Breaking the Senate health care deadlock

By Edward Copeland

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, and I believe there can be only one, last-ditch solution to shake the U.S. Senate from its torpor, its sense of entitlement, and its addiction to the purse strings of the health insurance industry and other big money lobbyists.

Effective immediately, all members of the Senate must be whisked from D.C. and stripped of their health insurance cards and anything that identifies them as a senator. They will not be allowed to take any aides, cell phones, BlackBerries, etc. Each senator will be flown to an emergency room in a state that is not their own, complaining of nonspecific symptoms and claiming no insurance. They are not allowed to tell who they are or contact their real doctors. Since the majority are well past the prime of life and hospitals love to take tests, odds are they will find something and the senators will be admitted.

These won't be the cushy hospitals they are used to. These will be the types of hospitals real people end up in, where profits are more important than patient care. They can witness first-hand as the understaffed nurses can't answer their buzzes in a timely manner. They can eat what passes for food. They can witness the races for thermometer and blood pressure equipment because everyone has to share and there aren't enough to go around and some time vital signs don't even get taken. They can enjoy being awaken early in the morning for blood tests. They can enjoy the isolation. Maybe it will wake them the fuck up about what a mess health care is in this country while they play their games and worry about re-election. Give them a visit from a staff psychiatrist while they are in the hospital. If the experience hasn't changed them, commit them.

P.S. Any doctors in the Senate can't do any backseat medicine or tell anyone of their profession or we'll place them in a medically induced coma.