The Truth About Christopher Columbus

Tomorrow is Columbus Day, and it's observed to celebrate Christopher Columbus discovering the new continent.  What we have been taught in school may not be the total truth about this man.

The man who wrote this article explains how to tell the story of Columbus to a child after they've been given misinformation at school. 

The story goes that Columbus had to persevere against the odds to get support for his venture, because everyone but him believed the Earth was flat. This just isn't true. The ancient Greeks proved that the Earth was round about 2,000 years ago, and one even used the shadow of the Earth on the moon during an eclipse to estimate its circumference. The problem for Columbus is that he was bad at math and worse at geography, and everyone with an education knew it.

"He failed to get funding for a long time because his calculations of the earth were on the small side, he thought that dry land covered more of the sphere than it does, and he believed Japan was some 1500 miles off the coast of China." In other words, most people knew roughly the distance between the west coast of Europe and the east coast of Asia but believed it was filled with a vast ocean in which Columbus would surely die.

Columbus was stubborn. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, he refused to give up his plan, and because he was so stubborn, he kept fighting for funding until he finally broke through to the Queen of Spain. His stubbornness kept him from ever admitting that he hadn't reached Asia. For Columbus, the idea of a whole new continent and unknown peoples just didn't fit his worldview.

The indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, however, were used to hosting strange arrivals from all over the Americas in their towns, according to Howe. Their settlements were decades or even centuries old, built in part on transcontinental trade, and Columbus did not seem so outlandish. These were settled lands with rich societies, not, as often depicted, simple or primitive.

That's one of the real tragedies of the story of Columbus and probably the hardest part to explain to children. The complex indigenous societies of the Americas were decimated by exposure to Old World diseases, crumbling under the weight of epidemic. By the time later waves of settlers arrived in North America, they often found wilderness. It was a new wilderness, born of drastic population decline.

Columbus didn't know that his voyage would spread diseases across the continents, of course, but disease wasn't the only problem. Columbus sailed the ocean blue not for the love of exploration but because he wanted access to Asian gold. Instead, he found marvelous soft cotton, which was far superior to similar cloth in Europe. He also took slaves for display back home and to work in his conquered lands. Cloth and slavery defined the Columbian exchange from the beginning.

Despite all this, it's not correct to simply demonize Columbus. He was a brave man, launching his ships into an uncertain fate, driven by greed, faith and hope. Like many brave men, he believed very strongly that he knew what he was doing -- even though he was wrong about so many details -- and it's OK to be impressed by his bravery.

Moreover, his voyages had an undeniable historical impact, sparking the great age of Atlantic exploration, trade and eventually colonization by Europeans. In a very real way, this era reshaped the world, the languages we speak, the religions we follow, the foods we eat and the diseases we catch. I don't know if that's a reason to have a school holiday, exactly, but it's definitely worth remembering.

So if your child comes home in the lead up to Columbus Day, like the man's in this article did, full of praise for the explorer's bravery and vision, that's a fine place to start, even if he didn't really "discover" the Americas or figure out that the Earth was round. He was, indeed, brave.

But then explain that brave people can do bad things, and worse things can happen without any planning. That's one of the lessons of history.  Below is the source I used for this blog. 

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/10/opinion/perry-columbus-day-what-to-tell-your-kid/index.html

Have a great week, and I'll see you again next Sunday.

Sandra K. Marshall, Author

@ Eirelander Publishing
http://www.skaymarshall.com

A Bit of History about Medicare

Medicare is a federal social insurance program covering over 40 million people over the age of 65 and 8 million people with permanent disabilities. 

Medicare has four basic programs, Parts A through D.  Part A covers hospital insurance including inpatient hospital stays, skilled nursing facility stays, hospice care and home health visits.  Part A is primarily financed by a 1.45% payroll tax on all wage and salary income for the worker and the employer.  Self-employed persons pay the full 2.9% of earnings.

Example:  You make $50,000 a year.  You pay $725 a year and your employer pays $725.00 a year.  If you’re self-employed, you pay $1,450 a year.

While Social Security taxes are capped at $110,100, there is no maximum wage base for Medicare taxes.  An individual making $1,000,000 a year would pay a Medicare payroll tax of $14,500, and his employer would pay an equal amount. 

Medicare Part B is a voluntary program that helps pay for doctor bills and other outpatient health care. Medicare beneficiaries pay a premium of $99.90 (goes up every year, and it’s more than this) a month for their part B coverage.  Part B is usually deducted from the beneficiary’s monthly Social Security check.  The premium is set annually to cover about 25 percent of Part B spending, while the other 75 percent is paid from general revenues.

Medicare Part C is known as Medicare Advantage (MA), and gives seniors the option of receiving their benefits through private health plan. 

Medicare Part D provides prescription drug benefits through private plans that contract with Medicare and Medicare Advantage prescription drug plans.  The average monthly premium for Part D is $31.

Income-Related Part B Premium—Beneficiaries with incomes above $85,000 a year ($170,000 for couples) are responsible for paying a higher share of the cost of Part B.  Medicaid pays Part B premiums for low-income beneficiaries who are currently enrolled in Medicaid; beneficiaries with higher incomes pay an income-related Part B premium that ranges from $139.90 to $319.70 per month.  Medicare provides low-income subsidies to those who qualify.

Medicare under went its first major overhaul when “diagnosis related groups”  -DRGS- entered the medical lexicon in 1983.  By 1984 hospital payments were determined on the basis of a patient’s diagnosis rather than on daily charges.

Medicare officials hoped to cut program costs by creating a new payment system that would encourage hospitals not over utilize medical resources.  Instead of paying for each medical service and what it costs the hospital, Medicare began paying for what it deemed the average cost to treat a patient with a particular diagnosis.  If you were paying for bundled diagnoses, then that would give the hospitals some good reason to be attentive to the cost of taking care of diagnosis.  There was a lot of hope this would be the panacea, but instead some hospitals cleverly unpacked the diagnoses to make the most bang for each patient treated at a hospital. 

DRGS had a noticeable effect by decreasing hospital stays, but the doctors (who make the call to admit a patient to the hospital) weren't seeing a financial incentive to have the patient admitted to the hospital.  This kept hospital costs down for insurance companies. 

In 1992, Medicare adopted the resource-based relative value scale (RBRVS) on which to base physician payments.  This method of payment attempted to pay based on work effort and practice expenditures, rather than on historic charges.  They were primarily concerned with medical inflation.  Another reason for moving to RBRVS was to help primary care physicians get paid more, but it only helped a little.

This is just a small portion of the problem with Medicare.  The day may come when Medicare will only be available for the poor and the rest will just have to have supplemental insurance to cover medical expenses. 

My sources are National Academy of Social Insurance; http://www.nasi.org/learn/medicare/where-money-comes-from and Medpage Today's KevinMD.com; http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2010/01/history-medicare.   You can find a lot more information on these sites and others.  

Have a great week, and I'll be back next Sunday. 

Best always,

Sandra K. Marshall

Do You Remember Where You Were on 9-11-2001?

Good Morning,

Today is 9-11, ten years later after one of the worst terrorist acts on our country.  Do you remember where you were on that day? 

On 9-11-2001, I had just finished breakfast for my husband and myself, cleaned up the dishes, poured myself another cup of coffee. I turned on CNN to catch up with the news while warming up my computer before starting to write.

In moments, I learned about the hi-jackings of at least two planes and there were thought to be more.  I watched the first plane hit the first tower in shock, and I yelled at my husband to turn on CNN. A few minutes later, I saw the next plane hit the other tower.

Stunned by what we were seeing, we watched and listened to the news in silence. We heard about the other planes and our fear grew not knowing where they were headed.  By then loved ones were getting calls from their family members on the hi-jacked planes.

We heard about the plane that crashed into the Pentagon and the brave people on flight 93 who gave up their lives to save others.  For days, I watched the news and heard about the brave firemen and policemen who helped to save others and all of the many people who came to help.

I wept at the scenes I saw.  I asked why like many others.  I was proud at the way the people of our country pulled together.  I pray, we never have anything like 9-11 happen on our soil again. 

Already, our children are being taught about the date 9-11-2001 in our schools.  This date will be a part of our history forever.  

Bless our country, The United States of America.

Sandra K. Marshall
http://www.eirelander-publishing.com