A Day in a Life

On a Monday morning John wakes up, stands in his bedroom and steps into his underpants. Suddenly from his right flank, a sharp stabbing pain from a pinched and twisted muscle shoots up his back to his brain. He is forced immobile and falls onto the floor. He then crawls to his bed and lays there for ten minutes until the pain subsides. He then calls his employer and tells him what’s happening and explains that he’ll be late.

In pain, John drives himself to a health clinic less than three miles from his house in a rural to suburban area of Connecticut. The clinic has an emergency medicine division and John is quickly admitted by showing his Universal Health Card, which is swept magnetically, indicating to the computer in front of the receptionist his full identity by photographic match and by his possession of the card. The card unlocks a complete health history, showing allergies, and his primary care physician’s latest and earliest reports of John’s visits. John did not have to even open his mouth to get treatment at this facility, and no personal information questions were needed to be asked of him, not once.

John’s health care card is both the beginning and the key, to saving hundreds of billions of dollars, to the entire health care system. Paperwork and miscellaneous administrative costs are reduced tremendously as redundancy and repetition are eliminated. No longer does a three doctor group office need six employees to communicate and exchange payments with private and government insurance companies. Government option insurance has also caused private insurers to begin to provide for their own similar slim lined methods of communication, to compete, to try to level the playing field.

In last month’s paycheck John paid for these services through a mandatory withdrawal of what amounted to, for his pay level, $65 per month. When he had bought whiskey last week and a pack of cigarettes and a six pack of sugary soda, a full tank of gas, chips and fast-food burgers, he paid an additional sales tax of 6% on each item. John has a friend who smokes marijuana, and since the substance has been legalized and taxed, that friend is paying far more towards Universal Health Care, almost $80 more per month than John is paying.

Upon an emergency room doctor’s examination of John’s lower back and flank area, the doctor determined that x-rays were not needed, that John’s pain was purely muscular in source. “You need to do more stretching John.” The doctor explained. The doctor is not afraid of under diagnostic testing of John (less testing) because his malpractice insurance is paid for by the universal health care system and its payments are capped to loss of income and capped to a maximum pain and suffering amount. Malpractice insurance is no longer a burden for America’s doctors and hospitals.

The doctor then pulled out his personal computerized Medical Data Tablet and ordered John two months worth of health spa treatment for lower back pain. The order was received at the health spa instantly and scheduling for John’s physical therapy took place that morning. John’s relationship with this emergency room doctor is the only communication necessary to receive full treatment, and the right treatment, for his back pain.

John’s emergency room doctor is working on a contracted salary basis and not charging a fee for each instance of service per patient. This allowed him to spend proper time with John and his injury and not rush himself to make more money by seeing more patients on that day.

When John completed his two prescribed months at the health spa, he went on-line to the Health Care Financing Administration’s website, and by swiping his card on his computer keyboard, he ordered a monthly health spa prescription without a doctor’s order, and $10 per month was added to his monthly contribution. John never had a back spasm again and never required extended periods of pharmaceutical pain relief. And his contact with the health spa had inspired him to continue to use the facility, to swim, to run, and to quit smoking.