Pregnancy
Today I received a letter from the British National Health Service inviting me to a pregnancy screening test. I am not pregnant, but maybe because I somehow ended up in the Health Database as Miss Karsten Wenzlaff got me this preventive medical treatment.
Thinking of it, I recovered quite good from my accident and the service of the National Health Service was efficient, free, and worked. After I came home from studying in the Library, I couldn’t sleep yet so I watched Michael Moore’s Sicko – a movie about the American Health Care System.
It’s quite funny when he travels around Canada, Britain, France and even Cuba to discover the free Health Care and other services. Of course, he picks the cherries out of the cake: in Britain Child Care is extremely expensive, in Germany Child Care often not available, in France the Health System did not provide social riots. But I liked the general message: Why does a country with these enormous resources not have the courage and solidarity to provide people with decent health care?
When I received my documents from Harvard, I also received several forms for the University Health Care System. I was surprised at the large expenses that students had to bear in order to rreceive Health Care. And even for applicants the bureaucracy was immense, with medical tests to be submitted when registering for the course.
None if this was necessary in Britain. I went to a local clinic, registered (I did tick the box male, yes I did, even though I am now Miss Wenzlaff) and that was it. Now I can enjoy pregancy tests.
Februar 17th, 2008 at 15:48
Finally I fall back back into abeyance (as a prospective paternal grandfather), right?