In my defense I spent my Sunday in a Howard County ER getting flu medication that, had I been at home would have been mine after a short visit to the doctor's office.
Sitting in an understaffed ER for roughly five hours gives one plenty of time consider the state of our health care system today.
For many of the uninsured, the ER replaces a primary care physician. In our current system the hospital is often forced to eat costs that go unpaid by those who can't afford to get sick. The elderly and uninsured are often forced to choose between medications with inflated prices or utilities payments. Recently free health care has been provided to those in some major american cities like LA by Remote Area Medical. They send Remote Area Medical to disaster sites and third world countries that barely have enough hospitals for their sick and health insurance doesn't even come into play.
Yet even those who are insured aren't being covered when they need it most. Dental isn't covered, Optometrists aren't covered, only certain hospitals are covered, only certain doctors. My mother's health insurance company tried to duck charges for the emergency caesarian section that saved both her and my little brother's lives. Apparently the anesthesia was unnecessary for the procedure.
One of the main argument against socialized medicine is that those needing vital procedures would have to wait to get them. They already are. They're waiting for their insurance companies to approve the life saving procedures that they can't afford but can't survive without. As it is our health care is controlled by the rich and vocal. All those people who stand in front of the capital with signs that say "Keep government hands off my Medicaid" while people die in ER's or drown in bills they can't pay. Only the rich can afford to stay healthy.
What kind of self respecting first-world country would have a system that put a price on health?
"Self-respecting" is an interesting adjective in this context. I wonder what you meant by it.
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