Health Insurance

All right kids, you're going to be hearing a lot about something called “health care” this week, and it can all be a little confusing, so your Uncle Tim is at hand to clear up an issue that will be central to your life moving forward: Q. What is “Health Care?” A. Health Care is something doctors do to you to counteract the effects of what other doctors have done to you at some point in the past. Q. What is a “doctor?” A. A highly skilled individual who has been trained through a decade of higher education to the point that he or she is qualified to blame all your problems on caffeine and tell you that you are obese.

Retiring doctor seeks medical care as public utility To the editor: Retirement from active medical practice is emotional. I owe much to my patients' families, who participated in the healing process with me. I could not enjoy any sense of accomplishment without their confidence. Our interactions over 40 years have, I hope, produced effective and meaningful outcomes. I will miss them all. Primary care medicine has been a tough, labor-intensive “business.” The physician can make it lucrative only by working 80-plus hours per week.

The next Health Care Jam will continue our discussion on a community can provide health care for individuals and reduce dependence on the standard health insurance model. The event is from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 9, at Shepherdstown Opera House. The focus is on diet and nutrition in preventing, treating, and curing many of the chronic ailments found in society. Included will be presentations from nutritionists and food providers. The forum will also be opened for questions and information sharing from the audience.

State businesses should be prepared for major changes in health benefit policies regardless of the outcome of a U.S. Supreme Court case challenging federal health care reform, a Maryland Chamber of Commerce official warned Wednesday. “Even if parts of the federal law were struck down - if the individual mandate were struck down - I think the Maryland General Assembly would very likely step in and put similar requirements in place here in the state of Maryland,” said Ronald Wineholt, the state chamber's vice president for government affairs.

For most of her adult life, Debra Dieterich has lived without health insurance. She doesn't remember a time when she didn't worry about developing a serious illness, having to have surgery or spending an extended amount of time in a hospital. It's been a roll of the dice. Not because she's a risk taker. She would love to have health insurance, she said. But the Hagerstown woman always has been employed by companies where health insurance wasn't offered or has worked part time and wasn't eligible for coverage.

A 2 1/2 hour negotiating session Monday between the Waynesboro Area School Board and its teachers union yielded a pair of new proposals but no agreement. The two sides have been meeting at the bargaining table since early 2010 in anticipation of the teachers' last contract expiring that summer. They've been without a contract since then. After two previous negotiating sessions were canceled, leadership for the school board and the Waynesboro Area Education Association bargaining unit sat down Monday evening.

Benita Moats has an array of medical issues. Among them, she said, are orthopedic problems resulting from a car accident, a fused foot and arthritis. Plus, she has concerns about her health in general. "I am overweight, and I worry about my blood sugars, my blood pressure, cholesterol," she said. Moats, 48, of Hagerstown, works part time, but does not have health insurance or a doctor. So when her daughter gave her a flier about Walnut Street Community Health Center's eighth annual health fair Saturday, she made it a point to get there.

Jefferson County Commission member Walt Pellish wants the county’s 179 public employees to start paying a share of their health insurance premiums. The county pays 100 percent of the premiums for employees and 50 percent of the cost of coverage for their families. The annual cost to the county is $1.8 million a year, according to County Administrator Tim Boyde. “This is far too rich for this economy,” Pellish told his fellow commissioners last week. “We need to control things better.

“I see they have the funds for the Antietam battlefield orchestra to play. I’m so happy. But I can think of another way to celebrate the Fourth: Giving to the ones who go hungry every night, the children, the people who lost their homes, people who don’t have jobs and the list goes on. If you can raise money for a one-day event, why can’t you raise money for the ones who need it?” — Hagerstown “Most parents can’t control their own kids, especially when they have a few friends over.