The Obligatory Heath Care Post

mr. olio and I took a nice little vacation up the coast. No computers, no cell phones, no work—it was lovely. We walked on the beach and flew kites every day and read books and ate like horses every night—good times! When we got back I had another appointment with the retina specialist and got some very good news: I won’t need a fourth injection for a while, if ever.

I’m lucky in that I have insurance, but so far I’ve had to wait for over a month each time for the insurance company to authorize my treatments—and while I'm waiting for authorization I always expect to be turned down because I’ve exceeded some arbitrary limit. Oh: And they won’t even pay for the drug, I have to! And I’d be screwed if I ever lost my job and either needed to purchase my own policy or to get insurance through another employer, because then I’d be blacklisted on account of my “pre-existing condition.”

So whenever I hear politicians say “socialized medicine” means delays in treatment or compromised care, I think to myself, “That sounds exactly like what I’ve got right now, minus the premiums, co-pays, and nagging insecurity!”

Tags: universal health care, socialized medicine