Friday, July 09, 2004

DMV quality health care

Today I went to the DMV for the third time in three days. All because of errors, oversights, poor cross-checks and over-all incompetence on the part of these government employees. And, a thought occurred to me.

For those of you out there who have flirted with the idea of government provided health care (and I know there are a few of you out there reading this blog), imagine this: imagine if your local emergency room was run like the DMV.

You come in, bleeding profusely from the hand. Then you're given a number and told to sit in the waiting room for an indefinite period of time. That time ends up being 61 minutes. Then, just as you're about to lose consciousness, you're wheeled into the back room and asked a few quick questions. A few hours later, you wake up from your anesthesia-induced slumber. You quickly realize that your hand is still bleeding and you have a scar on your chest. When your DMV-styled doctor sees that you're awake, he comes over and tells you that after an exploratory operation, he couldn't find a thing wrong with your heart.

"My heart!" you exclaim. "I told you my hand is cut!"

"Oh well, I'm sorry," the doctor says indifferently. "You were screaming so much when we wheeled you in that I thought you said 'heart' not 'hand.' Take a number and we'll be back with you as soon as we can."