Free Healthcare?

I think whoever designed the Israeli Health Care system must have worked in concert with the person who created the tax system.

I outlined how Israel frustrates workers and steals money here:
http://thewaytonothing.blogspot.co.il/2014/06/idealists-stay-home.html

Now I'd like to tell you my experience with the health care system.

Most of the time it functions. It's national single payer health care so you accept that system doesn't offer the latest medicines, off label usage, or easy access to expensive testing (MRI). Most of the time you get a doctor's appointment - specialists can take weeks to months.

This reasonable though not exemplary system, functions. You pay for this middling level of care with high taxes.

Emergency care - that's our issue.

Before seeking emergency care you have to get a form 17, basically a permission slip from the health care organization permitting you to go to the emergency room. Given that its an emergency and you may not be in a position to acquire this form beforehand, they allow you to request the form after you go to the emergency room.

My first run-in with requesting a form 17 after the fact came when my wife was 9 months pregnant. It was 2am and she felt something like contractions. We grabbed our stuff and went to the hospital. Turned out not to be contractions and it was a whole week before we went back and she delivered.

But because there were no contractions our form 17 request was denied. We had to pay out of pocket for the hospital visit - almost 1000nis.

I chalked it up to a one time bad luck situation. A loophole that we got caught in but won't get caught in agains.

But today I was informed again that our form 17 was denied, and 2 times makes a pattern.

When my baby was 6 months old he fell off the bed. The bed wasn't high and he landed on a pillow and seemed fine, but omg, he was 6 and fell off a bed.

So we rushed to the hospital.

Baby was all fine, just a swollen lip.

The next day we requested a form 17. Today we were informed that because nothing had happened to him, he hadn't suffered any damage, we should have waited 24 hours and if there was a problem then we should've gone to the hospital.

And we will have to pay out of pocket again.  This is free healthcare?

#singleprayer #Healthcare #Israel #badmedicine #chasingmeoutofisrael

Bill Maher, World War 1, and Iraq

Bill Maher, on this last weeks episode of Realtime with Bill Maher, asked what was World War I about?

We all know the basics, Archduke Ferdinand of the Hapsburg Empire was in Sarajevo and a young Serb Nationalist assassinated him and that started the war. That gives us the how but not the why.

And Bill Maher was right - many of the troubles we have today around the world are effects from that cause. WWI led to WWII, the Cold War, Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East and specifically Israel, Sept. 11, Iraq and Afghanistan etc. Given these major ongoing effects, I agree with Bill Maher - what was the cause behind the effect of the Archduke's assassination, or what was WWI about?

So I looked into it, and wouldn't you know it but we all come out looking like a bunch of dumbasses.

The Bosnia-Herzegovina region had been under control of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) which was ruled by a Sultan (old school empire). Late 1800s and the times, they were a'changing. There was a revolution in the Ottoman Empire (young Turks) and the Sultan wasn't strong enough to control his vast and sprawling territory. (There's gotta be a lesson in there somewhere.)

So while the Sultan was weak, the Archduke, of the Hapsburg Empire (also an old school empire) took control of the Bosnia-Herzegovina region. The Hapsburg Empire was also called the Austrian-Hungary Empire and it also controlled vast and sprawling territory.

Both these empire were full of lands where people had their own identities and languages and culture, but not independence.

The Austrian Empire then invaded Serbia. Russia came to Serbia's aid which brought in Germany on Austria's side which brought in the French on Russia's side, yada yada yada; Iraq.

The assassination of the Archduke was for independence and today they have it and are in the process of joining the EU. The Ottoman Empire is gone, the Hapsburg Empire is gone, The Bolsheviks and Tzars and Warsaw Pact are gone.

And what we should learn from this is one country cannot control another people forever. People want independence. This is not a new concept, there is a reason Romans kept slaves in chains, because people want to be free.

Perhaps the EU and USA can serve as a model for places like Iraq, Shia, Sunni, Kurd and Israel and Palestine. Unions with independent states.

#billmaher #worldwar1 #iraq #shia #sunni #kurd #israel #middleeastpeace #archduke #100years

Everyone Hates Jews. Everyone is against Israel.

As long as Israelis and the Israeli media are using propaganda to support our eternal victimhood - look who else supports the kidnapping of 3 little Israeli boys.

Why does Shia Lebeouf love the terrorists?




#israelipropaganda #shialebeouf #bringbackourboys

I am Not a Racist or do Jews Really Eat Matzah with Young Christian's Blood?

The birther movement against President Obama has been a modern day blood libel.

The movement has gone on long enough that a short recap should do: on the President's side is a Hawaiian birth announcement and official records. On the birther side is a Harvard Law pamphlet written by someone acquainted with Barack Obama and a number of conspiracy theories.

There is absolutely no equivalency between those two sides.

Furthermore, the language used to promote the birther argument was classic bile of other, different, foreign, doesn't share our values, not 'American', Kenyan (ie: black), Muslim and more. And even many of those on the right who do not share the birther argument specifically still used many of the birther's racist  terminology.

The racists, talking heads, and corrupt politicians were successful in creating a dialogue revolving around these points and convinced 41% of Republicans and another 19% of Independents that Pres. Obama was born in Kenya or somewhere not America and is not American.

Yet even now, at the trail end of the President's second term, right winger's are still out there claiming that the issue is not settled and that there is 'doubt' and that the issue has never been properly explored, as if someone who doesn't accept that the Earth revolves around the Sun has as legitimate argument as the rest of us.

I live in Israel where most of the people I meet are Jews and the vast majority of Americans I meet in Israel are right wing Jews who left America for religious/ideological reasons. As one said, "I could never vote for someone whose middle name is Hussein." They absolutely hate Pres. Obama here. Romney won the Americans in Israel vote by a landslide. They refuse to acknowledge the Pres. Obama has given more money and weaponry to Israel than any other president in history, "that's from Congress" they say. But every perceived failing is directly from the office of the president.

And when they bring up the Kenyan issue they claim that because they are merely asking questions but they are not racist.

So I wonder, do Jews really use the blood of young Christian boys to make their Pesach matzah?

I'm just asking questions. I'm not racist.



#bloodlibel #birther #kenyanpresident #racist #rightwingjews #Israel

There's no WE in American or, nobody likes language puns

My wife is constantly after me to stop saying I and to say We instead.

I told her she should've married a Frenchman an she'd hear we we we all the time.



#AmericanisI
#marriedhumor

The Settler Solution

The Palestinians will never have a state. Period.

That is the settler solution. When pressed for why the response is - "because this is our land, we've wanted it for 2000 years, we have it, and it is our right to settle and enjoy our homeland from the river to the sea."

What's your solution? "One state, Israel. Annex Judea and Samaria and make the Arabs (aka Palestinians) Israeli citizens with equal rights.


Which is another way of saying that the real solution to the "Palestinian Problem" is some combination of apartheid, genocide, and transfer.


Of course good people don't believe that. Those are terms for bad people.

So the settlers say equal rights! Touching that they care so much about equal rights for the Palestinians.

The Palestinians can't have a state. Period. Especially because they would have no equal rights there. So they should all become Israeli citizens with full equal rights.

Which is so patently blatantly false. The settlers know that the Palestinians will never be annexed and given full equal rights as Israeli citizens.

And so every time settlers move into and build on disputed territory, that is more land taken from the Palestinians. As one settler said, "it's getting to a tipping point, Har Homa has cut Bethlehem off from Jerusalem, Male Adumim has done the same with Ramallah."

Supporting unachievable future equal rights is the method to cover present injustices.

Settling Judea and Samaria, the occupied territories, with the support of the government of Israel, sends the message that the settler wants to send: The Palestinians Will Never Have A State.

Which is code for Apartheid, Genocide, and Transfer.

How would you fight back?




#bringbackourboys
#apartheid
#genocide
#transfer
#IsraeliSettlers
#kidnapping
#resistance

Idealists, Stay Home!

I moved to Israel and met up with other Americans who moved around the same time. They were all gung ho zionists. "Yeah! Let's change Israel! Let's bring some American know how. Let's help make Israel a little better."

They're all gone now and I'm still here.

My dad owned a business. I remember as a little kid being told, "you never mess with people's paychecks. No matter how tight it is, you pay your employees first."I'm pretty sure he heard it from his dad.

I work 2 teaching jobs and I do freelance editing and writing and I can't make it here. But there are people living in tents in the park, so I still have room to fall. I feel bad for my kids though.

And Israel thinks that employees who work 2 or more jobs should pay 50% payroll tax on their secondary incomes because, "hey, if you're working more than one job you must be making plenty of money."

And to be fair, they give you the option of resetting your tax rate on your secondary incomes. Let me tell ya' how that worked.

First, you have to wait to receive a paycheck from your employers - a paycheck that had 50% taken out.

Then, you gather all your assorted documents, go to the tax office, take a number, fill out a form, wait, wait, meet with someone, and if everything is in order, you get your tax reset and pay the normal tax rate going forward. At some point you'll supposedly get that overtax you paid back - I've been here 4 years; any day now.

And you only lost half a day, which is a nice break from the 2 jobs and kids - so that seems ok.

It's really my own fault. I I never went and got a proper education and became a scientist, which sucks. So every time I take a freelance project that is big enough to put me on staff, I have to go back to the tax office and do it all over again.

And don't tell me you can do it online or fax it in - been there done that. When I lost 50% off the second month I went back to in-person.

So I got my first paycheck on this large freelance job that put me on staff. I went this morning to the tax office. They are on protest.

Not strike. Striking would be illegal. So the doors are open and the lights are on and a woman in the middle of the front door entryway, like a smiling tree on a hot dry middle eastern morning, nodding "no, we're on protest. ""not a strike, no, protest." "no you can't come in." "no, no one will see you."

Which was certainly a quicker trip then usual.

And when I came home and checked online, the system is on protest too, it actually says that on the screen. Someone took a break from protesting to add their protest that is not a strike, to the website.  The operating system has joined their struggle. I imagine Olympians bowing their heads and raising their fists.

I have 2 weeks to get this fixed or I lose 50% off the next paycheck too. I wonder whats going to happen.

Did I mention that I have had one time paychecks that 50% was removed, but because the job did not require a second paycheck, I can apply in March of next year to get that money back. It's June now, still haven't seen last years. A little frustrating, but wait, here's the kicker:

One of my teaching gigs is for the public school system. During the year teachers conduct the Bagrut tests at other schools, to remove bias, cheating etc. The education dept. pays that day of work separately from a teacher's regular paycheck and guess what bam! - 50%

This reminds me of the story of the appliance discount - what a hoot. I'll tell it next time.

Didn't your dad ever teach you not to mess with people's paychecks? It's no wonder the ones who come for idealism are the first to leave.


#dontmesswithpaychecks #protestnotstrike #arghh

Visit to the Doctor - True Story

I took my baby to the doctor - just a low grade fever but it had gone on for a couple of days.

I laid him down and the doctor began to check him. He turned and looked down at me, this tall older grave man and in a low quiet voice asked me,  "The baby, how does he sleep at night?

"Doctor" I said, "give me a moment and I will call my wife and ask her."

This is a happy post

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