I'm watching 'Sicko' for the first time

[fahye]

Dear America,

O_O

I -- WHAT. I mean, I knew it was a ridiculous system, but not that ridiculous.

(I didn't know Hillary Clinton had been pushing for universal healthcare during her husband's presidency. Good on her. And I think I need to reread the details of the recent changes more carefully.)

Also, that British doctor they interviewed was adorable <3 Adorable and loaded. I WANT A JOB IN LONDON AND A HOUSE IN GREENWICH.

...actually, I want to get my British citizenship renewed and then work in France and be a SUPERHERO NINJA DOCTOR in a zippy car who drives around Paris at night.

More seriously -- I think this was a good time for me to watch this documentary, manipulative though it is. I've been feeling kind of demotivated and apathetic as far as my course is concerned, and I think it's because my last couple of placements have involved a lot less talking-to-patients. Patients are awesome. (Mostly.) And getting someone's life story is always rewarding: you realise how much of an impact sickness can have on a person, or a family, and you realise how resilient people are. It's humbling. I'm in the right profession, I am, I just sometimes get so snowed under by the paperwork and the assessments and the constant stress that I forget this fact.

So, um, huzzah for socialised healthcare.


Love,

an abnormally patriotic-feeling British-Australian.

Comments

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

No really. It is actually that fucked up. Slightly less so now thanks to Obama/reform. Part of the reason I haven't been to the doctor in three years, besides being broke and relatively healthy and having no insurance, is a fear that if they find something wrong with me while I'm not on insurance, the preexisting condition will make it impossible for me to get insurance. Which ... probably not the smartest gamble, but yeah. *shrug*.

And yeah, the Hillary/healthcare failure is one of the things most closely associated w/ the Clintons, up there with the Lewinsky thing.

[-leareth.livejournal.com]

I didn't know Hillary Clinton had been pushing for universal healthcare during her husband's presidency.

It's one of the reasons for the Hillary hate that permeates through parts of America, her trying to act as if First Lady was a governmental office that could make policy rather than a ... whatever it is. Very soft power, image centred, morale, it-comes-with-the-White-House-when-your-spouse-is-POTUS position AFAIK.

[amberite.livejournal.com]

Yeah - most of the US system is stupid-bad-mad, and the reason I initially decided against going into a healthcare profession was because I didn't want to deal with that system. I didn't think I had the guts to stand up and fight.

I changed my mind about that last part recently, although I'm still trying to figure out where my personal battle front goes.

[pat-trick.livejournal.com]

the recently passed "obamacare" is a step in the right direction, but we're still far from the awesome healthcare systems that are present in many other countries in the world.