a cure worse than the disease

I sat there alone and miserable, hardly able to swallow. Suffering from strep throat, I was burning up with fever and felt awful. The dry heat blasting into the cave-like waiting room made it even worse. Six hours later I was finally called in to see a doctor. He took a culture from my throat with a long, scratchy swab and gave me a prescription for some antibiotics. From there I went to another waiting area to get the drugs that would hopefully give me some relief. That was not a short wait, either.

As the daughter of an Army Officer, my healthcare was provided by none other than the U.S. government. When we needed a check-up it was wise to make it well in advance. Several months, at least. Then once we actually got in to see the doctor, the "service" was sub-par. We never saw the same doctor twice and were treated like cattle, herded through the process as quickly as possible. After all, thousands more people were in line behind us.

For cases like strep throat and other emergencies, they did have ER services in the basement of the old hospital building on base. My mother, siblings and I spent untold hours of our lives waiting on help for various childhood ailments there. It totally sucked to say the least. But there was no point in complaining about the level of service because no one cared. Since it was run by the government there was no competition that could run them out of business for poor customer service.

Once I was out from under that government sponsored "umbrella" of healthcare, there was a period of time I was completely uninsured. Thankfully, I enjoyed excellent health...until I got appendicitis. But even without coverage, I was able to go to a nice hospital, get help from an excellent surgeon and be released a couple of days later. It was not ideal to be uninsured, but it wasn't like they threw me out on the street or something. In fact, the surgeon ended up waiving his fees for the surgery out of the kindness of his heart.

Years later, when I got married and especially when we started our family, healthcare coverage became top priority. My husband and I sought out jobs with companies that offered great benefits, even if the pay was not. We loathed those jobs but we were grateful to have what we had.

One time my husband took a job that didn't offer healthcare benefits so we paid out-of-pocket to have coverage, just in case. As a family of five living on one income and even sharing a car to cut down on costs, it was not cheap or easy. It was just life. Another bill to be paid. It never crossed our minds once that the government should be paying for us to have healthcare. Besides, I knew first hand what kind of care the government could offer. There were no rose-colored glasses on my eyes.

The statistic I've heard is that there are about 50 million uninsured Americans. That means about 250 million are covered in some way. Many of those uninsured choose to go without coverage. I'm not sure if a less than 17% uninsured rate constitutes a true crisis.

How can anyone truly believe that the same large, incompetent, inefficient government that mishandled the Katrina crisis and manages to lower the bar every time I have to buy a stamp or register my vehicle could possibly run a national health care system? Would you ever trust your health records to the same people who lost the original footage of the moon walk? Or the same people who have mismanaged social security and medicare for so long? Seriously?

Call me selfish but I wouldn't want to wait months to have surgery for breast cancer or years to get an MRI or hip replacement like many Canadians do. The cancer survival rate is 16% lower there, by the way. I don't want to go back to six hour long waits in the ER for a treatment I can get in less than an hour right now. I like that I have options of where I go, what doctor I see and can even get a second and third opinion. My husband and I have worked hard and made decisions and sacrifices in our lives that allow us these choices. I don't think the level of care we get should be lowered because of people who expect the government to take care of them from cradle to grave.

There's got to be a solution that doesn't involve a nationalized system. For instance, putting a stop to frivilous lawsuits would lower healthcare costs for everyone. If doctors and hospitals didn't have to pay through the nose protect themselves it would benefit us all. It would also help if everyone took personal responsibility for their own health and that of their children. Imagine the savings if people stopped smoking, ate healthier, got off the couch now and then and didn't pop a pill for every ailment under the sun.

Basically what I'm saying as a person who has experienced being "taken care of" by the government and been on both sides of the insurance fence is: The system will never be perfect, but things could be a lot worse than they are now. And they will be if we close our eyes, turn off our brains, hop on the feel-good wagon and buy into the nationalized healthcare sham.