When Cruel and Stupid People are in Charge

So I'm supposed to go to the clinic this month and have my blood retested. There is a problem with that. Well, actually, two problems, but the one isn't that big of a deal.

The big problem is that they won't schedule a time. I'm just supposed to show up. Only I have to fast for twenty-four hours beforehand. The problem with not having an appointment is that I won't think about going twenty-four hours beforehand so I won't fast. So I can't go. The month's half over already, and the only time I think about it is when I'm eating. "Oh. Yeah. I need to fast so I can go get the blood work done. Tomorrow. Maybe."

The little prlblem is I don't have health insurance anymore. It came down to having insurance or a place to live, and a place to live won out. Not that we can really afford the place to live either, but one has to be some place. (I argued this point with Spouse a year ago, but lost out. Pity. The premiums meant several thousand dollars went down the toilet.)

Meanwhile, our brilliant (and greedy and completely clueless) government officials are trying to pass a law making it illegal to be poor. That's right. Those of us who cannot afford insurance will be fined the money we don't have to pay for the insurance. What will they do when we can't pay the fines? Throw us into prison? We've gone backward in time to the days of debtor prisons. At least then we'll have insurance. Pretty good insurance from what I've heard.

Yes, they say the government will subsidize the poor who can't afford it. Right. And you know what kind of insurance that will be? Basically, free clinic stuff. If only our people weren't such arrogant and proud a*sholes they could copy a program which actually works instead of trying to invent something new and ruining a lot of people's lives in the process.

I don't know how much I give a da*n anymore. They say I'm costing the rest of the country billions because I don't have insurance. How? And why am I not seeing any of this money? When there is no insurance to pay my medical bills, who pays? I do. Or, I just don't go (which is more likely). I went two years with three broken teeth because I didn't have dental insurance. I went four years without being checked for diabetes (which I have, by the way) because I couldn't afford it. When I told my diabetes doctor I was soon to lose my insurance he asked me how that would affect me. I told him. I would do what thousands upon thousands of people in my mother's generation are doing: decide between medicine and food. Food would probably win. He said doctors don't like to be told that. Well, I've got news for the doctors: The poor don't much care for having to make that decision. But it's life. And believe it or not, there are actually thousands upon thousands of people who would give anything if they could trade place with me. The son of the people across the street comitted suicide this spring. What do they care about money problems? At least I have my son.

But where is all of this money being spent by others because I don't go to the doctor, or buy my medicine? Lost time from work? Well, I've been dumped from every job I've had because I'm too old to have it anymore, or the greedy b*stards in the financial industry have forced the business to collapse. Yes, Madoff got 150 years. I saw where on the news. They report that it's like a college campus. Maybe I'll get lucky, too, and be sent there. I can room with Madoff.

Hi. My name's Bevie. What are you in for?

Stealing billions from the world and forcing an economic collapse that put millions out of work. And you?

Being poor.

You filthy scum.