chez sickalot
26 February 2007It’s almost not at all headline news anymore. Another sinus infection is shacked up in my right cheek. Yay! Or something. I’d call this one moderately bad. Sleepy? Check. Crabby? Check. Tired? Check. Pain? Check. Painpainpain? Check. Puffy? Check. Outrageously thirsty? Check. Piles of kleenex? Check.
Because I’m so tired of all this, I waited two days to go get a prescription for it because I don’t know, pretending the germ factory isn’t open for business again was a valid treatment option and I thought I’d try out that one out and see how that worked.
And? Not so much.
One year and two weeks, today.
Our healthcare system is so broken. I can’t imagine I’m saving anyone any money with not being able to get in to see a primary care physician that’d take my insurance, and having to go to the emergency room so I can get a prescription for antibiotics.
But that’s exactly the situation I’m stuck in.
I’m grateful I have medical insurance at all, but still, it hurts, I suppose literally so at this rate, that it is not a simple matter to get basic health care.
I don’t know if any of you watched the State of the Union last month or read the transcript, but at one point, tax deductions were mentioned as a way to enable people to acquire health insurance. What a joke! How many people would that really make a difference for? If you’re in a position where a deduction would make the difference between insured and not, wouldn’t you by definition be also in the position where you needed the cash up front to pay for it in the first place?
But that’d be too easy.
Everyone needs and deserves equal access to medical treatment. Regardless of income and/or type of insurance. That the insurance situation is this bad in America is, at best, unconscionable.
I’m with you on that one and how. If my insurance ever lapses, I’ll never get insured again…
I hope the antibiotics help and fast.
You are so right about Bush’s proposed “reform” being a bad joke. For a tax deduction to help you, you have to earn enough to pay taxes in the first place. And the people who don’t have health insurance….
Fraro, you know I don’t usually comment but this issue is near and dear to me, for obvious reasons.
I find it rather ironic that certain people in the US will tell you that universal health care would lead to rationing, when rationing is obviously what we have today. Nearly all aspects of the system are completely irrational — many people can’t pay, so we raise the prices. Insurance companies, of course, get special negotiated prices — so the poor get charged more than the rich. We let US companies charge their own country’s citizens — the people who pay the taxes to fund the basic research these companies exploit — MORE than they charge people in other countries. We bury perfectly good organs in the ground just because people who don’t care either way didn’t bother to specify a preference. People with chronic conditions become slaves to “continuing coverage”, unable to consider any career paths other than working for a big company. We could use more doctors, but the establishment makes sure that you have to go through living hell to become one, to the point where even children of doctors prefer to become veterinarians.
So yeah, I’m sure there are some people who would appreciate a chance to buy tax-free coverage who can’t already get that through their employer, but that’s twiddling with the cabin lights when the wings are on fire. The bottom line is that, as a society, we ought to be getting much better results for what we spend. The question is not only when we will stop blaming people for getting sick. The question is when we will stop throwing our money away on a failed system.
And a Natl Healthcare system would be so much better because look how great all our other nationsl stuff is going! [insert cynicism & sarcasm]. But yeah, it’s crazy today. There’s not a hope of being able to pay for your own visits, if your doctor even let you.
Also DO NOT LET A SINUS HEADACHE GO. Sheesh. I’m half blind because of one.
Feel better soon! Medical/Health insurance is the pits. :b