No Waiting Necessary

I just got back from my annual check-up with my cardiologist–for those of you who like this blog, a href=”http://drhelen.blogspot.com/2005/10/more-than-you-wanted-to-know-about-my.html”my heart /ais doing great, for those who don’t like it–tough, I’m going to live to antagonize you another day! I always drag a book or other reading material with me to occupy my time in case there is a wait. Since we’re heading into tax time, I took a href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743237498?ie=UTF8tag=wwwviolentkicomlinkCode=as2camp=1789creative=9325creativeASIN=0743237498″emIt’s Never Too Late to Get Rich: The Nine Secrets to Building a Nest Egg at Any Age/em/aimg src=”http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wwwviolentkicoml=as2o=1a=0743237498″ width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″ alt=”” style=”border:none !important; margin:0px !important;” / thinking I could read about municipal bonds or how to save on taxes but I never got a chance to pull the book out. Instead, I was whisked from the waiting room into the examining room within a few minutes and given an EKG, had my blood pressure taken, my heart listened to and an exam in a timely and efficient manner.br /br /Since I didn’t have any big complaints, I shot the breeze with the doctor for a bit and told him how nice it was to be seen so quickly and the conversation turned to socialized medicine. He expressed concern that heart patients, especially those who needed to be seen quickly for emergencies would not be seen in the timely manner they are seen now should universal care come to pass. “I was recently at a medical convention of cardiologists,” he stated, “and ran into a cardiologist from England. He said that the waiting list over there was for a period of months for those with heart problems and even those with emergencies such as heart by-pass were not being seen quickly. Somehow, those with the most moolah were ending up getting treatment, while everyone else waited.” br /br /Many people who clamour for universal healthcare have never been sick or involved in the healthcare system–right now, care is emgenerally/em available for various illnesses, not 100% of the time, but a good portion of the time. The current system may not be perfect by any means but those who have emergencies at least have the emergency room, lower fee clinics and other means of getting care–sometimes for free from doctors who volunteer their time. Imagine being on a waiting list for heart bypass or another emergency for months or having others with more cash or connections go in front of you. A universal system seems ripe for corruption. It sounds more fair, but often, like so many other government-run organizations, those with the most clout rise to the top and the rest of us sit and wait….