- Foreword: Ignorance for my purpose here is mostly used to establish that much ignorance can come from highly intelligent people. That, of course, is what makes it dangerous because many times ignorance is presented by gifted ones in well spoken presentations wrapped in well-organized packages. The following story centers around a typical encounter with some typical well voiced ignorance.
- Yesterday one of my golf partners was a man likable by all as far as I know. He certainly can entertain with words and he can hold the speaking platform effortlessly.
- It does not take this partner long to advance with a jab against something on the liberal side of things. Yesterday it began with, ” I see where Obama is taking credit for success in Egypt.” Now I read a lot and I observe much more the visual news opportunities we have today and I have not come across anything of the sort but then I deny myself any intake from the Fox views of things.
- If this golf outing had been one of those with even a low-level of competitiveness involved then I would have had to call upon much self-control because such a comment immediately irks me. I know, he knows and the American public knows that if things fail in Egypt Obama certainly is going to be blamed for it. I do not have the ability to disagree without being disagreeable so for me in these cases responses have to be kept tightly bound inside. One cannot strike a golf ball properly if one is holding back emotions. Ask Tiger.
- Yes, my playing of the golf game thereafter was lousy.
- Later, maybe 3 or 4 holes later, he, as could be expected was onto negatives about our health care failings. You know, Obama care.
- One remark I heard was that this golf partner pays $10,000 per year for his health insurance. He was aware that a country like Canada had a health system which supported the masses in a better way but here in America we want the best individual care and those like him that can afford the best and can expect to get it in a timely measure should not be denied it. You see if our health system is overloaded with people of lower resources then the best ever care levels will disappear even for those having the higher resources. This then is an argument that is reasonable. It especially can be looked upon to be reasonable if one does the math with the factor of time in the computation. If full care is provided for all then the best of the best among health care providers simply will not have the time to spread their gifts around and the care receivers will be lower rated down to some average kind of care. This will certainly have an effect on the elite money owners.
- The followers of this like-minded evaluation also, as did this man, state that those with insufficient funds in our country really get a good deal. All they have to do is make arrangements at the entry point of an emergency room for a guarantee of $500 and their needs will be taken care of. Somehow this kind of ignorance prevails among the most fortunate of us.
- Again, it prevails because our most fortunate generally have the better tools of oral interaction and their self-serving beliefs benefit directly by it.
- The first round of ignorance begins with the $10,000 per year health insurance cost. Now this is for a single man who has very limited obligations to anyone other than himself. When the spotlight reveals this fact it jumps out to me to ask the question: Where on a scale of individual family units is the mark for this economic arrangement.? I mean, hell, a mark in the average zone has to be somewhere around a family of 4 with the total family income being about $50,000. Where in that is any reasonable room for this man to have much of a voice in our country’s health cost problem? Well, of course, he and his status is a very out on the edge part of the overall problem. His attitude though is very mainstream and among the recent voters in our country it is dominant.
- The other well spoken ignorance has to do with the belief that with $500 a person’s health care problem can be resolved in the emergency room. Many overly wealthy Americans believe this. True, it does take a financial arrangement of $500 to get things started. I have to allow that in our country if death were imminent then the $500 would be somehow bypassed. Here though I can reasonably state that believing this is ignorance. The kind of ignorance which comes from the intelligent.
- I have experience here that allows me to not be ignorant about the $500 lie. There was a time when I was close to a very disturbed lady. During the time period when her problems were being absorbed by a very good company/employee funded health care policy several emergency style health care needs began with entries at an emergency room and the $500 entry fee. Others began with 911 and a ride in an emergency vehicle. This was more like $800. For me I gained much experience with health care and good solid insurance support.
- Very few of us though can continue down this path of almost chronic self-abuse which leads to lost of everything: the job and then the health insurance. Now you begin paying for something called COBRA. You pay for this with money that has to come from god only knows where. This too does not last. So, eventually with people s having these extreme problems comes a time of an emergency room visit and most likely a loved one or friend pays the $500 entry fee. The first round is waiting time. The second round is placement in a cloth enclosed room with a bed. The third round is the taking of temperatures and heart rates. The fourth round, if round 3 is satisfactory, is a clerical visit where the status of insurance is visited provided that at entry it was not made totally clear. Around round five a doctor or near doctor arrives and makes a physical inspection, asks a few questions and orders up higher levels of examinations like x-rays and so forth. The sixth round is an extreme waiting period alone in the closed off room of cloth walls. The seventh round again brings in the doctor with preliminary news of the test results and instructions to make an appointment at another time with some kind of doctor which would handle cases when insurance is a problem. In this case where I am describing an experience which I observed first hand the problem was a fractured skeletal problem and since the injured one did not have insurance the advice was to go home and remain immobile. The eighth round was leaving the emergency room with prescriptions and the address info of the doctor which the patient was being passed on to.
- About a week later there is mail delivery which is a bill for the six-hour emergency room adventure. The $500 was accounted along with 3 other dollar amounts. These totaled up to over $7000. By my affluent golf partner this, I suppose, is only one of those formalities. The actual paying for an emergency room visit is not something non affluent Americans have to do. This high lights my point when I repeat that learned, affluent people can offer up and present with conviction total ignorance.
- I paid every dollar of that $7000.If I had not she would have been badgered with that financial burden up until she died. She did die by the way. Modern medical care without insurance funding has zero tolerance for mental problems. I paid the bill with full knowledge that it was an extreme rip-off. I was there and I observed what little was done. My automobile gets more interaction at the Firestone place and with guarantees.
- Please America, it is time to inspect the Health Care Act of 2010. Not to destroy it but to lead it to a level of pride for all Americans. Not just for the affluent givers and receivers that we have today.
- No one wants to have medical problems. It is not something in our dreams. When we do have them then it should be and can be administered at a level appreciated and admired by all Peoples at all economic levels. We just have to take on the health care problem in the same manner we would take on an invasion from outside. An invasion from the outside brings harm even to the affluent so at those times they are not adverse to banding together. Here though today the affluent are the invaders and in the long run they will bring harm to themselves unless we band together.
Reasonable Ignorance (Emergency Room Theory)
Filed under Reasonable Ignorance
A Bit: Here & There 