I've said time and time again that to see what your life would be like under a socialized healthcare system, just check out military healthcare. Now, I've lived with this my whole life (except for five glorious years with various civilian employee health plans), and there are times I've received fabulous care. I had wonderful care during my labor and delivery, for instance.
However, there are more times that you just want to scream in frustration. Case in point: our upcoming move.
We got our first step of paperwork to move to Germany. In order to receive the next step (our orders), Jackson and I must have medical clearance paperwork done to establish that we don't need any specialist care once we move to Germany (if we did, we would not be allowed to move there). I had to have this done to move to Italy too.
It would behoove us to get this done as soon as possible. Our orders are needed so that we can do things like schedule our movers and a whole host of other things. So, yesterday I called to schedule the appointments. While I was at it, I thought, "Hey, I can also just schedule Jackson's two-month well baby appointment."
I was greeted on the phone by a totally incompetent woman who took about five minutes to finally ask for my name. It took her about that long to also finally establish that the military hospital we go to is not taking appointments right now. She said there are only so many doctors available and they just are not scheduling anything except for same-day appointments.
"What do you mean, just in pediatrics for my son?" I asked incredulously.
"Oh, no, for the whole hospital," she replied.
"So, what am I supposed to do to get in for these appointments?"
"You can call back some other time to see if we're taking appointments."
THIS, my friends, is what you will see under our country's new exciting healthcare system (which we would be spending trillions of dollars to achieve). Nice.
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3 comments:
Hi Meredith,
I just happened upon your blog while searching Aviano. My husband and I lived there (actually in Roveredo) back in 1972 - 1976. Our youngest was born at Vicenza. (Aviano didn't have a hospital back then).
I agree with your opinions on Obamacare and have tried to make people understand. There is just no convincing Liberals!
Oh, the reason I was searching Aviano is because my husband and I are returning there for a vacation in October. Hope your tour in Germany is wonderful...never got there.
Pat Castillo
I lived in Giais di Aviano for many years. Miss it so much.
I've lived with US military health care and civilian care. If you've never had a civilian health care horror story you've been lucky. If you've never had to pay out of pocket because your insurer changed the rules, consider yourself blessed.
There is no perfect health care system, Meredith. But there needs to be sustainable health care system because the one we have now is not. It's funny, but for all our frustration with gov't run care, I only know one retiree who turned down TriCare.
Best of luck in Germany. I loved Italy far more than Germany. Too many rules and but great beer.
TriCare for Life is a benefit my husband earned after 23 years in the military. We do not live near an active military base. Therefore it is necessary to find a private doctor. There is only one doctor within 40 miles that will accept the paltry reimbursement rate. In addition, there are more and more doctors in our area that are refusing medicare patients for the same reason. So I guess we want the whole world to be on substandard care instead of fixing the current problems. Medicare; Medicaid; Social Security are all going broke. I prefer my private civilian coverage. I have to pay for all well-care including pap smears and mammograms and flu shots and physicals. That is the way it should be. Health care should be fixed, not given away at the expense of others.
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