The Absurdly Obvious Solution to Health Care
Posted: Monday, June 06, 2011
by e
Dhammabucha Rocksprings Meditation
Think about it; what did we do in the pioneer days out on the prairie when we came down with an appendicitis attack? We would go, “Ouch. ooh, ahh” for a few days and then die. Easy! No paperwork, no deductibles, no out of pocket expense, no arguing back and forth with insurance companies, doctors and hospitals - and no funeral expenses! Well, hardly any, maybe a shovel and a hand chiseled, homemade headstone, “Here Lies Clem. He Didn’t Have Health Insurance.”
We’re spoiled. We don’t know how to gracefully take excruciating pain anymore. I mean, other than avoiding pain and death, what do we need health insurance for anyway? A friend of mine, just the other day, broke his leg trying to remove his Happy Chimes from his foreclosed house. And by golly, he set that leg himself! It’s not that he didn’t have health insurance, but he didn’t want to pay the upfront, $5,000 deductible out of pocket expense. Not sure what a broken thigh bone costs to fix these days, but my wife broke her little toe a couple of years ago and went to the emergency room. After an x-ray and treatment, which consisted of the advice to, “Tape it to your other toe,” the bill was $1,000!
Oops, I digressed. Where was I - Oh, okay, so how do we fix health care? We fix it by not caring about our health! (Get it - health care, not care-ing about health?) Hmm.
So why worry about getting sick until you are sick? Then you can worry all at once. If everyone dropped their health insurance, doctors would get smaller doctors bags and make house calls again for a bushel of corn and a goat. I guess the loose corn (without the basket) would fit in the Porsche's trunk, and maybe the goat in the passenger seat holding the doctors bag, I don‘t know.
And hospitals would run specials: KIDNEY TRANSPLANTS - TODAY ONLY! - $50.00 WITH MAIL IN REBATE.” Nurses would learn how to knit again, and doctors would be chasing the nurses - again - while health insurance companies would be eking out a living by recycling eighteen million pages of exceptions and deductibles addendums.
And the Government? It would be partying with Wall Street. “No more Medicare and Medicade! Here comes more tax cuts for my wealthy friends!” Booyah!
Oh! I almost forgot . . . here’s a bullet to bite on.
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)I truly appreciate how lucky we are to have the health care system we do in Canada. I just spent the better part of five days at a hospital with my mother who had surgery and two blood transfusions. She will be in the hospital for weeks to come. It has been a horribly stressful time, emotionally and financially (off work to visit and hotel accommodations). I can't imagine the added stress of an enormous medical bill on top of it all. I remember when I was a child, our doctor making a house call when the entire family was down with a flu. Believe it or not, my mother's doctor made a house call as well, just a few months ago. I think it's very rare. Nice to see you back E.Thank you Brianna, I wish your mum well. You know, Republicans claim that Canadians hate their socialized medicine. Republicans know better than that, so it is just another lie. They are the cause of not getting real health care passed, and the cause of continued tax breaks for the wealthy that should be going to things like health care. Be careful of the conservative agenda in Canada. It's just a scheme to steal your benefits and your money.
Best.........eI truly appreciate how lucky you are too, to have the health care system you do in Canada. You deserve it because you had visionaries that cared enough about the common man/woman to care about his/her well being. I have extraordinary health care coverage in the U.S. Sure wish I could afford to use it. Good day.
Hi e.
Very amusing article about a fairly serious subject.
I'm one of those that thinks that doctors are for life threatening things and really wish that someone would offer some sort of catastrophic-only coverage at a decent price. Haven't found it yet. For most common ailments, you don't really need a doctor and besides, if it involves a virus, there isn't much a doctor can do anyway. If one does happen to recommend an anti-viral, don't take it. More often than not the side affects are worse than the illness. That's just me and my dislike of doctors and drugs speaking. And another thing, worrying about doctors and insurance and bills is not conducive to good health. Quite the opposite.
Oh, I broke my little toe once. It happened at the same time I was suffering with shingles. The pain of my toe made me forget the pain of the shingles for about an hour. Anyway, I didn't go to the doctor for either thing. Well there WAS the consideration that having a shingles outbreak as I did, I could give chicken pox to anyone who hadn't all ready had it, but even so, I wouldn't have gone for my toe. Those things heal on their own pretty well. Don't think I'd set my own thigh bone though. That took some grit.
As you can probably tell, I'm pretty well disillusioned with the whole dang thing. Bernd and I are some of those people who can not afford health insurance. Luckily for us, he's an optician and the doctor he works for gives us free eye exams and he gets his glasses for free and I get mine for cheap. Otherwise, I haven't been to a doctor other than a dentist in about ten years.
Sorry. I'll stop ranting now.
Hugs,
DianneYeah, two wealthy industrialized countries still don't take care of their people's health care - America and South Africa - and America is the wealthiest country in the world. Why doesn't America take care of the health care of its citizens? If you look back in history, Republicans have killed it. Socialism they say. And people who have no health insurance because they can't afford it, and then lose all their assets to doctors and hospitals, vote for them. Gotta go figure! When the lump appears or the mole turns black, we have no choice but to live with it..Thank you Ronald Reagan.
Keep taking your vitamins , practice yoga and meditation (the new, free health care) and with any luck, you'll die with your riding boots on in the middle of nature's lap.
Best of luck........e (And thanks)
One can't afford to get sick today in fact one cannot afford to die today.Ha! And one can't afford to live either! Boy, where does that leave us?
Thanks David
Get rid of medicare and medicaid which subsidizes health insurance that the few who can afford and afford to use it have, watch the premiums skyrocket because the price from the few will have to be increased to make up for the loss of revenue from welfare, the insurance companies fail, the hospitals go broke, and then and only then will you see any real reform. That is the only thing that this predominately self centered, greed stricken, as long as it is only happening to someone else's family, country knows. Or just admit that we are not near as good and wonderful a people as we have convinced ourselves that we are, which is what in my opinion we are presently displaying.Bravo. Bravo. You get it my man. We are but tiny canaries in the coal mine, and the gas is accumulating.
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