Pissing and Moaning. Again.

I've mentioned the fact that I no longer receive medical care from the Air Force now that I'm a geezer and have been forced into Medicare.  What this means is I've transitioned from military health care out at Cannon Airplane Patch... which was excellent in each and every regard... into the care of our local medicos, specifically those practicing at Roosevelt General Hospital.  I don't have any major issues with the quality or cost of my health care... so far.  I like my new doctor.  I like the facilities at Roosevelt General's clinic.  The RGH clinic staff are attentive, friendly, and competent.  I'm seen on-time at the appointed time.  The clinic submits claims directly to Medicare and Tricare and payment has been both timely and unquestioned.  So far, so good, right?

Well, I DO have a nit to pick.

I arrived for my appointment at RGH yesterday a half hour early as I had a billing question I needed resolved.  Which it was.  Quickly.  Efficiently.  And to my complete satisfaction, which was as I hoped it would be.  There was a downside, though.  I had to cool my heels in the waiting room for the better part of a half hour because I was, well, early.  I didn't come prepared for an extended wait, which is to say I didn't bring a book or a magazine or something else to amuse me.  Bad move on my part, as the only reading material available was a stack of old Women's Day magazines and oodles of that slick printed medical propaganda disguised as magazines.  And speaking of propaganda... there was a large flat screen teevee tuned to AccentHealth, a CNN-produced network purporting to be "America's Largest Health Education Network" that dominated the waiting room, set at a volume that made it impossible to ignore.

It sucked.

The programming was 75% commercials for pharmaceuticals... soothingly suggesting you to "Ask your doctor about Valtrex - Avodart - Cialis - and various other examples of modern pharmaceutical gris-gris"... interspersed with three-minute segments about how to deal with arthritis, colitis, avoid sunburn, eat more leafy greens, and other such bullshit.  The ratio was about one infomercial segment to three blatant advertisements, all of which looked kinda like this:

The teevee wasn't exactly blaring but it was set at such a level as to demand your attention, the upshot being I never realized 25 minutes could last so damned long.  I was finally called in to see the doctor after those interminable 25 minutes passed but I was left (a) thankful that I'm generally healthy and not suffering from any one of a zillion teevee-induced psychosomatic diseases and (b) wondering how many doctors are bombarded with demands for various and sundry drugs flogged right there in their waiting room.  Don't we get enough of this shit at home?

(sigh)  There are flat-panel teevees in all the waiting rooms in the clinic out at Cannon.  But they are ALL tuned to Fox News or CNN Headline News.  Hell, the Tricare Services waiting room even gives its patrons a remote so they can watch what they want to watch.  Imagine that.  Yet another reason I miss military health care.