Take a Number

Those that carry the banner for Universal Healthcare (ie socialistic healthcare) must have either short term memory loss or have never obtained and/or renewed their driver’s license. This week I spent 4 hours of my life trying to a) pay my personal property taxes and b) change the address on my driver’s license. I had to make three different stops at three different government buildings to obtain the correct documentation in order to complete my two rather simple tasks. I and my fellow law abiding cohorts were herded like cattle and every encounter with a state employee was met with complete frustration and a lack of understanding that left us completely at the mercy of individuals that had as much incentive to help as Britney Spears has in trying to find a pair of panties. The number of paper slips I pulled that secured my spot in different lines felt like a never ending journey through mediocrity and ineptness. This experience was met to accomplish a rather simple task but turned into a harsh lesson in the inefficiencies of bureaucracies.

Now what if the government ran our healthcare system? If I were to equate paying my personal property taxes and changing the address on my driver’s license to a medical procedure what would that medical procedure be in terms of the relative complexity to their respected systems? I would argue that paying my taxes and changing my address would or at least should be a rather simple process; therefore, in our thought experiment should I compare my DMV experience to a vaccination under a universal healthcare plan? Vaccination time tables are pre-set as our paying taxes and changing ones address maybe could be equated to updating an individual’s vaccination records; therefore, as a society is it reasonable for an individual in an universal health plan to spend four hours in order to seek out three different government departments in order to ‘gain approval’ and then be forced to interact with a system that is apathetic to the consumer or rather the tax payer? Taking this thought a step further what could we possible equate to a medical situation where one needs to see a physician what kind of inefficient process would exist in that situation? How long would the line be? Who or what would have the authority to grant the correct permissions for that individual to gain access to the care that is needed or rather has been sold to them in this glorious Universal Health Plan? I would hate to think that any individual’s wellbeing under a socialistic health system would be decided by the same people that forced me to take a number and wait in line to pay my taxes.