A study comparing what Medicare patients and people who purchase private health plans show that hospitals and other health providers charge in many cases two and a half times what the private health insurers charge the Medicare recipients for the same service.

The worst states are Indiana, Texas, Wisconsin, Colorado, Georgia, Ohio, and Florida.

New York health care providers charge just under twice what they charge private health insurance plans.

Miami/Dade and the New York City Metropolitan area have the highest private health insurance rates in the nation. New York is at the top because of its malpractice, which is a landslide winner as there is no cap on malpractice awards. New York has many awards of over $1 million. California has an award cap of $250,000. Texas has a lower cap approaching $100,000.

The New York non-cap is a gift by the New York State Legislature to the state’s legal profession. The legal commissions on a $1 million award are a lot higher than on $100,000.

You can ask your state legislators, who do they represent, the people or the legal profession?

Wettest in 124 years
Starting in 1875 in the midwest and Ohio Valley began to record its weather. This spring was the wettest in that region in 124 years. The area has been hit with massive flooding. Similar records were also set along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.

Farmers this spring have been unable to plant crops because their farm lands are so saturated with water. At many locations along the Missouri the farm lands are covered with six feet of sand. Only 110 acres of a 1,700 acre farm will be farmed this year in many areas because it will take months to remove the sand. Also this assures that the farmer will lose money this year.

The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, is located on the Missouri River, and too close to it, and because of this it has sustained $760 million in flood damage. It will take the university ten years to recover and perhaps it should move its campus to higher ground.

In Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska there are no safe places as there has been an increase in flood events.

Texas is also having massive flooding and the Texans are saying that Global Warming is here for good.

The violent weather this spring may be an indication that the rest of this year could be violent with costly hurricanes, heat waves, and wild fires. There are indications that this could be the hottest summer in known history in the northeast.

Possibly the worst place to live is the Gulf of Mexico. It has the hottest body of water in the world. The water in the gulf, with water heated up to 96 degrees, has been a breeding ground for Category five hurricanes. If it sets a new hot water record of between 97 to 98 degrees in the Gulf, watch out!.

Where do you get the measles vaccine?

Since a large number of people have not been vaccinated for measles I called various locations to see if they have it. My local drug store, which provides the flu vaccine does not have it, but the New Paltz Medical Center, where my doctor has a practice does, but for he to be able to inoculate a person, you have to be his patient at the center.

I feel that it is irresponsible for a parent not to have their child vaccinated. Complications from not having your child vaccinated include death or swelling of the brain and many other injuries to the body, some with lifetime consequences.

If a doctor refused to vaccinate your child for the measles and your child suffered one of the consequences, he or she could be sued for malpractice. But what can a child do to protect themselves from a parent, who is willing to put their own child’s life at risk? Is there a difference between this type of parent and a pedophile? Should their children be taken away from parents like these? There is a record in Highland of a man dying from tetanus in the 1930s, and a mass dying of people in New Paltz, Milton, and Highland from the Spanish flu in 1918.

A former Highland School Board member got polio before 1952 when a vaccine for this disease was discovered.

Parents were so relieved when the Salk vaccine for polio was discovered. They did not want their children’s lives to be put at risk. What is wrong with so many parents now. Is it okay if their child dies? Overseas in 2017 100,000 people died of measles in Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, and the Middle East of measles. Why do we allow some of our children’s lives to be put at risk.

Watermelon
Recently at a high school varsity baseball game between Marlboro and Rondout an incident occurred where two Marlboro players said unusual remarks about a Rondout player. Nothing more was said about it, but knowing Marlboro, its players were disciplined.

Fifty years ago at a Highland-Wallkill varsity contest a Highland coach called a Wallkill player a “watermelon.” I will let that sink in.

After the end of World War II, and the local GIs returned, a lot of them chose to join the local fire departments in both New Paltz and Highland. the Italian guys were blackballed and could not join.

The blackball ended in both communities. In Highland David Murphy ran for the office of fire commissioner and once elected he yelled at the other commissioners until the blackball was dropped. Dave could yell.

The change in New Paltz was done quietly, but it was done. A cause was a GI named Sam Savago, who had served, though he had a birth defect of a hole in his heart. He was blackballed and died young in the early 1950s. Sam was my father’s friend, and everyone in New Paltz knew that the love of his life, Bobby Diaz was devastated.

Years later New Paltz’s best high school basketball player of all time, Charley Davis, who was black, came across a coach who would have another player punch Charley when no one was looking. The first time it happened I did not see it, but I heard it. Thereafter I saw it. Years later I met the the guy with the closed fist. After high school he got addicted to heroin. I wonder why? As for Charley he was a national merit semi-finalist. He received a full athletic scholarship to Tennessee for his performance as a football player. Following graduation he almost made the Dallas Cowboys. He is now employed by Fox as a football announcer. He is the “Voice of the South.” Charley and his father, Frank Davis, are readers.

From my personal library I used to loan Charley histories by William Manchester and others, which both Charley and his father read. I have a thank you note from Charley for a book I bought for him as a high school graduation gift. Charley gave me the nickname, “Scoop.”

If I see Charley again, I will show him a photo of my youngest granddaughter, Tianna, who is of color and calls me “Grandpa Scoops.” Her mother, who is a high school English teacher has been discriminated against and she and Tianna live in Jamaica, Queens. My biggest fear will be the day that Tianna comes home crying because she has been discriminated against. I love her with all my heart.

Jim Kent, Milton’s pioneer farmer

On May 8 James (Jim) Dubois Kent, age 89, of Milton died. One of the places you can make a donation in his name is the Hudson Valley Research Laboratory in Highland. That tells you what type of farmer he was. He was part of the fifth generation of the Kent family to run the family farm. Back around 1820 members of the Kent and Clarke families married two of Admiral Sands daughters and from there the Kents and the Clarkes becoming lifetime Milton farmers.

Jim Kent was born in 1929. He was born on the farm. It was his life as it was the life of his brother, Oliver P. “Bud” Kent. In the late 1940s after the end of World War II, Jim loaded up a pick-up truck with produce from the family’s Locust Grove Fruit Farm. He was a kid. It took courage to go way over to Sullivan County in a search for customers. How do you get there? That kid with guts got the customers.

It may have been because of him or others that the Kents became a founding member of the Green Market Program, which was involved in selling fresh produce down in New York City. To do this the Kents were up before the roosters, loading their truck and heading off to New York City. The Kents were hard working people.

The Kents are good people and good role models. This explains why the seventh generation of the Kents are now running the Locust Grove Fruit Farm and are getting up and off to the city, hours before you read this.