I am EXTREMELY happy that someone pointed out that I may have to wait in line under a socialized health care system.

Right now, if I need medical care, I can, just like they do on TV, pick up my phone and WITHOUT EVEN DIALING, obtain an appointment WITHIN THE HOUR with whatever doctor I desire. Within 5 minutes a sedan chair arrives to ferry me to my appointment.

I'm just not willing to give that up, and I can't imagine why anyone else would be, either.

I mean, we're all getting this level of service, right? Wait for an appointment? Who does that?

To set their filthy feet on public property ....... let them do their bribing on private property.

The American people truly do get what they deserve ...... they are willfully ignorant of what is going on ...... I hate to say it but they just don't care.

Dear Garrison, whose words have often comforted and amused me,

I don't know if you were just trying to be kind to the righties, but saying

"the simple less-is-more approach is the genius of conservatism -- get out of their way and the people will provide -- and it holds true in many areas of life, such as education, the arts . . ."

doesn't really fly, I think. First of all, "less-is-more" is no less liberal or progressive than conservative: efficiency knows no ideology. But "get out of their way and the people will provide," which is indeed straight out of the right-wing homilies, doesn't make it in either education or the arts. Otherwise, why is public education withering on the vine, and why have you, and I as well, had to go to a benefit for a musician? Because the "people," meaning not "we the people," are actually not particularly interested in standing up for education and the arts.

I previously wrote: "If you're injured in an accident or having a heart attack you can't shop for the best deal in an emergency room/trauma center."

Agore replies: "That's exactly the situation medical insurance is supposed to be for."

I think you mean the medical emergency that costs big bucks. And I agree.

Point is, when the emergency happens you don't have the ability to shop around for the lowest price.

"Are you old enough to remember the days when an individual could buy "major medical" that for a reasonable premium would cover high-end trauma and disease?"

Yes - in fact, I'm old enough to remember doctors with little black bags making house calls.

"Because an individual could shop for it you could, pre-need, pick out a set of high deductibles that fit your personal situation."

Yes, you could. But think about why it was so affordable. One big reason was that there weren't so many treatments available, particularly expensive, invasive treatments. A lot of conditions that are now treatable resulted in death or disability back when.

"This has nothing to do with the "insurance" you are now forced to get from your employer, and your employer alone, which is really a prepayment scheme with rationing."

In theory, no one is forced to get insurance from their employer. Everyone can always opt out of employer-provided medical insurance. Of course in the real world most people don't have anywhere near enough money to do that.

So what happens is we retain the myth of 'choice' and 'free enterprise' but in fact we have rationing, waiting in line for treatment, huge management/administration systems, etc.

The most convincing proof is in the numbers: how much other countries spend on health care, their life expectancy, infant mortality, lost productivity, etc. The USA doesn't come anywhere near #1 in those things - except in dollars spent and percentage of people uninsured or driven to bankruptcy.

Republican aunt in South Carolina is convinced she will have to "wait in line" for treatment if the health care system is altered. That's what all of her neighbors tell her.

But then, they elected Mark "Appalachian Trail" Sanford, who also refused stimulus money for their "corridor of shame" educational system in SC.

Liberals have to stop preaching to the converted and turn to the hard-nut cases, who do nothing but hunker down in the suburbs and are afraid of any sort of change.

Ah, I see your aunt has the same sedan chair service I do!

But seriously, any ideas on how to reach the hunkered down folks? How are they getting their information? (No way are we going to get pro-health care reports on Fox News, for example.)

Over the past few years, I've been pleased to see loss-of-insurance and inadequate insurance storylines in fictional programs such as Grey's Anatomy and Scrubs, as I think that has actually helped raise awareness that there's a problem with things as they are.

The Strangest Thing

It has been my pleasure to witness and experience many interesting, unusually wonderful, and sometimes strange things. For instance, outside Woodland Beach, Delaware, I witnessed a fully naked man standing outside his car. He casually walked from the passenger’s side door and pranced in God’s full glory, buck ass naked, behind his car and to the driver’s side. He got in and shut the door. I was stunned.

This morning, after taking care of managing my resources, I made a left off of chicken road, yet again, and ended up behind a school bus full of watermelons. This was no ordinary sight. The driver had the door wide open and the sides of the school bus were completely cut off. The rear end of the bus looked perfectly normal, and riding behind it, one would believe it a normal bus except for the enormous heap of watermelons, at least five, peeking out the back windows like watermelon-headed aliens.

This was the least of the weirdness. The two year old snapping turtle lives in a rather large fifty gallon tank in my kitchen and has learned how to climb from her tank into the large dry tank, empty next to hers. This has been cause for concern. The snapper now eight inches across, hunts and consumes 25 minnows a week. She can take your finger off through the bone. It may be time for some rural scenes of “Born Free” on Lake Magnolia across the street. The tarantula, “Elizabeth”, will have to eat her crickets by herself. This is life in our jungle.

The Siamese cat, Simon, was eaten by a bobcat while we were away at the beach in Delaware. I am grateful not to spend the money on the cat food. I paid one hundred twenty dollars for my beloved pet to meet its maker in the jaws of a wild animal. Maybe its time to reevaluate kennels.

Yet, the strangest thing of all would be my friend that went in with a headache to see the doctor and left with news of a brain tumor and surgery the next day to yank it out. He lost his 19 inch head of hair and acquired a nice four inch scar on his left temple minus one meningioma. Wham! Bam! Thank you, ma’m.

Besides naked men, buses stacked high with melons, domestic pets consumed by alligators, and escapee snapping turtles, we have not experienced any unusual cell growth and all our financial assets are stable. We are grateful for our health, friends, family ties and their security and happiness.

Enjoy your blessed summer. Winter is around the corner.

9JULY2009 Andrea R. Campbell Copyright 2009

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