Quote:
Originally Posted by graciegirl
I love it here, but it is not perfect. Florida, in my opinion, does not have excellent health care, I think of places like Boston, Baltimore, Houston and LA as places where excellent health care in available and Ohio which has Cincinnati Childrens, third best in pediatrics and Cleveland Clinic for years the best heart hospital nationally.
There is little any of us can do, and I understand your concern. We go back to Cincinnati for our oncologist visits . There are many that say I am wrong, but Florida is not a mecca of fine health care. Even Shands is not in the top ten or near it.
Access Denied |
This is true. And we, the people who pay for this medical service (whether through paying bills sent to us or taxes that ultimately end up covering our Medicare) have the power to change that. We can change it with our votes, we can change it with our active participation in municipal meetings, we can change it with grass roots campaigns and activism in encouraging and incentivizing quality care to congregate near us.
We can change it with donations and grants and fundraising activities as needed, if we are financially able to do so. There are SO many things we CAN do, to make our little speck on the map "better," even if not "good."
Some of the wealthiest, most influential politicians live in, and visit, and come to address Villagers every year, especially during election time. These are the prime opportunities to tell them that we need better quality health care, and challenge them to get it done.
Obviously it isn't a matter of lack of funding. If it were, all of the hospitals would be suffering from quality health care. And they're not. Florida is, and the Villages in particular is. We have a lot of very affluent people living in the Villages. And many of them are politically connected. Do you go golfing with any of them? Play bridge with any of them? Sleep with any of them? Dance, have coffee, do woodworking, bicycle, grocery shop - anything? Do you have an opportunity to say "hey Susie Bigbucks, I see you got another boob job. Beautiful job by the way, they're perky as a teenager. But what would happen if that saline implant ruptured and you needed to go to the emergency room? You know the ER closest to you sucks even harder than that lipo machine that trimmed your hips down last year. Maybe you could tell your husband to call his Doctor pal up and see if maybe Dr. Buttslim could do a little consulting at TVH once a month. Y'know, just in case."