I am getting really pissed off at that frenchman's talk about the “right of healthcare”. Okay, were in the constitution is a right to healthcare located? I remember reading about a right for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. There is even something in there about bearing arms, free speech, religious freedom, freedom from unlawful search an seizure but I just can’t recall seeing anything about the government providing healthcare. Does this man really know or understand what government controlled healthcare does to people. The military healthcare system is socialized healthcare at it’s finest, and I am going to share just a few personal horrors stories:
My first child was born by emergency c-section at a military facility in Hawai’i. All things considered it went pretty well except for the 26 hours of labor, the failure to progress, the fetal distress, the absolute aversion any of the staff had for making a medical decision, finally culminating in an emergency C-section when there was no longer a decision to be made. However, the birth of my second child, also in Hawai’i at the same facility, was a real mess. Because my first was delivered by C-section I was supposed to have a choice between attempting VBAC and a planned C-section. I was not sure which one I wanted to try, my first attempt went so poorly, but every Mother wants to give birth naturally. My doctor convinced me to attempt a natural birth with the promise that anytime I could stop the process and have the C-section. That was my first mistake…..Never, but never believe anything a government doctor tells you. As my time neared and the contractions started I went to the hospital only to be turned away on three separate occasions because I had not dilated past the 3cm mark. I would remind you that the reason my first child was delivered by emergency C-section is because of my failure to dilate past 4cm. After about 20 hours of constant contractions and pain I made a fourth attempt at the hospital. Once again the doctors refuse to admit me because I have not reached 3cm but this time a nurse intervened and demands the doctor actually look at the fetal monitor. At first he refused but the nurse was adamant that the baby was in distress. The nurse and the doctor proceeded to argue right there in front of my husband and me finally the doctor orders the nurse out of the room. She returned a few minutes later with the labor and delivery supervisor. After a brief discussion with me a one look at the fetal monitor the supervisor makes the decision to admit me and begin administering drugs to help labor progress. After about five or six hours the contractions are almost constant and the pain is off the scale. I begged for an epidural or some kind of pain medicine but the doctor refused. Then the babies heart rate drops sharply and my blood pressure goes though the roof. I am loosing control with pain. I couldn’t stop myself from pushing; I actually thought I would die. I still have only dilated to 5cm but my body just seemed to be pushing on its own. I had absolutely no control over myself. The doctor is yelling at me to stop pushing but I am not in control. I could have no more stopped myself in mid air after falling off a cliff than I could stop pushing. Not only am I pushing but I am flailing as well, just hammering against my husband’s chest and head. I begged for them to perform a C-section but they kept refusing. By this time I was insane with pain I grabbed the jackass doctor by the collar of his uniform and screamed that I needed the C-section right in his face. My husband says I tried to claw his eyes out as well but I don’t remember. The doctor left the room and did not come back. The nurse said that he refused to come back in. Another 4 hours passed by and nothing at all was done for me. Finally, someone did come and administer an epidural but I was so far gone that it didn’t kill much of the pain, it did make it more bearable however. The original doctor never did come back, but the shift had finally changed and the bastard doctor was replaced by one I had a little pre-natal history with. I asked him to please let me have the C-section like they promised, but he said they were only authorized to give a C-section if the Baby or the Mother is in immediate danger of death. The reason for this he explained was that because it was near the end of the 4th Quarter of the fiscal year (22 September) the hospital was out of money. I wasn’t positive I wasn’t dying but I told him I was really afraid for my Baby, they had lost his heartbeat several times. He responded, “Well, you are going to do it naturally.” Fast forward, I had been in L&D for over 20 hours now and I had finally reached a level of dilation where I could finally push. No doctor ever came back to check on me, a Nurse Midwife stayed with me and helped me for 5 more hours with the occasional student nurse coming in to help out. The nurse now tells me to stop pushing; the baby cannot be born; there is a problem and we need a pediatric doctor. Of course they couldn’t find one, they couldn’t even find the duty doctor in L&D and while they were looking my Son came into the world. The nurse was so overwhelmed. About two minutes after he was born the pediatric doctor finally showed up and then about 5 minutes later the L&D doctor makes his appearance to sew up the tearing. My son was okay. I was okay, but no thanks to any of the doctors.
My third child was a surprise. We had only planned on having two children and we had to try HARD for a long time to make those (My Husband likes to say that “It was harder planting seed in you than starting a Hibachi grill without hand grenades and napalm”). I didn’t even think I could have a child without trying, especially since I was still breastfeeding and my monthly cycle had not restarted. We were in the middle of a PCS move and living in a hotel room with a 15 month old, a four year old, and two large golden retrievers. I had been feeling odd but never dreamed it could be pregnancy until I felt something moving in my belly. I took a test and sure enough number three was on the way. I attempted to make an appointment but the earliest they would give me was six weeks later. I tried to explain the issue, I knew I had to be at least through the first trimester to be able to feel movement so keenly and I thought it was a real bad idea not to have any prenatal care until the late second trimester. Of course they could not do anything. My husband went to his ships Senior Medical Officer to ask for help and with his assistance we managed to get an appointment only 4 weeks away. This time I told the doctor I wanted a planned C-section no ifs, ands, or buts. They tried that same old line of crap “lets plan on a natural birth and at anytime you can change your mind and have a C-section”. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me! I refused to give birth naturally. So when the first attempt at tricking me failed they switch methods and attempted the tried and true delay until overcome by events. So for three months I hear we will plan the C-section on your next visit. Finally, I said “No more!” I need this birth planned. I refused to leave the office without it. So we had it planned. I did all my pre-op stuff and on the appointed day I showed up for the birth. The doctor then tells me “I am sorry we cannot perform this surgery, no one annotated the date of conception in your record and we cannot be sure of the age of the fetus.” Never mind that I am having contraction and am 2cm dilated or the fact that I was midway through the second of three trimesters before they even saw fit to provide any pre-natal care at all. NOW they are concerned? Their new plan was for me to go home and reschedule for a later date. I explained that I am already having contractions and that I am a week past due based on the dates that the first doctor I saw told me was the conception date and I had a history of failing to progress and difficult births. The doctor maintained that since the record was not annotated with the conception date he would not perform the surgery. I refused to leave and that is when the argument began in earnest. After doctor and after doctor came in and tried to talk me in to leave but I refused. Finally, they decided to do an amniocentesis to determine the baby’s age. Twelve hours later, they finally agreed to do the C-Section and my daughter was born at 8:45 that night. She was beautiful and healthy and never once in distress.
Those are just the birth horror stories; now let me tell you what government provided healthcare means on routine issues. I am prone to bladder infections and I have had nasty ones with each pregnancy. It is very dangerous to the baby to have these types of infections and each time I had to go to the Emergency Room to be treated for what should be routine problems because there were never available appointments. Constantly, when I try to make appointment when the children are sick the earliest they can be seen is two to three weeks later. By that time they will either be really really sick or well. Several times one or more (when one gets sick they all do) of my children has been really ill and there were no appointments available. They tell you that if you think it is important use the ER. I do not like to but I have done this at least 5 times and the average time lost on an ER visit is 8 hours. The other thing that is maddening is when they doctors will not prescribe anything for the kids. A case in point is when my children were diagnosed with strep throat. No prescriptions were made. The neighbor’s child has the same thing and their civilian doctor prescribes medication. He was better in two days, mine were still horribly sick after seven days. I agree that anti-biotic are over prescribed but this is ridiculous. I am pretty well force to rely on what the Wal-Mart pharmacist suggests for over the counter medication to help out instead of our doctors. In addition, the doctors are often just not the best. I am sure there are some really fine military doctors who are dedicated, compassionate and competent, however, it always seems that the ones we are assigned are in the service so they can avoid being sued for mal-practice. Also, you never see the same doctor twice even though the military is trying to assign each family to one doctor. It is hit and miss whether the doctor makes decent notes in the medical record that someone who has no previous history with you can discern a trend. You tend to find yourself running around in circles. You see a doctor on Monday and he provides a course of treatment with the instruction to come back in a week if there is no improvement and will try this other course of treatment. You have no improvement so you try to get a follow up. Three weeks later (because that was the earliest appointment you could get for you follow up) you see another doctor (whom you have never seen before and who doesn’t know you from Adam) who orders the exact same course of treatment that failed last time with the instruction to come back if no improvement and we will try this other course of treatment. Over and over again you go through this and still they will always default to the same failed treatment. You just can’t reason with them. My husband says “Never reinforce failure” is a golden rule in the military, in military medicine the opposite seems to be true. Each doctor has to go though all the same question over and over again and they never do follow though with what the last doctor said because that was not they. I am convinced that some of these doctors are in the military because they could not make it in the real world. They were that bad. It is very hard (all but impossible) to sue a military doctor because of laws. Also, the military beauracracy forces doctors to do things they are not competent to do. A case in point, my children’s, “assigned” pediatrician flat out states that she hates children. She is in pediatrics because that is where she was detailed and just has to “grin and bear it until my assignment is finished”. The children hate her as much as she hates children. Luckily we almost never see her.This is socialized medicine. If you let the government control healthcare, this is what it will be like for everyone. If you are not allowed to use the facility/practitioner that best meets your needs then you are doomed to the lowest common denominator just as all military families already are. Be afraid…..AND KEEP GOVERNMENT OUT OF YOUR HEALTHCARE!
TO THE TYRANT NEVER YIELD
