I spent a few hours today at the hospital ER because the kid finally bonked himself hard enough to require stitches. To be honest I was surprised we hadn't been there sooner since the kid is both wild and reckless when he plays. We work really hard to try and keep him safe, just like any other parent but he is just too fast for us sometimes. A collision with my parents refrigerator left a small but deep cut in his head.

I was surprised to find that my hometown had no urgent care clinic. The tiny town I live in now has three but my hometown, none. We were stuck at the ER and that sucks. Not because I believe that we should get service quicker because I understand triage, it's that I know that they have more important things to do in an ER and they feel guilty about leaving a little boy with a cut in his head waiting. We never bugged them (well my mother asked once) but they kept coming out to reassure us, we would be next. Every time someone went in they assured us we were next. Of course that isn't going to be true. The next person will always be the person who needs it most.

This is something that people don't understand about the "wait times" predicted by folks out to squash universal healthcare. Right now, except in the ER, healthcare is doled out by ability to pay. This means the high rollers (the folks who pay cash, like foreign folks and the 1%) go to the head of the line. They are followed by folks with insurance and last by people on medicare and medicaid. Last, and usually not at all, come the folks who can not afford healthcare. Oh we will treat them if they are critical and come into the ER (they are required by law to treat everyone in the ER) but they don't have to admit them, they just need to stabilize them, then they can send them home. If you get cancer, you are not entitled to treatment in this country. Treatment isn't based on need it is based on ability to pay. Thus most people have never had to deal with an actual triage unless they have spent some time in the ER. Lots of cranky people in the ER, how dare you tell them someone else is more in need than them.

Yes, with universal care you may not jump to the front of the line because you have better insurance, you might have to wait behind someone who under our current system would be left to suffer until they were so bad that they were really just coming to the hospital to die. Only with universal care both you and the other person would both live.

It's too late to get into it (never time to write, especially when I want to write).

The kid is fine, a little glue and he was back in action. Still two days left of the holiday weekend.

gnite

I wish you Peace

~alison~

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