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Is government health care shot?
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The problems this Examiner had earlier this week getting the seasonal flu shot made him wonder what a government health care program would be like. Going way back to when seasonal flu shots were $10.00 or maybe less, as opposed to today's $30.00, this Examiner has always received his annual seasonal flu shot between election day and Veterans Day and never had any problem finding a qualified provider.
This year was different. Calling around on Monday, all the usual suspects were out and not sure when, if at all, more would be available. Finally CVS came to the rescue.
Why was it so difficult to find this year? Producing seasonal flu vaccine is not new and demand shouldn’t have been a surprise considering all the publicity about seasonal and H1N1 (nee’ Swine) flu. Were our government employees caught off guard by so many of the people for whom they are supposed to be working actually believing them? There were reports that “the government” had relied on what the manufacturers told them. They probably did. But even earlier there were reports that “the government” was not satisfied with industry’s originally promised schedule so wanted more produced sooner. Apparently industry thought it had to say it would deliver.
All of this just raised lots of questions about how well government could run health care programs in general. If this is the best that can be done with the quite predictable seasonal flu shots and the widely anticipated demand for H1N1 flu shots, would a full scale government program be like getting a shot?
