If you've ever read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, you know that "Wonderland" is not a happy place to be. Nothing makes sense there, and when Alice tries to get out of the underground warren she falls into, she is thwarted at every turn by absurdity. Nothing is as expected; everything is illogical; nothing makes sense; frankly, the place is terrifying.
Just like today's health care system in these United States of America.
Now, I've had some good doctors, and I'm not here to doctor-bash. Nearly all of the absurdities I've been subjected to have been thanks to the insurance companies--you know, the ones that are supposed to pay for services to make us healthier but, in fact, are money-making entities far more interested in lining the pockets of their CEOs and shareholders than in taking care of the sick who rely on them and who pay for their coverage. We are their customers, and if they didn't have a monopoly on the whole thing, they couldn't get away with what they do. If we had a choice about how to pay the astronomical costs of taking care of ourselves--those skyrocketing costs ALSO thanks to those same filthy rich CEOs and soul-less company owners--we'd never shop at their "stores," ever.
But we can't vote with our feet. We can't take our business down the street to get a better deal. They've got us in their gnarly fingers and are pushing pins into our inert bodies while pocketing all the money in their bank accounts overseas--not even keeping our dollars right here in the good ol' USA.
Oh, well, hey. That's what Obamacare is all about--breaking that monopoly.
And half of the U.S. citizenship is too brainwashed and misinformed to understand why this is so much to their benefit, and so they allow the idiots like Rand Paul get away with blocking the ONE thing that could turn this economy around pronto, which is making those filthy rich keep their money right here in our country and making them pay their fair share of taxes like the rest of us working stiffs.
I make less than $40,000 per year, and I have to pay out of my OWN pocket almost $300 to get health insurance and prescription coverage. I haven't done the math, but I guarantee you that's a big percentage of my hard-earned pay.
What portion of our fine lawmakers' salary do THEY have to fork over for the health insurance we, the American people, pay for with our tax dollars? I'll bet nada, not one cent out of salaries that far exceed what most of the middle class can even hope to see in this stagnant--thanks to the filthy rich--economy.
Yes, this is the ugly truth about being sick in the U.S. today. We, the patients, are nothing but a commodity to be bought and sold on the market like slabs of meat. Insurance companies deny our coverage in order to give their CEOs bonuses; insurance companies force doctors to see too many patients in order to meet their malpractice premiums; persons with serious illnesses are forced to jump through an increasingly illogical series of hoops in order to get the minimum of care; patients still pay through the nose for their medical care even with "good" insurance like mine; and [many] doctors are more interested in their research profiles than in our health and wellness.
I say it's time for a revolution. Patients empowered against the filthy rich insurance executives; patients empowered against a system ostensibly created to help them but which insidiously and even blatantly destroys what little health they have left with its absurd rules and requirements.
Like the red queen in Alice, and the paupers in 1780's France, I say "Off with their heads!" And I'm only half kidding. No, I don't literally want a blood bath, but heads need to roll in the gilded halls of today's corporate insurance thieves. Obamacare may be flawed--it was based on a Mitt Romney plan, after all--but it's pointing us in the right direction at last. Personally, I'd prefer universal health care, but I have to admit the Affordable Care Act has the power to keep many more folks happy in this country than universal care would--if they'd only unstuff their brains and realize it. It would be utterly stupid to throw it out and start all over, give filthy rich corporate owners, CEOs, and other such hoodlums even more permission to rob us blind.
No, I'm not anti-business. I'm anti runaway corporate power; I'm anti two-system America in which the mega rich hold all the strings and the rest of us dance like puppets on them until we, sick, exhausted, bankrupt, and defeated, finally drop dead in our tracks.
We're in a fine fix, America. My prayer for you is that you don't get sick--because only then will you truly understand how stacked this system is against you.
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N.B. If you saw an earlier version of this episode--a bit of a rant after a disappointing encounter with the health care system--I am pleased to report that the kidney doctor with whom I'd had an upcoming appointment scheduled for five months, and which had been suddenly cancelled by her office this past Friday--well, this Wegener's expert called me this morning and I now have an appointment to see her on April 8.
My faith in doctors has been strong throughout this disaster of a plunge into the netherworld of U.S. health care, but I was not the most generous soul about them when I originally wrote this episode. I've had a few BAD doctors (need an Alice corollary here), but most have been wonderful, and my faith in them was restored with my new nephrologist's phone call this morning.
Now, if the insurance companies would just let doctors do their jobs, maybe we could start digging back up out of this underworld back into the fresh air and clarity of health care the way it's supposed to be delivered and paid for.
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