Head-spinning over health care

I recently visited my doctor, complaining of some neck pain and stiffness.

After consultation, some x-rays and all that good stuff he told me that I was going to live and that the popping in my neck had to do with the fact that Eisenhower was President when I entered the world.

In other words, Uncle Arthur Itis had come to live with me and I had no choice but to take him in. That's a true story.

But I really wonder if that neck-popping is from getting older or it is just because my head has been spinning over the last few weeks.

And spinning. And spinning. And spi.... I think you get the idea.

Ironically, my noggin has been going round and around about insurance. More specifically, I am going round and around over the debate – if you can call it that – over what to do about the Affordable Care Act, which we commonly call “Obamacare.”

I will be the first to say I don't know all the answers to an incredibly complex issue. I am not about to try to offer any answers to that.

But I do have tons of questions. 

If the ACA is so great, why do my insurance premiums keep going up while what the company pays keeps going down?

First, I purchase my insurance through my employer and not on an Obamacare exchange. However, all health insurance was affected by the ACA. So with that disclaimer out of the way, let's proceed.

I can only go on my experience, but in January 2003, I had cochlear implant surgery on my left ear. The original bill was somewhere in the neighborhood of $80,000. With insurance network negotiations, my deductible and co-pay, I forked over less than $500.

I had the same surgery on my right ear in January 2010. Same hospital. Same doctor. I am sure the cost had gone up some, so this time I paid a bit more, but less than $750.

And I am glad I did.

Last November, I had knee replacement surgery at a different hospital. The original bill was substantially less than my implants (my bill was about $70,000), yet my deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums were much more than the operations I underwent before the ACA became law. Make that MUCH MORE.

If the ACA was supposed to save me money, what happened? 

Why did we have a system in which some people could not get coverage before ACA?

Insurance companies are like any other business in that they exist to make a profit. That's so basic that it seems silly to be making that statement. Yet so many people seem to think they are some kind of philanthropic enterprise.

But with that out of the way, there is still a question about why some people could not get coverage before ACA? I was in the insurance business for 10 years and grappled with that question almost daily.

I have enormous empathy for those who are born with medical issues or have acquired them through no fault of their own. That is the one aspect of ACA that is working as it should.

Why should anyone be forced to buy health insurance?

That is at the heart of the ACA. Everyone has to buy or pay a penalty.

Why?

From my corner of the world, it is foolish to not have health insurance, but when did our government get in the business of legislating what anyone buys or does not buy? That I just do not understand.

While we would disagree on theological reasoning, there are religious groups and individuals who shun any form of insurance, saying that God will take care of them. Doesn't the First Amendment say that the government shall “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof?”

What about the person who simply does not want insurance, crazy or not? Do others' rights supersede his?

Really, where is freedom of choice? A mandate to buy a product? In America?

(I am often amused by supporters of the ACA who argue, “You have to buy car insurance and home insurance.” Last time I checked, one did not have to purchase a car to live in America. He can walk, take the bus or ride a bike if he so chooses. Nor is anyone compelled to buy a house. When ACA became law, it made purchasing a product a requirement for living in this country.)

Why is common sense in short supply?

I vividly recall a “discussion” concerning the rising costs of insurance and how the ACA would cause major hardship on those trying to pay the exorbitant premiums. The answer would have been comical if the person was not so serious.

“There are government subsidies to help people with that,” he said.

Uh.... the United States is nearly $20 trillion in the hole. Make that 20 and 12 zeroes.

It's like getting a loan from a bankrupt relative.

Really?

And why could no one get anything done to fix this mess?

You can blame the Republicans or you can blame the Democrats for hurriedly getting something before Congress or a failure to repeal or make meaningful revisions.

The truth is that both sides seem more interested in political points than real solutions and both are to blame.

But it does not stop there. We have a populace that has gotten so accustomed nursing from the government that we might have reached a dilemma with no plausible solution.

To me, that's the scary part of the equation. There really are no answers for real questions from real people.

It just gives us more head-spinning.

Everything happens for a reason

(Recently I was privileged to sit down with Asbury University men's basketball coach Will Shouse. Little did I know I would walk out of his office both inspired and challenged in my faith. This story ran in the July 12 edition of The Anderson News.)

Asbury University basketball coach Will Shouse poses in his office. The commemorative jersey is for 200 coaching wins.

Everything seems to happen for a reason.

Always.

It can be something small and insignificant. Or it can be a life-altering tragedy. But everything happens for a reason and you will never be able to convince Will Shouse otherwise.

He’s lived it. He continues to live with that knowledge and an unshakeable belief that God is in control.

“It’s my testimony,” Shouse said last week.

Shouse is no stranger to Anderson County. As a high school basketball player, he was instant offense off the bench for Anderson’s 1997 Eighth Region champions. As a collegian at what was then known as Asbury College, Shouse embarked on a road that would eventually lead back to his alma mater and into the role of a successful college coach.

In that role, Shouse has a platform to share an emotional walk of faith that has had turns that cannot be explained by coincidence. “When people ask me to speak about it, I can’t turn them down,” he said during an impromptu interview at his Asbury office. “I just can’t.”

Two years ago, Shouse and his wife, Whitney, had desired to add a child to their family, but suffered two miscarriages and had an adoption fall through. They learned of a young woman who was serving time in a Florida prison but would be delivering a baby. She wished to give the child up for adoption.

The Shouses gladly went through the adoption process and on August 8, 2015, Ray Hudson Shouse was born. “His middle name is after David Hudson,” Shouse said of his high school teammate who suddenly died in 2010.  

But little did the Shouses know that Ray would be born with a birth defect and how he would impact their lives in just four short months.

“If we had known, we probably would not have pursued it,” Shouse says, “but the Lord knew he needed us.”

Ray was born with a diaphragmatic hernia. The Shouses made weekly trips to Shands Children’s Hospital at the University of Florida, but Ray passed away on Dec. 10, 2015. He never left the hospital.

It was not an easy journey.

Will Shouse, right, and his children spend time with his adopted son, Ray, who spent his entire life at Shands Children’s Hospital in Florida.

“Our four months and two days that we were able to be Ray’s mommy and daddy while he was alive changed my heart and tested my faith in ways I never thought imaginable,” says Shouse’s wife, Whitney, whom he met at Asbury. “When I saw this newborn baby hooked up to so many machines with a huge incision across his belly, I immediately loved him like only a mommy can and it was like when I gave birth to our three biological kids. There was nothing in this world I wouldn’t have done for that little boy, and so many times I heard God remind me that He loves me even more than that.”

Yet, over the four months, the Shouse family saw its faith fiercely tested. “I wouldn’t be totally honest if I said my faith never wavered throughout our ordeal with Ray,” Whitney Shouse continues. “There were many times that I just couldn’t understand why this was happening. Why, when so many people literally all around the world were praying for my baby, would God not heal him and let me bring him home? Why did (the Shouse children) Hunter, Layni and Hattie Jayne have to go through this awful pain at such young ages? I’ll never totally understand those answers, but I can look back at Ray’s life now with total thanks in my heart and feel honored that God chose me to be his mommy for his whole, entire life and He chose Will to be his daddy.”

Ray’s legacy lives on today. “He was only four months old when he died,” Shouse says. “He never spoke a word, but brought so many people together. We had so many people praying for him and for us during that time.”

Through the entire ordeal, Shouse and his family kept reminding themselves of the words of Scripture found in Jeremiah 29:11.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

The Shouse family grieved through the loss while Will continued to coach at Asbury as he could. But those plans they believed in were far from over.

Last summer, a social worker contacted the Shouse family concerning pregnant young woman who planned to give up her baby. She was troubled and did not feel she could raise the child.

The question was simple: Would the Shouse family be interested?

“She wanted the child to have a good home,” Will says. “She never wavered. She knew what she wanted to do.”

Whitney adds, “We had no plans of adopting any time soon. Our hearts were too broken. Our initial call from our social worker was on August 8, which happens to be Ray’s birthday.

“My initial feelings were that there was no way I could handle another adoption process or put our family through this again.”

After much prayer, the Shouse family said “yes” and the mother was contacted.

Ruby was born on Sept. 10 last year, exactly nine months after Ray passed away.

No one will ever convince Shouse the nine-month time frame was a mere coincidence. He references Isaiah 66:9.

“‘Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?’ says the Lord. ‘Do I close up the womb when I bring to delivery,’ says your God.”

The Shouse family fully believes the story was the work of God. “I have never, ever seen an answered prayer quite like God sending us Ruby,” Whitney Shouse says. “Every single thing in Ruby’s adoption process came through perfectly and smoothly. She was even born on my birthday, which happens to be nine months to the day from the day Ray passed away. Nine months exactly. No one but God good have planned that. When I was holding Ray and giving him back to Jesus, He was creating Ruby to put in my arms.”

Will Shouse says the family is grateful for Ruby’s biological mother. “She is part of the pieces that God used to bring this together,” he says.

The story is incredible but reflects the deep faith that Shouse has lived since as a freshman basketball player at Asbury. He’d always been considered a “good guy” but was confronted about his faith at a time when few people were on campus.

“When I was a freshman at Asbury, we had a guy on the team, Art McMahon. At the time, I didn’t see ‘cool Christians.’ During Christmas break, they moved us all into one dorm so they wouldn’t have to heat more rooms,” Shouse says of those days when the hoopsters remained on campus for practice. “We were in the same room and I started pounding Art with questions.”

McMahon is now doing mission work in Haiti.

And Shouse, after two years as head coach at Kentucky Christian University, returned to lead the program at his alma mater. He’s won over 200 games as a college head coach and could probably move up to make a better name for himself in hoops circles.

But he says, “That’s just not me.”

To Shouse, who went 16-14 last year, coaching basketball is more than just wins and losses. It’s about making the people he to whom he is connected better.

“We do so many things here,” he says of Asbury. “We can go on mission trips together. We want to win, sure, but we can change lives.

“The fact that we take vans to road games, some people think that is a negative, but it’s not. When we are on the way to a road game, I can sit by them and talk with them about life. I spend so much time with the team.”

Whitney adds, “As much as Will loves basketball – ‘loves’ may not be a strong enough word – he loves his basketball players even more.”

It’s about more than the fast break, blocking out or the man-to-man. It’s about life.

“I want to be able to help people,” Shouse says. “Just by percentage, I will have some players who will go through an adoption.”

And what those players learn from their college basketball coach will matter much more than hitting a game-winning three.

Whitney Shouse is Will’s biggest cheerleader and knows his ultimate success goes well beyond trophies and winning records.  “He knows his boys and their hearts and wants them to succeed in life,” she says, “not just to win games and set records but become godly men, husbands and dads some day.”

Will Shouse and his family pose for a photo with Family Court Judge Jeff Moss after their adoption of Ruby Shouse was finalized earlier this year. The Shouse family is wearing t-shirts that say “Worth the Wait.” From left are Will Shouse, Turner, Layni (in front of Turner), Whitney holding Ruby, Hattie Jayne and Judge Moss. (Photo courtesy Will Shouse.)

The man who broke a young fan's heart

My wife, Stephanie, shares some good memories with her longtime friend, Hall of Fame coach Ray Vencil.

 It’s funny how the twists and turns of life give you a much different perspective on things that happen.

And most of all, it can give a different look at the people involved.

I was reminded of that again recently when my wife, Stephanie, suggested we visit one of her old friends she had not seen in some time, Hall of Fame basketball coach Ray Vencil.

If you are under the age of 50, that name might mean little to you. But if you grew up in the 60’s or 70’s, chances are you know quite a bit about him.

“Do you know Ray Vencil?” my father-in-law asked the first time Stephanie took me to meet her parents.

“Well, I don’t know him,” I said, “but I know who he is.”

That was good enough for my wife’s dad, who had been a neighbor of Mr. Vencil and his wife, Betty, in Elizabethtown, where Vencil ended his great coaching career. It was a longtime friendship that had begun when they were students at Eastern Kentucky University.

But I knew of Ray Vencil as the man who broke a young basketball fan’s heart.

If you were around Lawrenceburg during the 1969-70 basketball season, you already know exactly what I am talking about.

It was to be Anderson County’s final season as a member of the 11th Region. The Bearcats, led by junior Jimmy Dan Conner, had established themselves as one of the top teams in the region and a legitimate threat to head to Louisville’s Freedom Hall for the state tournament.

The Bearcats’ biggest threats? Perhaps the Lexington high schools -- the Bearcats had gone 3-0 against them -- or defending regional champ Richmond Madison, coached by Ray Vencil.

As fate would have it, Anderson hosted Madison in the final game of the regular season in what might have been the state’s marquee matchup that night. Before an overflow crowd, the Bearcats became the regional favorite with a 94-82 win.

“I remember we were ahead about 10 points most of the game. They had an excellent team,” Lawrenceburg resident Tom Smith remembered last week. Smith was a starting guard on that great Bearcat team.

Two weeks later, Anderson and Madison met again in the 11th Region semifinals at Lexington’s Memorial Coliseum. I was a 12-year-old at home, sick and having to listen to the radio broadcast. Through 32 agonizing minutes the teams battled to a draw. Three minutes of overtime settled nothing. Finally, Madison prevailed, 81-79 in two overtimes.

Madison would go on to the Sweet 16 where the Purples made it to the championship game before falling to Male, 70-69.

Anderson fans know that the Bearcats made it through the Eighth Region the following year and made their own run to the state final before losing to Male.

When Stephanie and I visited Mr. Vencil two weeks ago, I asked him about that epic game against the Bearcats in 1970.

He kind of chuckled and said, “When I was coaching, I didn’t remember too many games because I was getting ready for the next one. I remember that game over at Anderson at lot more because we got beat in that one.”

We both laughed. True competitors would readily understand.

What most around Anderson County did not know were the close ties between Upchurch, the Bearcat coach, and Vencil, who had been teammates at Eastern, winning the Ohio Valley Conference in 1959 before losing to Louisville in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

“I don’t recall the players being especially aware of how good of friends Ray Vencil and Coach Upchurch were,” Smith said. “We knew they played together, but were really not aware of their relationship,” he continued.

The common thread was Upchurch and Vencil had played for Anderson County native Paul McBrayer and their teams reflected McBrayer’s philosophy of being fundamentally sound and tough.

On the court they were fierce competitors. Off, they were best of friends.

And while at Eastern, Vencil was also a teammate of an Anderson County resident, Western High grad Bruce Springate. “Bruce was a good basketball player. He was slick,” Vencil smiled. “He was thin but just knew how to play. He would make a play and you didn’t know how it happened.”

And that brings us full circle.

Ray Vencil, you see, will be inducted into the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame on July 22. In addition to those great Richmond Madison teams, he led Elizabethtown to three state tournaments, including another runner-up finish in 1972, before going into administration.

Among the others to go into the Hall of Fame that night will be former Kentucky Colonel Darel Carrier, former Vanderbilt star Phil Cox, and former Tennessee star and current Kentucky women’s assistant coach Kyra Elzy.

The list also includes Robert Brooks, the star of those great Madison teams.

And Jack Upchurch, who is to be recognized for his accomplishments as a player at Wayne County.

“It means a lot to me to go in with Jack,” Vencil said. “The year before Jack died, I was in the hospital in Louisville. One day, I looked up and it was Jack. He came up to see me and said a prayer for me.”

We talked some more and somehow, I felt that this man I saw as a villain almost 50 years before was much different than the one I’d seen on the opposing bench. He’d left a coaching legacy that was far more than wins and losses and was the type of person who makes high school sports worthwhile.

My wife had told me, “Mr. Vencil is one of the kindest men you will meet.”

She was right. 

(This column appeared in the June 28 edition of The Anderson News.)

Believing in music!!

After seven months, I am back.

OK, maybe it’s not quite that dramatic, but this is my first blog post in a little over seven months. It really wasn’t planned that way, but just happened. 

I had total knee replacement surgery on Nov. 29, exactly seven months ago today. I went in thinking I would be in the hospital a night or two, would come home and be somewhat back to normal by the end of January, at worst.

Let’s just say I must have been overly optimistic.

I won’t go into all the details of my recovery, but most of the time, there is no pain in my knee and absolutely no pain radiating into my hip and back, as had been the case. That’s good. Real good.

In addition, I am about 30 pounds lighter. I am tickled with that, too.

However, I don’t have the range of motion I want, but pedaling my bike up and down the roads near my home has begun to help.

A few days after knee surgery, I asked for my guitar.

Yet, the thing that surprised me most was the mental fatigue I experienced, both at the physical therapist’s office and at home in between those sessions. I can’t describe how it felt but just know it was there. Because of that, I really don’t know how I would have made it through without music. More than anything else, my love of music kept me going.

And, being able to hear the joy of music was a welcome sound amid the noise and confusion of the world around us as seen on the 24-7 cycle of broadcast news.

I might have been trying to play anything from “Are You Washed in the Blood” to “Folsom Prison Blues” to “Take it Easy” on my guitar.

I might have been playing a CD or listening to Pandora. And, on those days when I was lying flat on my back, hooked up to a continuous passive motion machine, being able to pull up YouTube videos on my iPad was priceless. I think I memorized the entire video library of The Whites and Don Williams during that time.

And if you know me, you know I am a huge fan of The Oak Ridge Boys, back to the days when their hits were “Jesus is the Man for the Hour” or “While I’m Here.” Yep, I found videos that took me back to the days of plaid coats and pork chop sideburns that were in their heyday when I was in high school.

Triumphant imitated the Temptations during their concert.

Through the pain of recovery, music was there. Over the last few months I have been blessed by two of my favorite gospel groups, The Booth Brothers and Triumphant. I got to enjoy pianist Jeff Stice just a few weeks after my surgery. All performed at Sand Spring Baptist Church, just down the road from me.

Country singers J.D. Shelburne and Hannah Blaylock rocked my hometown of Lawrenceburg, Kentucky in May. Even though it rained right up until show time, we had a blast.

And in June, I was blessed to hear The Martin Family Circus – they are AMAZING – and just last Saturday attended at least my 33^rd Oak Ridge Boys concert. Those guys just keep going singing uplifting songs about loving people, loving the country and loving the Lord. After all, that is what it’s all about.

And that brings me full circle.  

The Oak Ridge Boys were incredible, as usual, for my 33rd show.

iMy mother probably developed my love of music. In addition to going to all of those “singings” – some of which lasted well past midnight – she played piano at Corinth Christian Church for 57 years and still sits in her wheelchair to play when she can at her nursing home.

Yesterday, her back was turned to me when I visited her. She did not see or hear me walking up behind her, but I could hear her. She was loudly singing the gospel classic, “The Old Rugged Cross Made the Difference.”

It was what is important to her.

Over the last seven months, I’ve learned just how important music can be and truly relate to what Mac Davis meant back in the 70s.

I could just sit around making music all day long

As long as I'm making my music ain't gonna do nobody no harm

And who knows maybe I'll come up with a song

To make people want to stop all this fussing and fighting

Long enough to sing along

Yep, I believe in the universal language. I believe in the power of music and hope you enjoy that power too.