It’s been just my luck to have a niggling health problem develop right when I’m newly arrived, and I got to spend the better part of my day dealing with it. Not because I love being fawned over by clinicians, but because I’m so new to the area that I haven’t had time yet to find a doctor and otherwise line up all my little health care ducks. So I got to experience a little “community health care,” a nice euphemism for what the poor “enjoy.” Let me remind everyone that we’re approaching 50 million uninsured in this country. I feel confident that what I experienced is at the upper end in terms of quality and service. So I thank my lucky stars for the little I did receive.

Let me say right away: the clinicians and receptionists were polite, professional, competent and obviously dedicated. I have no complaints about them, and I feel certain that if I have to go back, I’ll get care as good as any I’d receive in a chi-chi clinic. It hardly matters what kind of chair one sits upon in the waiting room, or if the clocks on the wall work and the paint is new. My clinician didn’t flinch when I told her my sexual orientation or lifestyle habits, and apologized for the long wait. I didn’t mind, as I’m not a clinic patient and they saw their scheduled patients before walk ins-totally reasonable. No, it’s not the workers at the center who pissed me off.

What made me mad is to compare this with my previous health care experience, in a suburb. Shiny and new, clean and bright, prompt attention…and a humongous price tag for about 25 minutes of total time with my provider. If you can pay for it, health care in this country is great. If you can’t…you’re taking your chances and will feel grateful as I did to be seen two days after calling and at the end of a six hour wait. Poverty is literally killing people in this country, because it is a de facto crime to be poor. The penalty, for the unlucky, is physical suffering akin to torture and sometimes death.

I found my fellow unwell fascinating. My neighborhhod in DC is the definition of diversity; Africans, Black Americans, Central Americans, Eurotrash, white hipsters…they all seem to be my neighbors. The clinic waiting room reflected that. No race, age or income wasn’t represented. It made me wonder, to see well dressed professional looking types sitting next to obviously struggling poor people, just how bad is the health care shortage in this country? Also, Ethiopian toddlers are the soul of Cute. But I digress.

No, things must be very, very bad for what I saw today to be the norm. And this won’t surprise you- it took me a considerable amount of effort to even find a place I could be seen while between insurance plans. Dogpile/google “urgent care Washington DC” and you’ll get…nada. I even went to some website for urgent care centers, a clearinghouse site. I typed in my zip code and got “0 results within 50 miles.” Thanks, Republicans, your compassion is overwhelming.

This is a minor rant compared to what I could write; many in my family are physicians or nurses and I’ve seen and heard more horror stories every year they practice medicine. It’s getting worse, and our politicians truly don’t care. I think I understand why; it’s pretty clear to me after only a short time in DC most here are either students, poor service class folks who keep the town running, or the ultra wealthy. Who do nothing, I might add, but listen to the sounds of their own voices in expensive hotel meeting rooms and shiny new buildings with lavish catering. It’s little wonder our politicians and their advisors have absolutely no clue how most of us live. They never see it, except when speeding by some section of DC they’re too afraid to walk through on route to the next fancy party or panel or meeting. I seriously doubt any member of Congress gets less than the finest health care at carefully screened health care centers.

I’m a little tired, and on medication that doesn’t lend for serious blogging, so I’ll end here with the request that if you’ve got a health care story to tell, do so. There is a simple, affordable, humane solution to this mess: single payer universal. As I recently heard someone suggest: just made Medicare a free option for all who want to sign up. Even with the flaw and donut holes, it’s still better than nothing. Thank the goddess I have the cash to pay for the drugs I needed. I can only weep for my neighbors who I sat with today who didn’t.

…one of my clinicians was a former Hill staffer. When I told her why I was here, she mentioned it. I told her, “and now you’re doing something truly important.” I hope she understands the truth of that. Goddess bless her.