Thanks to Bob P. (Note: the concert will be at 4 PM Seattle time)
National Veteran’s Day is an opportunity to honor those who have served in the Armed Forces, celebrate their indomitable spirit and triumph over adversity, and recognize their extraordinary sacrifices for our nation. Join Washington National Cathedral and “The President’s Own” United States Marine Chamber Orchestra for an evening of patriotic and celebratory music, presented in collaboration with Dog Tag Bakery, Team RWB, Hidden Heroes, and other organizations working to support veterans and their families in civilian life. This concert is free and open to the public. Please join us in-person or online Friday, November 11 at 7 pm.
Between the “Be Kind” graphic T-shirts in every department store and Harry Styles crooning his signature reminder to “Treat People With Kindness,” the concept of kindness is rather trendy in our current climate.
But kindness goes beyond a fleeting trend or a singular act; it’s a lifestyle and mindset shift that implores us to meet the world — and each other — with greater empathy and justice.
Kindness asks us to extend our approach beyond niceties and good manners, and into transformative action, compassionate and intentional inclusion, and empowering solutions.
Kindness is a choice, a muscle we all flex, and could frankly use a little more of our attention.
World Kindness Day — which takes place every year on November 13 — is a great opportunity to deepen our relationship with kindness and connect with one another in new and exciting ways.
We’ve compiled some ideas to help you celebrate World Kindness Day (and World Kindness Week, which is November 7-13 this year).
What is World Kindness Day?
World Kindness Day is an international holiday first introduced in 1998 by the World Kindness Movement. The holiday is devoted to promoting kindness throughout the world, understanding the positive potential of large and small acts of kindness, and unifying together as human beings.
Activities To Celebrate World Kindness Day —
Learn
Learn about the science of kindness.
There is real science about the power of being kind. In fact, research even suggests that doing good for others is contagious. Now that’s a virus we can get behind!
Learn a little more about the science behind kindness and then apply what you’ve learned to the relationships and situations in your life. Here are a few resources to get you started:
Improving benefits for the low paid is a noble goal, but all but the very wealthy need the benefits in current law.
Why in the world would Republicans put out a plan to dramatically cut Social Security?
Even Donald Trump said he wouldn’t mess with the program’s benefits. Yet, the Republican Study Committee’s Blueprint to Save America, released in June, has a full section devoted to Social Security. I had never heard of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), but apparently the organization has served as the conservative caucus of House Republicans since its founding in 1973, and it currently consists of 158 of the 212 Republican House members.
If the Republicans take over the House, Rep. Kevin McCarthy has not ruled out cutting Social Security. So, it’s worth taking a look at what a Republican plan might look like.
The proposal in the RSC document — Make Social Security Solvent Again — is based on a bill put forward in 2016 by Sam Johnson (R-Texas). That legislation would eliminate Social Security’s 75-year deficit solely by cutting benefits. According to scoring by the Social Security actuaries at the time, the Johnson plan would reduce Social Security costs at the end of the 75-year projection period by 31%.
Ed note: Most people are happy with their Medicare, whether “Advantage” or not. I’ve had excellent care under both. It should be emphasized though that the Federal government (your money) pays a premium to privatize Medicare in it’s array of Advantage programs; with current allegations of fraud in some areas because of “upcoding” illness severity in order to increase government payments to the Advantage plan. But the patients generally like their Advantage plan which is inclusive, but there are some caveats. If you are in Skilled Nursing covered by Medicare, the Advantage plans carefullyreview your care and may deny the extra week or two you might need. Advantage may require pre-authorization for expensive services and limit the providers you can see.
On the other hand, Original Medicare can be confusing. For the best coverage you have three plans: Medicare A & B. a supplemental insurance plan helping to cover co-pays and deductibles; and finally a drug plan by an insurance company. This takes a bit of doing, but there is no restriction on specialty referrals, choice of doctor (if you can find one), etc.
We are now being barraged by the advertising (sometimes deceptive) ofMedicare Advantage programs. Please do your homework and make sure if you switch plans you understand the benefits and risks. Please comment!
The sales pitches show up in your mailbox and inbox, in robocalls and texts. Ads target you on radio and television and social media. Touting Medicare Advantage plans, these campaigns promise low premiums and all kinds of extra benefits.
And they work. The proportion of eligible Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans, funded with federal dollars but offered through private insurance companies, has hit 48 percent. By next year, a majority of beneficiaries will probably be Advantage plan enrollees.
The annual enrollment period is once again underway. Beginning last month and until Dec. 7, beneficiaries can switch from traditional Medicare to Medicare Advantage or vice versa, or switch between Advantage plans. So it’s a good moment to look at the differences between these two approaches.
“It’s a very consequential decision, and the most important thing is to be informed,” said Jeannie Fuglesten Biniek, senior policy analyst at the Kaiser Family Foundation and co-author of a recent literature review comparing Advantage and traditional Medicare.
A key finding, Dr. Biniek said: “Both Medicare Advantage and traditional Medicare beneficiaries reported that they were satisfied with their care — a large majority in both groups.”
Examining 62 published studies, the researchers found that Advantage plans performed better on a few measures. For instance, beneficiaries were more likely to use preventive services such as the annual wellness visit and flu and pneumonia vaccinations. Advantage beneficiaries were also more likely to say that they had a doctor, a “usual source of care.”
Traditional Medicare beneficiaries, on the other hand, experienced fewer affordability problems if they had supplementary Medigap policies, but worse affordability problems if they didn’t. And they were more likely to use high-quality hospitals and nursing homes.
None of these differences, however, have prompted widespread shopping or shifting between the programs in either direction. (Dozens of lawsuits accusing some Medicare Advantage insurers of fraudulently inflating their profits have apparently not made much difference to consumers, either.)
A prime rationale for Advantage plans is that consumers can compare them to find the best individual coverage. But in 2020, only three in 10 Medicare beneficiaries compared their current plans with others, a Kaiser Family Foundation survey reported.
Even fewer beneficiaries changed plans, which may reflect consumer satisfaction or the daunting task of trying to evaluate the pluses and minuses. This year, the average beneficiary can choose from 38 Advantage plans, the Commonwealth Fund reports.
Yet Medicare Advantage and traditional Medicare, also known as original or fee-for-service Medicare, operate quite differently, and the health and financial consequences can be dramatic.
Advantage plans offer simplicity. “It’s one-stop shopping,” Dr. Biniek said. “You get your drug plan included and you don’t need a separate supplemental policy,” the kind that traditional Medicare beneficiaries often buy.
Medicare Advantage may appear cheaper because many plans charge low or no monthly premiums. Unlike traditional Medicare, Advantage plans also cap out-of-pocket expenses. Starting next year, beneficiaries will pay no more than $8,300 in in-network expenses, excluding drugs — or $12,450 with the kind of plan that also permits participants to use out-of-network providers at higher costs.
Only about one-third of Advantage plans allow that choice, however. “Most plans operate like an H.M.O. — you can only go to contracted providers,” said David Lipschutz, associate director of the Center for Medicare Advocacy.
Advantage enrollees may also be drawn in by benefits that traditional Medicare can’t offer. “Vision, dental and hearing are the most popular,” Mr. Lipschutz said, but plans may also include gym memberships or transportation.
“We caution people to look at what the scope of the benefits actually are,” he added. “They can be limited or not available to everyone in the plan. Dental care might cover one cleaning and that’s it, or it may be broader.” Most Advantage enrollees who use these benefits still wind up paying most dental, vision or hearing costs out of pocket.
As for traditional Medicare, “the big pro is that there are no networks,” Dr. Biniek said. “You can see any doctor that accepts Medicare, which is just about any doctor,” and use any hospital or clinic.
Traditional Medicare beneficiaries also largely avoid the delays and frustrations of “prior authorization.” Advantage plans require this advance approval for many procedures, drugs or facilities.
“Your doctor or the facility says that you need more care” — in a hospital or nursing home, say — “but the plan says, ‘No, five days, or a week, or two weeks, is fine,’” Mr. Lipschutz said. The patient must either forgo care or pay out of pocket.
Advantage participants who are denied care can appeal; when they do, the plans reverse their denials 75 percent of the time, according to a 2018 report by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General. But only about 1 percent of beneficiaries or providers file appeals, “which means there’s a lot of necessary care that enrollees are going without,” Mr. Lipschutz said.
Another Office of Inspector General report this spring determined that 13 percent of services denied by Advantage plans met Medicare coverage rules and would have been approved under traditional Medicare.
Although people can switch between Medicare Advantage plans fairly easily, switching from traditional Medicare to Advantage involves a major caveat.
Because traditional Medicare sets no cap on out-of-pocket expenses, the 20 percent co-pay can add up quickly for hospitalizations or expensive tests and procedures. Most beneficiaries therefore rely on supplemental insurance, also called Medigap policies, to cover those costs; either they buy a policy or they have supplementary coverage through an employer or Medicaid.
Beneficiaries who leave traditional Medicare for Medicare Advantage plans give up those Medigap policies. If they later grow dissatisfied and want to return to traditional Medicare, insurers may deny their Medigap applications or charge high prices based on factors like pre-existing conditions.
“Many people think they can try out Medicare Advantage for a while, but it’s not a two-way street,” Mr. Lipschutz said. Except in four states that guarantee Medigap coverage at set prices — New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine — “it’s one type of insurance that can discriminate against you based on your health,” he said.
David Meyers, a health services researcher at Brown University, and his colleagues have been tracking differences between original Medicare and Medicare Advantage for years, using data from millions of people.
In general, patients with high needs — they were frail, were limited in their daily living activities or had chronic conditions — were more likely to switch to traditional Medicare than those without high needs.
Why was that? “When you’re healthier, you may run into fewer of the limitations of networks and prior authorization,” Dr. Meyers hypothesized. “When you have more complex needs, you come up against those more frequently.”
Trying to figure out which kind of Medicare, including a Part D drug plan, is actually to your advantage can be difficult even for knowledgeable consumers. Advantage plan networks change frequently; doctors and hospitals that are in-network this year may be out the next. Drug formularies change, too. A new Senate report documented deceptive marketing and advertising practices that added to the confusion, prompting Medicare to promise increased policing.
These state programs “are unbiased and don’t have a pecuniary interest in your decision making,” Mr. Lipschutz said. But their appointments tend to fill up fast at this time of year. Don’t delay.
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KEYNOTE: Dr. Raina Croff, Assistant Professor of Neurology at Oregon Health & Science University, will present “Black Joy Matters for Caregiver Health.” Learn about joyful activities that improve health as we age and the joy of walking and talking for brain health.
Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter once remarked that there are only four types of people in the world—those who have been caregivers, those who are caregivers, those who will be caregivers, and those who will need caregivers.
One of the common themes in caregiving circles is stress. Per a recent Family Caregiver Support Month in Seattle proclamation from the City of Seattle:
“… most family caregivers experience significant stress, frustration, anxiety, and exhaustion, and potentially anger and depression, as they balance work and family responsibilities and personal time; ensure safety; make end-of-life decisions; and manage challenging behaviors and conditions.”
“Let’s face it—even in the best of circumstances and recognizing it as one of the most important roles any of us may take on, family caregiving is stressful,” said Karen Winston, a senior planner in Seattle Human Services’ Aging and Disability Services division and coordinator of an annual African American Caregivers Forum.
This year’s forum is on Saturday, Nov. 12, from 12–2 p.m. The virtual forum is free to attend. Register online to receive the log-on information. For more information, visit www.agingkingcounty.org/legacyoflove/.
This year’s theme is “Black Joy Matters in Caregiver Health.” The theme comes from this year’s keynote speaker, Dr. Raina Croff, an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Oregon Health & Science University. Her work focuses on how culture impacts health. Her research seeks to increase physical activity and social engagement among older African Americans in ways that celebrate culture, history, and community memory.
“’Black joy’ has nuanced meaning, depending on a person’s lived experiences,” said Winston. “It is centered on Black culture and expression of the positive, joyful aspects of Black lives. In the context of caregiving, Black joy includes love plus self-care, self-expression, and resilience in the face of trauma and anticipated loss.”
All family caregivers, regardless of race, will benefit from participating in this year’s forum—a two-hour virtual event that includes Dr. Croff’s keynote address, mentioned above, as well as presentation that will help demystify hospice and end of life, by Catherine Cordova. A perennial favorite—a panel discussion in which three local caregivers share their personal caregiving journeys—rounds out the agenda. This year’s panel comprises Helen Sawyer, Minister Wilhelmina Daniel, and Michelle Williams. Discussion will be moderated by Sharon Sobers-Outlaw.
The 2022 African American Caregivers Forum is co-sponsored by AARP Washington, Aging and Disability Services, the African American Elders Program at Catholic Community Services, Mayor’s Council on African American Elders, National Association of Social Workers, Seattle Human Services, and Sound Generations.
For nationwide information about the impact of caregiving on finances, health, and wellbeing among people of African descent, read “The ‘Typical’ African American Caregiver” (AARP Family# Caregiving, May 2020).
I aim to raise questions about candidates for higher office who are so inexperienced that, if they won, they might be in constant need of advice from their sponsors, likely to supply an unelected “puppeteer”.
First, let us look at portraits of the candidate pairs for four of the 2022 major races. I have tried to show all of them at their best.
Four of the 2022 US races with insufficient experience for the office.
Even if the candidate is competent with a microphone in hand, and you like what the candidate talks about, you nonetheless need to ask if the candidate will require helpful “handlers” if elected. In other words, who are you really voting for?
Education (helpful for analyzing complex topics) and executive jobs (that involve informing oneself and making decisions) become less relevant once one has a political track record. In those trying to jump the line, educational level and best job help identify candidates unlikely to function independently in office if elected.
The GOP has a sixty-year history of persuading actors to run for office (George Murphy in 1964; Ronald Reagan in 1966, Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006). One would have thought that this was a risky business, given that everyone knew (if reminded) that actors were merely speaking with emotion the words written by the behind-the-scenes scriptwriters. Appearing elsewhere, the actor speaks a different author’s words. (Editor’s note: I am old enough to remember Ronald Reagan selling laundry soap in TV commercials.)
My favorite aunt, Auntie Len, when she was in her eighties, told me that she had not had too much difficulty adjusting to all the things that were new in her lifetime—jet planes, space travel, plastics, and so on—but that she could not accustom herself to the disappearance of the old. “Where have all the horses gone?” she would sometimes say. Born in 1892, she had grown up in a London full of carriages and horses.
I have similar feelings myself. A few years ago, I was walking with my niece Liz down Mill Lane, a road near the house in London where I grew up. I stopped at a railway bridge where I had loved leaning over the railings as a child. I watched various electric and diesel trains go by, and after a few minutes Liz, growing impatient, asked, “What are you waiting for?” I said that I was waiting for a steam train. Liz looked at me as if I were crazy.
“Uncle Oliver,” she said. “There haven’t been steam trains for more than forty years.”
I have not adjusted as well as my aunt did to some aspects of the new—perhaps because the rate of social change associated with technological advances has been so rapid and so profound. I cannot get used to seeing myriads of people in the street peering into little boxes or holding them in front of their faces, walking blithely in the path of moving traffic, totally out of touch with their surroundings. I am most alarmed by such distraction and inattention when I see young parents staring at their cell phones and ignoring their own babies as they walk or wheel them along. Such children, unable to attract their parents’ attention, must feel neglected, and they will surely show the effects of this in the years to come.
In his novel “Exit Ghost,” from 2007, Philip Roth speaks of how radically changed New York City appears to a reclusive writer who has been away from it for a decade. He is forced to overhear cell-phone conversations all around him, and he wonders, “What had happened in these ten years for there suddenly to be so much to say—so much so pressing that it couldn’t wait to be said? . . . I did not see how anyone could believe he was continuing to live a human existence by walking about talking into a phone for half his waking life.”
These gadgets, already ominous in 2007, have now immersed us in a virtual reality far denser, more absorbing, and even more dehumanizing. I am confronted every day with the complete disappearance of the old civilities. Social life, street life, and attention to people and things around one have largely disappeared, at least in big cities, where a majority of the population is now glued almost without pause to phones or other devices—jabbering, texting, playing games, turning more and more to virtual reality of every sort.
“I’m feeling rather special. I mean it’s a special day anyway but it does make it extra special,” she said.
New Zealand women led the world in 1893, when women won the right to vote in the hard-fought suffrage battle.
It took another 26 years before they could stand for Parliament and a further 14 years before Canterbury woman Elizabeth McCombs was sworn in as the county’s first female MP.
Marilyn Waring Photo: Supplied
Former National Party MP Marilyn Waring is also among Parliament’s firsts; the 15th female MP and youngest person to enter politics at 23 years old in 1975.
She said it was intimidating but she was told that part of her job was “throwing herself physically in front of the juggernaut”.
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