Rejecting the Medicaid expansion in the federal health care law could have unexpected consequences for states where Republican lawmakers remain steadfastly opposed to what they scorn as “Obamacare.”
My beef today will be “waste, fraud, and abuse.” Somebody I know was recently admitted to a hospital with an infection in its his (traditional gender-neutral pronoun) hand. He was discharged from the hospital unable to walk. The hospital forbade him to use his own meds, but prescribed its own. After the infection was under control, the patient was held for concerns over what was reportedly a minor stumble he took while hospitalized. I am convinced now more than ever that hospitals are not in the business of promoting health so much as (1) not getting sued and (2) bilking insured customers for all they’re worth. Said person is now signed up for home healthcare through the hospital, much to the consternation of at least one of his former physicians. Listening to the nurse today, I was reminded of the suggestive selling I endured when admitted to the hospital. The weak and somewhat incoherent patient said after he had signed a lot of blank forms that he was going along because he didn’t want a fight.
Added to my disgust are all the mamsy-pamsy things like beautiful pamphlets explaining the Patients’ Bill of Rights and all that other ooky-handbooky garbage that is deemed necessary once corporations exceed a threshold of sanity. I thought of the poor little people who would rather spend their time helping people, rather than filling out forms and stuffing their discretionary skills to comply with procedures. I felt like demanding an extra three pages of paperwork and corrective action for anybody that didn’t go along with the latest acronym, spelled out on mugs and tokens they are to keep in their pockets.
In the end, I hope to be worthy to be counted among the scorners of Obamacare. A couple years ago, it was described as a transfer of one-sixth of the US economy to government. I recently heard a national talk radio personality of some repute say healthcare was one-fifth of the economy. Lawyers, accountants, and government debt service are three other huge “economic” sectors that come to mind. Casting my unfunny attempts at humor aside, I am even more concerned that attempts to put a lid on the wicked power grab will always be outdone by another invention to fly in the face of the rule of law.
