Our modern society has turned into the colloquial “snake eating it’s tail” (a.k.a Ouroboros).  Health care is one of them.  Today, you and I pay taxes, that subsidize corn farming.  This in turn, creates and overabundance of corn, which then results in a low cost commodity that big corporations like Coca Cola can buy for pennies on the dollar.  This cheap product is then in turn used to make a sweetener/food additive that can be used universally.  This in turn makes us all money since we all LOVE the stock market.  However, there comes the tail… this product makes us sick, obese, and diabetic.  We have federal programs that pay for the health care of these people, i.e. MediCare and Medicaid.  Your tax dollars pay for this health care.

So to sum it up, you not only are being taxed to be sick and fat, you are also being taxed to treat the illnesses the product that you are subsidizing causes.

This excellent essay written by one of our writers s5, gives you insight to this problem in the real world.  Here you will see the very essence of how big government without the involvement of an informed public operates.  How do you keep the public uninformed… television.

I am very blessed in that I am able to spend a lot of time observing people.  First and foremost because it is something I like to do.  Secondly, because I am not constrained by a career that keeps me indoors in an office, or what-have-you, so I find myself out amongst people, whether it be in a coffee shop, a park, or like today, a doctor’s office.

Due to being a freelance writer, and limited finances, I am a member of the public health system.  I would never want to presume anything, but I might venture to guess that I am not a representative of the readership of this site.  You probably either a.) have health insurance or b.) have the financial freedom to pay for a doctor when required.  I don’t.

Before I continue, this essay is not about our health care system and the pending Congressional decisions.  This is merely an essay that was created by the presence of being in a free-clinic.

Has anyone reading ever been to a free-clinic as a patient?  I want to paint the best picture I can for you.  So, I will try to break down the entire process.

1.) To make an appointment you have to call about one month, sometimes more, in advance.  However, in many cases, you call that same morning to be placed in a lottery to see if you can be seen.

2.) You are only referred to as a number.

3.) If your appointment is for 10:30 am, you have to arrive by 9 am and expect to stay until 1:30 pm.  Yes.  You should plan on 4-5 hours for an appointment that can often take 20 minutes.

4.) The waiting room is packed with all types of people; entire families, runaways, homeless, the mentally sick.  If we are all very honest with ourselves, it is a room filled with the people we often try to avoid because they illicit fear, disgust, pity, annoyance.  You cannot keep a personal space.  There are often kids running around without any control.  Most people smell.

5.) Most people don’t speak English.  And, even when they do, it is a version of the language that I don’t understand.

6.) There is nothing to read.  The TV is on.  Most likely turned to Jerry Springer or Maury Povich.

7.) You never see the same doctor twice.  You hope beyond hope that the previous doctor captured everything in the notes, correctly, so you can be diagnosed and treated properly, without having to repeat yourself.

8.) The doctors see upwards of 40-50 people a day.  As a result, they often feel rushed and don’t listen to you as well as they could.  By no means am I criticizing a physician who works in these facilities.  I actually commend them.  But because of the situation they are placed, there is difficulty in connecting on a real one-to-one level.

9.) The equipment is not state of the art.  There are no digital displays or automatic this and computer controlled that… it is all manual.

10.) If you get any tests done, you are only called if there is something wrong.

11.) At the end, you follow a red arrow out the door.

I am not trying to paint a picture for you to pity.  It is what it is and it would take a lot of regulation and time to fix it.  What I do hope to accomplish is for you to get a sense of what it is like to walk in the shoes of someone who lives this sort of life.

I think it is safe to assume that if you are reading this, you care about your surroundings.  By that I mean, we all regularly read or watch the news, we are trying our best to raise our children to be ethical adults, we care about what we eat, and we care about the planet.  But there is something that we all share, at our core, that allows us to be this way… we all get that we are valid.

What do I mean by this?  I know when I walk down a street, ask someone a question, ask for help in a business, etc., I will be seen and heard.  I understand, on some level, that when President Obama talks about Americans, he is speaking to and talking about me.  I understand that I have the luxury of choice in everything I do; where I live, shop, and eat, the kind of cell phone and computer I want, where I want to go to school, what kind of car I drive, and the list goes on.  I think you get what I am saying.

Think about the life of a typical low-income (poverty level) American resident.  (I understand that I am walking a fine line, and this can be seen as stereotyping…. I promise I will have a point.) Think about where they live, and I mean really think about what their homes look like.  Think about the kinds of jobs they have, the hours they have to work, is it manual labor or not, and how they commute to those jobs.  What kind of food do you think they eat?  Either by choice or what’s available to them.  Imagine the kind of education they received.  Just imagine their class size.

My point:  imagine how you would feel if your life was summed up as a number.  Employee no. 2156.  Patient no. 15889. Student no. 2959.  What if you weren’t seen at all?

But then I come up to you.  I acknowledge your presence….  and I say… you better not drink that coke, it has HFCS in it!  Or, don’t you think you should turn off some of those lights in your house.  Hey… don’t use so much water, we are in a drought.  That can of food is lined with BPA, you should shop at a farmer’s market!  And, don’t watch so much TV, stop buying clothes, and use less resources, especially your car, because the planet is sick and we are all going to suffer.

I don’t know about you, but if I were struggling to make ends meat and was in effect ignored most days of my life.. you know how I would respond: “FUCK YOU!”

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