Buttons

Mom and I went back to the Golf Club of West Virginia the next day for a second round, 18 holes this time. It was a lovely course, but so hilly! Like a roller coaster.

The following day I played at mom's old club with our friend Sandy. The course is along the Ohio River – a train went by on one side of a fairway and a barge went by on the other!

I also got stuff done around the house, cleaning stuff, gardening stuff, etc. The dreaded job is fixing things with buttons. For example the alarm clock, with its 17 buttons. Or the TV, with its 59-button remote. There are actually three remotes and I do not have the remotest idea how to work any of them. We called in a neighbour, who got Netflix working but couldn't get the cable TV to work. Another neighbour got the cable TV working. I am useless at this stuff. But also amazed at how much they complicate things that should be simple.

While driving around I heard a report on how hospitals sell debt to collection agencies. One of the anecdotes was of a female college student who had been raped. She was told she didn't have to pay for her hospital rape kit because she was a crime victim. Yet the hospital sold that debt to a collection agency, which pursued her. Then sold it the debt to another agency, which also pursued her. And so on. So she got to relive the event she wanted to forget, courtesy of the financialisation of the health industry.

The reporter made the point that, unlike when buying a house or car, you don't choose to go to hospital in an emergency and you don't get informed of the financial terms you will be facing on the debt you (unwillingly) incur. Contrast that with my ER visit in London (X-ray, blood test, urine sample, intravenous drugs) at 0 cost. I pay an NHS fee out of my paycheck – a lot easier than worrying about falling into debt if I fall on a pavement. I also notice billboards in the US for hiring attorneys if you are in bankruptcy or have been in an accident. We don't have those billboards here. Health care costs are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the US. No other industrialised country leaves its citizens so vulnerable to health-related debts.

Not having purchased health insurance coverage for this visit, I was happy to conclude it in good health.

19-21 Sept.