Doonesbury Say What?

[thewayne]

"There are no Americans who don't have healthcare. Everybody in this country has access to healthcare."
-- Rep. Virginia Foxx

I guess she's the rep from the State of WTF, or perhaps the State of Denial. Or perhaps she just counts having no insurance and going to the ER being health care.

Comments

[vaudy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, in my experience, doctors like being paid. I'm pretty sure if I go into the average doctor's office (or even someplace like the urgent care clinics they have in Walgreens and CVS now), and say I have no money to pay them, they will very politely tell me that they can't see me.

Being able to go to the ER whether you can pay or not is not fucking health care, because you can only do that for, you know, emergencies. Preventative health is a pretty important part of healthcare (and maybe if people had better access to preventative healthcare, fewer people who can't pay would end up in the ER when their health problems become catastrophic).

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I first heard about the Walgreens clinic a month or two ago, I think that's a great idea. It may not be free, but it's beneficial. The Walgreens pharmacy by my apartment just went to 24 hours, which is cool, hopefully I'll never need it. One thing that I really like about what Obama is trying to do is they're trying to put more of an emphasis on prevention and improving health rather than treating everything as it happens, which could greatly decrease later term care.

[silveradept]

That last sentence is exactly what they think. Every American can go into an ER, signing away any hope they had of anything less than bankruptcy, and maybe be able to extend their lives for a while. A lot of the time, when it gets so bad they go to the ER, it's too late.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine, a librarian in Phoenix, flew to Thailand with a companion to get her gall bladder removed because of no health care, and she saved money compared to having it done in the US. Absolutely unacceptable.

[silveradept]

Completely unacceptable. What do you do about those who don't have the money to fly to Thailand, have the procedure done, and fly back? But you know, there's always a special interest looking out to make sure they can exploit the populace to their own profits.

[donkey-hokey.livejournal.com]

Maybe this politician is a time traveller, from a future where the uninsured have all died off from stuff that could have easily been fixed by doctors, and she forgot what year it is.