Flu Shot

I went to get my flu shot this morning.  I normally don’t get a flu shot but my doctor felt that this year I probably should get it.  Just the regular one, not the H1N1. Why not the H1N1?  Because she doesn’t have it.  And she isn’t going to get it.

This completely baffled me.  This is a doctor’s office. They treat all sorts of people from little kids to the elderly, women and men.  It isn’t a specialist’s office such as an OB/GYN or Pediatric office.  Just a regular doctor’s office.  Yet they can’t get the H1N1 virus vaccine.  Despite the fact that it has been declared a world wide pandemic.  Despite the fact that it is killing more people than the seasonal flu.  Despite the fact that people from all walks of life will be walking through their doors and could be sick with this illness.  Despite all of this, my doctor’s office doesn’t QUALIFY for the H1N1 virus vaccine.

There are two reasons this ticks me off.  First of all, why the hell do Wall Street companies qualify for the H1N1 virus and have more than enough dosages of it but my doctor’s office doesn’t qualify?  Why???  Because they paid more for it!!!

The nurse who gave me the shot this morning said that she has noticed that the local grocery stores, Hannaford and Shaws, can get the seasonal flu shot even when there are shortages because they pay more for it.  The drug companies make more money off of selling to companies than they do selling it to doctor’s offices.

The second reason this ticks me off, which ties into the first reason, is that if we had Health Care Reform, this probably wouldn’t be an issue.  Getting a flu shot should not be a privilege.  It isn’t like people are trying to get Botox injections or a body piercing.  This is something that people need to stay healthy and, in an alarming number of cases, stay alive.  Why should money even be a factor?  Why, when we are supposedly the richest, most advanced nation on earth, do we not take care of our citizens?

We have an attitude in this country that we are so much better than those other countries that have a few rich leaders and the rest of the people are peasants.  We are so much better than a country that has a dictator and that person controls the population.  Aren’t we just so wonderful with our elected government, our freedom and our democracy??? But we are a bunch of hypocrites!  We have a few rich people who get anything they want when it comes to health care and the rest of the people have to scramble for the scraps.  We have the almighty dollar as our dictator and it controls how our population is treated.  We have an elected government but the people who are elected are deeply influenced by special interests and lobbying, not by the people who elected them.  We have freedom as long as we don’t get sick and then, if you can’t pay for it, you die.  Whatever happened to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”?  If you can’t afford health care, than you don’t get life.

We need health care reform in this country. Stop arguing about it.  Stop listening to people who are arguing against it just because of politics.  This is not a political issue.  This is a life issue.  It doesn’t matter how much it will cost.  We managed to pay for an unnecessary war based on false information and no one quibbled about that.  Aren’t the American people, all of the American people, worth more than a useless search for “weapons of mass destruction”? Can you honestly say that keeping our people alive and healthy isn’t absolutely priceless? Do you really want to put a dollar value on a person’s life?  Is this really the message you want to send the rest of the world?  I would think we, the American people, would care more about each other but this issue makes it seem like we don’t care.  It makes it seem like we only care about people who have money.  And that isn’t a democracy.