Open up and say ahhhh

The public option just a stepping stone to universal health care. The Dems aren't being honest about this, not that I think they can afford to be. If the public option ever passes (and it's not looking promising) then an emormous amount of health care related jobs will, in time, be permenantly eliminated. There's a reason why health care in the US is so expensive= bureaucracy, bureaucracy, bureaucracy.

Say I (like that unfortunate chap above) have a sore throat, so I go see my Primary physician, I use my flex spend card, so I can use my pre-tax dollars for health care costs. There's a positiion at my company that administers that through a 3rd party intermediary called Wageworks that has hundreds of employees.

There's an employee at my physician's office who's primary job function is to run my wageworks card for my ever increasing copay and then file my claim with Blue Cross Blue shield.

There is an employee at BCBS who intakes the claim, one that verifies coverage, one that confirms if the doctor is in network, one who reviews the claim and the coding to make sure all care is usual and customary, one who calls the providers and negotiates the rate that they will be paying, and one that actually issues payment to the doctor.

BCBS also has to support it's finance division, sales office, marketing, HR, Hippa compliance, coding experts, fraud investigators, legal departments, accounts payable, accounts receivable, etc. They employ tens of thousands of people in NC, and hundreds of thousands of people nationwide. And your health insurance premiums pay their salaries.

Is all of this bureaucracy really necessary for my doctor to prescribe me penecillin? Can you imagine how much paperwork would be involved if I had cancer?

Lets say I have a sore throat in England, or Canada, or Japan... I would go to the Dr. He would give me the same examination and write me the same prescription. His (or her, dang I'm sexist) salary is directly paid by the government. Simple, eh? No paperwork. No Byzantine coding or billing systems. Just You and Your Dr.
It sounds nice, doesn't it?

But it comes at the cost of millions of jobs, jobs that won't be replaced by government employment. Like many medical procedures, it's necessary but painful.

Sanford, NC: the Armpit of America

Sanford, NC: It's where I spend 45 hours of my waking life every week. A mere 45 minute commute from my home in Carrboro, Sanford is the location of my easy, thankless job. Google image search of "Sanford, NC" returns this gem:
That photo perfectly sums up this glorified trailer park of a town.

5 reasons to hate Sanford, NC:

1) Rednecks: Sanford is brimming with rednecks, and only rednecks. The black people are rednecks. The Mexicans people are rednecks. I haven't seen any other ethnicities, but if the Dali Lama relocated to Sanford I'm certain that he would join one of the local Pentecostal churches.

2) Bookstores: One of my favorite lunchtime activities in at other jobs was lounging at the local Barnes and Noble, sippin' on some green tea, and reading their wonderful selection of books in 45 minute increments. There are 3 bookstores in Sanford, two Christian bookstores and one Adult bookstore. Wanna guess which one I've visited?

3) Food: Sanford cuisine is staggeringly simple.... the drive thru next to my office serves fried baloney sandwiches. Americana and Soul food certainly have their place, but there are only so many baked spaghetti dinners I can stomach. That leaves fast food. Neither option is helping with my ample girth. 8 months ago a naive Dominican immigrant opened up a restaurant serving his native fare. Such spicy and flavorful chow was lost on the redneck palate and poor Juan's tables remained empty. I lunched there as often as possible, hoping that my bi-weekly meals of curried goat and morro would keep his doors open. Of course they didn't and currently the most exotic food in town is pizza.

4) Health Care: I'm guessing the Lee County Medical board won't admit you unless you check the "I'm a self-important asshole" box on your application. My Sanford healthcare providers make Dr. House look like Patch Adams. While I understand that living in this godforsaken town is enough to make anyone irritable, other doctors don't feel the need to prescribe gruff condescension for my strep throat. Penicillin will do.

5) Retards: I'm not sure why, but Sanford seems to be the mental retardation capital of NC. While I have no problem with the mentally enfeebled themselves (they're much nicer than normal people), I take issue with the thunderous groans emitting from the herd of retards sitting 2 tables over. I'm sorry for your wretched lot in life, but you're making my fried baloney sandwich even less appetizing. There's a van that sits in our office parking lot that has a Someone I love has Down Syndrome bumper sticker on it. I passed by it the other day and the bumper sticker had been removed. What did this retarded person do to make my co-worker stop loving him? Did he drink all the juice boxes?

In summation, Sanford = suck.