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Hard to focus on our health care squabbles, what with Haiti’s health crisis looming so large, but for those unafraid of graphs and not intimidated by number-based facts, this chart tells me everything I need to know. The most salient fact for me, though, is that in our neighbor to the south, the annual per capita cost for health care is just over $800. Per year. Their life expectancy is not much less than their neighbor to the north – the good ol’ USA – but our cost per capita is nearly ten times that.

The rest of the chart lays out the overwhelming reality that we COULD, if we had the will, get pretty much the same life expectancy outcome for less than half the dough.

It is part of a case – an austere, conservative case – that ought to be made with clarity by health care reformers. And if we, collectively, kill reform, then it is because we’ve been convinced by propagandists hired by the insurance industry to vote against our own interests in favor of theirs.

Premiering next Tuesday Jan 19, 9 p.m. on Western Reserve Public Media – Doris O’Donnell’s Cleveland episode #110: “Reportage” – Four veteran reporters from Cleveland’s golden age of print kick it old skool.

Featured players are Don Bean, Wally Gunther, Robert Finn and Russ Musarra, all journalists that reported on Cleveland back when three newspapers met multiple daily deadlines and the ‘scoop’ was currency of the realm. Bob Finn was a critic, if anyone cares to quibble – but all fine practitioners of the scribe’s craft.

There is no way to tell this tale without appearing melodramatic or cliché. But tell I must.

My wife, Amy, went into surgery on January 7 for the routine removal of a branchial cleft cyst under the surface of the skin, on the right side of her throat.  In by seven, a tiny incision, out by eleven, they estimated.  I was able to tend to the kids and work at home, a phone call away from picking her up, getting a pain prescription filled and trundling her off to home and bed, according to Plan A.

Knowing how doctors and hospitals take their own sweet time about things – which I do not mind, quite like the ground mechanics that take whatever time they need to fix my plane before takeoff – it wasn’t until two o’clock that afternoon that I began to wonder whaddup.  Minutes later Amy called, sounding groggy, saying they needed to keep her for a bit longer, that there were “complications.”

‘K.

Arriving just after four, and shuttled into the recovery room, Amy appeared as expected:  pale, drawn and nauseous from the morphine.  While they prepared and dressed her, the recovery nurse, when asked about the “complications,” said the doctor will go over that tomorrow at Amy’s follow up appointment.  So far, so good.  Got her home and tucked in with Lord of the Rings playing softly as she drifted back to sleep, safe and sound at home.

End of scene? Hardly.  Let me introduce Plan B at this point.

As I drove to the pharmacy for the 50-pack of Vicodin, my mobile rang – it was the doctor who performed the surgery, asking how Amy was.  Fine, I said, considering that someone had recently gone after her with a sharp blade. [crickets].  Ignoring my nervous one-liner, he spoke of complications, that the cyst tissue had been intertwined with that of the surface of the jugular vein.  And that as he proceeded with excising the cyst, the jugular gave way.  Massive loss of blood, a huge challenge, lots of excitement in the OR.  Almost lost her on the table.

I’m not always so quick to process information.  I was in shock, and could hear the strain in the doctor’s voice.  An Ears, Nose & Throat physician and surgeon, he knew that vascular catastrophe was not his specialty.  He also happened to know that, as luck would have it, there was a vascular specialist in locus at Lakewood Hospital.

Not seeing how much damage occurred – was it a split, a tear, a hole? – he opened the incision a couple more inches, suctioned all the blood away, clamped the vein and rushed the specialist into the OR, who sutured what turned out to be a hole a few millimeters wide – rather enough, in this highly pressurized vein, to create a bloodbath for those standing nearby.

Surely a tale of heroic measures taken to save my beloved wife, the mother of our two children.  But the potential for an accidental and grievous loss in our family is still sinking into both of us. The ”event,” as the doctor called it, eschewing the term “complications,” has left me filled with love, with a refreshed sense of priorities, a growing mystical appreciation for prayer – both spoken by me and offered up by others on Amy’s behalf – and as an even bigger fan than I already was of the study and practice of medical science that granted these two men the skill sets that saved Amy’s exceedingly precious life.

“the bottom dropped out” when Christmas donations dropped. “On the last weekend of 2009, our total offerings were less than half of what we normally receive — leaving us $900,000 in the red for the year,”

according to a letter the church sent out.

The AP/MSNBC reporters flail about for an explanation: the recession? Sure; that was a toughie. Sun will rise in the east tomorrow, too.

The story mentions Warren’s comments around CA Prop 8 last year, which excluded gays from the same rights heterosexuals have. Warren for that, in case you wondered. But the story did not suggest that Warren’s stance hurt giving – you’d think gay hate amongst fundies would drive up donations.

The story also points out that Warren has been into African humanitarian efforts, which may well be laudable, were it not for fundies, including Warren, fostering the “Kill the Gay” laws oozing up through Uganda. “Liberal” MSNBC fails to mention a word of that.

Not sure why this support for these laws would affect giving adversely, because Jesus wants us to hate The Gay, right?So draconian are they that even Warren is backing away, but these Ugandan laws are monsters that belong to the American fundamentalist Right Wing. We can thank The Family for that. Own it, you rank hypocrites, the blood will be on your hands.

The latest sad tale involves Karl Rove and his second traditional marriage. The man fought the good fight, did everything right, and still, his forbidden love for Jeff Gannon/Jim Guckert that dare not speak its name has finally won out.

Declaring  their time together during many, many White House sleepovers as a big rainbow of a mistake, Karl contented himself with stroking his beard, so to speak, and preaching to the masses about threats to marriage in general.

Turns out that, in a vehwee shad development, Karl was talking about his own marriage in particular, with, no doubt, more gay-driven divorces to follow for him and others.

Jimmy Jeff: be afraid no longer. Karl needs to hear from you. Heaven is just a phone call away!

American officials agreed to send the two terrorists from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia where they entered into an “art therapy rehabilitation program” and were set free, according to U.S. and Saudi officials.

So – it must be President Obama’s fault. Typical liberal – give ‘em art, that’ll solve everything…

…what? The Bush administration released these guys in 2007? To the Saudis? Oh, the Saudis, with whom W likes to suck face? Saudis, who made up fifteen of the ninteen 9/11 hijackers? Those Saudis?

Okay, then it’s alright, never mind.

Used to be the courts were clogged with crash cases until “Society” (the Minnesota legislature) said we must mandate that every driver – under penalty of law – purchase car insurance. Coverage extended to both the body of the car and… OH, NO!!! the bodies of the driver and passengers. So they can go to the hospital without worry about being covered. And get better. And not lose their homes. Or afford raised insurance rates. Or get dropped from their health insurance.

I did not see anybody (read: Republicans) complaining to any degree whatsoever about this policy then, or now.

Perhaps the difference resides in the concept of time. A traffic accident happens in an instant, while people get sick, generally, over a period of time. I don’t know, I’m reaching, probably. Just can’t get into the authoritarian mind.

But what is the danged difference!?

We pay our car premiums, and can rest assured in our coverage. We pay taxes and are ensured that we’ll be covered by police officers and fire fighters.

But if our body goes up in flames, Republicans think we should have wholly inadequate coverage, believing as they do that things, like houses and cars, are more important than people. ‘K then!

I am one of the people who believe that health care is a right and not a privilege. I believe that the only way Americans can compete on the world market is to offer what other Westernized countries offer; free and accessible health care.

This from a Fox News Contributor; if her checks don’t dry up, does that signal that sanity is about to become tolerated by the Fair & Balanced™ set? Or will there be a purity purge?

Smart money’s on purge.