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I had to get a nebulizer for my Mother to use after she got out of the hospital. She has Medicare and Tricare for Life, so she has plenty of coverage and I went to a pharmacy.

The very efficient and helpful people at the local Walgreens pharmacy told me they could sell me the medication with a co-payment through Tricare, but I needed to go to a medical equipment store to buy the nebulizer because it was a device.

I went to the medical equipment store and found out that Medicare covered the equipment and would provide the medication through the mail at no charge to my Mother. So I went through with it and my Mother received the help she needed at a minimal cost.

Here’s the problem: Medicare is leasing the nebulizer. I checked the ‘Net and you can buy a nebulizer for under $70, but Medicare is paying $46 a month to lease this piece of equipment.

If they decide that my Mother only needs to use this device for a month, then the system is fine, but if she needs it from now on, Medicare is paying for a new machine every two months, while the patient continues to use the same piece of equipment.

A nebulizer is essentially a cheap paint sprayer. There is a small pump that is identical to an aquarium pump with a filter on the air intake, a plastic mask, and a mixing chamber. The air supplied by the pump causes the medication to be blown into the mask as a mist.

If this is going to be long term, I’m going to buy one on the ‘Net. I can’t see ripping off Medicare for $46 per month.

They were going to do the same thing with my Mother’s walker, but she went and bought the one she wanted and didn’t worry about being reimbursed.

I can’t blame the equipment companies, but someone at Medicare needs to look long and hard at the way they do things. If I can buy a single unit for $70, surely they can get them at a much lower cost.

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Since spreading freedom and democracy would seem to be the newest hobby of the current American administration, a few notes of explanation are in order.

There are very few democratically elected world leaders. The leaders of most “democratic” countries are not, themselves, elected by their people. Prime ministers are the leaders of political parties. Most of the European leaders were selected in the same manner as Tom DeLay: they are the majority leader of the largest party in the lower house of a parliament.

The presidents of France, Russia, the Palestinians, Iran, Malaysia, Mexico, and a few other countries are actually democratically elected, which is to say they are elected by a direct vote of the people of their countries. The President of the US is not a true democratically elected official because of the electoral college.

In many countries voters actually choose parties, not candidates. The parties have a list of candidates usually equal to the total number of seats in their parliament. After the election the party learns how many seats it has won based on its percentage of the vote and people take office based on their position on the list. This is the system used in Iraq’s recent election.

Even “democratic” countries can have less than democratic features: the military in Turkey heavily influences government actions, as does the Iranian council of clerics, and some in the US would claim the Supreme Court does the same thing.

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The last day before the beginning of Lent on the Gulf Coast that once belonged to France, it is Mardi Gras, “Fat Tuesday”: Laissez les bon temps roulez!

It was first celebrated in Mobile, Alabama, but the big show these days is in New Orleans, and it is a holiday in the state of Louisiana, because people wouldn’t show up for work anyway, so why fight it.

The tradition is to serve King cake, which is a circle of cinnamon bun dough with a white frosting on top sprinkled with sugar colored purple, green, and gold. If that weren’t bad enough, they put the figurine of a baby in the dough, and whoever finds it in their piece is supposed to be lucky. Actually if you find it and don’t choke on it, I guess you are lucky. You should use a small ceramic figurine, as some of the cheap plastic versions melt in the oven [yummy].

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