News and Views

The Kaiser Foundation recently completed a poll of Americans on the Affordable Care Act. The findings are interesting.

43% of those polled had an unfavorable impression of the law (vs. 39% favorable), but just 35% think opponents of the law should continue their efforts to repeal the law or keep it from being implemented.

But it gets really interesting when they polled people about their knowledge of the new law.

–Only 59% knew that coverage could not be denied based on medical history.
–42% thought that the government would set up panels to make end of life decisions for those on Medicare (the infamous “Death Panels”).
–43% thought that illegal immigrants would be given financial assistance to buy insurance coverage
–52% (over half!) thought that there would be a new government run insurance plan
–Only 65% knew about the new health insurance exchanges.
–42% thought that Medicare benefits would be cut.
–Only 42% knew that the act helps close the Medicare prescription “doughnut hole”.

When you consider the widespread ignorance about what the act does, the polls about favorable/unfavorable opinions become pretty meaningless.

Even though the days are still hot (in the high 90s), nights are getting down into the 60s. I have set up a whole house ventilation system to take advantage of the cool nights.

Once the temperature outside drops below the temperature in the house (usually about 80), I turn on two fans in upstairs windows (Devon and Derek’s rooms) blowing air out. I open windows and doors downstairs and in my bedroom, and the fans pull the air through the house cooling it off. We are needing light blankets before the early morning.

We close and lock downstairs windows and doors while we are sleeping, of course, so the air then comes in through our bedroom only. As soon as we get up we reopen the downstairs. Then once the outside temperature rises above the house temperature again, we shut the system down. The house stays cool much longer in the morning, and the air conditioners don’t come back on again until mid-afternoon.

I’m sure it saves a little on the cooling bill, and it’s nice to have the fresh air moving through the house. For a total outlay of about $35 for the two fans, I’m sure it has already paid for itself.

Ideally the fans would blow air into the attic instead of out a window, thereby cooling off the attic too, but that’s a much bigger project. Maybe someday.

It was 68 degrees outside this morning when I got up (after 7) this morning. My outside thermometer shows that it got as low as 63, but I’m not sure I believe that.
Either way, since it was barely getting into the low 80s a week ago, this is a wonderful harbinger of fall.

I opened the door while eating breakfast and enjoyed the cool outdoor air.

I got a phone call the other night that symbolizes how poll results can be misleading. The automated poll asked me two questions:
1) “Are you aware that the Affordable Care Act will raise your insurance costs?”
2) “Do you support the Affordable Care Act?”

The pollsters were obviously trying to prime the result of the second question; first tell you something bad about it, then ask how you feel about it. They could just as easily have begun by saying “Are you aware that the ACA will lower your insurance costs?”, since the impact is still being debated and varies from person to person and state to state.

Pew Research just published some related poll results which I trust are less biased. They usually do a pretty good job with polls.

They found that 43% approve of the ACA, and 52% disapprove. However, less than half of all those who disapprove (or about 23% of the total polled population) said that lawmakers should work to make the law fail. The other (larger) half of the disapprovers said lawmakers should try to make it work as well as possible.

So the House is being pushed hard to take actions that less than a quarter of the population supports, at the risk of defunding the government and defaulting on national credit.

The poll also showed that there is strong ignorance throughout the country on the provisions of the ACA. Support for the act is strongly divided along party lines, as expected, but perhaps unexpectedly Democrats show greater understanding of the Act, including the individual mandate and state exchanges.

Personally, I am eagerly looking forward to October 1, when I can see what plans will be available to me. Starting January 1, I can have a policy that gives me full coverage, without the exemptions I currently worry about.

Instead of constipating the whole government over it right now, let’s implement and then if it doesn’t work there should be a strong consensus to cancel it. If it is as bad as they say, then it will be a disaster and Obama’s legacy will be a striking failure. But as Republican Senator Ted Cruz suggested people are going to like it so much that it will be impossible to remove once it is implemented.

Here’s an interesting XRay of my foot, post repair. Notice how straight the big toe is, and how the second toe is between the first and third where it belongs.

Compare that to the pre-surgery alignment.

There are three pieces of metal in that foot now. There is a long rod in the second toe holding it down in the correct position. That will be removed after about 4 weeks. There is a staple in the big toe where he made one cut, and just below the staple you can see a screw going in at an angle where he made another cut. These two pieces of metal (titanium) will stay in my foot permanently, and the bone will just heal around it.

They also gave (sold) me a huge stiff boot that I will have to wear for the next few weeks. Clumsy and heavy, but it protects the foot pretty well and I can walk in it without any real pain. I’m still supposed to take it easy.

The doctor discovered during surgery that my bones are unusually hard. He thinks it’s from all that basketball.

Bunion surgery went well today, at least according to the surgeon. I can’t tell because my foot is hidden within an inch or more of bandages.

Feeling is coming back, but so far there isn’t any pain. The doctor recommended that I take a percocet before bed, because I wouldn’t want full feeling to return with pain in the middle of the night.

They used propofol for general anesthesia. Love that stuff. They also used propofol for my colonoscopy last year. Both times I woke up almost immediately, fully alert with no grogginess, no nausea and there’s no hangover tonight.

I’ve been walking around a little, wearing a special shoe. I’m supposed to limit my walking and keep my foot elevated most of the time for the next few days, but it’s nice that I can get myself to the bathroom and kitchen. I’m not going to try the stairs tonight, and I’ll probably skip basketball tomorrow morning.

I have a bunion on my left foot. It’s a condition where the joint in the big toe is shifted outward, and the rest of the toe points inward. Here’s a picture of my feet:

The impact is that the foot is wider at that point, and the bunion presses against the shoe causing pain and inflammation. Another impact in my case is that the second toe is displaced and is riding up over the third toe.

The combined problems bothered me on my recent hike in the Sierra, but with anti-inflammatories the discomfort was under control. But the hike definitely aggravated the condition, and it is now time for surgery.

Bunion surgery is generally very successful. My podiatrist assures me that I will be able to walk the next day, wearing a special shoe. It should take 6-8 weeks to return to normal activities, including sports.

Here’s a video clip that shows roughly what will happen, though the specifics of every case is different. They will cut off some of the protruding bone, make some other cuts to change angles, and shift the last segment over, securing it with a pin. Besides the work on the big toe, he will also do some realignment on the second toe.

Surgery is scheduled for the morning of September 16. I’ll post a follow-up afterwards.

I’ve had my Chevy Volt for about 18 months now. Update: I still love it. Still fun to drive, still extremely economical to drive, after you get past the purchase price (which has recently dropped $5000).

I’ve put about 13,400 miles on it, and used 48 gallons of gas. I typically drive about 90% of the time on battery, only using gas about 10% of the time. I always regret having to dip into the gas tank, but it’s great peace of mind knowing that I can. I think I would be too nervous driving a battery only car, at least until there are many high-speed charging stations everywhere I want to drive.

Mileage when I am using gas varies from 35 to 40+ miles/gallon, depending on my speed, air conditioning use and driving style. Battery range varies from 30 to 45 miles, depending on the same factors. I have to admit that I am usually closer to 35 than 45 for both battery range and gas mileage, since my driving style isn’t the most conservative. But I can usually get to Mom’s house and back on a single charge, and it’s 18 miles each way mostly on the freeway.

I mainly use it just to drive around town, though I have been to Tucson and Flagstaff. It’s a fine highway car, but as I mentioned I hate to run it on gas any more than I have to. I usually go about 3 months between gas station stops unless I am taking a longer trip. Driving on electricity costs about 1/4 as much as driving on gas, at current gas and electricity costs.

It’s notable that the Volt sales total is higher than Toyota Prius sales total was at this point after its introduction (33 months, over 45,000 sold). I still rarely see another Volt on the road, but I don’t get many stares or questions any more either. And the Volt is still at the top of the Consumer Reports list for owner satisfaction (“Would you buy this car again?”).

On a related topic, if you haven’t heard of the Tesla electric car you should take a look. It earned Consumer Reports acclaim as the best car they have ever tested. It earned a perfect score on NHTSA safety tests. The top end model can go over 250 miles on a charge, and accelerate from 0 to 60 in about 4 seconds, faster than almost anything else on the street. The company is installing a network of fast charging stations throughout the country, with several already in place in California. Only Tesla cars can use them, but they are free for Tesla owners. This might be the future of electric cars. If they had charging stations around Arizona, and the purchase price was half what it is, I would be very interested. But for me, my Volt works out better.

While coming down from 12,000 foot Mather Pass, I was hiking behind Dr. Suuz, and noticed that she seemed to be limping a little. She admitted that her knee was bothering her a little, but she didn’t think it was serious. Just as we were almost off the steep part, she suddenly stumbled and almost fell, clutching her right leg and exclaiming in pain. I rushed forward to support her pack and take the weight off, and help hold her up. A minute later she said she was OK, didn’t know what had happened, but hopefully it was a one-off.

But a minute or so later it happened again, and then again. I think at that time we all realized that her hike was over, and we found a place for her to sit down so we could all figure out what to do. Fortunately this had happened at the bottom of the climb down from the pass on a flat meadow with lots of rocks to sit on.

We pondered what to do. We were several miles from any civilization. We considered if she could hobble 10 miles over the closest pass to a road, but quickly abandoned that idea. We thought about hiring mules to come in and carry her out, but that would take a couple of days to organize. We thought about contacting the King’s Canyon National Park rescue service, but how to contact them? Maybe if someone had a satellite phone…?

Wonderfully, the first person passing by did have a satellite phone and made the call for us. The 15 minute call cost about $30, but it was well worth it.

About 3 hours later we heard the “thump-thump-thump” of a helicopter in the distance, slowly approaching. They weren’t sure exactly where we were, so they were following the trail up from several miles away. They later said that finding the right people was made more difficult because many people on the ground would wave at them, out of curiosity and interest, so how to tell when they had found the right ones? But eventually they did find us, and after flying in a circle around us came to land on a flat place nearby with the tail hanging over the trail. The wind blew dust everywhere and tipped over my backpack, but the landing was made safely.

We thought we would walk Dr. Suuz right over, she would get in, and they would be off, but instead they shut off the helicopter and a couple of paramedics came out and examined her. They concluded that she did indeed merit and require an evacuation, so off she went.

They buckled her in, and she went for the ride of her life through the canyons and over the peaks of the Sierra.

I was almost wishing my knee would fail, so I could go for a helicopter ride too…

Since coming out we have heard a little more, but we still don’t know the details of the injury. She is scheduled for an MRI that will probably explain it. For now she is back in Mississippi getting around on crutches.

Next time I go into the backcountry, I am going to look into taking a satellite phone. They are heavy and expensive but could be a life saver.

I took a small solar charger with me on the John Muir Trail, to keep my smart phone and SteriPen charged.

The Switch Eight charger by Goal Zero comes with a solar panel and a rechargeable Li-Ion battery. You charge the battery up with sunlight during the day, then use the battery to recharge phones etc.

During the whole JMT hike I never turned my phone off and never charged it with anything but the sun. It got me through the whole trip. To be fair, I kept the phone in airplane mode most of the time, except for briefly turning on the GPS a few times a day to plot my position, and once in a while fruitlessly attempting to connect to a T-Mobile signal. I also used the phone to read books every night for a few minutes to an hour or more.

The SteriPen water purifier I brought along uses UV light to sterilize any organisms, and is also rechargeable. I used the Switch Eight charger to keep the SteriPen charged too, and had enough left over to occasionally recharge Dale/Castaway’s phone.

The Troverts opted instead to bring large capacity rechargeable batteries (that had to be plugged in to recharge) for their phones. I’m not sure which was the lighter method, but I liked knowing that I could go indefinitely without plugging in.