Practicing Faith in the Future.

If you just go by what current writers keep on recycling,
you might think the Democratic party has a lock on the forseeable future. Depends on how far-ranging is your eyesight, I guess...

True thinkers -- not writers who read up on what's hot the day before a column or blog post is due -- wondered way back when what might happen when the young people of the country realized
Obamacare just essentially bought them off:

Under 26?
You're gonna love this plan, kiddo.
No worries -- we got something special for you in there
provided you're at school, or live at home, and are covered
under a working mother or father's plan...

But what, I wondered back in the day,
happens when these children eventually 'age out' of such coverage. We all eventually grow up, as even little Jackie Paper learned...

Here's what will happen to the boys and girls of this new Millennial generation, those without wealthy parents, or extremely well paying jobs, anyways:
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"Many young, healthy Americans could soon see a jump in their health insurance costs, and insurance companies are saying: It’s not our fault.

The nation’s insurers are engaged in an all-out, last-ditch effort to shield themselves from blame for what they predict will be rate increases on policies they must unveil this spring to comply with President Obama’s health-care law.

Insurers point to several reasons that premiums will rise. They will soon be required to offer more-comprehensive coverage than many currently provide. Also, their costs will increase because they will be barred from rejecting the sick, and they will no longer be allowed to charge older customers sharply higher premiums than younger ones."
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The above underlining in the story is mine: how exactly did you think Sandra Fluke's 'free' birth control would be covered, or any other goodies loaded into that lousy bill?  Correction: not bill, law.

Remember, there's no opt out for those of you who don't need to use birth control, no break for the thrifties who would choose a lesser method, like a condom -- even two -- to provide for your particular health 'needs'.

I put that last word in quotes, as we all know of people whose 'needs' vary greatly from our own.  Not to be uncompassionate, but if you're grossly obese and snore when you sleep, some might first try to lose weight before requiring a machine hook-up to help you breathe better at bedtime. Maybe if you smoke, first consider quitting?

Ditto those who visit the doc regularly to wonder why their bodies are sore, yet refuse to make a lifestyle adjustment the doc recommends to slow down... let the body have time to heal, particularly post-surgery.

I read recently, for example, of a woman -- purportedly a smart woman -- who refused doc's orders/requests to go easy on the x-country skiing post leg surgery, even as the stitches remained in. She wonders how come her back has now gone out, yet seems to think the constant activity somehow makes her a healthy specimen... Hello?

I don't wish to criticize the medical/lifestyle choices of others. Really I don't.

But why -- with medical costs soaring -- should one not have the ability to opt out of paying for pills, procedures, and office visits they would never consume themselves, even if provided gratis under an all-inclusive plan. (no question mark -- that's rhetorical)

When did personal choice -- and being conservative financially -- become such bad things?

My parents -- 70 and 80 -- raised us five to practice medical conservatism. Immunizations, twice yearly dental checkups and appropriate doctor visits, on the regular youth cycle, sure. (But really modern parents: you need not go running to the doctor to x-ray every childhood bruise, or help cure every little runny nose and case of the sniffles...)  Antibiotics when they're truly needed, the rare surgery or hospitalization...

But even now, for example, like me, they're not big on flu shots.

If you rarely eat out in the winter, eat simple but healthily, get rest, and limit your exposure to public crowds -- wash hands and practice Purell regularly -- you really can limit your exposure, especially if it turns out the flu shot is only 7 or 8 percent effective in older adults.

It's common sense -- there's no magic pill.

If you march around outside in a foreign country in the winter, without a jacket covering the skin, thinking yourself to be a fine healthy specimen say, it wouldn't surprise me a bit if you're laid low with a bug a week after your return. The body might work overtime to keep one warm, but you really do need to think holistically -- how is such a move taxing the overall system, particularly those chronically restless?

Sometimes, less really can prove better.

I return to the Millennials -- like the Boomers, a generation with the numbers to create true change...

If the Republicans truly are wandering in the wilderness with no clue as to home,if both parties really are entrenched in the same sick priority-less system, well ... they're young.

We've always relied on brighter, better, yes younger minds to come up with the creative solutions to meet society's needs.    If we must toss the template politically to meet the obvious needs America needs to survive into the future, well I have faith they'll be up for the challenge, as have the diverse generations who came before.

Fresh is good, choice is better, and in some ways, indeed we are all in this together.

and,
Divided, we're falling...