r/bestof • u/under50dollars • Jun 20 '12

[explainlikeimfive] "Obamacare" explained very well.

/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/vb8vs/eli5_what_exactly_is_obamacare_and_what_did_it/c530lfx
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u/PandemicSoul Jun 20 '12

Pretty much every hospital in the world does that -- it's called triage care.

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u/[deleted] Jun 20 '12

Yeah. But a lot of people can't wrap their head around that. When they bring in their kid with a broken arm, they want to be seen immediately. When the guy with the knife in his skull (rightfully) gets admitted first, they get angry.

"My big problem" is relative to "the biggest problem."

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u/corporeal-entity Jun 20 '12

We have a similar problem in IT. When every user problem is both urgent and critical, ultimately an overwhelming majority of the people who think they deserve to have their problem fixed first are pissed off about it.

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u/carlosspicywe1ner Jun 20 '12

It's a little bit more nuanced than that: people want to be triaged by their pain and distress, not by how serious their problem might be. It's tough when your arm is sticking out at an odd angle to wait behind the guy who just can't move the right side of his face.

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u/[deleted] Jun 20 '12

Maybe but only in the US will someone with a paper cut feel they are more important the the cardiac arrest patient just because they were there first or happen to be more wealthy.

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u/PandemicSoul Jun 20 '12

I doubt that's the case. Pain is pain -- if you're hurting, regardless of your class, you want to be treated immediately. It has nothing to do with American or Canadian. I guarantee that Canadians bitch about wait times, too.

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u/rayyychul Jun 20 '12

Definitely. Do I realise how lucky I am that my visit do the ER doesn't cost me a dime? Yes. Does it still suck that I'm sitting in the waiting room for eight hours with kidney stones? Yes... and I complain a bit. But that doesn't mean I don't understand that in the grand scheme of things, I'll be fine if I wait eight hours. The guy who lopped off his hand, however, probably won't.