Is this a joke, or for real?

Question

The president elected in 2008 successfully implements

universal health care - aka socialized medicine.

A few years later an elderly gentleman sees a doctor for an ailment in his back. The doctor says he has a kidney stone and must receive treatment to have the stone removed.

"We have an opening 18 months from now. That's the soonest we can have you treated with the new care system in place."

The older gentleman looks up at the doctor and says "In the morning or the afternoon?"

The doctor looks at him puzzled and asks "It's eighteen months from now. What difference could that possibly make?"

The old man answers "I have a dentist appointment that afternoon."

Answer 1

LOL!  It's a joke, and a pretty good one at that.

Answer 2

HUMOR IS A FUNNY WAY TO SAY SERIOUS THINGS,,,,,,,with universal health care ,it probably is not a joke,,,,,government can't run it's self let alone health care

Answer 3

It's clearly a joke--how are you going to be seen and treated that fast?

"In 1999, Richard F. Davies, MD, described how delays affected Ontario heart patients scheduled for coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. In a single year, for this one operation, 71 patients died before surgery and another "121 were removed from the list permanently because they had become medically unfit for surgery;" 44 left Ontario and had their CABG elsewhere, such as in the USA. In other words, 192 people either died or were too sick to have surgery before they worked their way to the front of the waiting line.

One of the reasons Canadians are slow to acknowledge the problems with their system is that general practitioners have been relatively easy to access and reasonably efficient at providing everyday services for common complaints, such as colds, sprains, aches and pains.

...

Canadian physician frustration with their inability to provide quality and timely care is resulting in a brain drain. According to one poll, one in three Canadian doctors is considering leaving the country. A doctor shortage looms, as the nation falls 500 doctors a year short of the 2,500 new physicians it needs to add each year to meet national health needs, according to Sally Pipes, a policy expert formerly with the Canadian Fraser Institute.

Another casualty of the lengthy waiting periods is Canada's much-vaunted equal access to medical treatment. Even though medical emergencies allow some people to jump ahead in the waiting line — making others wait longer — a survey published in the Annals of Internal Medicine medical journal found that more than 90 percent of heart specialists had "been involved in the care of a patient who received preferential access" to cardiac care based on non-medical reasons including the patient's social standing or personal connections with the treating physician."

Jewish World Review June 11, 2004 written by Dr. Cihak

...

An estimated 90,000 Canadians sought medical care outside their country in 2005. The cry "no two-tiered system" could be replaced by "set our patients free," stated a lead editorial (National Post 9/18/06)."

Jewish World Review Dec. 1, 2006 by Dr. Glueck

So why no total collapse yet? Because “illegal, for-profit health-service centers” have “proliferated” in Canada and are so accepted that the head of one became the president of the Canadian Medical Association (“Individual Freedom vs. Government Control,” 1 August 2007, nationalreview.com).

Japan doesn't fare any better:

"According to Japanese legislator Takashi Yamamoto, who was just diagnosed with cancer, "abandoned cancer refugees are roaming the Japanese archipelago." Patients are told they¹ll never get better, even when treatments exist, and many are not even informed of their diagnoses. Cancer mortality rates in Japan have been steadily climbing and are now more than 250 per 100,000, while U.S. rates are now around 180 per 100,000. (Glueck, “Far East illustrates the limitations and dangers of universal health care,” 26 January 2007, jewishworldreview.com)

Answer 4

Lol ! This could be for real

Answer 5

ha ha, good joke!

Answer 6

Sadly its probably not that much of a stretch despite being a joke...

Truth is stranger than fiction.

Answer 7

So how many people die in the U.S., waiting for heart surgery?  Or just find out it is not covered under their insurance plan?  Or have no insurance?

Answer 8

This is just an exaggerated illustration poking fun at our flawed health care system.