Trip to New York’s DMV Looks Much Like “Medicare for All”

To appreciate health care under the Insane Left’s “Medicare for All,” just visit your local, dysfunctional government office. Let me relate what happened to me when I tried to acquire a driver’s license at the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles and a replacement Social Security card as I did recently in Manhattan, and extrapolate this to health care. Surmise how many hours I spent going from office to office, and returning home or online to get another piece of identification.

Now imagine doing something like this while being really sick and needing a doctor in a hurry. For example in Washington Heights, on the northern tip of Manhattan where I live, let’s suppose there were a “Medicare for All,” Clinic there, and I had chills and fever. What I experienced would result in me having to go to another Medicare for All Clinic in the Financial District, on the southern end of Manhattan 11 miles away, and more than an hour by subway. By the way, I made the mistake recently of patronizing a doctor’s office near my apartment that is mostly frequented by medical assistance patients; the doctor was not bad, but I waited for two hours and my medication never arrived at my pharmacy. I eventually found my own doctor, who takes my insurance, too. Here is my rant about “Medicare for All,” the new Campaign 2020 rallying cry for Democratic Socialists, such as Bernie Sanders. The story begins with me having moved back to New York City last September and my becoming a New York State resident again for the first time in 34 years. I have a New Jersey driver’s license that is valid into next year, so I did what any normal person would do in the 21st Century, I went on the Internet to see what identification I would need to gather or what forms I would need to complete to get a New York driver’s license before appearing at the NYS DMV, which is notorious for its inhospitality and inefficiency. So with my New Jersey license and valid U.S. passport in hand, I traipsed to the NYS DMV on 31st street near Penn Station having previously prepared myself with an hour or prayer and meditation that I should not lose my cool when things inevitably went wrong. Lo and behold, when I approached the DMV lady in the window, I was told I would also need to present my ORIGINAL Social Security card, a utility bill, and a recent bank statement. These requirements were not listed on the DMV website. I reminded the good lady, that I ought to be in her system, because I previously had a New York State driver’s license. No good, she said. I added that I have a New York City ID I could show her? Nope, the state doesn’t recognize that either, she said. (Probably correct not to, because the NYC ID came from the addled mind of New York Sanctuary City Mayor Bill De Blasio).

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I became frustrated. More than 100 people were sitting and waiting at the NYS DMV office, coming and going, trying to somehow check all the right boxes to register a car or boat or motorcycle or get a license. In the back of my mind though I knew that if I were seeking political asylum or living in New York City under questionable circumstances, the city or state would provide me a legion of social workers to teach me how to game the system, get a basket of goodies, including a free driver’s license and social security number and/or card, and free housing, provided that I promised never to assimilate or learn English, and vote Democrat for the rest of my life. The last words I heard upon leaving the NYS DMV from that nice lady: “No original social security card? Next!” I departed the DMV with the usual invectives uttered under my breath. Again, what if I had real pain in my stomach? Would the Medicare For All Clinic turn me away from seeing a doctor simply because I did not have an original Social Security card, even though it’s completely erroneous since I have a U.S. passport, and that I am attesting that the Social Security Number that I am using is mine, and I have a license from another state, New Jersey, where I needed to provide my social security number to acquire a license in that state across the Hudson River, and I am a taxpayer. In 2019 New York City, it’s not hard to feel like a stranger in the Third World, rather than a citizen of this great country. No matter, “I can do this,” I say to myself. I will get a replacement Social Security card! I go online to [url=http://www.ssa.gov]http://www.ssa.gov[/url], and start the process to receive a new hard copy Social Security card. The SSA offered to mail me an application kit for $97 or one by email for $37, and I accept the $37 deal, and I print the forms, which include a phone number if I have questions. Of course, the forms are not completely clear, so I call the number, and the man answers in broken English, and tells me that I ought to mail my passport with my application to the Social Security Administration. I proceed to tell him that he is out of his mind if he thinks I am going to mail by U.S. passport to anyone. “Suit yourself,” he says, and tells me to take the forms and my passport to the Social Security Administration office near me, and I will be fine.

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So I do that. Big mistake, for I go to the Washington Heights office and there are again more than 100 people waiting to see SSA representatives to apply for Medicare and Social Security and disability benefits, and in all honesty, I am the only person there whose first language is English. To be more precise everybody is speaking Spanish, even though the office happens to be in a half Dominican, half Irish (sort of, white) neighborhood. In the SSA office, I dutifully electronically register to see an SSA clerk. I wait a half hour. I go to the window. Oh, no, this office does not process the replacement of Social Security cards, the clerk tells me. I will have to go to the office in lower Manhattan, as I mentioned earlier. Remember when Obama said you can choose your doctor under Obamacare, until you couldn’t? Who can blame people from Mexico, and the Caribbean and Central America for wanting to come to America; we are giving them all sorts of free stuff, thanks to an endless printing press of U.S. government debt to fund the Entitlement Society. Medicare for all? Great idea until you realize you’ll be attending something akin to the local DMV or the Social Security Administration office, or for that matter City Hall or the U.S. Post Office, when you have a serious health problem.