1. I will take this because my taxes pay for it (a nurse taking hospital supplies)
2. Oh we have $20,000 we can use for this purpose (they did) and then the State funds took over…
3. Yes, you need this test, and that is probably the problem, but I am a thus-and-so-specialty doctor and I cannot order those tests.
4. Yes, I can order those tests, but I won’t do it. If they came back positive who would work those results up…(not my specialty) (my job is to find a find a problem in my specialty, and given time, I will…[not to your advantage and I don't work with those other people]).
5. No I never did receive the results and report from the doctor I sent you to (from primary physician)
6. “First do no harm.” This is a primary mandate of the medical profession, code, and creed, as I understand it.
7. From a personal perspective: Once I was in an emergency room receiving a much needed IV. While in the emergency room, I received a call that I was needed for an even greater emergency. That IV was sped up, I left in the hospital gown (I was provided a second to cover my backside, told I did not have to return them) because my clothes were trashed. That was a charitable act. Therefore, it is worth consideration that a pair of shoes, could indeed, have as much value in medical care as a bandaid.

Just thoughts and observations regarding the need for a public option…or what ever you want to call it…Some things…did I steal those gowns? Were those gowns fraudulently given?

Second, I wanted to say that there are a lot of people in the U.S. who desperately need health insurance but just can’t afford it…

I am one of them. I was born right here in Texas and I have worked hard my whole life. A few years ago, I was working as a Training Manager for ETAK, which is a company that creates computerized mapping software. I made a VERY NICE salary and ETAK gave me a lot of great benefits including health insurance. But then I decided to come back home to Texas and I ended up working for Hope Battered Women’s Shelter.

I work as the Computer Lady for Hope because I want to help people. (Hope not only helps battered women and their children but we also give food, clothing, and other necessities to the poor in our community.) However, since Hope is a non-profit agency, it has to get by on very little money. Hope cannot afford to give its employees Health insurance or pay them a high wage – most of us only earn between $7.50-$8.50 an hour. This is not enough for us to afford health insurance. The youngest caseworker is in her 50s and our oldest is 75 years old. I know that we are all good people, and hard workers, and that we all deserve to have health insurance.

I also know that there are people just like us all over the U.S. – people who are out there in your community trying to help others. Now we need your help. We need all of you to help us make sure that the Public Health Option is included in our new heath care system, but most of all we desperately need some kind of universal health care passed so that those of us who need to see a doctor or go to the hospital can afford to do so.

Please write your Representatives and ask them to vote FOR the Health Care bill.

Thanks for listening to me.

Let us assume all Americans are now insured. Let’s forget the insurance. That is no longer the issue. This is an assumption. Now let us assume everyone now sighs a sigh of relief.

How would we then follow through with a mandate of adequate access TO the medical care? Where are all the personnel coming from? What constitutes adequate? To some “adequate” might be a box of Kleenex and a roll of adhesive tape. To others “adequate” would be nothing less than life support for how ever many years.

When one pays for one’s insurance does that make it socialized? Military personnel do pay for the insurance for themselves and their families, with some exceptions. If the insurance premium is sliding scale does that constitute socialism? If a prescription for aspirin needs to be recorded for proper record keeping on a patient, should one have to pay the normal co-pay in order to balance out?

Okay, everyone is insured (or whatever it’s called)…are the doctors now on salary?

What does it mean to MANDATE ADEQUATE ACCESS…do people need to move?

These are not glib questions.