“All right, Mr. Golden, open up and say, ‘aaaaaaaaahhh.’”
“Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh ...”
“Very good. Now I want you to lay back and take a couple of deep breaths for me so I can listen to your breathing ... hmm ... OK ... very good.”
“So, Doc, what’s the prognosis?”
“Well, to be quite honest, I’m not really sure. Which is why I’m ordering a full battery of tests, as well as blood work and a CAT scan.”
“Umm ... is all of that really necessary, Doc?”
“Again, I’m not really sure. But you know what they say, better to be safe than sorry, right?”
And this, my friends, is why I don’t go to the doctor anymore. This and the way hospital staff members’ eyes would light up when informed that I had no health insurance, back in the day before I came to write for our hometown daily.
What can I say? Unless I’m – literally – on my death bed, I really don’t want anything to do with the hospital ... any hospital. Trust me, it’s not that I don’t think they know what they’re doing, they’re highly paid professionals, right? No, it’s simply that I can’t afford – even with insurance – to pay for a service that has no guarantee of success.
You know, the whole “take two of these and call me in the morning” thing. But what happens when – after you’ve paid for “two of those” – you’re still feeling ill? Do I get a refund? Is the doctor who prescribed said medicine going to pay for services rendered out of his own pocket?
Somehow, I doubt it.
Needless to say, the healthcare (and healthcare reform) issue that continues to be debated by both right and left-wingers is a complicated one. And I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no expert on the topic. Yet there are a few questions that always seem to spring to mind whenever I take a moment to consider healthcare reform, like this one ... isn’t our government’s current policy in regards to military veteran’s and their healthcare a form of ... gasp ... socialism? Ahh, but veterans are government employees and therefore deserve special treatment (kind of like the politicians on Capital Hill with their lifetime reward of free healthcare, right?).
Which begs the question ... just what is your average American’s role in government? Aren’t we all government employees in some way, shape or form? Particularly those of us who pay for our government in the form of taxes? Wait a minute, isn’t this supposed to be a country of, by and for the people? And wouldn’t that make us the ones in charge?
And now – as is typical whenever I happen to ponder our country’s now-senseless set of priorities, rules and policies – I’m ... somehow ... beyond confused.
One week later ...
