Thought that this was a fitting post regarding the sorry state of American healthcare. And, of course, who's qualified to get it.
Almost everyone familiar with Star Wars will remember that this was after Anakin lost the lightsaber duel to Obi Wan. Nearly killed and in critical condition, he was taken back to Coruscant by Emperor Palpatine. Once there, of course, he was to be given a uniform that would also serve as a critical life support system. Palpatine wanted it to look terrifying.
Hence, Darth Vader.
This is a picture of Anakin in his sorry state after losing the lightsaber duel to Obi Wan, but before he was given that suit. With no more limbs, and with much of his skin burned off and obviously many other health issues, he was in desperate need of immediate medical attention.
Yet, this doctor robot is pausing for a moment to talk to Anakin about co-pay and deductibles. Obviously, this is a swipe at the current American healthcare system. Of course, it is privatized, and thus profit driven.
Maybe this is an exaggeration, but not as much as you might think. Many years ago (this would have been 1997 or 1998, when I worked for Security at Riverside Square Mall in Hackensack), I responded to a medical emergency. A woman had fallen down the stairs inside of a store (I think it was Pottery Barn, a franchise that may or may not still exist). Anyway, she was lying on the floor face down and apparently could not move. The ambulance came, and immediately crouched down to her and asked her questions. Specifically, it was to ask her where her healthcare card was, and if she would grant them the right to go into her personal belongings (probably a purse of pocketbook) and get it.
Not sure what anyone else assembled there - and there was a bit of a crowd - thought, but it felt outrageous to me. Here this poor woman is, having just endured a horrific accident and unable to move. There are tons of people around her, but nobody seemed entirely sure what to do, at least until those medical experts in the ambulance came. Maybe it was the scariest and worst moment of her life, or maybe not. Surely, it would have to rank high on the list, anyway. And instead of immediate medical attention, these guys were asking her for the right to go through her stuff and obtain her healthcare card in order to get a better understanding of what medical treatment she should then receive, perhaps what she was entitled to, what hospital to go to, and so on.
Admittedly, I have not been a fan of the privatized, for-profit American healthcare system dating back to when I was a kid and first got an inkling of how it worked. That is particularly true when compared with the healthcare systems of literally every other industrialized nation in the world (except for South Africa at the time, which of course was still under white minority rule during the days of apartheid). So seeing this was the most absurd example of how extreme and unfair the healthcare system really is.
Maybe it's just me, but when someone suffers an accident like this, all questions of private healthcare and in-network and all of that should be cast aside. In my opinion, the first, and really the only, priority for medical experts should be what the victim requires for the duration of the medical emergency, frankly. Money concerns, or sorting financial matters should come later, if at all. Frankly, it is my belief that things should be run as they are in all of those other industrialized nations (literally, every single industrialized nation with the sole exception of the United States these days), where nobody is charged such an absurd amount that they face financial ruin, or could lose their homes or their jobs or, in some cases, even their lives or the lives of loved ones.
So yes, I put this in the "Weekend Humor" category. But it is a funny/not really funny situation.
Below is the post, and underneath that is the original source of where I got it from:
The X-Gays · What it's like these days, May 6, 2025:
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1284009170396922&set=a.505141334950380
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