I rolled out of bed this morning to the sound of thunder and pouring rain. That seems to be the pattern around here the past week or so. What is unusual about that is thunderstorms, unassociated with a weather front usually don’t happen before the sun has had a chance to warm the atmosphere. Afternoon showers we are used to. They happen pretty randomly all summer long this close to the coast. Nighttime lightning shows are common out over the water. But, these fast moving, loud and wet predawn thunderstorms aren’t what I am used to waking up to…Looking at my forecast email, I see am temps along the Blue Ridge are in the upper 50’s, that means the temp up on Nettles Knob should be even cooler. Damn, I am going to miss coffee muses on the porch watching the fog rise from the valleys along the Watuga River as the sun comes up over the mountain behind me.

The Chronicle has an AP wire story out about the rise in the uninsured last year.

Uninsured Americans numbered 43.6 million last year, a 6 percent increase from 2005, according to a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Almost all the increase was in the nonelderly adult population — a trend attributed to diminishing employer coverage and pricier private insurance.

The change in nonelderly adults was significant, but the overall increase was not, CDC officials said.

The significant fact in the story is that it is the nonelderly who are showing the rise. I don’t know about you, but I find myself worrying more about medical insurance coverage than anything else in my working life.

A big part of my worry comes about because of the way the medical community and the insurance company’s have cooked the books. When a doctor or a hospital bills from 5 to 10 times what they know they will be payed by an insurer for a procedure, who do they think they are kidding? The going rate for that procedure is not what they are billing but what they are accepting as payment. Just because some poor sap doesn’t have insurance doesn’t (or shouldn’t) make the price go up to the billing amount. And just because you are going to write the uncollectable bill off, doesn’t mean you should be able to write off the wholly fictional amount. Why screw up somebodies credit that way when if you were billing the real going amount, they might even try to work out a payment plan.

Do we in this country like having a permanent underclass, always in debt, never able to see the light at the end of the tunnel? Why is it that universal healthcare is only now beginning to look doable after American corporations are discovering their inherent advantages are being swamped by the cost of American health insurance?

Source:Ranks of nonelderly uninsured adults up significantly | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle

Well the emails are all read, the coffee cup is empty, and the clock has rolled around past the point I should be on the road, so…catch ya on the other side of the morning..