Some Comments On Health Care

Well, Congress has passed, and President Obama has signed, legislation that has greatly changed health care in the United States.

If you want the details, please go to other web sites -- preferably news sites and those sites of a liberal/progressive nature.

Don't go to conservative sites. Too, too many of them have opposed health care reform. Some have mentioned the free-market approach to health care.

Well, if our health care system in the U.S. is free-market oriented, then why can't I open, say, my brain-surgery center next week?

That's the snarky, sarcastic, smart-ass reply. For one, I'd be arrested and charged for practicing medicine without a license. I would get one if it was like, say, getting a permit for any other business. But the medical establishment won't allow that.

Health care in the U.S. had a serious flaw. Medicine in this country is a guild, with admission to it very, very limited, and it charges what it wants, like any businessman.

I have a personal example of how screwed health care was, and I bet will be in the future.

Back on a Sunday night in December 1977, I was opening a pack of lunch meat to make a sandwich when the knife I was using to cut open the pack slipped and cut the underside of the middle finger of my left hand.

I tried to wash it and bandage it, but blood from the wound still kept flowing. I decided that I couldn't fix it myself, so I went to the emergency room of my local hospital.

When I got there, the people in charge realized that situation didn't need immediate care, so I waited until help was available. A nurse came and washed it. She said I would need a shot to fight any possible infection, but had to wait on the doctor on duty to give it.

I found that funny, because junkies give themselves shots all the time. They didn't need any specific training to do that.

The doctor came, gave me the shot, and then sewed up the wound.

The whole procedure, if I remember correctly, cost between $220-$230. The nurse or any emergency medical technician could've done it. But the doctor had to do it.

So I have little pity with doctors and insurance companies who piss, bitch and moan about the changes. They overcharged; they're the type of people who give capitalism and the profit motive a bad, bad name.

This is all that I have to say about the situation as of now. If I have anything else to add, I'll put it in this post later.