I took part in this action
(that resulted in the video above) and you can see a very unflattering
(but definitely pathetic and sick-looking) photo of me in the middle of
this video. (Hint: I look less Asian the older I get. Plus: bad hair
day.) I've been sick since I was eleven years old with an unpreventable genetic disease, and I'm "uninsurable" ... at least in the US I am. In Europe, most of Latin America and Asia, and Australia, as well as many countries in Africa, I'm totally insurable. But in the most powerful country on Earth? Not so much.
Aside from the horrible injustice of people dying of easily curable diseases because they can't afford to pay for the cure ... aside from the huge weight on our economy of masses having to make financial sacrifices (like, you know, losing their homes) for life-saving medicine ... aside from the fact that we're losing services in less lucrative sectors (like the arts, media, after school programs, summer education, adult education, sports, all social services that aren't government agencies, etc.) because the people who do the work can't afford to work part time anymore because they don't get insurance that way ... aside from all that, it's just plain embarrassing that we're such a podunk-ass backwards country that we don't have the same things all other industrialized nations have. What kind of savages are we?
For those of you wanting to unload a pile of shit about how we're all
pinkos and there will be death panels and five hour waits for doctor's
visits ... don't. Newsflash: pretty much everyone who has ever lived
with government subsidized health insurance (in another country), and
then lived with the nuclear nightmare we call US healthcare today,
supports government subsidized health insurance. Including me.
I got
good, affordable health care in Germany while I lived there. And yes, I
did have to wait an hour, often two, to see my doctor. He was
also the best doctor I've ever had. I could get in to see him any day
of the week. Emergency? No problem, come on down. And he spent all the
time I needed him to spend with me, answering all my questions. He
could never tell ahead of time how long our visits would last, because
each visit was unique to what was going on with me at the time.
That's why the long wait. And you know what? I'll take it again. In fact, I expect it. If you can't get time off of work for long doctor's visits, that's terrible, but that's a different issue.
Talk to your union rep about it. What? You don't have a union? Huh,
funny, they have those everywhere where there's universal health care.
I wonder if the two issues are related ...
Okay, have at it now, but watch your language.
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