Musings - on the editor's mind

Nothing is more local then my getting sick in La Conner and going to Skagit Reginal Clinic urgent care in Mount Vernon.

And nothing was more immediate then than my signing up for Apple Health on January 15 and getting sick on February 2.

All this is true as is the fact that I paid nothing at the urgent care facility and paid the same amount for my prescription of antibiotics. What is going on here?

The simple and complete answer is that this is nothing less than socialism for the poor. I will re-write that with no negatives: The Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, says – and mandates – that poor ne’er-do-wells like me don’t have to go to bed with back and abdominal pains just because I have almost no income.

The Weekly News is not a hobby business. While I am all in, I am not pulling any wages out. And, just like that, merely because I am a human being, my country, my government – you, my fellow citizens – have decided that going to bed sick without seeing a doctor is a bad idea. Now, options are available.

Thank you, for sharing a society with me that has 20th century values. We are at least 20 years behind the times in a lot of areas, including healthcare, but we have made a collective start toward living in a civilized land.

I see the mountaintop. I will continue to write about possible routes to the top and the long distance we have to go yet.

This is what editors do: comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

I very much appreciate the bit of comfort I received that Friday from my country writ large.