Health Insurance In America

Last week I got my health insurance renewal. It went up 19 percent (with no improvements in coverage for anything, much less ASD). The reason stated for the increase was "Change in Trended Base Rate". What is that?. Within hours of getting my renewal package, my mother sent me this. I feel sick, oops bad idea, I might not be covered.

Insurance company's continue to post record profits. Below is past compensation and bonus's packages paid to insurance CEO's. Experts project they will get more for 2009.

ANNUAL COMPENSATION OF HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANY EXECUTIVES (2006 and 2007 figures):

• Ronald A. Williams, Chair/ CEO, Aetna Inc., $23,045,834

• H. Edward Hanway, Chair/ CEO, Cigna Corp, $30.16 million

• David B. Snow, Jr, Chair/ CEO, Medco Health, $21.76 million

• Michael B. MCallister, CEO, Humana Inc, $20.06 million

• Stephen J. Hemsley, CEO, UnitedHealth Group, $13,164,529

• Angela F. Braly, President/ CEO, Wellpoint, $9,094,771

• Dale B. Wolf, CEO, Coventry Health Care, $20.86 million

• Jay M. Gellert, President/ CEO, Health Net, $16.65 million

• William C. Van Faasen, Chairman, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, $3 million plus $16.4 million in retirement benefits

• Charlie Baker, President/ CEO, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, $1.5 million

• James Roosevelt, Jr., CEO, Tufts Associated Health Plans, $1.3 million

• Cleve L. Killingsworth, President/CEO Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, $3.6 million

• Raymond McCaskey, CEO, Health Care Service Corp (Blue Cross Blue Shield), $10.3 million

• Daniel P. McCartney, CEO, Healthcare Services Group, Inc, $ 1,061,513

• Daniel Loepp, CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, $1,657,555

• Todd S. Farha, CEO, WellCare Health Plans, $5,270,825

• Michael F. Neidorff, CEO, Centene Corp, $8,750,751

Nicky and His First Grand Mal Seizure

Nicky had his first Grand Mal Seizure. He is okay, we are all okay.

At 6:47AM, Monday morning I reached over to wake Nicky and get him ready for summer school. When I uncovered him his body was moving, twitching, like he was having an active dream. I smiled thinking, wow this dream must really be something. I turned him over expecting to see a smiling face. Instead I heard a choking gurgling sound and saw bubbles coming out of his mouth, and his eyes rolled back into his head. He could not hear me and I thought he could not breathe. I yelled for Evyn to call 911. I kept saying “Nicky Nicky”. I picked Nicky up laid him on the floor and tried to give him mouth to mouth, and chest compressions. I wondered if he needed the Heimlich, but thought how could he, he didn’t eat anything. When I realized he was biting down, I put my finger in his mouth to keep him from hurting himself. Then still not knowing what to do, or how to help I began to realize he was having a seizure. I rolled him on his side, held him tight and just talked to him and the 911 operator. Suddenly Nicky stopped shaking and his body was still, totally limp. We just laid there and I wondered if he was dying. Suddenly he bolted up, clearly disoriented and tried to run. I was struggling to hold him so he would not hurt himself. Just then the paramedics arrived. They got Nicky sitting up; they immediately gave him oxygen and began monitoring vital signs. Nicky stopped trying to escape, sat up and drooled. I talked to him. He was still disoriented and the few words he said were slurred.
The EMT’s asked quick questions about his medical history and asked me to get all of his medication and put them in a bag, get him a change of cloths and get ready to leave. Within minutes, Nicky, his cloths, medications and I were in route to the hospital.

As the day ended I realized how much I learned, that I didn’t have a clue about. Much of which I should have known, but I just didn’t know. In reading this, please know that it just reflects our experience. I am sure that there is much more, and many different experiences. All I know for sure is that this is what happened to us; this is information I was told. Check it out, talk to your doctors, take what you can and please learn all you can so you wont’ be off guard like I was.

1. A seizure does not look like what I have seen on TV, it looks like what I described and it may look many different ways.
2. Almost all seizures stop within 2 minutes
3. Seizures have stages (in our case there were three stages: active seizing, to a limp body, to bolting up disoriented)
4. It was so reassuring to have EMT’s rush into the house that I recognized from my visits to the local fire department.
5. The person having the seizure does not remember it.
6. The person having the seizure can’t swallow their tongue, but they can bite themselves.
7. Don’t put your finger in their mouth to stop them from biting. Grab anything from the corner of a wash cloth or your pajama’s. But fingers are not good.
8. Many seizure patients recover from the seizure but get hurt by hitting their heads. Number one is be sure their head can’t hit anything
9. Put them on their side if possible, so if they vomit they won’t choke on it
10. Call 911
11. Watch the location of the eyes (this information can be used to determine the origin of the seizure). Nicky’s eye’s rolled to the left which meant his was centered in the speech part of his brain.
12. When our kids have a fever or infection they become more susceptible to seizures, including seizures of this magnitude even if they have only had absence seizures in the past. We should be on the look out, just in case.
13. Seizures burn up a lot of fuel, leaving the person exhausted afterward.
14. Nicky did not have a fever at the time of his seizure.
15. All of our ASD kids should have a 24 hour EEG to rule out seizure disorder. Shorter EEG’s just might not catch it.
16. Seizures do not have an automatic progression; they do not increase in phases. I thought since Nicky had only had the absent seizures in the past, if he were to seize it would be a little one. Wrong Again.
17. The seizure medication some kids take for absent seizures does NOT insure that our kids won’t have a bigger seizure, especially if they are ill.
18. Nicky does not wear an ID bracelet. I now know how critical it is for emergency medical workers to have a list of ALL the medications he is taking. I will keep that list along with a copy of his medical card in his backpack.
19. Nicky’s team never anticipated that they might have to deal with a seizure. I have now taken the time to get them all up to date.
20. Pay attention to how long the person who had the seizure is disoriented afterwards. It could be a useful diagnostic tool.
21. Kids can be “off” for up to 24 hours after the seizure.
22. I have to keep doing everything I can to keeping Nicky’s overall immune system as healthy as possible. I know that all the work we did expanding his diet, that finally paid off this year, is a critical part of his overall health and part of why he heals so quickly.
23. Always get out of the way for emergency vehicles, on the road, you never know who might be inside .


Three things I am incredibly grateful right now!
1. NICKY is okay.
2. I got to know the EMT’s in our area. There was something comforting about seeing familiar faces in a crisis.
3. All the time spent making sure that Nicky’s body is healthy. It wasn’t easy getting him off French fries and chicken but it has paid off. Despite all of his “Stuff” he is a strong healthy boy and that helps him heal.
4. There will never be another “first” seizure!
5. The hospitals TV in ER over Nicky’s bed. Without it, we would have had to restrain him.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

• Ambulance rides are wasted on sick people. What fun that would have been for any little guy to zoom through traffic, with flashing lights and sirens. Oh, well.

• This was not helpful in my quest to get him in his own room.

• I wonder when I will stop waking him up every time his body twitches.

• We can handle anything


Yikes…another day in the LIFE 

Evyn, Japan & Swine Flu - Exciting?

Evyn,Japan & Swine Flu; The Best “What I did this Summer Essay” EVER!

After all the excitement and anxiety of Nicky’s graduation, Evyn’s departure to Japan and Nicky’s pneumonia it seemed like life at the Jones’ was calming down. I recovered from the initial shock of no Evyn in the house and accepted that time with only one kid was a good thing. I was ready to enjoy the quite nights, even if it meant just sitting outside alone, visiting with friends or going to bed early.

Destiny, however had another plan. I was destined to stay in active "Mommy Mode" even with Evyn half way around the world. Monday morning the phone rang, it was Evyn calling from Japan. I was so excited to hear from her, I began to talk and she stopped me and said “Mom listen. I have to talk fast because this calling card only has 1 minute left. Maureen (our personal friend and the group leader) is in the hospital, she has Swine Flu! They took our fevers and anyone who had a temperature was taken to the hospital. I had a fever but I think I am just naturally warm. But they took me to the hospital and now I am confined in my hotel room” then click...the line went dead. OMG!!! Within minutes I was able to track her down and hear about how the health officials came to their hotel in masks, gloves and misc. protection gear, took everyone’s temperature and loaded the potentially infected kids into taxi’s and took them 30 minutes away to a hospital where there were isolated. This followed by further testing, resulted in some kids being returned to their hotel rooms with the following instructions: Do not leave your room. Food and water will be placed outside your door. It was true, they did give them food and water, but they did not knock when they dropped it off. Wild huh?

This began a three day saga of checking on the sick and healthy kids and trying to oversee what was happening from ½ way around the world. I was back, full blast in mommy zone! From international customs, insurance coverage for the hospital visits, to understanding the public health rules in the various provinces’ of Japan, to making sure the children would be able to travel home. Given the time difference (they were 14 hours ahead of us) gone were the peaceful nights.

A few days later, Evyn’s trip resumed and she was back to site seeing. I still slept with an ear open in case the phone rang with more news from Japan. In the end, all but two of the infected travelers returned home from Japan as scheduled safe and sound on July 5th.

With Evyn home and Nicky feeling better, life is back to normal and all is well in the world. Evyn got an added a zing to her trip and I was reminded that both my kids have “special needs” whether they are home or not, typical or not.