driver ended my basketball career, and left me in a wheelchair, labeled a quadriplegic.  After my parents' insurance made private insurance unaffordable, at the age of 21, I had no choice but to apply for Medicaid.

Then, on my Blue Cross Blue Shield plan I received Doctor visits, three prescriptions a month, and either eye care or dental care, whichever I needed.  About 8 years ago my father was diagnosed with cancer and applied for his disability support services.  Once he received them, this changed my status.  Instead of being a disabled person myself, I was re-catagorized as the survivor of a disabled person, with a different benefits package, and now qualified for Medicare...which only pays 80%.  So I magically became more capable, and less in need of benefits, because my dad got cancer!?  

Now, each year I must re-qualify for benefits, and have my means tested.  If I make more than $5k annually, I am no longer qualified for benefits.  This same year saw the expansion of managed care services.  Private companies began subcontracting out health care services from both Medicare and Medicaid.

Companies Like United Healthcare are paid billions of dollars by Federal and State governments, to 'process medical requests.'  I am not allowed to seek gainful employment, and make more than that $5k a year, or I lose my benefits permanently.  Meanwhile, a lift to access my vehicle costs $6900, this same lift United Healthcare denied as a medical equipment request, because they ignored my Doctor's notes about it being medically necessary.  Instead, they categorized it as a convenience elevator, which is not covered.  

My wheelchair is now 6 years old, and currently held together with a zip tie.  I was due a new one at 5 years, and United Healthcare has not only failed to pay for it, but they did not pay for the physical therapy services, to fit me for the chair, and a bill for $30 was sent to collections.  So I took a financial ding, because United Healthcare failed to pay a $30 bill!

This company also moved my local hospital and doctor out of my coverage area, then said they would give me a ride, but no such ride services actually exist.  They merely process ride requests, and when a ride cannot be found, you just don't make it to your appointment.  I have missed three appointments, two last week, and have been asked to use ride services that injured me, by not providing a lift or a needed ramp.

The latest most blatant form of "Theft, Fraud and Abuse" is the subcontracted use of Solutran, to deliver an over the counter benefits card, and a $65 monthly allowance.  I was due one and these funds since last December.  I have received other benefits cards from United Healthcare, but they were only for a mere $15.  The brilliance of this program is that neither Solutran nor United Healthcare sent notice of this benefit, and the benefits 'expire' each month...rather than roll over.   I would argue that Solutran never sent the card, so that they could just keep $65 each month, and are doing so right now, to the tune of $6.5 million a month from their half a million members/subscribers, in Texas alone, by simply not telling ANYONE these benefits actually exist!

Today the United Healthcare Corporation has over $300 BILLION in holdings...

Go into business to steal from the poor and disabled, by simply NOT doing anything...and you too can become a billionaire! 

*There are no Legal Services available for poor disabled people being stolen from.  No Legal Aid, no Erin Brockovich...

We are failing to hold corruption to account.

Non-Profit Medical Insurance

 "Death panels are bad."

Be they employed by private insurance companies, Medicare, or Medicaid - all seek to deny care, medicine, and medical equipment in the name of protecting services to all.  

Private Insurance companies have infiltrated Medicare and Medicaid under the guises of companies like Humana, Health Springs, Amerigroup, United, Aetna, and new 'providers' join every day.  Their 'job' is to send me a "THIS IS NOT A BILL" statement every month, printed in three colors in an envelope also printed in three colors, informing me as to what they paid for my care.  Every nine to eighteen months, this provider care group 'changes' its coverage area.  When this happens, my Doctors, Hospitals, and Specialists all change, to further away.  It takes several months for my Doctors and Facilities to re-align themselves so that I can return to people I know and trust.  

As for my own care, I have a Bachelor's degree, and I'm one paper away from completing my Master's, but I am not 'allowed' to make more than $5k a year, or I lose my medical benefits, forever.  Yet, I was just denied a lift for my vehicle, so that I can get into and out of it without further injuring myself.  A new lift is $6k...so I am in every way prevented or denied ANY "pursuit of happiness."  Our system is broken, in that it in no way functions to protect health, or provide accessible services.

The solution lies in the utilization of Non-Profit or 501c3 organizations to perform the duties of a medical insurance plan, because is free from the need to advertise, litigate, pay employees, or make a profit.  ALL of those resources can be funneled into actual care, therapy, pre-screening, meaning zero claim denials!

The group or organization need only be +35k or larger to prevent a catastrophic loss, or about the size of the average Texas County.  For the first year, the applicant pays the average premium leveraged by the private market upon that individual's demographic.  Given this figure include care and advertising, profit, and employee payment, it will easily create a cash pool large enough to provide complete care.  Moreover, any monies a Non-Profit spends on services can be itemized as a deduction when IRS filings occur.  After the introductory subscription of one year, the applicant becomes a full member, owing only an equal share of all of the medical services paid for the previous month.  There is simply no need for, for-profit insurance companies to exist, if communities would realize the strength in their numbers.

Now, what good does it do, to give your countrymen the tools to fix what ails them, if they do not see each other as brothers, sisters, cousins, and neighbors...?

The state of our nation is divided, and until we stop calling other Americans the enemy, solutions like this one can never happen.

Want to hear a joke?

"Disability Rights."

In the United States, Texas, Denton County, and on the campus of the University of North Texas, your "Rights" as a disabled person are a poor joke, or rather a joke upon the poor.  Because Rights aren't a thing you are given, freely without payment.  Actual Rights are earned and secured daily by groups of people, and well funded individuals, for themselves.  If you are not part of a well funded group and or you are otherwise poor, you have NO Rights.

I received my disability at the hands of a drunk driver in 1994, and at the same time lost my basketball scholarship, so the State of Texas helped pay to educate me, and gave me a blue parking pass, which is supposed provide me access to parking 'near' buildings.

As a grad student, I was visiting UNT's Library, but all of the blue-spots were occupied, so I parked in the one next to it.  I returned to find my car had been ticketed.  My attempt to resolve the issue with the UNT Parking Authority in-person was unsuccessful, and the appeal I filed was misplaced.  A FOIA request found my appeal information, but it couldn't be provided to me, not because I had failed to properly submit or file it, or it had been lost, but because a UNT Parking Authority Manager's home/personal information was included on it now.  So, I got a ticket I didn't deserve, filed an appeal that was trashed by someone from their house, and then I had to pay $150, even though Federal Law states I am to be exempt from fees or penalties.  One might think bringing these things to the attention of UNT's Legal Department would bring swift remedy to this minuscule oversight...  Nah, they told me in no uncertain terms, "If you don't like it, TRY to find an attorney that'll sue us!"  I did, they are $5000 to start this case...I make $825 a month, so, yeah.  I tried to get a job.

With my B.S. in Criminal Justice and Legal Studies, I tried to apply for a position at the Denton County Law Library.  Wherein, Denton County Human Relations told me that the position was being held for an internal hire.  *Oh, that's hilarious, I thought I had Rights established by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 gave me the Right to be considered for any public position, and that Texas Code- "Sec. 656.001. STATE AGENCY EMPLOYMENT OPENING. Any agency, board, bureau, commission, committee, council, court, department, institution, or office in the executive or judicial branch of state government that has an employment opening for which persons from outside the agency will be considered shall list the opening with the Texas Workforce Commission." meant they couldn't do that??

Even Denton County's own Hiring Policy states in its manual- "CHAPTER 3, SECTION 3.1 Denton County County Sheriff’s hiring process is centralized and managed by the Denton County Human Resources Department. The Human Resources Department shall publicly announce all vacancies to be filled in the County service, and shall maintain a list of announced vacancies on the GovernmentJobs.com. website."  So, the Law is on my side right?  It is wrong/illegal and even Unconstitutional to deny a disabled citizen consideration for a public position...  I contact the Texas Workforce Commission, and asked for legal aid to press my so-called Right to consideration.  They don't have the resources to help me, they said.  The other government agency the Disability Rights of Texas also turned me down, but admittedly they have not litigated a single case in two years.  I even wrote to Governor Greg Abbott, who's disability support counsel told me, "Sorry, we don't actually have resources to help anyone like you."

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ONLY makes appointments 30 days in advance, and not once in over two months has a single opening occurred.  So there are NO places, people, or organization that offer actual legal services/representation to poor people who have been denied Civil Rights.  That is pure myth.

Two days ago, my twenty-three year old wheelchair shoulders hit a brick wall.  Some time ago, I took a fall, tried to catch myself, and sprained both shoulders quite badly.  My Doctor prescribed steroid injections, which offered some relief, but the pain never went away.  Nine months later I need another injection, which again offered relief, but no cure.  My last injection was about three months ago, and it has ultimately disabled me completely.  I've been inching along with daily ice and heat packs, constant doses of Motrin and Tylenol, but day before yesterday, both shoulders told me, "No."  I couldn't lift myself out of the tub, I had to slither out, and I only just made it back into my chair.

At this point I considered calling for an ambulance, but I mustered myself into my car, and headed to the nearest ER.  They gave me an injection and script for more anti-inflammatories, and told me to leave without further assistance.  I asked the attending Doctor, if someone with two sprained ankles would be asked to walk out of the hospital, causing them more harm, or would they be issued a wheelchair or crutches, perhaps?  It hurts to push my chair, and it brings me to tears to lift myself into bed or into the toilet.

There's an old joke, "I went to the Doctor, and I said, 'It hurts when I do this.' and the Doctor said, 'Well, don't do that.'"  I went to Denton Medical City and told the attending ER Dr. Gupta that it hurt to even attempt daily activities, and that I needed rest, hospitalization, and or a short stay at a rehab facility.  She told me to return home, and wait.  That they'd send home health out, soon, to offer me PT and OT services.  What I need is help in an out of bed, on and off the toilet, into and out of the shower, and an electric chair.

How am I supposed to get out of my car, and into my house, I asked?  "Call the fire department.", they responded.

WHAT???

Can you imagine someone getting home from the hospital, after a double ankle injury treatment, and crawling into their home (which is what I did), or calling people who's job it is to put out fires, to carry them inside?

So, the Right to park and access buildings?  NOPE.

The Right to seek employment?  NOT A CHANCE.

The Right to medical service or treatment?  lol..."NO."

"Disability Rights," the worst joke ever, and it does in every way pain me to say that.

Fascist Radio

"...Woohoo cohones...!"

I had just left a three hour night class (grad work) studying International Conflict Theory, under a Phd. who was knighted by the Italian Crown.  He is also a veteran of the Vietnam conflict, serving as a field medic.  There is no class that a Master's student will find more enlightening and conversationally invigorating.  It is however an hour drive home, so to keep me awake, and partially because my speakers are all blown and music doesn't sound good, I listen to the AM band where the voices clear and normal.

That first thing I heard from one Chris Krok of WBAP 820, along with a report that the President had ordered a Tomahawk missile strike on an Assad airfare base that Syria used in a chemical attack on its own citizens.  The fifty-mile drive home serenaded by outright warmongering after leaving a place of peace and understanding reserved only for those who could qualify and afford the education, left me sad for the public's airwaves.  Crowing about a unilateral attack on a country that in no way presents a strategic threat to the U.S., the host's stewardship of these good airwaves, had me moved to again call-in.

I am a progressive liberal, who makes better arguments, and as such my reception onto talk radio airwaves is usually short-lived.  My call gets pushed right up against the break, so most often no real exchange occurs.  The host is likely to put me on the air with less than sixty seconds before commercial and then interject by lowering my mic, as the host goes to the break and drops my call.  Sometimes, I am kept on hold, until the break, or end of the show, when there isn't enough time to take my call.  Last night, no such faux access was extended.  Instead the call screener said that he wouldn't take my call "...because I am an asshole."

This same host rails incessantly about biased media, while at the same time demonstrating a level of intellectual cowardice that is truly astonishing.  This is unchecked authority at its worst.  TV shows, cable news, Internet and traditional news outlets alike, all have counterbalances.  Talk radio however, is dominated, is not singularly ruled by 'conservatives.'  Liberal views are silenced, subdued, and more often than not strangled into silence.  Free speech, deliberations, honest debates do not occur there.

To which I can only say...  "Shame on you Chris Krok, and others like you, who abuse the airways you have been granted use."

e-mail: chris@wbap.com

Bernie Voters & the Sanjay Effect

"We are going to make America great again."

The election results of 2016 were unexpected by pollsters, analysts, and most talking heads.  Republican voters rallied around their nominee in big numbers in Florida, Ohio, and Michigan.  Who were they and what was their motive?  How did fundamentalists Christians support a self-admitted p**** grabber?  Is the Sanjay-effect a measurable political force?  When Secretary Hillary Clinton did not name Bernie Sanders as her running mate, did she seal her electoral fate?

Sanjaya Malakar was a contestant on a television show called American Idol who was propelled past his talent level into the finals by a following, set upon destroying the show's credibility.  Well known shock-jock Howard Stern actively encouraged millions of listeners to hijack the faux election and support the worst candidate.  These malcontents are a wandering bunch who attack institutions they perceive as non-democratic.  Portions of this same group named a boat in Europe "Boaty McBoatface." When some people witness opportunities to disrupt voting systems, social networks provide them the opportunity to band together with others to pose as a strike-back force.

Bernie Sanders voters were commonly heard as expressing sentiments of the disenfranchised.  Many claimed that they'd rather vote Trump, or stay home, than vote for Secretary Clinton.  The Secretary did not choose Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, or anyone that these voters could rally behind.  The electoral results were dramatic and overwhelming.

President-elect Trump was supported by a vast number of people who wanted an outsider, a business person, a non-politician who was going to 'mix things up!'  These supporters united behind a populous message, and saw this candidate as a cruise missile to our democratic system.  Fundamentalists Christians likely found themselves voting straight party ticket, rather than for person who looked at a 10-year old and said, "I'll be dating her in ten years."  However, the result was the same.

Democrats missed the opportunity to unite the disenfranchised when the Democratic nominee left Bernie voters without a viable option.  That said, this was a 'republic' result, not a 'democratic' one.  Secretary Clinton won the popular vote.  The electoral college is a relic of age long since past, and should either be employed now, today, more than ever, or abolished.  President-elect Trump said, "these elections are rigged, and that this electoral college system is bad for democracy."  I could not agree more.  Social media has given candidates direct access to their voters.  No longer are candidates required to hold public rallies.  They can tweet at 3 am and reach millions of potential voters across congressional and state lines.

The protests erupting nationwide over these election result lead me to wonder, what might have happened had those people been this active before the election?  These results, however un-democratic, came after a contest we all agreed to take part in, knowing full well that a majority of Americans might not get their way.  These protests would serve us all best, if they focused of amending our election laws to insure this will never happen again.

Democratic Party Convention Rules Amendment

Our primary election systems are flawed, in so many ways.  The inconsistency and variability between dates and types is mind boggling and without seeming reason other than to cause confusion and voter suppression.  The problem lies in the formation and articulation of the rules that bind and guide our party's actions.

Neither party's platform nor its actions regard voter intention highly or well.  Nominees might be chosen by delete, super delegates, who may vote in the second round of balloting any way they see fit.  The will of the voters, a majority of the party's loyalists, and the democratic process seems tainted by this bloated theocracy of brokering delegates.

While some states partition delegates, the ultimate winner at each convention is still a winner take all event.  One candidate is awarded both the Presidential nomination and the opportunity to name a Vice Presidential nominee, often leaving the losers in the primary without a candidate to support in the general election.

In order to unite the party, insure a general election victory, a restore democratic principles to the Democratic Party Convention system, I offer this amendment:

"The Presidential nominee receiving the second most delegates shall be named to the Vice President position, on the general election ballot."