My current health care issue: I have a chronic pain condition. Recently, my ankle has started hurting. A lot. The prescription painkillers I have do nothing for it -- I need something stronger. I log onto my medical care website and request an appointment with my doctor, note that I am in a lot of pain, and ask for the earliest appointment available. I get an appointment in October. I talk to my physical therapist, who I am seeing for my shoulder, and she tells me that she's not allowed to do anything with my ankle until I have a prescription form from my doctor that says "ankle" on it. My doctor can't do anything over the phone, because he can't really tell me what to do about my ankle without examining my ankle first. I have a feeling he'll want to order x-rays. I can go to Student Health for minor stuff, like sinus infections and whatever, but they won't prescribe painkillers there and they can't give physical therapy prescriptions. I have an ankle brace that I can wear, which helps a little, but really, until I get this treated, which can't even start until two months from now, I can't walk more than about five or six blocks, and even that is painful. Also can't drive unless I figure out how to push the pedals with my left foot.
But, of course, health care reform will put bureaucrats between us and our doctors, and will make us have to wait months for appointments.
(And I know from experience that trying to get an earlier appointment than the one that they tell you is the earliest at this place is a lost cause. If you tell them that it can't wait, they tell you to go to the emergency room. Or, as happened once, they tell you that even if the President wanted to see this doctor, he couldn't see him any time in the next two months.)