[extropy-chat] Personal Medical Care

[Lee Corbin]

Alarmed I am by the phrase in an article I just referred to

  Only about half were true medical emergencies. When the poor and
  uninsured cannot get healthcare anywhere else, they go to emergency
  rooms, which must treat them regardless of ability to pay.

Help!  Anybody been to the emergency clinic lately?  Of course, 
we defer to the statistical data in the article, but are you 
alarmed by what might soon be happening to you or me when we
need to go?

I assume that you, like me, pay your fair share (or your employer
does).  What about us?  Will we be standing in line behind lots of
poor people who have no insurance, but who need help as badly as
we do?

Now I am asking because I am *sure* that the billionaires of the
bay area don't stand in line. Somehow, when Andy Grove or someone
needs medical attention, he gets it.

I want to know what ordinary millionaires do. Though not a 
millionaire, I have been a good boy and I have worked hard
and have saved my money. I can pay in a pinch. I want some
version, even if scaled down, of what Andy Grove gets.

Must I live in the right neighborhood?  Are there still small
towns whose emergency services won't get clogged up for a while
yet?

I have been lucky, and so am blissfully ignorant of what really
goes on.  The only thing I've learned (second hand) is

   Don't trust the doctors and nurses: watch them like a hawk,
   or have a friend or family member do so for you, because---
   to put it as mildly as possible---mistakes are made.

Lee