Sad day in the USA

Specialties Emergency

Published

Thinking about how sad it is in the USA today that we provide free medical care for all these folks who have never worked a day in there life, but when it comes to the elderly who have worked everyday of their life can't even get their prescription medications or have to pay out large amounts just to get a little bit of medical coverage. Although the free medical care we provide to non working baby making machines, I call it the American Express Card that we provide to the folks who have never worked really isn't free you and I pay for their free medical care. I would rather pay for my parents medical care then for someone who comes in saying I don't have tylenol or motrin at home for my kids while pointing their newly put on fingernails or calling on their cell phones or having that pack of ciggs in their pockets, when my parents who have worked all their lives and should be living the best days of their life won't even turn on the air in their home because of the cost and not being able to afford medical care or medications!! If they had to pay a nice co-pay for non-emergancy visits to the ER then we could really see the people who really need emergancy care. Sorry just venting and wondering how everyone else feels about this sitution??

Specializes in LTC, Acute Care.
"A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away."

-- Barry Goldwater

You think they'll give me a pony? I asked my parents for years for one...

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Well, when there is so much talk about rationing healthcare, even potentially initiating a "duty to die" for our elderly, I have a bigtime problem with the baby-making machines. No, we need to attack our population/demand problem from the other end: Let the baby-making machines have one child, two at the very most - then, it's automatic sterilization right after the birth of the second child.

I know that sounds a bit Nazi-like, but I think it's much more practical than hastening the deaths of our elderly.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC.
It is also a "right" to eat, drink, and have a house. Should the gov provide that as well? It isn't good for a person to get too much for free. It ruins the desire to work and forms a feeling of entitlement. I am not saying that everyone being discussed on this thread in this category, but enough do that it is a problem. Those who are willing to do their part may need help, but not the freeloaders.

If anyone has a "feeling of entitlement" right now, it's you! Look at the tone of your post and how you referred to basic human rights/needs in quotation marks. I'm guessing you HAVE health insurance. Are you going to school full time and working full time to keep a roof over your head or are you getting help and support from a parent or spouse? If so then you don't have much room to resent people for getting public assistance. A lot of posters on this thread seem to think that they're better or more deserving than other people and I don't know where that's coming from.

I know there are people who don't care, who take advantage of the system. But if not for that, they'd find some other way to act like scumbags. And you are going to have to pay taxes no matter what- if they take Medicaid away it's not like they're gonna give the extra money back to you so you can get your flat screen TV or trip to Hawaii... they'll just take it and spend it on something sketchy.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC.
Well, when there is so much talk about rationing healthcare, even potentially initiating a "duty to die" for our elderly, I have a bigtime problem with the baby-making machines. No, we need to attack our population/demand problem from the other end: Let the baby-making machines have one child, two at the very most - then, it's automatic sterilization right after the birth of the second child.

I know that sounds a bit Nazi-like, but I think it's much more practical than hastening the deaths of our elderly.

Are you serious? No one is trying to hasten the deaths of the elderly. I can't believe people have managed to equate advanced directives with murder.

And yeah, forced sterilization is completely out of line.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in CCU,ICU,ER retired.
That is why I went to school. So I wouldn't have to live that way. Anyone can go to school and better their life.

Man That was harsh! I went to school and I still had to beg for any kind of help for 4 years.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ER, Trauma, ICU/CCU/NICU, EMS, Transport.
No, not "anyone" can go to school. Not everyone is capable of learning or performing well at that level. Even if everyone goes to college, someone's still got to scrub toilets, make minimum wage, and get hosed on healthcare.

I'm sorry; why can't "anyone" go to school?

The government provides education for these folks right?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ER, Trauma, ICU/CCU/NICU, EMS, Transport.
Thinking about how sad it is in the USA today that we provide free medical care for all these folks who have never worked a day in there life, but when it comes to the elderly who have worked everyday of their life can't even get their prescription medications or have to pay out large amounts just to get a little bit of medical coverage. Although the free medical care we provide to non working baby making machines, I call it the American Express Card that we provide to the folks who have never worked really isn't free you and I pay for their free medical care. I would rather pay for my parents medical care then for someone who comes in saying I don't have tylenol or motrin at home for my kids while pointing their newly put on fingernails or calling on their cell phones or having that pack of ciggs in their pockets, when my parents who have worked all their lives and should be living the best days of their life won't even turn on the air in their home because of the cost and not being able to afford medical care or medications!! If they had to pay a nice co-pay for non-emergancy visits to the ER then we could really see the people who really need emergancy care. Sorry just venting and wondering how everyone else feels about this sitution??

rickkijo; do you have any suggestions for possible improvements?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Emergency, Critical Care Transport.

I lived out of the back of my truck for years, trying to put cash away for school, and I did it (with the help of friends whom I traded work/cooking/babysitting/housework/construction for showers, etc while I was also working full time at two jobs). I got really sick of peanut butter and jelly. But you know what? Now I'm a nurse, and I have this awesome superpower- it's called saving money. I'm lucky I had any kind of support network, people who would give me a hot shower and pay me to help them out because they saw I was working my butt off.

It used to kill me when people would come to my clinic and balk at paying $12 for birth control pills but they'd tote their Coach purses and show off their diamond earrings, while I was eating leftovers. What does $12 cover? A movie for one? I think OCPs provide more than one night of fun, anyway. And a pap cost maybe $20. You should have heard the complaints.

Part of it is the instant gratification culture we live in.

On a public health level, people *should* have basic access to healthcare- it's called preventative, medicine. We keep people generally healthy to ensure the health of the population (ie vaccinations, etc). Americans in general are not used to having to wait for anything. How long is your hold time on the phone with the bank? How long do you wait for your coffee order before you get annoyed?

Same with healthcare. What's your standard? What should be the standard? Should we have a standard?

And for those who argue it's a right (I'm not arguing for or against, I'm just posing a question)....

If it's a right, is it a natural right? How so?

What kind of right is it?

We all want to restructure a broken system, but what is that new structure?

And I live in California, where the system is really in hot debate.

With an estimate of $11 billion going to "illegal immigrants" I wonder what the solution is... many of those undocumented people subsidize our cheap food via hard labor in conditions that most people would avoid like the plague. Go stand outside in Bakersfield in the summer for one hour with no water and then think about it. Should we require big Agriculture to provide a temp work visa healthcare access? Is it the fault of the state, of ICE, of the various larger corporations? Who is responsible?

Those are my questions. Ok, End rant. :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU, PACU, ER.

Nope not from Canada, just worked all night and when it asked about a flag under profile I thought of CA as California. Sorry for any confusion.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ER, Trauma, ICU/CCU/NICU, EMS, Transport.
I lived out of the back of my truck for years, trying to put cash away for school, and I did it (with the help of friends whom I traded work/cooking/babysitting/housework/construction for showers, etc while I was also working full time at two jobs). I got really sick of peanut butter and jelly. But you know what? Now I'm a nurse, and I have this awesome superpower- it's called saving money. I'm lucky I had any kind of support network, people who would give me a hot shower and pay me to help them out because they saw I was working my butt off.

It used to kill me when people would come to my clinic and balk at paying $12 for birth control pills but they'd tote their Coach purses and show off their diamond earrings, while I was eating leftovers. What does $12 cover? A movie for one? I think OCPs provide more than one night of fun, anyway. And a pap cost maybe $20. You should have heard the complaints.

Part of it is the instant gratification culture we live in.

On a public health level, people *should* have basic access to healthcare- it's called preventative, medicine. We keep people generally healthy to ensure the health of the population (ie vaccinations, etc). Americans in general are not used to having to wait for anything. How long is your hold time on the phone with the bank? How long do you wait for your coffee order before you get annoyed?

Same with healthcare. What's your standard? What should be the standard? Should we have a standard?

And for those who argue it's a right (I'm not arguing for or against, I'm just posing a question)....

If it's a right, is it a natural right? How so?

What kind of right is it?

We all want to restructure a broken system, but what is that new structure?

And I live in California, where the system is really in hot debate.

With an estimate of $11 billion going to "illegal immigrants" I wonder what the solution is... many of those undocumented people subsidize our cheap food via hard labor in conditions that most people would avoid like the plague. Go stand outside in Bakersfield in the summer for one hour with no water and then think about it. Should we require big Agriculture to provide a temp work visa healthcare access? Is it the fault of the state, of ICE, of the various larger corporations? Who is responsible?

Those are my questions. Ok, End rant. :)

Not bad.

Good post, good points

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.
Thinking about how sad it is in the USA today that we provide free medical care for all these folks who have never worked a day in there life, but when it comes to the elderly who have worked everyday of their life can't even get their prescription medications or have to pay out large amounts just to get a little bit of medical coverage.

What about elderly people who have never worked a day in their lives? I work with the elderly. All of them are on Medicare. A lot of the women were life-long housewives. A lot of them are against "goverment insurance", despite being on Medicare and (in some cases) the VA or TriCare. All of them are old enough to remember the battle for Medicare. It's a classic case of "I've got mine, now bar the door."

Thanks to Dubya's Medicare Part D, Medicare is not allowed to negotiating bulk drug discounts for Medicare patients. Wal*Mart and Target sell 30-day supplies of many generic drugs for $4 month.

I live 45 minutes from the Canadian border. Lots of Canadians shop here (no sales tax on clothes). Their national health plan has its problems, but the Canadians I've talked to wouldn't want to trade it for the American system.

I find it sad that the US government will gladly pay for foreign invasions, aircraft carriers, and F-18s, but not national health care.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.
No, we need to attack our population/demand problem from the other end: Let the baby-making machines have one child, two at the very most - then, it's automatic sterilization right after the birth of the second child.

Government-mandated family sizes are working so well in China.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment