I want to live in a country where if a scary medical thing happens to me, I can be scared shitless about dying, ending up paralyzed, going blind, being severely brain-damaged, etc. instead of worrying about how damn expensive it's all going to be.
I want to live in a country where if I have to go to the hospital, I'm worrying about things like: Will I have a roommate? What if we don't get along? Will my doctors and nurses be nice? What if I develop a crush on one of them? Will the hospital food be awful? Will the bathrooms be gross?
I don't want to be frantically worried about how much they're charging me for an Advil and the little white cup holding the Advil.
Today on Countable I read about Bernie Sander's single-payer system.
It sounds so wonderful.
No premiums.
No deductibles.
No copayments.
No surprise medical bills.
Drug prescription costs would be capped at $200.
It would cover dental, hearing, vision, mental health, maternity, reproduction, substance abuse, and all that other medical stuff.
Countable reassured me about the cost to our country. Yes, like Joe Biden has said. It will cost trillions of dollars. At least I think it was Biden who has been saying that. Because he's all attached to ObamaCare.
Heaven Forbid we improve upon an improvement.
Anyway, though....
Countable says that yeah, it will cost that much. But we're already spending 3.6 trillion a year on Healthcare.
I wish I had been smart enough to ask that question while watching the Debates. How much do we spend on Healthcare already? I didn't even consider it. I just thought...well, it's a lot of money. But it would be worth it.
The other thing I thought of while reading about Sander's utopian vision is whether it would actually be any good. Okay, fine the doctor is free now. But what if it's really shitty care?
I quickly argued back with myself. If it is shitty, at least it's cheap.
And that's better than the healthcare I've been experiencing the last several years. It's expensive AND bad.
I think I'd be a bit happier about things if we paid these large bills, but I was paying for someone like Gregory House or Shaun Murphy to diagnose and treat me.
You know how people say they want doctors that treat them like people. They don't want to be just seen as a patient or a disease. Yeah, that would be ideal. But I'd be content to have a doctor who was even, actually interested in my medical problems! He doesn't need to know the name of my cats or that I was born in Illinois, or that I've been to Australia three times. But I'd love a doctor with insatiable curiosity about medical things.
That being said, my primary caretaker—not a doctor but a physician assistant, DID seem fascinated by my rash, and she did take the time to notice that I might have a blood clot. So she IS kind of like my dream doctor. And she's nice, and she's a Disney fan. That's all very cool. But she gave me a hard time about going back on birth controls even when I pointed out the science agreed with me and not her. So...that was annoying.
Anyway....
I would love it if Bernie Sanders became President and we miraculously, quickly moved to a single payer system. AND on top of all that, medical treatment improved—better doctors, better medicine with less side effects, more effective medical tests, less waiting, quicker appointments, etc.
If that idealistic dream doesn't happen, I hope we at least can have our same fairly crappy medical care but not have to deal with huge bills.
I want to live in a country where if I have to go to the hospital, I'm worrying about things like: Will I have a roommate? What if we don't get along? Will my doctors and nurses be nice? What if I develop a crush on one of them? Will the hospital food be awful? Will the bathrooms be gross?
I don't want to be frantically worried about how much they're charging me for an Advil and the little white cup holding the Advil.
Today on Countable I read about Bernie Sander's single-payer system.
It sounds so wonderful.
No premiums.
No deductibles.
No copayments.
No surprise medical bills.
Drug prescription costs would be capped at $200.
It would cover dental, hearing, vision, mental health, maternity, reproduction, substance abuse, and all that other medical stuff.
Countable reassured me about the cost to our country. Yes, like Joe Biden has said. It will cost trillions of dollars. At least I think it was Biden who has been saying that. Because he's all attached to ObamaCare.
Heaven Forbid we improve upon an improvement.
Anyway, though....
Countable says that yeah, it will cost that much. But we're already spending 3.6 trillion a year on Healthcare.
I wish I had been smart enough to ask that question while watching the Debates. How much do we spend on Healthcare already? I didn't even consider it. I just thought...well, it's a lot of money. But it would be worth it.
The other thing I thought of while reading about Sander's utopian vision is whether it would actually be any good. Okay, fine the doctor is free now. But what if it's really shitty care?
I quickly argued back with myself. If it is shitty, at least it's cheap.
And that's better than the healthcare I've been experiencing the last several years. It's expensive AND bad.
I think I'd be a bit happier about things if we paid these large bills, but I was paying for someone like Gregory House or Shaun Murphy to diagnose and treat me.
You know how people say they want doctors that treat them like people. They don't want to be just seen as a patient or a disease. Yeah, that would be ideal. But I'd be content to have a doctor who was even, actually interested in my medical problems! He doesn't need to know the name of my cats or that I was born in Illinois, or that I've been to Australia three times. But I'd love a doctor with insatiable curiosity about medical things.
That being said, my primary caretaker—not a doctor but a physician assistant, DID seem fascinated by my rash, and she did take the time to notice that I might have a blood clot. So she IS kind of like my dream doctor. And she's nice, and she's a Disney fan. That's all very cool. But she gave me a hard time about going back on birth controls even when I pointed out the science agreed with me and not her. So...that was annoying.
Anyway....
I would love it if Bernie Sanders became President and we miraculously, quickly moved to a single payer system. AND on top of all that, medical treatment improved—better doctors, better medicine with less side effects, more effective medical tests, less waiting, quicker appointments, etc.
If that idealistic dream doesn't happen, I hope we at least can have our same fairly crappy medical care but not have to deal with huge bills.
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