I Have Socialized Medicine!

If you want it, you can have mine.

Many people don’t realize that the military is the prime example of socialized medicine. Military families go through TriCare, which is funded by tax dollars. Is it nice that I can go in to see a doctor without paying a dime upfront? Yes. Is it nice to know that my surgeries are paid for? Yes. Is it the best service? No. Would I be willing to pay out of pocket for care that is better? Absolutely.

I, like many other military spouses, know firsthand what a government run health system is like. We have to wait in lines, and sometimes we wait days if not weeks for a next available appointment. We have to call into a system that schedules us based on our condition. When we finally see a doctor, one who is overrun with patients, some he has never met because he is never availble when the patient is actually sick, we are rushed through the appointment. “Cough a little, talk a little, cough some more, you’re fine, here is some Motrin.” A few weeks later you’re still sick, you go back, they “believe” you’re sick, send for a chest x-ray and you have pneumonia. Sound a little drastic? This is exactly what happened to me.

When I was pregnant, the doctor wanted me to have a c-section. Why? I got the runaround on why. I opted to see a different doctor who let me do what I wanted and had the baby naturally, with no drugs, and in 15 minutes. Strangely enough, TriCare was billed for an epidural I never had. So its clear that the doctor, who is a civilian, just wanted to bill TriCare for more money…to milk them for whatever it was worth.

Then again, I went to the doctor because of a massive headache that kept me up for days. The first doctor told me I had post-partum depression, and suggested I take some Motrin. I went back two days later with the same headache and was then given Vicadin and Percocet. I went back to the ER the following day and was injected several times in the neck with lidocaine. Two days later, and on the brink of insanity, I managed to beg my way in to see a nurse practitioner and got lectured for being 2 minutes late for my appointment. She threatened to reschedule me until I broke down in tears, crying about the pain and the fact that I had a 15 month old and a 2 month old at home, my husband was deployed, and I hadn’t slept for five days because of the pain. I was quickly seen by a real doctor. I dropped the bottles of pain medicine onto the exam table, along with unfilled prescriptions for more pain meds. He believed me, and finally someone listened to me. All I wanted was a referral to see the neurologist. Thats it. Once I saw the neurologist and got daignosed with cluster headaches and was treated, I was fine. But it took multilple visits just to CONVINCE the doctors I was sick and not seeking pain medicine.

When I was sick with the flu, there was a two week wait to see the doctor. When my baby was sick with croup, we were in Urgent Care for eight hours and didn’t get out until 11pm from the hospital. The problem here is that healthcare is free and there are many who take advantage of the system. If it weren’t for abusers, perhaps the military health system would be better. But there are enough of them that the quality of health care is dampened across the board, and everyone is jaded because of it.  When someone is really sick, the doctors and nurses question their illness. For those with high pain tolerances, like myself, I have to lie about what I really feel, exaggerate, and act just to be believed.

Is this really what people want? To have a legitimate concern and be brushed off? I want to point out too that all of these incidences happened in the time span of about 2 years. I didn’t even mention the other times I was sick and sucked it up just because I didn’t want to deal with the hassle of trying to get an appointment.

I stand against nationalized health care and the democrats public plan. If people really knew what it was like, they would understand. Socialized health care is not the answer. The Patients Choice Act is the better option to fixing the problems in America’s health care system.

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