The Candyman, Merit Free Healthcare

Bound to a wheelchair and with only one arm, he scoots across the floor with an almost sinister look on his face. As he bumps into an empty chair he peers up at the elderly couple occupying the adjacent spots and begins to slowly reach into his breast pocket. The look on their face went from painful discomfort and misery to fearfully quizical. From his pocket, the creepy criple draws a pair of Tootsie Rolls and reaches out to the frightened couple. An offering, with barely a voice he grunts "candy?" and cracks a small corner smile. To my surprise they accepted his strange offer and with gratitude, wished him a good day. About that time another gentleman burst out his greeting to the generous fellow.. "Candyman!" he said in a raised voice, "How ya doin today?" he asked. The gentle candyman continued to wheel around the waiting room and offer sweet treats to all who were so patiently waiting for their turn to finally be attended to.

Everyone in the place seemed more than displeased about the unreasonable amount of time that they were investing while clearly experiencing pain from whatever brought them there. People like the candyman bring a temporary light to an otherwise dark place. The James A. Haley Veterans Hospital is a black hole for those who had already done so much for their/our country. I sat there for many hours today, looking at everyone around me. There were all kinds of people with all kinds of problems, some were obvious like arms and legs that were, no doubt, sacrificed during wars and others just looked defeated. I'd love to dig the stories out of these broken heros, I'd love to know how they got here.

The other thing that struck me was the absolute inefficiency of the VA system. This is a highly (government) funded hospital with hundreds of volunteers trying to help. This is federalized healthcare. This is the very system that you'll be stuck with if the left gets their way. But hey... it's free!

Free is not quite the right word, I mean it's free for me, right now. It has cost me thousands back when I was working and paying into the system and will cost me much more when I get working again. But then, I can't choose my doctor, my pharmicist, my physical therapist, my brand name medication, my glasses or even my parking space so freedom is definatly not free. This is free healthcare that I would never choose to pay for.

My day: I have been ill for a few days so I called yesterday to make a free appointment with my assigned free primary healthcare provider. The closest available opening was to be nearly a month away, but I'm very sick so I needed free help sooner. They said to come in today, after 12:30 when it's not as busy, and they'd squeeze me in. When I showed up for free help they sent me to the ER because my free doctor was busy with lots of others needing free help. I signed in at the ER and sat down. It was an hour before the free triage nurse got a chance to ask me what was wrong. She then sent me to the free Urgent Care Clinic to try to get squeezed in there. At the UCC I was asked to sit down and wait for a free doctor to become free.

An hour later, the UCC told me that I'd have to go see my free Primary Care doctor and that I could get an appointment for next month. I told them that I'd already waited for two hours for free help and that I really needed to see my free doctor. I was sent to the waiting room and told that my free doctor would squeeze me in if they had some free time. Finally, five hours after getting off of the free bus that's provided to get us from the free parking at the nearby mall, I was let in to see my free doctor. within 7 minutes I had a free diagnoses and it was free of any type of testing. I was asked some questions and given a free Rx to take to the free pharmacy. Now happy because I had been in the black hole for more than five hours, I was finally free.

Then there is the free pharmacy, to make a long long story short, you wait an average of four hours for your free medication and if you miss your name being called you have to start over again.... free of charge. Thank God for Walgreens and free enterprise, I was willing to pay to avoid the free pharmacy.

Now imagine if everyone were in this system, 300,000,000 people waiting for free help. The employees would still be paid the same but would have much more to do. What motivation would they have to make it better? Your "free healthcare" would also be free from merit. The good news is that even in our worst place, the candyman will come to brighten our days. Oh boy! that's good news! But then, candy is unhealthy and would cause a drain on our free healthcare so it would become illegal. For that matter, everything is unhealthy for us or the environment so who knows what we'd live on.

So now lets throw something else in (thank you Tim). If my fever and diarrea were just symptoms of Swine Flu what would have happened in obamas world. I'd have gotten on a free crowded bus (because cars cause global warming) to get to the the local hub and infected forty people or so along the way. Then i'd have boarded another free crouded bus headed for the free hospital and infected others while everyone who rode the first bus with me passed it on to their contacts. Once we reached the free hospital, another forty or so infected people would have filed out and into the free hospital where they passed on the free flu to everyone else that was or would be waiting countless hours for free help. By the time the free doctor got to me, and assuming they actually did enough testing to find the flu, I would have passed on the free infection to countless people who had come and gone during my hours of waiting. Those people who have left would have already taken the free busses to where ever they were going and contacted many others along the way. Thank God/Obama for free healthcare because now everyones gonna need it.

If you can't see my point then crawl back to whatever elitist university you teach at or whichever law firm you practice at and put your blinders back on. For the rest of you, I beg of you, please do not force free healthcare on all of us. I don't think we are prepaired to pay the price. Oh, and if you think that my use of the word "free" was annoying, now you know how those of us who have "free healthcare" feel when you keep preaching about it.