I'm free to become terminally ill

whimpering and moaning about the bureacracy, the heat, all that-- I take it all back.

today I finally got off my ass and did the paperwork, and it's true, even if you have no freaking right to be here, like me, you are entitled to free medical care and tons of precription drugs under $10!

that means, no more ... "I'll wait and see how bad it really gets" - or "what difference do hacking cough and bloody stool make when you're out $400-$1000? I'll just see if there's any left over prescription cough syrup in that box under my mom's sink" - or "christ I have to completely revamp my resume and dress up in some jobinterview suit and say that 'i like working with people' so I can continually pursue a full-time desk job that I won't get anyway with a boss and a water cooler and an elevator and a parking lot and benefits so I'm not living some half-time, freelance, HOURly paid, 1099 type hodge-podge kind of existence where I just might slip on an ice-patch or fall off my bicycle and be in healthcare debt for the rest of my natural life because in the end I need to contribute what would be $250 in bluecross health insurance to subsistence stuffs like food and toothpaste."

I don't care that the emergency room is up a flight of steps, that there's no computer system, that it's full of gossiping old ladies that have nothing better to do; I don't care that they don't change that paper on the patient's chair, or that their scheduling is arcane and asinine and that the whole place closes at midday so everyone can take a nap.
Amoxicillin is $4, people, and I'm putting in diddly squat.

And if I just had the luck to make a lot of money, they would take out a fair percentage of that to contribute to the health care of those who don't make as much money. I know this is a difficult concept to grasp, and that the mere thought of it makes some people spew spittle as they seethingly remind me that I don't deserve to be an American (and I have been reminding, also been called commie scum.) But to a certain extent, I dunno about the macro of it all, but on the micro level it works. You get treated. Doctors get paid shit, that sucks. But if I understand correctly, in their training they didn't have to put up however many hundreds of thousands.

que viva europa, goddamit. I can't wait to get sick.