The Envy Of the World

 One of the hot button issues for this year's mid term elections is the status of health care, our access to it and our ability to afford it.

You may hear Democrats propose Medicare for all or some form of single payer health insurance.

This causes Republican to get their knickers in a knot, defiantly opposing any such plan like they have in Great Britain or Canada or dozens of other civilized countries around the world.

Republicans will protest "American health care is the envy of the world and going to a system like Canada will result in crowded waiting rooms and long waits for service."

Last week I had occasion to be caught up in the machinery of "the enny of the world" and spent nearly a whole day in a crowded waiting room with a very long wait for service.

First of all, it was not for me. My father in law John had a medical emergency and had to go to the hospital. Mandy, my brother in law's wife, had taken him there at 10:00 AM.  She stayed with him as long as she could but had to attend to her husband who was having his own medical problems to deal with.  

So I took up the baton at 2:30 PM.  

John had two interruptions in his wait, one for an X-Ray and another for a CT scan.

Otherwise we wiled away the hours in the waiting room of the envy of the world. 

It felt like we were in some kind of over crowded bus station is some third world country.  

Sitting on one side of us was a wizened old woman, small and frail, hunched over in a chair, frequently hacking up something into a bag and incessantly moaning for someone to help her. 

I'm sure she took some comfort in that she was receiving medical care from the envy of the world. Poor woman could be stuck in Canada where their health care system would leave her  hunched over in a chair, frequently hacking up something into a bag and incessantly moaning for---oh, wait a minute.

On the other side of John and I was a young man, his breath coming in gagged gasps and gulps, pleading for help that wasn't coming.  

A male would be patient staggered into the men's room near where we were sitting. A moment later, another man went in and came back out to ask if anyone worked there could help, there was man lying on the bathroom floor.

A security person opened the men's room door and I heard him say, "Dude, you can't lay on the bathroom floor like that."

I'm gonna hazard a guess it wasn't exactly this guy's idea of a good time. 

A nurse happened by and told the security guy, "We need to help this man."  

The hapless patient was helped from the floor into a wheel chair and was brought out of the rest room to receive immediate medical attention a spot to wait in the crowded waiting room.

Surrounded by these huddle masses yearning to be able to breathe and be relieved of their afflictions, my father in law missed few opportunities to remind me of his displeasure with these circumstances.

If I had a nickel for everytime he said "This is ridiculous", well, I wouldn't be rich but damn, that would be a lot of nickels.

John has been to me a mostly affable individual but in this situation, he was hardly that at all.  It was like dealing with an irritable toddler.

Except the irritable toddler was not wrong.

Periodically to appease my father in law, I would get up and chat with somebody.

The people I spoke with were very kind and patient... and absolutely useless. God bless 'em but they were overwhelmed with whatever was going on beyond those waiting room doors. 

Such is the burden of working for a health care system that is the envy of the world.

Eventually, John got to meet with a doctor at 6:30 PM.  Yes, 8 and a half hours after his arrival, he was finally getting a consult with a doctor about the dang problem that brought him there to the envy of the world.  

After getting a handle on what might be wrong with him and what he needed to do next, John was discharged at around 8:00 PM.  

I had to get firm with him about trying to discharge himself before the hospital staff came around with the paperwork.  That was not fun.  

Our exit took us through the waiting room that 8:00 PM still looked like some kind of over crowded bus station is some third world country.  

The wizened old woman was still out there, sitting under a blanket. She may have been dead for all I knew.

Finally at rest in the embrace of the envy of the world.  

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There's more to the story of my father in law's medical emergency but that is a tale for another time.