Carter, Bush Backed Mental Health Equality Now Bipartisan Part Of ACA - Forbes

“Coverage for mental health problems should be the same as for physical problems, but the public needs to speak up.  What is holding up equal coverage? 
I think it’s the political consequences
of
an election year.
Excuse me for being so blunt. ” 
~(Rosalynn Carter)~

Long advocated by former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn and signed into law five years ago by President George W. Bush, rules to require equal coverage for mental illness will finally be implemented, the Obama administration said Friday

Carter, Bush Backed Mental Health Equality Now Bipartisan Part Of ACA - Forbes: The Carters, known for speaking their minds on international and domestic affairs of all varieties, didn’t give a pass to Congress, the Obama administration or the insurance industry for what many advocates believe was the slow implementation of the mental health parity law.

“Coverage for mental health problems should be the same as for physical problems, but the public needs to speak up,” Rosalynn Carter, speaking with her husband, last year told several hundred members of the Association of Health Care Journalists. “What is holding up equal coverage? I think it’s the political consequences of an election year. Excuse me for being so blunt. ”

The Obama administration Friday issued final regulations for an effort that has been in the works over at least the last three decades to bring insurance parity for medical and mental health. The rules put into effect the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act that was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2008, making mental health services no different than other medical services.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the law “ensures that health plan features like co-pays, deductibles and visit limits are generally not more restrictive for mental health/substance abuse disorders benefits than they are for medical/surgical benefits.”

“As part of the historic Affordable Care Act, Secretary Sebelius is implementing reforms that end many of the insurance industry’s worst abuses and will help 34 million uninsured Americans get health coverage,” Rosalynn Carter said as Medscape reported at the time. “We all look forward to continuing to work with the Department of Health and Human Services as we face the challenges of implementing the Affordable Care Act in a way that is consistent with the intent and spirit of the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act.”

***

LSU-SVM 87'

Fellicia                                                                                        Tater Tot

Pets Are People, Too 

Gwinnett

Pets Are People, Too Ansley Square

When I first moved to Atlanta in 1993,  I was hired full time as one of three associate veterinarian sharing the daytime shift for Pets Are People, Too  at their Ansley Square location.  Two other veterinarians shared the nighttime emergency shift.  There were four other Pets Are People, Too veterinary hospitals located Northlake, Dunwoody, Gwinnett, and Alpharetta.  The veterinarians between all the hospitals were pretty good about covering each others shifts as needed.

The owner, Dr. Carl Chapman before eventually retiring and selling most of his hospitals to VCA, was a big time Republican who for some reason found my Arkansan/Clinton roots amusing and enjoyed teasing me into fun natured political debates.  They were never that serious.  Back then, just knew I was a Democrat and that was about it.

One day, found myself examining a cat with a miliary dermatitis (skin allergy) owned by a young woman I thought extremely quiet as well as one I thought  might have trouble with the cost of treating this cat's skin allergy.

So I excused myself from the exam room. Typed up an estimate.  Handed it to Martha who job as manager was disassociating the veterinarians from being involved with any financial concerns. And sent her into the room to go over the cost estimate with the owner.  

It was only a $60.00 estimate; but quickly learned Midtown equally populated by people from both end of the financial spectrum.  Lots of waiters, bartenders, etc.

Martha comes back out of the exam room almost as fast as she entered. Everything's fine she told me as she handed me back my estimate.  

As I'm pulling up the DepoMedrol injection for the cats skin allergy, Martha ask me,

"You know who that is don't you?"

"Don't think so," I answered back.  "Why?" 

I can be pretty bad about not recognizing the owners of our patients.

"That's Amy Carter."

"Really!  Shit!  Why didn't you just tell me that to begin with?

Letting me make an ASS of myself sending you in there with a $60.00 estimate!"

.Amy had grown quite a bit since those White House days, but she still looked like Amy Carter once brought to my attention.

Ended up treating Amy's cat on two or three occasions for it miliary dermatitis; which was nothing more than one or two long acting cortisone shot during allergy seasons.

That last visit, we chatted briefly.  That's when she told me she was moving to New Orleans.  Upon hearing this, I walked up front with her and asked the receptionist to give Amy a copy of her cat's medical records to take with her.

While in the White House, Carter had a Siamese cat named "Misty Malarky Ying Yang", who would be the last cat to occupy the White House until Socks, owned by Bill Clinton.

Amy Carter attended Washington, D.C. public schools but eventually graduated from high school at Woodward Academy in Atlanta. She earned a bachelor of fine arts degree (BFA) from the Memphis College of Art and a master's degree in art history from Tulane University in New Orleans.

Amy Carter later became known for her political activism, participating in a number of sit-ins and protests during the 1980s and early 1990s, aimed at changing U.S. foreign policy towards South African apartheid and Central America.

In September 1996, Carter married computer consultant James Gregory Wentzel, whom she had met while attending Tulane. Carter chose not to be given away, stating that she "belonged to no one". Carter and Wentzel both kept their own family names. The couple moved to the Atlanta area, where they continue to live and focus on raising their son, Hugo James Wentzel (born July 29, 1999).

Since the late 1990s, Carter has maintained a low profile, neither participating in public protests nor granting interviews. She is a member of the Board of Councilors of the Carter Center, founded by her parents, which advocates human rights and diplomacy.

Working this very same clinic I met Amy Carter;  also got to meet Zell Miller, his lovely wife, and their two golden retrievers. 

  

Zell Miller was no longer Governor of Georgia; but not yet appointed to a U.S. Senate seat following the death of  Republican Senator Paul Coverdell in July 2000. He was currently accepting teaching positions as a visiting professor at Young Harris College, Emory University, and the University of Georgia. 

One of their golden retrievers had an aural hematoma which is a ruptured blood vessel causing the flap of the ear to fill up with blood.  Explained to Zell and his wife how we would need to anesthetize the dog before we can lance the hematoma, remove any excessive fibrin/clotting, then placing stay suture throughout the ear flap holding both sides of ear together while at the same time leaving the incision open to drain. Explained how  everything has to reattach themselves to each other starting with the outer edges of the hematoma first then gradually healing toward the incision last.  How it can get a bit messy before completely healed.  He had no problem with the estimate I presented him, but decided to take the dogs home with him for the evening;  returning first thing in the morning with the one needing the surgery.

Spoke with Zell Miller again when he came to pick up the dog from surgery that same day.

Then again two weeks later for the suture removal.  

Had I know he was going to be giving that speech at the 2004 Republican Convention, not sure I would have been able preventing myself from giving Zell an aural hematoma.

In 1991, Miller endorsed Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas for President of the United States.   Miller gave the keynote speech at the 1992 Democratic National Convention at Madison Square Garden in New York City.In two oft-recalled lines, Miller said that President George H. W. Bush "just doesn't get it," and he remarked of a statement by Vice President Dan Quayle:

“

I know what Dan Quayle means when he says it's best for children to have two parents. You bet it is! And it would be nice for them to have trust funds, too. We can't all be born rich and handsome and lucky. And that's why we have a Democratic Party. My family would still be isolated and destitute if we had not had F.D.R.'s Democratic brand of government. I made it because Franklin Delano Roosevelt energized this nation. I made it because Harry Truman fought for working families like mine. I made it because John Kennedy's rising tide lifted even our tiny boat. I made it because Lyndon Johnson showed America that people who were born poor didn't have to die poor. And I made it because a man with whom I served in the Georgia Senate, a man named Jimmy Carter, brought honesty and decency and integrity to public service.

In 2004, he cosponsored the Federal Marriage Amendment to the United States Constitution. If it had been ratified, it would have declared that marriage in the United States only consists of the union of a man and a woman, and would have prohibited state and the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages and same-sex domestic partnerships.

 ***

As a nod to cat lovers everywhere and the veterinarians who treat their extended family members, sure would be nice if Jimmy Carter would set a little time aside for us to meet and discuss a little politics and religion. Just enough discussion for Mr. Carter to get an impression of what my behavior would be like participating Glenn Memorial UMC's other bible study class; the one Bob and Janet Gary are not involved with.  Whether we discuss Bob and Janet would be up to Mr. Carter.

Just a chance/opportunity showing that I can behave.  Not the raving irrational lunatic everyone is automatically wanting to assume I am.  The fact that I'm a recovering crystal meths addict as well as someone supposedly bipolar with psychotic features; fits in neatly with this article about the Carters being advocates of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act.

I admired him during his presidency.  Even came to his defense recently with two conservative veterinarian faulting Carter for his stand on the Palestinian issue with his most recent book.  Even insisted these same two veterinarians damn well better call me a Socialist also, if going to keep calling President Obama a Socialist.

Being a relief veterinarian, it's always risking the chance these hospitals quietly discontinuing their use of me as their relief veterinarian. There will be no notice or explanation given.  They simply just stop calling me with future dates needing a relief veterinarian.

 And I have never had any problems with his Christian faith.
It's important he understands,  I have just as much right being critical of  Christians in general, as they are of me.  It shouldn't automatically be expected of me, that I be the one who waits until they draw first blood.  I should be allowed the room being critical without all of them taking it personally.

And we all need to remember the reason eight out of our nine Supreme Court Justices upheld Rev. Phelps and his followers rights protesting with their signs; that God and Gays were issues within the public domain already being debated.

I've been heard to say,
"If it should ever happen that I meet Mother Teresa face to face; wouldn't surprise me she become a raging hissing fit, spitting on me non-stop from the second she realizes I'm the person she's heard others talk about. 

And I would let her.  

But if after 20-30 minutes, I see no sign any of this letting up and beginning to calm down...
will then quietly back myself away from her presence, then be on my way.

She concluded before understanding; but most certainly will not become defensive with this one." 

The language I use while on my own personal property and in my blog is not the language I use elsewhere. And I just need one chance, proving myself in the presence of someone others respect before even being able breaking free of some of the prejudices walling me in like a prisoner.

 Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church
Sanctuary

Special programs regularly draw large audiences to the auditorium, including performances by visiting artists, Emory student events, and addresses by speakers of national and international importance, including Bishop Desmond Tutu, authors Salman Rushdie and Barbara Kingsolver, actress Mia Farrow, celebrity chef Paula Deen, Paul Rusesabagina (subject of the movie “Hotel Rwanda"), and former President Jimmy Carter, who holds “town meetings” in Glenn auditorium on a regular basis.