The new administration in Washington is flirting with socialized medicine. I wish them luck. If my experience with Israel’s version of it is anything to go by, they’ll need it.
On Thursday I had an appointment at a local government hospital. This was lucky. If it had been at a Kupat Holim clinic it would have been canceled thanks to a strike. But at the government hospitals it was business-as-usual. I arrived on time for my 11:40 appointment, the sort of thing you would expect to be in-and-out in 10 minutes for, and sat and waited my turn. 2 hours. I waited for 2 hours.
It’s a huge amount of time. I could have watched a whole feature film in that time. Or 3 full episodes of “24”. Or run the 4-minute mile 30 times. Or eaten a plateful of lasagna, polished off a bottle of Chianti and still had time for the tiramisu. Instead, I sat helplessly watching the office door for any sign of life. Oh yes, I was patient. But as some dictionary somewhere defines it, patience is just a form of despair disguised as a minor virtue.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m grateful to live in a society where I can get adequate medical care without having to rob a bank to pay for it. But the flip side is that you wait 2 months for any kind of test or procedure and then when the time has come and you have arrived with all the necessary forms and certificates, all signed, stamped and dated, you then must sit and wait. And wait. And wait.
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