View 713 Monday, February 13, 2012<\/p>\n
A day thoroughly devoured by locusts. I woke up with the same condition I\u2019d had \u2013 feeling as if I were recovering, but with no energy to do much. I had resolved to get through that when the locusts arrived. First I had errands and shopping. Then Roberta, having reported her symptoms to her physician, was advised to go out to the clinic. She\u2019s got what I have but she got it a bit later than I did and it\u2019s been pretty severe, and there seemed to be some other problems, and, anyway I put the groceries away, filled the dishwasher and turned it on, and took her out to Kaiser Urgent Care. Urgent Care was stacked \u2013 it always is on a Monday \u2013 and they decided to send her over to the Emergency Room.<\/p>\n
That was stacked too, literally people on gurneys in the hall, but they got to her fairly soon and did a lot of tests, She got one of the last rooms before the real stack up started. And then I had to go find her something to eat and she has diet restrictions so that took some time, and everyone was busy, and then there were prescriptions, so having left the house at 3 PM after two and a half hours of shopping — well, we\u2019re back now at 2145. Some good came out of all this.<\/p>\n
First Roberta is all right, but she did need some attention. We have the prescriptions, All will be well. Second, I found that if I have to I can do things meaning that I need to focus a bit more will power on getting things done. I may not feel wonderful, but I am not disabled. Almost, but not quite yet, anyway.<\/p>\n
Third, I know how to solve the American health care problem. Well, not really: the \u201csolution \u201c would be to clone Kaiser often enough that everyone can get in on it. Alas, I have no idea how to do that. Kaiser is unique among bureaucracies in that I have yet to meet a typical bureaucrat there, someone more concerned with the rules than with just doing what the outfit was made for, which is to make people feel better. Sure some people are nicer and more efficient than others, but none of them seem to have that bureaucratic attitude that proclaims \u201cI don\u2019t care. I don\u2019t have to.\u201d Everyone was harried, it couldn\u2019t have been much busier, there were lots of extraneous distractions, including us since the ER was somewhat more power care than we needed \u2013 and it would be hard for the people I met there to have been more cheerful or helpful. Of course any attempt to simply expand the organization would very likely ruin it. It ain\u2019t broke. Don\u2019t fix it.<\/p>\n
I am no expert on health care systems. I have no \u2018solution\u2019 to the \u2018problem\u2019 of making other people pay for people\u2019s health care. It seems to me that what people get free they despise, and the economic principle that there is no limit to demand of a free good holds in spades with big casino in the health care field. Kaiser\u2019s co-payments are enough that I\u2019d prefer not to have made them, but not so stiff I can\u2019t afford them; seems about the right level to me.<\/p>\n
And finally I came back to find that the subscriptions and renewals are coming in. If you haven\u2019t subscribed, this would be a good time to do it. If you haven\u2019t renewed in a while, this would be a good time to do that. This is Pledge Drive Week, and I won\u2019t let you forget it.<\/p>\n
Now I\u2019m going to go relax. I had an In \u2018N Out burger for dinner, and got the no-bread wrap version for Roberta. Good stuff.<\/p>\n
View 713 Monday, February 13, 2012 A day thoroughly devoured by locusts. I woke up with the same condition I\u2019d had \u2013 feeling as if I were recovering, but with no energy to do much. I had resolved to get through that when the locusts arrived. First I had errands \u2026 Continue reading ![\"clip_image002\"](\"http:\/\/jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/clip_image00243.gif\" "\\"clip_image002\\"")
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