The NHS May Suck, But...

I am lucky. I have been lucky for a very long time. Why? Because I have lived almost all of my life in countries with nationalised healthcare.

It's not perfect, I grant. I need to go to the dentist but can't actually afford to. I'm reliant on my mother to keep my glasses prescription current. However, I know enough to be grateful. Grateful that, when I was four and got hit in the nose with a wooden swing, my single working mother didn't have to worry about insurance issues and all of that stuff - her focus was on my health and well-being, not the guilt of having to wonder, "What is all this going to cost?" Grateful that I can go to my GP whenever I need to without worrying about what it's going to cost me and, the next time I have the time spare to explain that my migraines are not going away and the features are starting to worry me, I can push for a neurology referral and not worry about what a specialist is going to charge. I don't panic about copays and what'll happen if I or my friends get sick or injured.

...Well, except I do, because a lot of my friends live in the US. Some of them have medical insurance of some description. Some don't, and I worry about them. Particularly beepbeep, who has lupus and whose state government will stop paying her Medicare Part B premiums in about two months.

I've had a lot of rants over the months and years, but I can't rant about this yet. I'm too worried and scared for my friend. I grant I don't talk to her in real time much these days, but the fact remains is that she is one of the sweetest people I know and I do not want her to die of greed and stupid. But I can't do anything about it, because I can't afford to pitch in financially and I'm not eligible to vote in the US and thus cannot have my voice heard that way. And I have this niggly sort of conscience-based logic-voice telling me that killing the person responsible wouldn't actually solve anything because paper covers rock and I don't like making martyrs. But I'm as angry as I am scared and sad, and that's always a bad combination.

So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go back to work. I'm going to type up the rest of this tape until my lunch break rolls around. Then I am going to take my lunch break, and during said lunch break I am going to sit and consider whether there is anything I can do. I'm sick of reading about someone I care about not being able to care for herself when she's unwell and her own government screwing her over. I can't make my voice heard for change in the US in any meaningful, vote-related way, and I thus can't help everyone ... but I can damn sure find a way to help one. She would do (and has done) the same for me.

(And also, I am not going to cry. The moos I work with would have a field day.)

Productivity and Speculation

I have no concrete solutions yet, but at least I'm being more or less productive while fretting.

The backlog that built up while I was flat with migraine is finally being more or less tamed. I'm working like a dog while watching my colleagues work at leisurely paces, take extended lunch breaks and leave early, but at least it's all getting done. Even if I don't get the kind of help and support that would be expected of me (and offered even if it wasn't expected) if our situations were reversed. Personally, I'm beyond stressing over it. As long as the work gets done and I don't have to beat myself into the ground over it anymore, and so long as they don't hound me too much, they can be LazyMoos all they like. Bah.

Meanwhile, I am formulating a game plan for CoC. My web design-fu is a wee bit rusty, but tonight's a night I'm going to spend tweaking code and working out what I'm going to do with this space now that I have it. I mean in specific, by the way, as the 'in general' is more or less covered. Thankfully, it isn't that I don't have anything to put on it; there's drabble and one short story that I think may not entirely suck, and more to come. And of course, there's NaNo this year, which grew a plot while I wasn't looking. Still, mainly what I intend to do tonight is design a sort of a placeholder page - a 'watch this space' sort of thing, potentially with a different bit of drabble on it every week so they know why they're watching. After that ... well, we'll see.

And for another distraction, of course anyone who cares has more or less heard that David Tennant is stepping down from the role of Doctor Who in 2010, and all the fanboys are talking about who's going to take up the role next. Rumours and suggestions have so far gone as follows:

- Paterson Joseph (sure, he's already been in it. So?)
- Idris Elba
- Jack Davenport (in light of the previous name, I say, "Damn, they're taking a lot of their casting suggestions out of Ultraviolet", though everyone else is likely saying, "NORRINGTON!")
- Richard O'Brien (Please no...)
- Alexis Denisof (........*squee*)
- Warren Ellis (dodgyhoodoo's brainfart, but ... hey, we could do worse...