Wednesday, February 12, 2014

The Lunacy of Finding Your "Passion," O-Care Style

Here in Canada, my health care tab is picked up by my provincial government. Yes, it's that dreaded "single-payer" system that's much maligned and much derided by my neighbours to the south. I can understand their concern that such a system would never work in the U.S., which is ten times the size of Canada, and which has 50 states to our ten provinces. And, if I had my druthers, I would opt for a mixed system which allows for both socialized and private services. Even so, the way things work here are fairly easy-peasy. I have a provincial health card. I show it whenever I go to the doctor or on those rare occasions when I've had to seek emergency hospital care. Period. I don't have to log onto a website and fiddle with a buggy health care portal. I don't have to select an insurance plan that's "right" for me. I certainly don't have to fork over a humungous deductible and onerous monthly fees. The system is comprehensive, so I have unrestricted access to all hospitals and doctors (although I may have to wait a while to see certain types of specialists). And here's the kicker: health insurance is just--and only--that. It has nothing to do with trying to disguise the manifold and chasmic flaws in your quasi-socialized/fully nationalized insurance system by spinning them as the government, in some sort of latter-day Lincolnesque gesture, setting people free to find their bliss.

Here is nutty Nancy Pelosi, spinning and grinning:
“What we see is that people are leaving their jobs because they are no longer job-locked,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters after House votes Tuesday afternoon. “They are following their aspirations to be a writer; to be self-employed; to start a business. This is the entrepreneurial piece. So it’s not going to cost jobs. It’s going to shift how people make a living and reach their aspirations.”
Alternatively, they'll sit on their duffs so they can keep qualifying for the O-care subsidy. But, hey, they'll be able to macramé like crazy while they're doing it, so there is that.

Attention all those elaborate knot-makers whose "bliss" has been
stymied by full-time work:
O-Care is synonymous with the freedom to macramé!

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