Annie hurt all over. She had never felt pain like that before. It even hurt when she tried to open her eyes, so she laid there motionless. Where was she? What had happened? Her curiosity finally overcame her pain and she slowly opened her eyes. "Quick, turn on the camera and lights, she's coming around!" she heard a woman yell. Her opening eyes were met with a blinding video camera light. "Congratulations you won!" she heard the woman say. "What did I win?" Annie mumbled. Barely able to contain her excitement the unknown woman said, "You won treatment for your injuries, in the Great American Health Care Lottery!"
In mid 21st century America there were no longer any social programs. They were all done away with in 2023 under the "Freedom for Americans Act". This act did away with Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, and Unemployment insurance. President Paul Ryan said signing that Bill into law was the highlight of his administration.
The termination of all these social programs was inevitable because the 10 years of austerity created under the 2013 "Future Wealth for the Middle Class" act, which had put the final nails in the coffin of the middle class in America. Tax cuts for the top 3% of Americans were now permanent via a constitutional amendment. This left the other 97% with taxes so high that they could no longer pay into SS or Medicare. Tax dollars for the other social programs were also diverted to pay back the national debt to make the private banks whole.
In 2020 Congress expanded Obama-care to "cover" all Americans, America finally joined the rest of the industrialized world, and had a single payer health care system. Well, sort of. They created the single payer system by turning health insurance into a lottery. The reason for the lottery was that the insurance industry had exhausted their current business model and in order to keep growing so Wall Street was happy the lottery was adopted.
By law you had to pay a monthly premium but instead of being guaranteed treatment should you become injured or sick, when admitted to the hospital you would scan your National Consumer ID card to see if you had won treatment. Fortunately for Annie she had won the needed treatment for the injuries she had received when her house was inadvertently hit by a missile fired at her house by a domestic terrorist killer drone. The real target of the attack, Greenpeace escaped unscathed.
Annie didn't know it was a drone strike that had put her in the hospital, she had no idea what had happened to her, but as her mind began to clear, she was in a panic about husband and three kids. "Are my kids and husband OK?" she asked? "They survived." The reporter answered, curtly. "Maybe after we finish the promotional video shoot for the lottery you can see them."
The video shoot consisted of Annie laying in bed motionless with a giant Lottery Congratulations banner over her head, as the reporter talked about the lottery that gives the American people access to the greatest health care system in the world. As the reporter jabbered on, Annie passed out from the pain from her injuries. You see pain meds were not paid for by the lottery. They had to be paid for by the consumer themselves, and a quick scan of Annie's National Consumer card showed she had no money available for such a luxury.
She woke up to a nurse taking her temperature. She asked about her husband and kids. The nurse said they had survived but were not health care lottery winners so they were not treated. But they were made as comfortable as possible as they died from their injuries. (The medications for the dying, were thanks to the Rand Paul health care amendment which allowed family members to add the cost of their loved ones final medications to their personal debt load).
Because organ donation was a requirement for the 97%ers, the nurse said they would live on though the organs they gave to other health care lottery winners and 3%ers. A tear rolled down Annie's right temple as she contemplated the loss of her entire immediate family. But Annie understood that health care was not a right but a privilege to either the lucky or the rich. This had been drummed into her head from her first days in her for-profit kindergarten class, all the way through her secondary for profit training in retail sales. She knew it was now the American way, and she took some solace in that.
In mid 21st century America there were no longer any social programs. They were all done away with in 2023 under the "Freedom for Americans Act". This act did away with Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, and Unemployment insurance. President Paul Ryan said signing that Bill into law was the highlight of his administration.
The termination of all these social programs was inevitable because the 10 years of austerity created under the 2013 "Future Wealth for the Middle Class" act, which had put the final nails in the coffin of the middle class in America. Tax cuts for the top 3% of Americans were now permanent via a constitutional amendment. This left the other 97% with taxes so high that they could no longer pay into SS or Medicare. Tax dollars for the other social programs were also diverted to pay back the national debt to make the private banks whole.
In 2020 Congress expanded Obama-care to "cover" all Americans, America finally joined the rest of the industrialized world, and had a single payer health care system. Well, sort of. They created the single payer system by turning health insurance into a lottery. The reason for the lottery was that the insurance industry had exhausted their current business model and in order to keep growing so Wall Street was happy the lottery was adopted.
By law you had to pay a monthly premium but instead of being guaranteed treatment should you become injured or sick, when admitted to the hospital you would scan your National Consumer ID card to see if you had won treatment. Fortunately for Annie she had won the needed treatment for the injuries she had received when her house was inadvertently hit by a missile fired at her house by a domestic terrorist killer drone. The real target of the attack, Greenpeace escaped unscathed.
Annie didn't know it was a drone strike that had put her in the hospital, she had no idea what had happened to her, but as her mind began to clear, she was in a panic about husband and three kids. "Are my kids and husband OK?" she asked? "They survived." The reporter answered, curtly. "Maybe after we finish the promotional video shoot for the lottery you can see them."
The video shoot consisted of Annie laying in bed motionless with a giant Lottery Congratulations banner over her head, as the reporter talked about the lottery that gives the American people access to the greatest health care system in the world. As the reporter jabbered on, Annie passed out from the pain from her injuries. You see pain meds were not paid for by the lottery. They had to be paid for by the consumer themselves, and a quick scan of Annie's National Consumer card showed she had no money available for such a luxury.
She woke up to a nurse taking her temperature. She asked about her husband and kids. The nurse said they had survived but were not health care lottery winners so they were not treated. But they were made as comfortable as possible as they died from their injuries. (The medications for the dying, were thanks to the Rand Paul health care amendment which allowed family members to add the cost of their loved ones final medications to their personal debt load).
Because organ donation was a requirement for the 97%ers, the nurse said they would live on though the organs they gave to other health care lottery winners and 3%ers. A tear rolled down Annie's right temple as she contemplated the loss of her entire immediate family. But Annie understood that health care was not a right but a privilege to either the lucky or the rich. This had been drummed into her head from her first days in her for-profit kindergarten class, all the way through her secondary for profit training in retail sales. She knew it was now the American way, and she took some solace in that.
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