Scribblings

Universal health care explained for idiots

There are apparently some who think universal health care is a plot to turn us all into socialists. Quite frankly, you are better off looking to the bromance between Putin and Orange Goo to find that.

Some of the arguments you hear most often against universal health care are that if government takes over health care it will fuck up a perfectly functional system and it will cause us to have to wait in line forever to be seen.

The first thing is just laughable. If this is a perfectly functioning health care system, then why are so many people getting sick and dying from perfectly preventable or controllable diseases? So except for those people who still think the POS currently sullying the White House is a good president, I think this one can be put to bed with a laugh. No sensible person thinks our health care system is functional.

It’s the second part of the statement that always makes me a little crazy since, if you really think it through, it is actually an argument FOR universal health care. Follow me on this.

I have diabetes. I have no health care. I don’t qualify for medicare or medicaid. My only health care comes from the ER when I show up there in crisis. If universal health care were in place, I’d have to get into a long line to see a doctor for my diabetes so I could get it under control and not use up ER resources for a chronic and controllable problem. I may have to wait six months, but at the end of that period, I’d have a doctor to see and a way to get the medicine I needed. Without universal health care, in six months I’d still have diabetes and still not have a doctor I could afford to see or medicine I could afford to buy. Without universal health care, when that infamous six months runs out, I’d still depend on the ER for all my health care needs.

So is that simple enough for you? Yeah, there may be a wait time with universal health care. But at the end of that wait time, there’s a health care professional who can help you. Doesn’t that make more sense than reaching that six month mark with nothing more than another ER visit to anticipate?