The cold, hard collision of reality and health-related expenses

From a Yelp review of a store in San Francisco that sells furniture to help relieve back pain:

I don't know whether or not the prices are competitive, because when it comes down to it. . . who gives a damn!! They have a Panasonic massage chair for about $3000 here that is a good investment in the event you are the last person on earth and need someone/something to rub your back. I've sat in this chair about 5 times, and it really can make you feel like forsaking family, friends, work and the rest of outside world as you sit in the chair and ask yourself why you haven't bought one of these a long time ago. Well, it's $3000 goddamn dollars that's why.

I guess that's why they invented HSA accounts.

Who's paying for Cheney's heart treatment?

A responsible journalist would hesitate to ask this question, so I will: Who is paying for the undoubtedly exorbitant expense of the treatment being administered to maintain the heart of former V.P. Dick Cheney?

From the NY Times story:

Former Vice President Dick Cheney is recuperating from surgery to implant the kind of mechanical pump now being given to a small but growing number of people with heart failure so severe that they would most likely die within a few months without it. The pumps are partial artificial hearts known as ventricular assist devices, and they come in various models. Mr. Cheney's kind is about the size of a D battery and leaves most recipients without a pulse because it pushes blood continuously instead of mimicking the heart’s own pulsatile beat.

You know that's got to cost a lot.

As a former member of Congress, Cheney has lifetime healthcare -- nice for him! And I don't begrudge it. Everyone deserves lifetime health insurance -- don't they?

Hospital notes

Cris just spent a few days in a hospital getting orthopedic surgery. She came home today and she's doing well. But while she was there this week, I spent a lot of time up there over four days, and I discovered two things.

One, the day nurses were invariably awesome; the night nurses were mostly mediocre. Makes sense: the day shift is more desirable, so the best nurses choose it. The main distinction between the great nurses and the mediocre ones was that the latter are more inflexible and tend to cite rules and policies when you ask them a question, while the good ones actually answer your question and know the science behind whatever you're talking about.

Two: due to the much worse condition of the other patient in the room, I now can say with some experience just what TV programs brain-damaged people like to watch:

Jerry Springer

Nancy Grace

Glenn Beck

Und so weiter. Poor thing, it wasn't her fault some drunk ran into her car. Now she's stuck watching Nancy Grace.