| Post-holiday, post-flu snapshots FLASH Christmas and New Years have come and gone, and with them the Alsgaard familys annual visit to the United States health care juggernaut. Im the only one in my immediate family who didnt end up in the emergency room on our visit to Michigan this year. That doesnt mean I wasnt laid low. The flu visited me. For three days, me and my brothers couch became one with each other. My son took two bags of IV to get back on his feet; my daughter, one. But it was my fiancee's journey through bronchitis and, thus, the Byzantine creation that is the United States health care system, that has my dander up. On Dec. 31, Sheila was coughing almost non-stop. She had a cold, and knew that what was developing was bronchitis; she had been down this road before. Sheila, being a citizen of Canada, thought she should see a doctor. I was too ill to drive her, so my brother, Dave, took her. They visited not one but two walk-in medical clinics seeking medical treatment. Neither one would help her. The reason: Her insurance was from out of state. Totally frustrated, she came home and proceeded to get worse. The next morning, I felt well enough to drive her to the hospital. There, the emergency room did what the other facilities would not: antibiotics and a breathing treatment. You call this health CARE? I dont understand. A trip to the walk-in clinic would have cost the insurance company (and/or Sheila) about what, $150 to $200, right? A trip through the ER is going to cost about four or five times that, right? (Shes still waiting for the bill, so I can report back later on the exact total.) And who pays for all this? If you think the answer is other than you and me, I have a bridge near Brooklyn Id like to sell you. This is just one example of whats wrong with our totally misnamed health care system: there is little or no health care provided its sick and sicker care, at best. Health care is a critical issue for all of us. In the church, the cost of insurance is rising so fast that some annual conferences are holding special sessions just to deal with the issue. Our best minds and efforts are going to be needed to solve the problem. And until Congress gets its act together until the American people demand affordable health care for every man, woman and child the situation will only get worse. FLASH My home town of Midland, Michigan, always dresses its County Courthouse up in fancy lights and such for the holidays. This year, disaster struck when someone stole a figurine out of the almost life-size creche in front of the building. The local newspaper dutifully reported the story, which included this sentence. The baby Jesus was reported missing at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, police say. No wait, it gets better. In the next days newspaper, the same reporter had a story about how apparently the thief or thieves had returned the figure to the creche. Baby Jesus returned, the headline read. Everyone was happy. Almost. The next days paper had yet another story, written by the same reporter, that a replacement baby Jesus had been used instead of the original, which was, in fact, still missing. Im not sure how or where, but something tells me this story will preach. FLASH With the cable TV out at my brothers house, it left a lot of time for reading, even to the point of reading the obituaries on the back page of the local paper. One elderly gentleman had passed away just before Christmas. Part of his obituary read (and in the words of Dave Barry, I am not making this up), He tried and tried but he just couldnt make it. FLASH I heard one of the best Christmas Eve sermons Ive ever heard at my moms church. The pastor noted that the word manger comes from the French word for to eat. (I didnt know that.) He then tied this in with Jesus being the Bread of Life and invited us to communion. It was a great way to celebrate the birth of our Savior, with the added joy of hearing my mom accompany the choir on her birthday. FLASH I saw my Detroit Lions play on Dec. 29 at the new Ford Field. Our seats were on the 50 yard line (really!), 14 rows behind the Minnesota Vikings bench. I think it was the first time in decades that my brothers and I had done anything together like that. Though the game was very entertaining, the Lions still lost. My prayer: that the Lions play in the Super Bowl before I die. | 
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