Tag: Santa Cruz County

Can Wheel Chair Patients Get Affordable Non-Emergency Transport in Santa Cruz County, CA? ONLY if Medi-CAL eligible

Scheduled for out-patient cancer surgery — but the transport person became suddenly sick — where can  you get affordable,   medical  transport  in Santa Cruz County, CA?  The middle class who work are out of luck. 

What can you get? 

Answer:  CSE Bay Area charges $300. out of pocket for 20 miles of   non-emergency medical transport (NEMT) services. You have to bill your insurance.   

CSE Bay Area is easy to contact by phone to schedule a trip  and  they have a local Santa Cruz area office  831 419 4002.  CSE Bay Area  provided us with excellent, reliable service both ways. They are terribly  expensive.     

We just found out via a phone call that Anthem Blue Cross Supplemental  (which we have  from work)  offers zero benefits for NEMT. Yikes!  

The lucky ones? In Santa Cruz County,   those  who qualify for  MED-I-CAL have access to free  non-emergency transport through Central Coast Alliance 831 430 5500 located in Scotts Valley.   Various  CCA vendors – which provide vans for wheel chairs –  include  Hearts & Hands,  based in Salinas, CA.  

There is help:  American Cancer Society 1-800 227 2345 offers free transport to  appointments and  generally requires  3 day notice. Volunteers provide assistance,  i.e. driving  to and from appointments.  A real person answers the phone. It’s a pleasure talking with them.     

What’s going on? Per usual and has gone on for too many years, the    Democrats in CA continue to offer rich  benefits to  the lower class and  to  newly arrived  illegal aliens who cross  our USA borders. 

For many reasons the middle class in CA has left in droves and continues to do so.   Thanks for one-party rule by Democrats in CA.  

Are there other insurance  sources (since our  Anthem Blue Cross does not) which  offer  non-emergency medical transport  (NEMT)?     We are looking into it.  

  Medi-Care Part B may offer non-emergency transport “if medically necessary”  That’s a possibility.  

  In Santa Cruz, DCD insurance (831 423 8542) offers  health insurance products.  You may contact Pam for a telephone interview.  We are attempting to do so. 

There are a lot of folks who have worked 30 plus years and retired who may need Non-Emergency Medical Transport to their doctors.  And their private insurance plans may not pay for NEMT – non-emergency medical transport.  

Reality in Santa Cruz County & elsewhere:      More and more people are asked to get  medical services  provided in non-hospital settings  by  appointment. Agree?   That is reality.    As people age,  more and more  people require walkers or wheel chairs to get to surgical and other   medical appointments.  At times, family and friends may not be available to transport. 

 Why so few options  for  those who have worked all their adult life – 40 plus years –  and who have  private insurance and Medi-Care and now  must pay hundreds of dollars for transport to medical appointments  which is free for those who may never have worked in the USA?   

Are you someone — or know someone  — who may need Non-Emergency Medical Transport — to go to medical appointments?     What’s your experience?  Share!   

written by DrCameronJackson@gmail.com   6/25/2024

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Liberate California from Gov. Newsom’s use of emergency power?

“The liberties protected by the Constitution are not fair-weather freedoms — in place when times are good but able to be cast aside in times of trouble.”  So wrote Judge Stickman as he overturned Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s use of emergency power.

What judge — hopefully soon –    will  overturn CA Gov. Newsom’s use of emergency power?

California Gov. Newsom — similiar to  Gov. Wolf — continues to control which citizens in CA  can work and who cannot work, who can earn a paycheck and who remains unemployed, which businesses live and which die.

In the words of the State of Califonia:

“All individuals living in the State of California are currently ordered to stay home or at their place of residence, except for permitted work, local shopping or other permitted errands, or as otherwise authorized ….”

What can CA citizens do? Remove Gov. Newsom from office.  Download a petition, sign it the same as you do when voting, get a few friends to also sign it and mail it in.  Simple.  Do your part to bring back freedom to CA.

Want to help and live in Santa Cruz County? 

  Contact Kristin Hurley 831 254-5606   There’s a freeway overpass rally coming up this Friday, Sept. 18.    More people are needed at each table event — at the table, working the parking lot, holding up signs.

 

written by Cameron Jackson       jaj48@aol.com

 

 

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You are Someone Worth Dying For … Santa Cruz County CA Fire evacuees returning home

Due to fires, one third of all  Santa Cruz County’s residents left their homes and were rescued by friends, families and shelters.  Over 30,000 people  evacuated. Thank you ‘first responders’, shelters, friends, families and strangers who took in strangers.

Now those people  are returning to Boulder Creek, Felton, Scotts Valley and elsewhere in the county of Santa Cruz.

All the rescued …. all those who rescue and continue to rescue  people from the CA fires.

Yes, you are worth dying for …

Listen and watch   “Someone Worth Dying For” debuted on the final CD,    A Beautiful Life by Michael Grayson and his former band Mikeschair.

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Going to a rally? Beach? Think twice … use social distancing …

What happened  at a religious rally for Navajos in AZ  held in March 2020  with no social distancing?  The virus spread rapidly.

One story of what’s happening to American Indians:   Instead of 5 minutes to list number of  cases and the dead it took 45 minutes for a radio station to list the dead.

“When a family member dies, we the Diné, whom Spanish conquistadors named the Navajo, send a notice to our local radio station so that everyone in the community can know. Usually the reading of the death notices—the names of those who have passed on, their ages, where they lived and the names of their matrilineal and patrilineal clans—takes no more than five minutes. It used to be very rare to hear about young people dying. But this past week, I listened to 45 minutes of death notices on KGAK Radio AM 1330. The ages ranged from 26 to 89, with most of the dead having been in their 30s, 40s or 50s.e names.  

Aptos Psychologist:   In Santa Cruz County, 3 have died, 59 hospitalized, 772 known cases, 321 recovered and 23,000+ tested for Covid-19. 

In Santa Cruz County  local health official  Gail Newel said she was not sure whether or not the spike in new Covid-19 cases was connected to the recent political rallies. She is re-opening the local beaches because   “people are not willing to be governed anymore in that regard”.  Children over age two are now required to wear face masks says Newel.

Anyone looking at  Seacliff State Beach lately will notice the lack of social distancing by groups of people hanging out in front of the beach  restrooms as well as large groups of people  using the beach.

And people are leaving their beach  litter behind. On Sat. July 18,  Live Like Coco   sponsored a Seacliff State Beach Cleanup which  removed heaps of trash from the beach.  About 40+ people attended the Live Like Coco clean up.

 

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How can you stop spread of COVID-19 in CA?

What can you do to stop spread of COVID-19 in CA?  Use the particular skill set you have.  We all have one.  Use yours.

Dr. Erickson of Kern County did his own thinking and he concludes that lots of people get the virus but few die from it.  About 0.02% die from it which is about double the number of persons who die from flu every year.   Those who die from COVID-19  are the elderly with pre-existing conditions.

Imagine that you are a  newly  minted attorney in CA. How can you  help stop deaths by COVID-19 in CA?  Attorneys are trained to think logically and to think for themselves.   

First of all don’t believe the experts, don’t believe Gov. Newsom and don’t believe whatever your local health officer in your county says. The BIG PICTURE is that old people die in nursing homes.

Example why to question the “experts”:     Santa Cruz County’s health officer Gail  Newel  recently double booked and walked out of a ZOOM meeting scheduled by the City of Santa Cruz.   One wonders what meeting she went off to  attend that was more important than addressing questions from the public.  This not very tech  savey  Santa Cruz County public health officer  Dr. Newel  does not use  an electronic calendar.   With an electronic calendar Dr. Newel  would know ahead of time that she had double booked.

Gov. Newsom is another example why you should not trust  “the experts” or  politicians.   Gov. Newsom recently shut down a facility for veterans which costs $25K  a year while giving $100 million to illegal families who have COVID-19 related expenses.   So who does Gov. Newsom want to protect more — veterans who are old or young illegal families?

Headline in Santa Cruz Sentinel today  5/28/2020:   County may apply for reopening variance.  Local news is that 5 large restaurants in neighboring county  Monterey are opening up entirely.  So if Monterey can do it why is Santa  Cruz so slow?   Don’t trust your local  Santa Cruz county health department to know squat. They follow ‘orders’ from above which goes to the Democrat Party and Gov. Newsom.

Remember  — think for yourself and think outside the box.

Some basics you  can do to reduce deaths by COVID-19 in CA:

  1.  Get business cards &  a simple  web site  page functioning     Call a web page:    CA Health Justice for Elderly Patients   & Staff 
  2.  Focus on  the BIG problem in CA:  deaths of vulnerable persons in long term care facilities.  Statistics show that  50+% of  CA COVID-19  deaths occur in long term care facilities.  Old people with multiple health conditions get the virus and  die in these facilities.   Staff  may bring infections or may get infected. As CA citizens take it into their own hands to ‘put out the fire’ where the fire is bigest — that will do a lot to manage the virus overall.   Overall, lots of people are or well get infected BUT few die.  Those who die are the elderly with pre-existing conditions.
  3. Remember  the overall make up of workers employed  in long term care facilities. What kind of training have they had about bacteria and spread of virus?   When staff leave where do they go and who do they contact?
  4.   Connect with resources at CANHR.    Look at the website for  California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform  CANHR offers two Online courses for Attorneys in June 2o2o.  They have a website specific for  COVID-19.
  5.  Tell CANHR that  you are an attorney — or whatever your professional  skill set is –  and what you know about COVID-19. Tell CANHR you want to do what you can in your local community.
  6. ……more to come what you can do about COVID-19
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Project Pajamas — needs your help Sat., Oct 19, 2019 sorting & folding PJ’s for Santa Cruz kids

Can you help?  Project Pajamas,  started 10+ years  by Judge Ari Symons, needs your help.  Over the years,  over 10,000 PJs have been distributed throughout  Santa Cruz County.
Through Project Pajamas,  all kids needing sheltering in Santa Cruz County  receive a NEW pair of PJs the first night they are in emergency sheltering.   All sizes for girls and boys — infant to teenage  — are needed.

How  you can help:  

Drop off new  PJs from Oct 1-18, 2019 at:
  •   Santa Cruz County Bank locations (e.g., across  from Safeway in Aptos, CA ) or
  • at Twin Lakes Church (barrels are located  at entrance to  the church sanctuary). Robin is the admin contact person at TLC.
  Come SAT., OCT 19, 2019 9 am-11 am   to the Lobby of   Twin Lakes Church  in Aptos, CA.    Help other volunteers sort, fold and ready for distribution   of  PJ’s which have been  collected Fall 2019.  You can sign up to help  Project Pajamas at www.tlc.org/aok

Rotary Club Sunrise  and Twin Lakes Church (Robin is the admin  contact person)  have  been gathering PJs and publicizing. Many hands make light work.

Enjoy meeting other volunteers Sat. Oct. 19  and help bring comfort to kids needing sheltering in Santa Cruz County. 

Started by Judge Ari Symons, over 10,000 PJ’s have been distributed since the program started.  Wow!

Please help Project Pajamas to  continue its mission:   distributing brand new PJs to every child needing sheltering in Santa Cruz County.  These kids, infant to age 18,  need our love and support.

written by Cameron Jackson   JAJ48@aol.com

 

 

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which RAIL TRAIL best for people living in Santa Cruz County? Still time to tell the RTC what you think!

Which RAIL TRAIL best for people who live in  Santa Cruz County?

Do we want a wide TRAIL  that can handle electric bikes and wheel chairs and walkers or do we want  a narrow trail  along a high fence that preserves the rail tracks for a train that may never happen?

There’s still time for you to tell the Regional Transportation Center what you think.

Measure D — which passed in 2017  — preserves the current  rail tracks and permits only a narrow trail.

Maybe there’s a better solution?  Read and decide.

Click  here   for a comparison of the wide one versus narrow one.

Go to the link below to sign petition.

https://www.change.org/p/santa-cruz-county-rtc-help-build-a-world-class-greenway-in-santa-cruz-county-by-removing-the-train-tracks

Thank you Dana Abbott, a gardener with Aptos Community Garden, for providing information.

written by  Cameron Jackson   drcameronjackson@gmail.com

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