Socialized Medicine

So, I've been hearing a lot about Obama wanting to socialize medicine... And then I hear all kinds of horror stories therein about socialized anything...

I woke up this morning with double-vision and dizzyness... I'm still not sure what caused it, but since it could be the sign of a stroke or something, I went to the local clinic.

Where the only doctor in town that speaks English saw me in 11 minutes, checked my eye response and other things (Blood pressure, etc) diagnosed my problems as related to sleep deprivation and fatigue (I do suffer from bad insomnia), gave me a shot of something (I don't know what, but only because I really don't know what the nurses were saying, they were talking in medical Japanese... something I haven't really studied too much....), gave me a prescription for medication that I needed to take for the next 7 days (Yeah, I have no idea what that is, either), rest, told me to lay off TV and video games for a while (Easy enough :D) and sent me on my way.

The entire trip took 1 hour, cost $35.00 (Another $15.00 if you count in the strange blue pills), was filled with some interesting anecdotes about my life in this city of mine... and the hospital was within walking distance (Which is great, since I really didn't trust myself to drive while dizzy)...

So... what's wrong with Socialized medicine?

Right, it's bad for the industry...

So, in America I have to wait a day (I never got in to see the doctor on the day I had a problem. There were times the problem had worked itself out BEFORE I got in to see the doctor), I pay $100 for the office visit and $50 for the medicine for this problem... heaven help me if I have a worse problem (My Flu test last year cost me $110... I can't imagine what it would have cost me in America!). My mother stopped going to the doctor when she realized she really couldn't pay her medical expenses... That turned out well.

Well, okay... so I'm glad we are fighting against this... At least the industry is good to go!

As for me, well... I don't know what has caused the problem, it's better now, but I still have trouble focusing my eyes on things and it feels like I have the flu (That, strange disconnected-head feeling). And I have to do Kindergarten tomorrow... If I'm still dizzy, This'll be really fun.

Mal... I'd love to hear from you on this one; Why are we afraid of socialized medicine?

Coin conservation failure

I was at the supermarket a while back, buying groceries.

The clerk tallies everything and says: "That will be 2,451 yen, please."

So I pull out my change purse, and seeing that I have an inordanate number of little, irritating, completely useless, aluminum 1 yen pieces, I decide to give her 2,506 yen; 2 1,000 yen notes, a 500 yen coin and six of those damndable aluminum coins... Seems reasonable, I give her six little aluminum coins, she gives me 1 copper coin. At least you can give the 5 yen pieces to the temples (They have a hole in the middle, making them lucky... That takes some explaining, just take my word for it, giving them 1 yen pieces is bad form)...

Now, my plan is brilliant; she will give me a 50 yen piece and a 5 yen piece. I will have traded 7 coins for 2... I will have saved room in my already bulging coin purse that randomly leaks 1 yen pieces into my backpack or pocket as it fails to maintain structural integrity due to an overload of aluminum...

What does she do? She smiles, mumbles an apology in super-polite Japanese, slides the 500 yen piece into the change sorter and gives me back my 6 yen... with that "Yeah, you probably don't really understand how to use that "money thing", do you?" look on her face.

And then promptly gives me 49 yen in change; 4 ten yen pieces, a 5 yen piece and 4 MORE stupid, little, aluminum 1 yen pieces.

So... I gave her one coin and gained 9 coins...

I tried to argue, by my Japanese-speaking brain is slow to react and I am thus greeted with the pleasant Boop Boop Boop sounds of her checking the next customer in line...

As I fed the last of my newly aquired gains into my strained coin pouch, it just looked back at me with that, stupid, metallic, overwide grin...

And then, just to spite me, it spat a couple of those 1 yen coins into my pocket...