Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Universal Health Insurance

Congratulations Scott Brown on winning the Massachusetts senate seat and most likely fucking over universal health care.

In a case of perfect timing, today I had to go to the hospital with Huyen. Huyen woke up this morning and had a big cyst-like bump under the skin on her neck. I immediately freaked out and told her we had to go get her checked out at the hospital.

I've written about Vietnamese hospitals before and told about how crowded they are. The hospital we went to today was packed but in the span of less than two hours, Huyen was able to see two doctors and have blood work and a biopsy done. I'm happy to report that the thing under Huyen's skin is benign.

Vietnam has universal health care. The hospitals might be dirty but at least anybody can come into the hospital and get treatment without having to mortgage their house.

I try to keep my blog from being too political but I just felt like today was a great example of why America needs to look itself in the mirror from time to time. There is no doubt that if you have money in America you can get the best treatment for any condition. However, for those who don't have the most money, you're screwed when you don't have good health insurance.

I'm not saying that the Health Care Bill is perfect. In fact, I think it is too compromised because way too many Democrats sold out. However, what I am saying is that today I saw dozens of poor people at the hospital in Hanoi who got treatment and only had to pay a minimal fee. In America, that doesn't happen and now won't happen for probably a much longer time.