An Anecdote

A friend of mine has a couple of teenagers. His oldest, his daughter, is away for her first year of college. Last week he came over to me and asked what "IDRC" means in a text message. A quick trip to the googleverse revealed "I Don't Really Care."

Turns out she was sick and my friend was trying to find and schedule a doctor's appointment for her. She didn't care if it was a male or female doctor.

Today my friend skipped lunch because he was "trying to schedule a doctor's appointment" for her. Sounded familiar but he also sounded a bit stressed so we let him be. After lunch I asked him about it. He found a doctor last week but she couldn't get in to see the doctor until early to mid April. The excuse went "April was the first time they had an opening for a new patient."

Over the weekend his daughter had to go to the emergency room. He was attempting to get the "primary physician" she was scheduled to see in April to see her sooner.

This isn't a one off story. I've run into the "new patient" excuse in the past. So once again our "greatest medical system in the world" fails an insured,18 year old girl. This doesn't directly relate to private insurance versus public option in the health care debate. It does show the bullshit in the medical rationing argument that opponents of Single Payer put forth. We already ration, usually by ability to pay. Here's a case where the doctors rationed their care and a girl had to go the emergency room.