Health Care

Sent my grandmother to a stomach endoscopy. She had a real problem 1 year ago, when it always seemed that her stomach was upset. Now it’s getting better. Still, I decided to get her to go to a stomach endoscopy to see what was going on. I tricked her into going into a barium enema last year, and boy that was messy. I wanted to get her a colonoscope, but she saw the doctor without me around and she opted for the lesser option. As it turns out, there was no cancer but you can’t really see very much from a barium enema – just some shitty X ray images, whereas the colonoscope gets you a shot of the ass in full technicolour gory.

OK, I’m a bit sadistic. You know me, I’m the sort of guy who thinks that the infamous “bring out the gimp” scene in Pulp Fiction was funny. (Actually I’m not alone). After the barium enema, my grandmother was groaning, “you’re doing this for your own amusement aren’t you?” I didn’t deny that. Well I got her stomach checked too. OK, maybe these problems come and go. Maybe she was just getting anxious about her facilities leaving her one by one, and it’s OK.

But it’s OK. I go to Tan Tock Seng, and the place looks like it’s well run. It works. Doctors are busy, and they’re always busy. But the place is well maintained. Yes, it does help that Singapore has cheap and abundant foreign labour.

I don’t know what the US hospitals are like because I’ve never been in one. (Not even after 4 years). But from what my sister tells me, she’s being overworked. I should have remembered that the US health care system is being stretched thin before I gave her my moral support to become a doctor (I was the first one in my family to do so, and for quite a while, the only one). I don’t know whether it was a mistake for me to do so. On balance, I still believe that medicine is the right career for her.

Still, the general impression I get is that health insurance companies which are providing health care for the Americans are always trying to squeeze every last drop out of the system, by forcing doctors to see more patients in shorter periods of time, and giving her shit loads of paperwork because of the litigious culture in the US of MF A.

One of the first few things that Bill Clinton did as president was to get the health care passed. He gave the problem to Hillary, who worked on it behind closed doors, came up with a 1000 page proposal, which was shot down in Congress (doesn’t that remind you of working life already?).

It’s a problem that has come to a head recently, with Obama fighting to get universal health coverage passed in the US. There have been a lot of public protests against this, of late, and the insurance companies which have been fighting against this are suspected of organizing more than a few of these protests. Many people have been falsely labeling as socialism. I just realized that the US have this culture where they are extremely suspicious of any form of government. But they’re not doing themselves any favours like this. It’s a bloody shame that the world’s richest country cannot take care of their poor.

I haven’t watched the Michael Moore movie “Sicko” yet but I think I’ll go have a look.