Here we go again!  Grab the toilet paper!

Early in this pandemic, toilet paper quickly disappeared from store shelves.  Who knows why, but it is probably deeply ingrained in our national psyche.

Toilet paper was around for our last pandemic in 1918.  Not the two-ply perfumed-type we have today, but one that advertised it was “splinter free.”  Yikes!

Toilet paper does have a history a thousand years old.  But it wasn’t always paper, using sand, stones, leaves, and even hands.  (Hopefully they had hand sanitizer then!)

Ancestors 100 years from now will analyze this phenomena and still not have answers.  Today’s babies and children when they become “centennials” will recall “I remember those days of deprivation!”  Others will laugh and say “we got a bidet!”

Make sure you have an adequate supply and don’t be caught short.  If there is a drought, a bidet won’t help.  Stock up on Fall leaves, sand, or organic dirt might be the new vogue.

For seniors confined to their homes, with still many citizens not wearing masks or socially distancing, I have some advice:  Hoard!

This time every year we are inundated on TV, in newspapers, and online advertisement to sign up for a Medicare “Advantage” Plan.

As a practicing physician for 40 years, and also a Medicare participant as patient and doctor, reading the fine print can keep you out of harm’s way.

Medicare “Advantage” Plans are HMOs (health maintenance organizations), with some being very good, while most provide marginal care.  Why?  Profit.

Government pays HMOs an upfront set amount of money to spend on patients.  Their “pot” therefore limits care, so at times medical decision-making allocations are not made by doctors, but instead business people.

Enticement of “freebies” are given in commercials, but ultimately when you are critically ill, HMOs might medically fail you or your loved one even prematurely placing you on hospice end-of-life care.  (They save money doing this.)

Yes, “Advantage” plans are cheaper and some seniors understandably can only afford this care.  But if you have financial options, read the fine print.  Knowing drawbacks might then put you at the “advantage” they advertise.

I can safely say, no Congressperson of age in Washington D.C. is on a Medicare Advantage Plan.  Something to think about.

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