Starry-eyed Liberal Meets the Reality of Medicaid Patients

American Thinker ^ | August 20, 2013 | M. Catharine Evans

[Sopater]

President Obama addressed health rights in his August 17 radio address, but he didn't mention what happens inside an inner city emergency room. Wait until his lemmings find out what having a "right" to healthcare means according to the single-payer collectivists. If the dulled masses, schooled in the evils of capitalism these last forty years, don't wake up in time to the connection between free market principles and the genius of American medicine, the progressives' long yearned for single-payer system, already in the works, will become a reality.

Those of us in the healthcare field have seen up close what government programs like Medicaid mean in terms of a "right" to medical care. Our emergency room happens to be in a major southern urban area. If any one of the 20-somethings who voted for Obama would be willing to volunteer for at least a month at our facility, I can almost guarantee these same hoodwinked young people would be singing the praises of capitalism, warts and all.

Just ask Samantha (name changed to protect identity). With so many college graduates looking for work, we recently hired the 24-year old at our registration desk. Samantha is a die-hard liberal, but it just so happens her boyfriend is a 28-year-old conservative-minded accountant. When first hired about three months ago, she talked a great deal about their political differences.

Samantha was very sympathetic to the plight of the poor and their need for assistance. Moreover, she felt her boyfriend didn't understand the situation with this segment of the population which would be unable to survive without help from the government.

After one month of doing her job registering 45 ER Medicaid patients daily for various reasons

[Chickensoup]

Hey I was schooled, many of us were.

[Sopater]

“If you’re not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you’re not a conservative at forty you have no brain.” - Winston Churchill

[liberalh8ter]

I have a friend who is a OB nurse at a local hospital. She tells me all the time about pregnant women who come into the ER via ambulance because they 'don't feel well'. One even came by ambulance because she stubbed her toe and was afraid the pain would have an adverse reaction to the baby. After years of this, she finds herself treating them with disdain because she knows she's paying for the ambulance ride and exorbitant ER bills.

She's now going back to school for midwifery in hopes of not having to deal with this nonsense.

[Chickensoup]

I am a scarecrow and a tinman.

I like that! And you know something? There is some lion too.

[VerySadAmerican]

Great article! But the woman giving toys and coloring books to kids in the emergency room is helping to spread germs....she’ll probably get sued for being nice.

I do wish all the liberal voters would read this. But they won’t. Too close minded.

[VerySadAmerican]

I experienced this 9 years ago. Took my wife to the emergency room. There were about a hundred people waiting. Most were Hispanic. The nurse told my wife that none of them have insurance and it will all be free. We left and went to a minor emergency clinic and paid cash.

Supposedly obamacare is going to change this. Yeah, right.

[PapaBear3625]

The ones who have the greatest compassion for the underclass, are generally those who have little or no contact or interaction with them.

As the article points out, the best way to cure liberalism is to provide a few months of stark reality.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

Great read. Nice to see another conservative in the making.

[gogeo]

I just shake my head.

At the liberal...I'm past the point I feel any compassion. Not only has she served in the army that made this possible, she's undoubtedly criticized those who knew better. So she has a lot to atone for.

Besides, everything she thinks she knows, she learned in school. I suppose we should be grateful she figured out anything at all.

[Sopater]

Supposedly obamacare is going to change this.

Only by attempting to remove the stigma attached to seeking free healthcare via the ER process...

[sarge83]

My Mom has a police scanner and we will play card and board games and leave it in the background. One night an ambulance was dispatched because one of the check drawers had had diarrhea all day long and decided she needed to go to the ER.

A month or so later we were listening and an ambulance was dispatched because one of the parasite’s hemorrhoids were bothering him and he needed to go to the ER.

The Medicaid dregs are a drag on humanity.

[dancusa]

The ER crew from the register person, to the nurses and doctors calls them "Frequent Flyers".

My wife worked the ER as a register person years ago in an exurb hospital. They were mostly white and had issues with drug and alcohol. The cops would drop them off there and get them out of their hands.

Sometimes security had to called in to put them in a straight jacket, if it got out of hand. I could just imagine the scene would be if they brought in an "endangered species" inner city type person with special rights with an attitude.

[liberalh8ter]

Guarantee the diarrhea and hemorrhoids are a direct result of the government cheese. Yet another example of how we create our own problems.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

an "endangered species" inner city type person with special rights with an attitude.

Oh, a native black savage.