Obama's Health Care Thingy

Support Slips for Health Plan - WSJ.com

"Thingy" because I don't think it's a plan. It's more like an evolving idea that changes with the tide of non-support. So, it's more like play-dough than a plan.

That, and I don't like the idea of every hospital being run like a VA hospital. I'm a veteran, I was a Navy Corpsman, I've been to a couple of VA clinics/hospitals. They're fine for the most part, but when you want/need and pay for health care... no.

Part of the "thing" with national health care is the doctors don't give a flying fuck about you. I know, see above. I also know because one day back in either late '89 early '90 (20 or 21 years old), I hurt my arm, could barely stand to move it, so my mom (an RN) told me I needed to get it looked at. So, she gave me a ride to the VA hospital in Houston.

I had a couple of Xrays done, and then the doctor came in and he said I just sprained it. He couldn't see any break in the Xrays. My mom and her boyfriend (forgot his name) questioned the doctor, to which he informed us that he went to some really good medical school and whatnot, I don't remember which one, but I do remember thinking that he must know what he's talking about. Well, he was full of shit.

Years later, many refills of Motrin later, I went in to the VA clinic here in Austin and told them I needed to have surgery or something because my elbow was always giving me problems. I would have to warn friends that if we arm wrestled, that they automatically win if they hear a popping noise and to immediately let go. What would happen is if it popped, some serious pain soon came afterward. It would even happen when I would try to manually drive in screws.

So they refer me to the VA hospital in Temple. I can't remember if they took more Xrays or used the old ones, but they immediately noticed that my bone had been broken. It was a radial fracture, meaning a fracture sort of like how you split a log. I told them what had happened, of how I had hurt my arm in the first place (falling with outstretched arm) and they couldn't figure out how the first doctor missed it. It was way too late to do anything about it. So, from that fracture I had developed some spurs within the joint, and that's what was causing the pain.

The solutions weren't very desirable. I could have surgery, but chances were that the scar tissue and redevelopment of the spurs would eventually make the pain even worse, and prolong it. The other option... do nothing, live with it for a while long and over time the spurs would wear down on their own. They recommended doing nothing of course, and because these doctors actually seemed to either care to a degree or were just interested in the mystery of my elbow, even having a CAT scan done to verify what they thought was going on, I decided to tough it out.

Sure enough, within a decade my elbow started to seem, for the most part, fine. I lifted weights for a year a couple of years ago, and it didn't give me much problems. However, manually driving in screws, the act of applying force while twisting, is not even something I'm willing to try, unless it's easy. Manually putting in a new screw into solid wood... nope, not going to do it. I'll use a drill or whatever, but not a regular screwdriver.

So anyway, the thing I see when I hear about national health care is that first doctor, the one who supposedly had a great education, who seemed to act like I was being a pussy, who acted like he had better things to do than be bothered with me, the one who got everything wrong. That fucking dickhead. That's what I think I'll be getting, and eventually everyone will be getting, if it this thing gets passed.

Sure, we have good doctors out there now, but put in a national health care system... why the hell would those types become a doctor now? Unless you have someone truly dedicated to helping the sick regardless of pay... forget it.

Obama is a smart guy. I've met plenty of smart people, but that doesn't mean they're right all the time, and it doesn't mean they can be dead wrong about things. This is all an experiment for Obama... all of it... the bailouts, health care, Sotomayer... all of it. The experiment is akin to throwing a bunch of shit on the wall, and seeing what sticks.