Pork Flu: H1N1 Offers Harrowing Preview of ObamaCare

Long-time listener, first-time blogger…

Back in April, Vice President Biden uttered dire warnings about catching Swine Flu in subways and commercial airplanes. Per the usual pattern, the White House quickly apologized for “Amtrak Joe’s” remarks. But now, just a few months later, the President also has declared a national emergency. The H1N1 is spreading, and instead of 120 million expected doses, only 11 million shipped last week. In a few weeks, the vaccine may become widely available, but it hasn’t yet. Even the Obama children reportedly haven’t received the vaccine (although I hope they get immunized if that’s what their family decides).

Balboa Park, The United States of America

Personally, I think the Swine Flu hysteria is a bit over-hyped. But on the other hand, I’d rather not get sick if I can avoid it. This year is particularly important for my family because my wife is pregnant with identical twins. That type of pregnancy comes with risks already, and the H1N1 can be rough on expectant mothers. So, after doing our research, we decided she would get immunized at the first opportunity, which was this past week. In the process, we saw one possible future outcome of health care “reform” – rationing.

The H1N1 vaccine made its limited debut this past weekend in Southern California at a few government-chosen distribution centers. Near us, in Balboa Park in Encino, people lined up on the Friday starting at 3:00 a.m. By that afternoon, the daily supply had run out. So, at my wife’s (very strong) recommendation, I woke up at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday and dutifully got in line. The park was still dark outside when I arrived, with just four people camped out ahead of me in blankets and beach chairs. As daylight broke, the line grew.

By 8:00 a.m., the line was across the park and my wife and our little daughter showed up. My wife and other expectant mothers were hoping for a version of the H1N1 vaccine prepared without the “controversial” preservative Thimerosal. (There’s a movement that suspects Thimerosal causes autism. From what I’ve read, there’s no link, but I understand why concerned parents, if given the choice, would rather not risk it. Anyway, I’m no doctor, so I’ll leave the debate to our distinguished medical specialists (like, uh, John Kerry, Chris Dodd and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.).

Shortly after 8:00 a.m., word got out that only 60 doses of Thimerosal-free vaccine were available. That is, just 60 doses for all pregnant women across the entire San Fernando Valley (which has a population of over one million). Expectant mothers were told to get out of line and head to the back entrance. The park staff were admirable and helpful. They tried to organize a new line, but there was no formal system and with only 60 spaces available, people were tense. One lady with a particularly obnoxious and uncouth sense of entitlement got a coveted spot near the front of the new line, but that apparently wasn’t good enough because she went on to berate the busy staff for not making her the very first. Other women were turned away after waiting for hours, and were told to try again the next day. Borderline chaos.

By 9:00 a.m. when the immunization center finally opened, 60 expectant mothers were queued up. (If you’re wondering, yes my wife got in because I had lined up so early and managed to convince the staff to include her.) I was back at the other entrance, waiting with my daughter for the regular vaccine… behind us, nearly a thousand other people were jostling in line.

This is 2009, in a middle-class L.A. suburb, but it looked like a Soviet Union bread line. I know long waits for medical treatment are not unknown here. L.A. emergency rooms are routinely overburdened with uninsured people who use the hospital as a basic clinic. That is a different brand of chaos, and I don’t pretend to know how to fix it. But what I do know is that my wife and I work our tails off to have private insurance so we can use a private U.S. health care system that is the envy of the world. But if the government takes over, that choice will probably disappear. Pelosi, Obama and Reid (oh my!) are dead set on “reforming” the exceptionalism right out of our system. They’re still pushing a public option that most Americans don’t want, trying to sneak it past us at midnight in thousand-page bills, or tacked quietly onto unrelated legislation. The revised drafts and permutations each week are endless and numbing. And the estimated costs, even though ultimately unknowable, are already staggering.

The Ruling Party’s current brand of health care “reform” is just the latest illness coming out of D.C. Forget the Bird Flu and Swine Flu, we first have to shake the Pork Flu. Leaders (from both parties) continue to siphon billions into pork-barrel earmarks. This past year, they rushed to pass the largest stimulus spending package in history. Even if massive spending and debt were the cure for what ails us (?), most of the money hasn’t even been spent into our economy yet, and a second stimulus package is already being discussed. (Expect to see the stimulus money poured into the economy just before the next election cycles.) On top of the Pork Flu, we’ve been hit with more than 30 cases of CZARS, as well as waves of “Botch-ulism” (botched bank bailouts, a botched Gitmo strategy, botched treatment of our allies and enemies abroad…). America has a fever (although maybe not the kind Al Gore warned of), but the cure is looking worse than the disease. Forget one flu vaccine, what will happen when we are stuck with socialized medicine for 330 million people? Medical treatment will be rationed out under cheerless and impenetrable bureaucratic rules. People with the means to afford treatment will be denied it for other reasons, such as they are elderly and have outlived their social usefulness.

Need cancer treatment? Take a pain pill.

Dennis Miller has joked, in all seriousness, that Government-run health care will resemble “the DMV with wounds.” Well, on Saturday I caught a glimpse of future chaos and it is deeply unsettling. With some legitimately needy people lacking health care, pockets of our system do need repair. But we have an entire toolbox at our disposal, not just a sledgehammer. All I’m saying is, let’s slow down a bit and think this over. Have a REAL dialogue and debate. And while we’re at it, keep riding on the subways and airlines – they employ hardworking people.