A Personal Note About “Medicare for All”

January 11, 2025
 Uncle John

You, dear reader, will never know who I’m talking about, but he is my friend. And he is dying. He has been given a very short time, and I’m wrestling with the choice of going to see him (even though he’s brain damaged and may not even recognize me) and having that image permanently engraved on my memory of him. I probably will, once the alcohol as metabolized and it’s safe for me to drive the hour or so it’ll take to get there. He is, after all, my friend. And I do stand by my friends.

And it’s not his fault…

He should not be in the condition he is in. He should be home, happy and active, his urine collection bag notwithstanding. And he would be, except he was in the care of a healthcare system already run by the US Government.

That healthcare system is called the Veteran’s Administration.

I cannot discuss the specifics of his case, except to say that his current condition is – in my decidedly non-expert opinion, of course, which is based solely on only slightly more expert but incomplete observations of others – the direct result of the incompetence and mistakes made during his care at VA facilities.

I visited him just before Christmas, right before he was to be moved to a rehab facility. He was alert, coherent, talkative, if a little tired. And tired is justified, considering what he’d been through to that point – multiple surgeries to fix mistakes from previous surgeries, and facing a much longer rehabilitation period than he would have otherwise. But he was all there and looking forward to going home.

He’s not “all there” now. I don’t know if it was a stroke, or if somebody screwed something up, or if there was a combination of the two (which I think is most probable), but he’s now in the care of a real hospital – and they don’t see him recovering.

His wife is devastated – and she isn’t one who devastates easily. They had plans for his retirement years. The surgery was his best option, they had said. And now…

I’m planning his eulogy.

His is not the only horror story from the VA system.

Now you know why I’m so opposed to the idea of a government-run healthcare system. They can’t even get it right for one small segment of our population – our veterans, who deserve the best – so how the Hell can you possibly expect them to get it right for all of us?

Uncle John
  • Uncle John

  • Uncle John is the black-sheep relative your family doesn't want to admit to. He's a writer, old fart, anti-extremist, dyed-in-the-wool cynic, sci-fi nerd, and practicing to be a curmudgeon. More vegan than carnivore, but very much a Constitutional "originalist"; a walking, talking contradiction in terms, and a straight, no-holds-barred talker, who will tell it like it is with no apologies. Pacific Northwest native, married for many, many years to a woman he doesn't deserve, with no kids that will acknowledge them - except for the cat, who is merely tolerant.

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2 Comments

  • Uncle John Reply

    An Update: I have visited my friend, spent an hour with him and his caregivers, and have come away from that visit still upset, but less intensely so (and with considerably less bourbon in my system than when I wrote this…). He is impaired and badly so – but he’s still in there. His attitude shines through – ornery cuss that he is. So – although I stand by every word of the above, I’m not writing that eulogy quite yet. Uncle John

  • Uncle John Reply

    And in the wee hours of this morning, my friend lost his fight. His spirit was certainly willing, and he fought it every step of the way, but it wasn’t to be; his body simply couldn’t come back from the damage that was done, didn’t have the resources to fight any further. He is now beyond pain, and for that I am grateful. I am also grateful to the caregivers at the hospital for their support of his family in the past several days (no, it was not a VA facility). But now, I have a bit of writing to do. Uncle John

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