Picto Diary - 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 October 2017 - Subsidy?
Above: Image Silicon Valley Icons who support Universal Basic Income (UBI). Hoover Institution Retreat. Palo Alto, CA. Stanford University. 24 October 2017.
Gennifer Burns, speaker notes. Mistakes, if any, are note taker's.
Hoover archivist. Ayn Rand Scholar
Bringing MILTON FRIEDMAN back to life from Hoover archives.
Universal Basic Income. UBI.
Idea now being revived by Silicon Valley barons.
2016 Political instability.
1930's. Also instability. Time of rethinking of Classical Liberalism.
Fertile periods of rethinking. Then and now.
Then 30s, Hayek and his Nobel prize, and beginnings of Milton Friedman. Said both: "unfettered free markets can bring growth and broadly shared prosperity."
Surprise! Milton Friedman also early proponent of UBI!
UBI. Direct cash grant. Everyone receives unequivocally, equally.
What are we going to do when robots take our jobs? UBI!
Many programs already pilot. Y Combinator. Alaska.
Friedman collaborated with Nobel Prize winner, Gunnar Myrdahl, leftist economist on UBI.
Most common UBI objection: incentives.
Above: Dinner. Winnemucca Inn. Winnemucca, NV. 24 October 2017.
Best deplorable food within three hundred mile radius.
Above: Poker Machine. Winnemucca Inn. Winnemucca, NV. 24 October 2017.
Channeling Bill Bennet. Deuces Wild.
Invested 400 credits ($20.00) to accomplish 855 credits. High roller.
This, of course, is the time to pull out. But, of course, I didn't. I stopped playing, however, in sufficient time to get back my original stake.
Still, I think I found a system. I can't wait to get back there to clean out the house.
25 October 2017 (No Image)
TIMDT and Mwah (sic) drove from Winnemucca, NV to Park City, UT. Listened to "book on tape," "The Trespasser," by Tana French.
26 October 2017 (No Image)
27 October 2017 (No Image)
28 October 2017 (No Image)
Above: Image from TV of 2017 World Series. Park City, UT. 29 October 2017.
I'm a very, very casual baseball fan. Prior to the world series, I might have watched ten total innings all year. I had very peripheral knowledge of the standings. Via my friend, 'Cake, a Cub fan, I knew the Cubs were up there.
I started watching the series in somewhat of a distracted way. I would sit in my chair reading a book, with the TV turned on mute. I would glance up occasionally, and turn on the sound if it looked like there was something interesting happen.
In the game shown above, the fifth game, played in Houston, I went to bed about 9:30 PM, around the fifth or sixth inning. I tried to watch the game from bed, but, would doze off. I set the timer on the TV so it wouldn't stay on all night.
I woke up about 11:00 PM and the game was in the 8th inning. I was able to watch the eighth and ninth innings, take this image, and reset the timer before falling asleep again... missing the 10th inning homerun that gave Houston the win.
Here's the deal. How do east coast people, who are watching the game in Eastern Time, two hours later than Mountain Time, stay awake to watch these games?
Above: Recumbent stationary bike performance read out. Intermountain Hospital Physical Therapy. Park City, UT. 30 October 2017.
Today is my fifth session with Wendy, physical therapist, to rehab my right leg.
On 08 August 2017, near Buena Vista, Colorado, on a rocky incline, I ended up fallen, off my BMW F800 GS motorcycle, with my right leg pinned under the bike. I knew something was wrong, after having been helped to extract myself from the situation by fellow riders. Still, I rode the bike out of the back country, 25 miles, to Salida, CO Regional Medical Center. Diagnosis: Fractured tibia plateau.
Surgical repair of the leg took place on 13 August 2017 at Heber Valley Medical Center. Knife wielder was Dr. Garrett Davis of the Rosenberg, Metcalf, Cooley clinic in Park City. Hat tip: FeeBee and Joe Ferreter.
I was non weight bearing on the leg for six weeks, during which time, at TIMDT's insistence, we also completed an eighteen day cruise, from San Francisco, through the Panama Canal, to New York City.
I have been 100% weight bearing (not 100% recovered) for about two weeks.
Physical Therapy. How important is seeing a licensed physical therapist to my recover?
A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Davis authorized 100% weight bearing on the leg. He said, "use the leg a little more each day.... listen to your leg.... don't push it..... come see me in four weeks for what should be a final check-up."
"Shouldn't I do physical therapy?" I asked?
Dr. Davis said, "sure... it would be a good thing... you might get better insight on the recovery process than if you were to not see one."
I was a bit surprised. While Dr. Davis encouraged the PT process, it didn't sound to me like it was a "must do" from his point of view.
Notwithstanding, I started the PT process right there, across from the Rosenberg, Metcalf, Cooley clinic at Intermountain Hospital in Park City. Today marks my fifth session with Wendy.
At the typical PC session, I ride a recumbent bike for 10 minutes. Use the "tower of power" at 24 degrees for 10 minutes; work a leg lift weight machine from a sitting position; and, do three sets of ten "clam shell" lifts with a large rubber band linking my two knees.
Wendy will also massage my swollen knee and then ice it for ten minutes or so.
That's it.
I could do all of this myself.
As long as I continue to be a registered patient, the PT center allows me to use the equipment as much as I want. I've been over to the center already, on my own, to use the equipment two or three times and intend to increase my visits to do this... use the equipment.
So.... for something that seems, if not no value, low value health care, how much am I (or my insurance companies) paying for this?
I asked Wendy how much her company was billing for her services. Hem... haw.... yada... yada.... "well it depends on what we do during the session." "OK, I said, "just take a typical session... give me a number."
"Plus or minus $175.00."
I asked the PT office lady if my PT visits were fully covered by insurance. "Yes," she replied. "Medicare is paying for 80% of the cost, and your supplemental coverage with Mutual of Omaha covers the other 20%. And, you can come up to 13 more times between now and the end of the year.
"Wow," I thought to myself. I have a virtual physical trainer and access to a gym "free" for the remainder of the year." And, according to the PT office lady, I can kick in a new process after the first of the year that will cover me until a certain dollar amount... neighborhood $3000... is reached.
I had an epiphany! I was at a Hoover Institution Retreat ten days ago where medical care speaker Daniel P. Kessler said, " the reason medical costs in the US are so high is because of all the open ended government subsidies for medical care. 55% of Americans are covered by corporations. Corporations are subsidized by the government by being able to deduct their premium expense for employee medical insurance from their tax obligations.
15% of US medical expenses today is paid by Medicare. The program does not self pay from premiums collected... excess of claims over premiums is an open ended subsidy provided by the government.
Daniel P. Kessler noted that open ended subsidies of medical care result in low value health care.
Question: Should tax payer be subsiding my Physical Therapy (PT) sessions... arguably "low value health" care, where the activities I perform are easily done without supervision... and where, the attending surgeon himself seemed ambivalent about attendance at PT?
Above: Park City Resort. 31 October 2017.
Snow day!
Addendum:
Thank you for sharing your “recovery” news. Good to hear it is going well.
Many years ago, I had a knee replacement so I know it has not been easy.
But better to have to handle recovery and restore some mobility!
Wish you a rapid recovery!
Sandy,
Seattle, WA
Great stuff, Steve. Thanks! Send to Donald Trump.
The Bohemian,
San Francisco, CA
Thank you very interesting and informative.
Lianne,
Miami, FL
Boskin is an old friend acquaintance when he was in DC. I know him from tennis and his wife.
Frotz,
Park City, UT
Thanks for the excellent report. Looking forward to our Alaskan trip next year.
John Galt,
Walla Walla, WA
"To imagine that a nation can be ignorant and free is to imagine what never was and never will be." - Thomas Jefferson
Torquemada,
Sandy, UT
Thank you Steve! Wonderful review! Although many seem to believe catastrophe may be at hand, I believe positive thinking will do us well in my few years remaining.
Manhattan,
Park City, UT
Yes she [Tana French] is a good writer. I've read a couple of her books which were also page turners. I'll look for this one.
Did you get the DeMille book? The post office said you'd get it last Saturday, the 28th.
Thanks again,
Aunt Joyce🤗,
Ashland, OR
Thanks, Steve, always looking for a good book. Just ordered it ["The Trespasser," Tana French] from the Park City Library, hope to see you on the slopes if your leg allows...
Jib,
Park City, UT