A Tale of Two Patients

I am posting this because it strongly resembles the ordeal I am having trying to get decent healthcare in Montrose, Colorado.  And I believe there are some members of my parish who have had similar experiences:

2 patients limp into two different doctors' offices with the same complaint: 

Both have trouble walking and may require hip surgery.

Patient #1 is examined within the hour, is x-ray'd the same day and has a time booked for surgery the following week.

Patient #2 sees his family doctor after waiting 3 weeks for an appointment, then waits 8 weeks to see a specialist, then gets an x-ray, which isn't reviewed for another week, and finally has his surgery scheduled for 6 months from then, pending the review board's decision on his age and remaining value to society.

Why the different treatment for the 2 patients?

The FIRST is a Golden Retriever taken to a vet.

The SECOND is a Senior Citizen on Obamacare.

In we don't change the party in control of the Senate in November 2014 and the White House in November 2016, we will all have to find a good vet.

The one difference is that I am not a senior citizen on Obamacare.  I am a working individual with regular health insurance trying to get healthcare in a system that has been affected (for the worse) by Obamacare.  Doctors in this town aren't taking new patients (some of them for fear of getting saddled with Obamacare patients).  Obamacare has also caused a number of doctors to stop taking Medicare patients--in a town full of retirees, most of whom are on Medicare!  Some of the doctors--three this month alone--are leaving town or quitting private practice.  Those quitting private practice are doing so to avoid the bureaucracy and headaches caused by Obamacare.  Those who are moving elsewhere are going into larger practices where there are additional staff to deal with the bureaucracy and red tape.  The shortage of physicians in Montrose is creating a mentality of scarcity with regard to healthcare, which has the effect of causing healthcare providers to treat patients as a commodity rather than as valued customers.  

Now I know what healthcare in the Soviet Union must have been like--rationed, impersonal, uncaring.  Thank you Mr. Obama.  Thank you Mr. Reid, Mrs. Pelosi.  And thank you healthcare professionals who have allowed yourselves to be turned into healthcare bureaucrats.