Mr. Obama, You Can Fix This, Right?

in case you live under a rock and haven't heard, there's soon to be a new feller in the white house after an election for el presidente de los estados unidos a few days ago. and he's got big plans for health care. it's pretty universally agreed that health care in this country is a giant money pit and even w/ all the debt it's creating, only a small percentage of people are covered. and so in turn the hospitals are going bankrupt trying to treat people who can't pay and then doctors are fleeing inner cities to go practice in the greener pastures of the suburbs, etc, etc.

and even though the hospital i work for, MBH, seems to have more money than God, it's tightening its belt a lot in this tough time. enough to make all of us worry about our jobs. other local hospitals in the past, when in an economic crunch, have wiped out all of their in-house PA's...MBH has never had a need...but now we're worried. and even if they're able to keep us, they're boosting our productivity by expanding our work load and requiring us to cover 24-7 shifts and such. in this economy, i'm just pretty glad to have a job...but things are shaping up to be a lot different than when i hired in. and now there's a hiring freeze, so i will be the FNG (f'ing new guy) for a long time to come. meaning all holidays and crappy shifts will be mine for as long as i'm low man on the totem pole.

sigh. but i really am mostly just glad to have a job that i like, even if we go through the projected changes and it means i'm working more and all that.

but i'm still whining in my head about all these things yeserday when i talked to a nurse who just returned from a medical missions trip to africa. she gave me a little bit of perspective. she went with a few cardiothoracic surgeons and they were doing open heart surgery- valve replacements on little kids and adults alike, coronary artery grafting, etc. and she told stories about the hospital being so poor that the surgeons occasionally had to operate by candle light when the generators blew. and when it got cold at night without the heat provided by the generators, the nurses would crawl in bed with the patients to provide them body heat. she had many examples like these.

so while our system is terribly broken and not everyone is getting the care that they need and that care might be hanging by a thread and deeply in the red...we have it pretty good.

i am curious to see what the 'future of health care' might be. one of my parents' conservative friends asked me after the election if i was looking forward to having a government job soon. :) so clearly, we're guaranteed lots of lively conversation on the subject from people on all sides of the issue.

off to get stuff done. this has been a completely crazy week. we've been gone a lot and our house looks like a wild boar let loose in it and tore all the clothes out of our dresser drawers and threw them on the floor and made all kinds of dirty dishes in the kitchen and...it was a very destructive boar. let's just say that.

and today we have not one but TWO weddings to attend, so in addition to cleaning the house i have to look all spiffy. grumble.

laters, loves.