Bureaucracy

In October of 1994 I traveled to Russia on a church mission trip. We spent 14 days in the City of UFA which is in the state of Baskuria. All my life I heard of communist Russia and the Iron Curtian and the Cold War. Our media labeled us the good guys and they the bad guys. The anticipation for the trip was great on my part.
Nothing prepares you for what you see and experience when in Russia. It is an adventure in history but also the human condition. Communism created a black hole in the country and the lives of the people. Even though communism per say was dead it was still alive in many ways. Food supplies were short, infrastructure such as electricity and water were unreliable and pollution was terrible. The one thing unheard off was good healthcare. We encountered an army surgeon in our nightly studies. He told us stories of low medical supplies such a medicine and band aids, limited anesthesia for surgery. Long waiting lines were the norm for health care. It wasn’t a pretty sight according to his testimony.
When I landed in America I was very thankful for the society I lived in and the advanced systems we had. One of these advanced systems is health care. It is a blessing to have such great care and it isn’t cheap but we could be on the edge of a downfall. Everything seems to be going backward from the economy to the number of jobs available in the U.S. Will health care start to go backwards also?

Allan Jenkins