The Truth About the Nightmare of Government-Run Health Care

Our good friend Blue Girl has the low-down:

My husband and I have single-payer healthcare and it is funded on your dime.

Now, granted, we made a bargain early in our lives that make us eligible for this wonderful benefit, but we made that bargain because we give a good god-damn about the people of this country.

Still, I want to set the record straight on government healthcare.

It is most certainly not a "nightmare" of wait times and inconsistency.

It fucking rocks, and it is a model of efficiency.

I have told you before that the primary selling point for me is the fact that all care is coordinated by my primary care physician, and every doctor I see has access to the same chart. Whether I see my orthopedist or my oncologist/breast specialist or my gynecologist or my primary care physician, or a nurse-practitioner in urgent care, the provider sees one chart. That right there can save your life by avoiding a severe, perhaps fatal, drug interaction. They also make a big deal out of keeping us healthy instead of waiting until we get sick and managing chronic conditions. That is because our doctors are salaried instead of chasing fees for every fucking service they can think of to order and bill for.

Now - a tale of two visits:

A little over a month ago, I woke up with the beginnings of a minor problem that could have easily resulted in a two or three day hospital stay if it had gone untreated. I called my doctor's office at 9:30, got a call back at 9:45 telling me that they had worked me in at 1:45 that afternoon. I arrived on time, was taken directly to an exam room, waited less than ten minutes for the nurse practitioner, walked out of the exam room ten minutes later and went down to imaging studies where I was promptly worked in for a sonogram. By four p.m. the NP had the report and by five I had started my prescription. Three weeks later, I was seen for a follow-up in a specialty clinic, where the sonogram was repeated. Total out-of-pocket expenses for two visits, two sonograms and a prescription: $16.89. For a non-routine visit and a follow up.

Today, my husband had a routine check-up.

We were about five minutes late, so he went to registration and I went down the hall to the clinic and told the receptionist that he was there. He came in about five minutes later, was called back within another five and in five more, I had to go find him. I thought he was just getting his vitals and would be back to the waiting room, but he was taken right to a room, and his doctor was already in the room, and his appointment was well underway.

No copay. Total cost: Twelve bucks for two prescriptions.

Yeah. "Socialized medicine" sucks. I'm sure your Kaiser/UHC/WellPoint just puts our deal to shame.

Seriously. When I hear the republicans rail about how we have the "best healthcare in the world!" my husband and I just look at one another. Yeah. We do. We do.

How dare the fucking republicans and blue dogs disparage the care we get as substandard and compromised! It absolutely, positively is not. It is high quality healthcare, instead of high-dollar sickcare.

Like I have said before and I will say again...

THIS SHIT NEEDS TO BE UNIVERSAL

And this one.