My Republican Grandfather Experiences Socialized Medicine, Has Valid Point

I was indoctrinated into conservatism. As a family, we basically bible-humped the Wealth of Nations. I must clarify at this point, it was the whole fiscal part of it, not the Jesus thing that is somewhat synonymous with present-day conservatism (which had not yet been invented when I was in the swells of my conservatism). My family believed that the biggest deal in the world was lookin' out for number one. Life was a big money race, dollars were like points, some people won and some people lost. There was one big obstacle to winning: the government. Ooooooh those democrats, they just wanna suck away money and give the people nothing back for it. I did believe that until I moved to LA anyway.

I moved away from the privileged middle class and was thrust into a place that looks quite rich and lovely, but it actually quite poor and well, fucked. It truly became apparent to me that only one thing could help the average human from being raped by the system: the government itself. With the right intentions, it could regulate the proper entities.

Given my ideological 180, you can imagine that often it's difficult to have political and economic discussions with my family. Certain individuals, yes, that is the case. The ones that practically write flash cards for memorization of lines from Fox News and think that Rush Limbaugh is 100% "for real". Rather than listening to the people, their neighbors, their friends, they listen to pundits. I've found people to be by and far more reliable. My republican grandfather is one that I happily listen to. He's oddly brilliant.

He's a hermit and an intellectual eccentric. He consistently provides himself with interesting experiences such as: encountering bears in the forest, going to rehab for one week, boarding horses for no real reason, and living in New Zealand six months of the year.

Throughout his seventy-something years he's been remarkably healthy. Despite some smoking and a substantial alcohol abuse. This past winter (a Kiwi summer) he experienced his first major health issue: a nearly paralyzing muscular disorder the name of which I have forgotten because I'm a bit of a ditz. He was in bed for nearly 10 days, he could not sleep for more than 10 minutes before he was awoken with pain. Finally, he decided to go to his general practitioner (a foreigner is allowed to buy health insurance for a nominal fee, or simply pay to go to a GP). Getting into his GP was easy. The trip up was when his GP recommended he see a specialist. He was required to submit a letter requesting an appointment with said specialist. A few weeks later, he received a letter in return stating that due to overwhelming demand, the wait to see the specialist was over six months.

Bummer for Grandpa. During the course of this story I kept expecting to hear that his major argument against healthcare reform in the US (specifically a universal option) would be the cost to him. He's quite a tightwad. It's not a great depression thing, it's just that he's kinda crotchety when it comes to his skrilla.

But no, as much as I awaited this issue to rise from the ideological dead, he let it be. His concern was the number of physicians available. He likes is wonderful combination Medicare + supplemental coverage deal. He feels that all Americans should be allowed such a choice. This lack of doctors conundrum got me thinking. It seemed to be the only real issue.

So how do we deal with the not enough doctors problem?

Encourage education. Way to go Mr. President! You hit this one with a one two punch this. You're fully aware that we have a generation of youngins that think school is hard and that India will just take care of it. They will, for India, not so much for America. Lovely strategic work.

Supplement education costs for the medical sciences. If kiddos aren't too lazy to go to medical school, they're too poor. The knowledge and privilege to spend a career saving lives shouldn't cost $200,000.

Wait it out. My generation and the one behind me are going to have a bit of trouble with it. This is because many of us haven't had basic preventive care our entire lives. If we had, the need for specialists would decline. The abundant GPs, whom my grandfather had access to in New Zealand, would be able to handle the bulk of issues before they became tricky.

Then we have yet another sticky wicket that my Grandpappy didn't bring up: forcing health insurance companies to cover everyone, regardless of pre-existing conditions, and other stuff that is human and we can't avoid. This is completely the right thing to do, however, if health insurers' status as a revenue generating for-profit entity is not also regulated, this will give them an excuse to increase their premiums even more. It's not a real reason to increase costs, it's an excuse. It will happen unless these firms are mandated to be non-profit.

Shareholders and for-profit firms are diabolical and notorious for making excuses to make shit more expensive. The government is notorious for providing too little too late. My generation is notorious for being lazy, careless, and shouldering a bitch of a burden created by capitalism (ok there are some good parts too, like some of us have parents that are rich because their parents were rich...some of us). Obama told us in his speech tonight that his "insurance exchange" (which is a bang-up plan in the opinion of this cynical blogger) will be ready to take force in four years. Is that a long enough time for Americans to decide that they wish to rise to the occasion, get proper educations to help out and take advantage of new job opportunities, get over the whole "lookin' out for number one" thing, and accept that profit machines have their time and place (and this ain't one of them)?

I sure as shit hope so.