Was I In The Emergency Room, Or Walmart?

My mom fell yesterday afternoon, in her living room and couldn't get up.  She was on the floor until this morning when she finally made her way to her purse, got her cell phone and called her neighbor, Jill to come and help her.

By the time Deb and I got there, the paramedics had left.  She was showing no signs of a stroke, or a heart attack and they didn't think she needed to go to the hospital.  Once she was up, she could walk to the bathroom, and said she felt fine.  So we left her to take a nap on her couch, and I went home to look into one of those, "I've fallen and I can't get up" buttons for the house.

An hour later when I called her to tell her I ordered it, and it would arrive shortly, she said she had fallen again.  And couldn't get up.

So we went over, and she was on the floor in front of the couch.  Said she went to stand up, and just kind of slid onto the floor and couldn't move.  She didn't hit her head or anything.  She just wanted Deb and I to help her up, said she would be fine.  Except she was not.  And she couldn't sit up.  Even on the floor.

Call 911, part deaux.  She didnt' want to go to the hospital, but I felt that at this point it was that or prop her up in a corner with a bottle of water and the remote control and come back in the morning.  So off we went.

The only thing they could find wrong with her at the hospital was a bad urineary tract infection, but decided to keep her overnight.  I think that was the right decision.  And I hope they get her better soon so she can go home.

But my experience in the ER was troubling.

Any one who knows me, knows that there is no one more left wing then me.  I'm pro Union, I support the poor, I wish we had a national health care system, so any one who was sick, could go to a  doctor.  I worked with poor people all my life.  And today only proves that the Liberal view of this national health care argument is the right one.

The ER looked like that, "We are the people of Walmart" video that was so popular.  Bad haircuts and bad tattoos were just the start.  These people were truly sick.  You could tell by looking at them.  No one should be that skinny, that fat, that dirty, that miserable in, "The Greatest Country In The World"!  I'm quite sure none of these folks had insurance.  Otherwise, why would they be in the Emergency Room on a Sunday afternoon when they were not bleeding, or suffering some other, obviously, life thereatining condition?

And this is not like it used to be, at lest in Utah.  People in ER's were three for a ligit EMERGENCY!  A broken bone.  They needed stitches.  Now?  My baby threw up?  Take her to the ER.  I can't stop coughing?  Go to the ER.  Tylenol didn't cure my headache?  Go to the ER.

And it was obvious that some of them were regular customers.  I recognized the blister packs of antipsychotic drugs they used to give the residents of the halfway houses.  And they seemed to know the staff.  There were lots of clues that this is a regular outing for the whole family.  After all, if you can't afford a baby sitter?  Just bring all the kids to the ER.

So I have to ask my Republican friends, who don't want a national health care plan if they think THIS is the most efficent use of our health care funds.  Stack up a bunch of our poor people in Emergency Rooms, where they wait all day to get treated for something that could be better addressed in an office visit to a regular doctor, and it would cost ten times less?  ER's are expensive.

Wouldn't you rather have everyone get a national health care card, and be able to see any doctor, for any minor problem and the doctor gets paid, the patient gets treated and ER's are for Emergency's?

I know what some of you are saying (and I even know which ones of you are saying it).  No!  Government isn't the answer.  Canadians hate their health care system!  They have rationing, and you can't always get treated!

OK, I'm going to ask you guys saying that, "Have you ever been to Canada (Or England, or France, or Greece, or Belize, or Mexico, or Grenada, or Cuba, or ANY where outside the USA)?"  Cause if you have NOT.  You need to shut the fuck up.  You don't know what you're talking about.  And you are believing a big old, "Faux News Lie" that they keep telling you because they want you to believe that you are getting the best, most efficent, low cost health care in the world.  And it's a lie.

But don't believe me.  Go to France.  And if that's cost prohibitive, go to the library and find a copy of, "Deadly Spin" by Wendell Potter.  For twenty years, Potter was the head of corporate communicatios for CIGNA.  Dont' know who GIGNA is?  Well, chances are that if your employer provides your health insurance, they are your insurance provider.  They are one of the biggest.

And if you think, "Faux News" is actually news?  Have someone explain what a, "library" and a, "Book" are.

Our health care system is broken in this country.  And, "Obamacare" is a nice start.  But it doesn't go far enough.

So the next time you're in the ER, and your kid has a broken arm, and the best they can do for you is a bag of ice and a Tylenol, while he sits there for four hours (happened to me a few years ago when my son broke his thumb at soccer practice) because the doctors are treating everyone who should be able to go to the doctor when they get sick like in every other industrialized country in the world, because he's not bleeding to death, so he'll, "keep"?   Ask yourself if keeping your taxes lower, but paying outragous premiums for health insurance that could be canceled if you REALLY get sick is worth it.

Have fun in the ER.  Your wait time is...