DATE: August 29, 2000

After being dodged by virtually every public agency, thus becoming a pariah to the system, after writing hundreds and hundreds letters and applications, which in itself seems inordinately odd, given that I am merely a spouse seeking help for my stricken wife, I have decided to hang it up.  After all, is there really a tangible reason why would it be so necessary to write so many letters?

In the final analysis, none of my wife's elected Democratic representatives have really done anything which might save her, and in the final analysis, that's what counts!  In truth, former governor Pete Wilson did much more than anyone else;  in contrast to Gray Davis, who has not even responded.

In watching the Democratic National Convention, Al Gore promised the works.  Trust me.  You won't get it.  But you won't get it from the jingoist Republicans either, who are always looking for ways to improve the economy through warfare.

In a nutshell, look at the realities:

Buc (my wife) suffered from an debilitating brain injury four years ago.
After UCLA operated, she was pulled out, without their true medical consent, but considering that we were poor, they readily let her go.  They even suggested that we let her die!

Then her health plan under Aetna, Maxicare, CareAmerica and Blue Shield let her care slide for the next two years;  carefully passing the torch to each other (needless to say under the less than watchful eye of the DOC) every six months, thus each one avoiding having to act on patient complaints, since it takes about that length of time to bring any complaint to its resolution!

When Maxicare said that they could no longer pay for her care, the California Department of Corporations (DOC) looked the other way, never ever having acknowledge this reality nor its disastrous impact on this patient's care!

She has never received a bed that was promised, after many, many phone calls and letters, again with the DOC watching, and now her life is jeopardized by this!   Friday she is going to the Kelly Group to have her bowels discharged, since her bed is so bowed, her feces cannot move downward to her anus, thus causing an enlargement of the large intestine.

In fact, throughout this ordeal, the implementation of voice mail and the continuous changing of important contact phone numbers has caused complete inefficiency and interruption of all urgent and critical communications at every level and with everyone from the DOC to as recently as her new doctors at Les Kelly Family Health Center.  My last phone call was not answered for ten minutes!  For them, its been that way for a year, always with their apologies.  The County of Los Angeles, In-Home Supportive Services is even worse.  I believe that they willfully refuse to return phone messages, and if by chance you accidentally go around your designated contact there, they become noticeably annoyed.  Like everyone else, they claim that they have too many patients to handle.

If I was a bureaucrat without a big enough budget, all these barriers would be perfectly logical in their implementation as being sensible to the issue of insufficient funding, leaving one with the impression, that it all has been contrived by government and business!

Who has contrived it?  Well who has contrived the County's Handbook based upon the California Code of Regulations which does not reflect California Code?
Who recommends voice mail systems that don't work?  Who makes us sit through five minutes of phone instructions in every conceivable language, without the option of pressing star?  Who lists one phone number for all languages in the phone directory?  Why is it that the telephone company phone information cannot locate MEDICAL?  Why is it that though we are supposed to have an open and free democracy, the State has a secret phone list which they protect and will not disclose?  Why are they so stupid or clever to make hold sound like call waiting?  Why is it at every turn, I must fill out the same questionnaires, when I have barely enough time to live?  Every time I ask for help or assistance, even from the same organizations, such as the Edison Company, must this be done, even if they never act on them?  It's a great deterrent protecting them, and business and government in general, from losing too much money.  Why is it that since my wife has come home, we are penalized from using more electrical utilities, by being over the baseline, even with the threat of shut off?  Because she is sick, there is a nurse living in our home doing more laundry, we keep it warmer downstairs, and though physicians send in these forms, we hear nothing from Edison?  I've already asked the PUC several times for help.  Why is it I had to make more than thirty phone calls to the government, including conference calls from Supervisor Zev Yaroslavski's office by his deputy Regina, to have my wife's MEDICAL reinstated after their computers in Sacramento disqualified her?  Why did it take four months?  Instead of helping us with parking tickets throughout this period of time, which escalated from $250 to over $1,000 with private collection fees, the DMV was powerless to act.  How come they connect their computers to catch us but not help us?  Is that why we pay taxes?  How do you explain who empowered the Franchise Tax Board, at a moment of utter suffering and desperation, to neatly and deftly removed over one thousand dollars from our account, for money already in the State coffers?  When and where did we all begin to view the needs of government to supersede the needs of the family?  Tell me that!  When did this happen?  Who authorized it?  Is that why democracy gets away with anything, because we voted to screw ourselves?  I think not and I am fed up!   Even at this time of desperation, why is it I still give change to a homeless beggar?  Why are there more potholes in the road?  When did we allow big business to run our government?

Looking back, I much rather have had a California Medical Card (something which currently does not exists) which I pay off after I use it for medical purposes.  It would be like a credit card, but without interest, used exclusively for medical supplies and services.  It would automatically be issued to every newborn citizens and issued to non citizens provided their country of origin recognizes their obligation to pay it off.  If its possessor does not pay it off, they would deny its subsequent use, for good reasons.

If I had had that, I would not have ruined my health, destroyed my business and credit, and I would have probably been able to pay off the 1/2 million dollars in my wife's care in about ten years!

I can only imagine that something as simple as this, which is NOT socialized medicine, is denied to the American people, because big business doesn't want it, because it gives us more control over the situation, such as the quality of goods and services, and the costs!