President Solís to travel to Canada and Mexico seeking foreign investment

Either you’re misreading me or I was unclear: I agree that the Caja is a real mess. Don’t get me started . . . I personally arrived by ambulance to a Caja hospital with what turned out to be all ribs broken, a collapsed lung, and internal bleeding, yet the fuckers still made me wait 7 hours AND gave me a frankly rude runaround (accusing me of just being on drugs etc.) before they finally realized that I was near death and slapped me in intensive care. And this was only the beginning of my ordeal.

My only point was that it’s silly to imagine that a $30 monthly payment will cover any healthcare system, no matter how bad. Sorry, healthcare costs, and I’m tired of people accustomed to having theirs subsidized not not appreciating how much it costs.

The reality is that, for all it’s flaws, the Caja did eventually fix my problems and cover an 18-day stay in the hospital with zillions of tests, lots of medicines, various medical procedures, and so on. You don’t get this for $30 a month.

I would definitely like to see to see the mess of the Caja fixed, just refuse to accept the notion that it can be fixed on the cheap.

Interesting observations. Maybe it is a social thing. I know that once when I was waiting in my EBAIS I counted and saw that it was almost 10 to 1 women to men. You have to wonder what’s going on there.

Though, it’s obviously bad when sick people go directly to the hospital, since that is terribly cost-ineffective. This is a glitch that needs to be fixed, because it’s a real waste of limited resources.

As far as the note from the doctor is concerned, let me share my personal spoiled story. After working as a professor for many years, where there are no sick days much less doctors’ notes required for them, I got a job at a library. I got sick, called in, and my boss asked for a doctor’s note. I was like, “What, is this kingergarden and I need a note from my mother?” To my astonishment, the answer was yes. That’s when I learned that actually a lot of employees do endure this humiliation, and I guess correspondingly also abuse sick days. But my whole orientation up to that point was that it’s my responsibility, sick or well, to handle my job, and if I’m sick I need to figure out how to handle it, which as a professor you do by calling a colleague or the like. It was demeaning to me to have to have a note from a doctor, and I didn’t even realize that this was routine in the workforce.

Whether it needs to be a requirement, I doubt. People generally act the way others expect them to act. Professors don’t have sick days, and they don’t need notes from doctors.

While I’m at it, I was also a musician for awhile, and subsequently a writer of sorts. These occupations don’t have sick days or require doctors’ notes either. You do the job, or figure out how to cover it if you can’t. I marvel that others can’t do the same, or that trust is so low between employees and employers that an employee with a cold (who really shouldn’t come to work) has to get a doctor’s note and clog up the hospital getting it in order to do the responsible thing and stay home.

Whatever, if the assumption is one of mistrust and dishonesty, then I guess doctors’ notes are necessary, but if this is the assumption the problems are far more serious than the healthcare system.