{"id":37615,"date":"2019-11-25T21:34:25","date_gmt":"2019-11-26T02:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=37615"},"modified":"2019-11-25T21:34:25","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T02:34:25","slug":"the-human-cost-of-socialized-medicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=37615","title":{"rendered":"The Human Cost Of Socialized Medicine"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Thursday, The Daily Signal<\/a> posted an article which illustrates how thankful Americans should be for the health care we receive. The article tells the story of James Schmitz, a member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation. Mr. Schmitz suffers from West syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy.<\/p>\n

The article reports:<\/p>\n

After graduating college, I had an opportunity to work for a think tank in London. There, I\u2019d be just hours away from the wonders of mainland Europe.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Britain is a historian\u2019s paradise, so naturally as a history major, I was soaking it up. The idea of also going to Pompeii or Rome was spectacular.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The only thing standing in my way was a doctor to treat me abroad.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As an epileptic, I needed a steady supply of anti-seizure drugs and visits to the doctor about every three months to make sure everything was working as it should. I also needed a doctor to be available within a week\u2019s time if necessary.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t know how hard it would be to find a doctor in Britain. I remember having a very difficult conversation with a general practitioner. It was the moment my dream of staying abroad was crushed.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was a Friday. After work, I walked into an urgent care clinic to set up an appointment with a neurologist.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I knew how easy it is in the United States to see a doctor, so I thought this would be no different. I would go in, get a recommendation, and walk out with a name and number to call on Monday for an appointment possibly in two weeks\u2019 time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sadly, that was not the case. The doctor said, verbatim: \u201cI can recommend a neurologist for you. I will say, she\u2019s pretty booked so you won\u2019t see her for at least nine months.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was shocked. I felt as if I\u2019d been blindsided. She wasn\u2019t even guessing. She worked at a nearby National Health Service hospital right down the street on the weekends, so she knew.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I asked if there was anything I could do to expedite the waiting process. In response, all I got was: \u201cI\u2019ll call my colleague and see if she could maybe squeeze you in maybe three to four months from now.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Disheartened by the news, I knew staying in the U.K. was out of the question. I had to return to the U.S. in order to keep accessing the routine medical care that had saved my life so many years before.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A month later, I packed my bags and left for Heathrow Airport having spent less than three months in the country. It\u2019s a shame, because Britain is an amazing country and I would have loved to stay longer. Health care should not be a reason to have to leave a modern, First World country.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And that is how things work under socialized medicine. There may be no cost, but there is also no availability. Healthcare isn’t worth much if you can’t get it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Thursday, The Daily Signal posted an article which illustrates how thankful Americans should be for the health care we receive. The article tells the story of James Schmitz, a member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6986,12424,18,1843,3660,11097,7575,10397,8827],"class_list":["post-37615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-england","tag-epilepsy","tag-healthcare","tag-heritage-foundation","tag-london","tag-national-health-service","tag-socialized-medicine","tag-the-daily-signal","tag-the-heritage-foundation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37616,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37615\/revisions\/37616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}