Healthcare Camaraderie Centers – American Thinker. – July 3, 2010

Originally posted at American Thinker. blog

Obamacare has actually found a way to inject the friend factor into health care reform.  In fact, community organizer Barack Obama may ultimately be responsible for advancing neighborhood camaraderie through government altruism.  It seems that as an added benefit of “free” medical care, crowded emergency rooms have the potential to be transformed into social gathering places where patients wheeled in on stretchers leave with a whole new group of friends.

How, you ask?  Well, one change the Obamacare overhaul is poised to deliver is extended ER wait times.  After bleeding for 4 hours before receiving triage evaluation, ER patients will be directed toward MRSA-infested waiting rooms jammed with people who, when forced to spend 72 hours together, could become lifetime friends.

Obama’s much touted nothing-is-free health care promises to cost the duped both quality and access.  An added bonus is the opportunity to fritter away precious time sitting in the ER perfecting Sudoku skills.

Savvy ER patients who used to pack a snack, afghan and a change of socks should now also pack a toothbrush. If predictions are on target, patients waiting for a butterfly stitch may find themselves eating stale Sun Chips® out of a vending machine for days on end.

Wasn’t it just a few months ago that Obama led Americans to believe, along with many other fabrications, that “getting 32 million more people covered by health insurance would ease the persistent problem of ER crowding?” The argument presented was that, thanks to Obamacare, patients that typically use the ER for minor issues like sore throats would have access to “routine health care by visiting a doctor’s office, as most of the insured do.”

One problem: there’s “already a shortage of front-line family physicians…and experts think that will get worse.” Fewer doctors coupled with 32 million additional people glutting the government dole translates into ER rooms perpetually resembling JFK’s terminal 4 during the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull.

American College of Emergency Physicians president Dr. Angela Gardner says, “We’re starting out with crowded conditions and anticipating things will only get worse.”

If Obama gets his way, add to the 32 million the conservative figure of another 11 million illegals receiving amnesty and health care, and ERs across the nation will be forced to provide collapsible cots to accommodate overnight guests waiting for ice packs and ace bandages.

According to experts like Dr. Arthur L. Kellermann, “More people will have coverage and will be less afraid to go to the emergency department if they’re sick or hurt and have nowhere else to go.”

Seems as though Yes We Can just became “No we can’t!”

Perfect! Deluge the system before the means to accommodate the influx is in place.  Sounds like a recipe for government hope and change disaster. Overcrowd the lifeboat. Escape a burning building by cramming the elevator with more weight than the cable can handle. Jump out of the aircraft, worry about the parachute later.

Obamacare is about to be foisted upon America.  So as the world’s best health care is overwhelmed by official procedures, systemic inefficiency, and bureaucratic oversight, if – God forbid – you should happen to visit an emergency room, get geared up to meet lots of new and interesting friends and make sure to bring an overnight bag.