By John
I had forgotten about this issue but I though it important for today’s speech by the President and I had already posted last night. I hope no one thinks I'm trying to take up too much space.
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We live in the heart of Lemon, Avocado and Strawberry production for the nation. We have a large population from south of the border that picks your fruit.
People often wonder - because of the media hype about "...the 47 million uninsured... are they being taken care of" - who is paying the bills.
I will give you my two experiences with health care that set, in my mine, that the immigrant population, legal or illegal, are not suffering without health insurance.
About a year and a half ago I though I was having a heart attack because I was suffocating - I could not breath. We went to emergency at our community hospital at about 2 in the morning. Ahead of me was a farm worker in a straw cowboy hat, bleeding, that could not speak english (I speak spanish) who was inebriated and looked as if he had been beaten, and a female Indios, also who could not speak English who was about to give birth. She pretty much lost her water on the spot so it was definitely an emergency. I was, I though, having a heart attack, couldn’t breath, but I could wait. Its wasn’t a long wait.
Fast forward to the doc giving me my big fat sedative and making life peaceful for a fellow just having a panic attack (I have no idea why - I have a nice life). I asked the doctor about the two patients before me - this was a young doctor, of Asian descent - if this (the obviously uninsured using resources) is pretty common, and he said, “It goes on all night long”.
I don't think he was real happy from the way he looked around to see if anyone was listening. Perhaps this young Asian doctor who spoke better english than I, sees, day to day, something all of us don't from our ivory towers. And the Administration knows that.
I should mention that one homeless man, obviously well aquainted with the security guard, walked in with some ailment, too. White dude, acted like he owned the place, sat down, ate a Twinkie from his pocket.
Emergency care ain’t cheap. And someone took care of us. Me with my faux heart attack, a pregnat person, an indigent eating a Twinkie, and the bloodied up drunk farm hand with the straw cowboy hat. So don’t let people try to convince you that people aren’t being cared for if they don't have insurance. We had insurance and the other three likely did not. All in the same place, all received immediate attention.
People go to emergeny service all the time when they don't have insurance. That's how its done. No appointments and they don't care if you don't have insurance - only if you do.
And we, you and I, are bearing the burden of that already.
What Nationalizing public health might do is have us all going in the dark of night to emergency so we can get that excellent care and not have to wait in the new lines. But will the doctor's be allowed to be so nice to us all? There will be rules, lots of rules.
The second example is that our hospitals are taking care of pregnant uninsured as I spent some time in the maternity ward this past year as our family was having one baby of its own (yeah!). Rest assured, the uninsured pregnant immigrant legals or illegals are being cared for here too. I know that sounds like I might have a grudge on having to pick up the cost of this - and you do also - but I fail to see how Nationalizing Health Care will change any of this. Can you? Will the newly "insured" go to a better hospital? If so, we will have to build it because we already were at the best hospital and it's rated as excellent. Written by John
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