A Patient Sans Patience

We, like so many of you, are sick and tired of our broken healthcare system in the United States of America. In this episode, Amy reads a piece expressing her despair over the state of it. We discuss how disempowering it can feel to be a patient in this system. And we consider how Luigi Mangione's 2024 shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson reflects similar feelings of disempowerment and also a rising class consciousness in the United States. Finally, Lance SHOCKS Amy by quoting a sociologist to HER and we even manage to have a few laughs.

A PATIENT SANS PATIENCE

I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired

Sick and tired of medical forms and filings and faxes*

Sick and tired of bureaucracies and bureaucrats

Sick and tired of treating symptoms, never causes or cures

Sick and tired of pollyanna pundits and politicians

Sick and tired of systems and structures built by and for only the fortunate few

Sick and tired of the sick and tired system that got us here

Sick and tired of the sick and tired system that's keeping us here

Sick and tired of the sick and tired system that hasn't a clue or a care to get us out

*Does anyone else worry that an industry that's supposed to be cutting edge relies so heavily on faxes?

Originally posted at ⁠https://substack.com/@neverthelesspersisting/note/c-102724456⁠

CITED IN THIS EPISODE

1. Commonwealth Fund: ⁠https://apps.urban.org/features/wealth-inequality-charts/⁠
2. Thiele Strong, Megan. "Support for Luigi Mangione Reflects Working Class Weariness of Top-Down Violence," Common Dreams, December 28, 2024.
3. Turner, Bryan. 1992. Max Weber: From History to Modernity. New York: Routledge.
4. Urban Institute: ⁠https://apps.urban.org/features/wealth-inequality-charts/⁠