The Health Care Debate, A Personal Matter

I watched the Senate debate last night concerning the health care bill now making its slower-than-molasses way thru the US Congress. I'm not going to go into the technicalities or the awful politicizing of each American's health care that BOTH Republicans and Democrats have done since September on this bill. There's no point in that, save to say that I have relatives, a daughter stuck with no health care at all due to her workplace not having any and my beloved wife Kelly who also has none as she is not yet 65 and thus not covered by Medicare. The rest of my immediate family does (I HOPE!) have coverage of one kind or another. My own is thru Medicare Advantage at Kaiser Permanente. My verdict so far is that it works for me and at a fraction of the cost that I had as a teacher to be enrolled at Kaiser, which had grown to over 1100 USD when we pulled the plug on it last year as unaffordable. We went to the Fingers-Crossed coverage plan for Kelly as I was then enrolled in Medicare.

A long time fan of Kaiser, I have had terrific, nay I say, life-saving, treatment by them several times in my recent past ie. two heart attacks among them. I am fortunate enough that I have first hand observation of another country's healthcare system, that of France. I have gotten prescriptions filled there, have gone to the doctor and the dentist there and have observed and spoken with French citizens about the health system's parts I haven't used (yet), such as the emergency room. I have a couple of examples of extraordinary health situations that were resolved on non-member persons (ex-pats) in the French system too. The World Health Organization thinks highly of the French system, rating it as the one of best in the world.
I hope in my heart of hearts that we in the US can have such coverage one day but I have my doubts. Too much money is involved, doctors with their own clinics, predatory insurance companies, astronomical drug costs, poor diets, alcoholism, rampant diabetes et al. It's a sick "system" that definetly needs some fixing, the current bill will help but will still need much further modification before it becomes anything worthy of praise. Still...this bill IS a start, it will be passed this week and passed by the same boring and unimaginative 60 Yeses and 40 Nos that we have come to expect from our so-called representatives in the Senate. How wonderful.

For example...my doctor's best friend vactioned in France last September. After hoisting lugage about for a few days he noticed a bump on his abdomen above his belly button. As a few days went by it grew larger and painful as well. He went to a doctor in Paris and was examined. "A rupture" was the diagnosis and he was sent forthwith to a local hospital. Given a name tag, there was no discussion of insurance, he was asked if he had any but that was all. This was before noontime. He was in bed, settled with his wife at his side at 1pm. He was operated on at 3pm and back in his bed at 4pm repaired. He spent the next 5 days healing further before he was released. Upon release he resumed his vacation and returned to San Francisco. A bill arrived from the hospital, the ONLY bill by the way, for $600 Euros (about 900 USD at the time). Try THAT in the US.

Christmas Dinner Coming, My BEST Stuffing Recipe

However you DO your Turkey, TurChicken, etc. you simply MUST have a decent stuffing to go with it, be it IN the bird or in a separate bowl. A Christmas dinner without stuffing is simply incomplete. No more dry stuffing or an overly wet one either, balamced use of the ingrediants will give you a rich, flavorful and delicious stuffing every time. It's all about the bread. Yes, the bread is the key, however much liquid is required is what is required to make the bread soft and moist BEFORE it is stuffed into a bird or (current trend) done separately in a covered dish.

So how much bread do you need or want? How many people are there? Figure 1/2 cup of cubed, dry bread for each serving. I know it doesn't seem to be a lot but by the time ALL of the ingrediants are mixed in it will be enough. 1/4 cup of liquid is needed for each service as well. Some of the ingredients will cook out their own juices to add to this so don't worry at this stage it will be very close to perfect.

Ingredients to serve 4 persons:

Into a large bowl place the following:

2 cups favorite bread; with crust left on DICE 1/2" X 1/2" cubes then measure.
Saute the bread in 2 tablespoons butter, melt first in pan then add cubed bread.
Cook until slightly browned on all sides. 10 - 15 minutes

1 cup water, chicken, vegetable or veal stock, or white wine.

1 Medium onion, small dice 1/4". Sauted til transparent (about 7 - 10 minutes)

4 Strips smoked bacon, diced and slowly sauted til brown (not crisp) 7 -10 min.

2 Italian sausages or Bratwurst, skin removed, broken up into small pieces, then sauted until browned on all sides.

1 large stalk celery, sliced lengthwise and cut to 1/4" pieces.

1/2 cup walnuts, pecans, or your choice, sauted in 1 Tablespoon butter 5 min.
Allow to cool and then break into small pieces.

1 Teaspoon Dried Marjoram or Oregano.

1 Teaspoon Dried Thyme.

1 Teaspoon ground Sage.

1 Tablespoon salt (careful here!).

1 Teaspoon ground pepper.

Fold gently together. Place in covered bowl or stuff into bird loosely (it will expand)
Cook bird as normal, to 170 internal temp. in stuffing.

In coverred pot; test with thermometer for 170 degrees in middle of stuffing before removing it from heat.

Enjoy!