Orange, Tan, Boner-Man - A Rant Against the Machine

I'm proud of my little nasty, snarky epithet for Speaker of the House, John Boehner who yesterday actually uttered these words:

The United States of America has the best healthcare delivery system in the world.

This comment alone makes me want to start digging a grave -- not for The Tan Man --but for myself and the millions of other people in this godforsaken rich as shit country who have been struggling with the best healthcare delivery system in the world ever since Sophie was diagnosed with a devastating seizure disorder nearly nineteen years ago. As a member of an HMO at the time, I had to get approval before seeing a specialist, and then when I got approval, we were told that the wait to see the neurologist was four months. In New York City, home to two, if not three, of the world's "greatest epilepsy centers," I would have had to wait four f**king months for a neurologist to see my baby.

Do you know what happened?

A woman I grew up with in Atlanta, married to a New York City billionaire, took offense to that wait and called her husband's room mate from college who happened to be a pediatric neurologist who then called me and instructed me to go to the emergency room of New York Hospital where I was met by an official and ushered through triage and the emergency room. Less than four hours later, Sophie was diagnosed with infantile spasms, a type epilepsy that if not treated as soon as possible, can cause regression and all manner of horrible things. So, let me emphasize that our journey through "the best healthcare delivery system in the world" was initiated by a billionaire because it takes a billionaire to make things happen. Despite that white-gloved early diagnosis, the carpet that unfolded in front of us for the next two decades was so beset with aggravation, wheeling and dealing and stupidity that I'm a changed person because of it, and not in a good way. Multiply our experience with the best healthcare delivery system in the world a thousand-fold plus -- because this isn't just about Sophie or our family. It's still going on and only barely improved by some of the new laws of the Affordable Care Act which, it seems, might just implode any moment.

Long live the plutocracy and f**k The Tan Man and all the people who believe him.

I feel better having said it and thank the universe for blogging. You should try it if you want to jump from a roof or hang yourself, because if you're like me, it'll save your life. You'll just give it all up, take up smoking cigars and let it all just go to hell.