Discouragement

I haven't written about my own situation in a while. Partly because I find writing about myself difficult, especially when there's no good news to report. This week I have good news and bad news.

The good news is that treatment is progressing. Slowly, but it's happening. The bad news is that I now have another ailment on top of the one I started with, and although I got some treatment for that, too, I feel worse. I'm frightened and discouraged, both by my own deteriorating condition and by the fact that health-care "reform" seems to be progressing in ominous ways.

So Max BauCA$H met with single-payer advocates and apologized. But, of course, he said it's too late.

Among other discouraging things that's happened lately is a conversation I had when I was at Stroger Hospital last week, being prepped for treatment. During a lull in the proceedings, I said to the anesthesiologist, "So what do you think about single-payer health care?"

"I never heard of it," she said.

I thought maybe she just wasn't familiar with the term itself and explained. "Oh, socialized medicine," she said. No, I said, and explained further. "I'll have to look into it."

But here we have medical personnel at a large, overburdened public hospital in the hometown of Physicians for a National Health Program ... and they don't know about single-payer? And neither do the patients?

Stroger Hospital, and other places like it, should be a prime recruiting ground for single-payer advocates. There, if anywhere, people understand what's wrong with our health-care system.