Exeunt Turdblossom, exeunt Alberto

There was once a smart young fellow, Turdblossom,
whose sway over the Chief was awesome.
There was never an adviser
more brilliant, sagacious, or wiser.
His words of wisdom put into the ear of the Chief
made things happen beyond belief.
Those in Washington in the know
said Turdblossom would always have the bon mot
to create victories for which the Chief could crow.

Yes, Turdblossom was a very smart young fellow,
fearless, savvy, and stellar.
Whenever the Chief was in a tight spot,
he could turn to Turdblossom, that young snot,
who would scheme and plot
to come up with a plan, whether cricket or not.

But, alas and alack, after all his capers,
eventually Turdblossom got his walking papers.
After pulling so many strings
and taking care of so many things,
and giving so many speeches,
he had gotten too big for his breeches.

_________________________________

That poor fellow, the late AG,
tried too often to be cagey.
Admiration among Senators he did not inspire,
and of him his underlings did tire
(especially those prosecutors he did fire).
So, Alberto got the old heave-ho.
He was shown the door
and will not be heard of any more.

Medical care outside of the USA

My reading an editorial today in the New York Times which lamented the poor standing of the United States as to availability of health care, compared to other industrialized countries, reminded me of two times that I needed medical care in other countries.

In 1953, while living in Dakar, Senegal (in what was then French West Africa) and working for the international oil company Texaco, I got a bad cut on one of my feet by stepping on some broken glass while barefooted. I was taken to a nearby hospital by friends, where my wound was stitched up and bandaged. I never was asked to pay anything for this service (which included a follow-up visit to remove the stitches and the dressing). This was many years before I had any medical insurance. Upon phoning the hospital to see if they might have sent me a bill that could have gone astray, I learned that there was no charge. Being quite naive at that time, I felt that I should have paid something, so I mailed a check to the hospital--I don't remember the exact amount but I believe it was, in francs, the equivalent of about $15.

In 1993, my wife and I did a home exchange with a couple who lived in a rural area of Buckinghamshire in England for three weeks. I developed a headache during the flight over which stayed with me for two or three more days. So, early on a Monday morning, I phoned a number to reach a doctor that our exchange partners had left at the house. The number reached was some kind of doctor referral service, where I was told to go to a medical practice in a tiny town called Wing, about a 20-minute drive from the house we were occupying. The practice was in a large old clapboard house, and it was clearly a family practice because there were parents with small children and an assortment of other patients in the waiting room (which had obviously been the living room of a family in years past). Seeing the number of patients waiting, I anticipated a long wait to see a doctor. But, to my surprise and delight, in about 25 minutes I was told to take stairs up to the next floor where Dr. Jones would see me. There I was greeted by Dr. Jones (her real name, I'm not using a fictitious name), a very attractive fortyish woman.

After examining me, she told me that my headache was nothing more than tension, and that she would give me a prescription for some medication that I could pick up at her dispensary downstairs. Then, she told me that, because I was neither British nor from a European Union country, I would have to pay for her services and the prescription--there would have been no charge had I been British, French, Spanish, etc. because it would have been covered by the U.K. national health service. She was almost apologetic when she told me this; I told her that would be no problem, especially since she had seen me after such a short wait on a busy Monday morning.

I then went back downstairs, where I picked up the medication at her dispensary in one of the rooms of the house--no going to a drugstore and waiting for the prescription to be filled, as in the U.S.--and paid the bill. The bill for everything, the doctor's services and the prescription, was £6, the equivalent of about $9. I have rarely gotten such a bargain.

Will we ever see such health care service in the U.S. as I did in the French colony in 1953 and in England in 1993?

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Medical care outside of the USA": NEVER!

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Medical care outside of the USA": You will if you really push for it and elect a party that's most likely to be interested in providing good health services for all US citizens.

Anonymous and Anonymous: Thanks for your comments. According to you both, the answer is somewhere between "if" and "never."

Mycroft