One take on the affordable care act: Naked Lunch's Dr. Benway

By Jack Brummet, Medical Ed.

Listening to a rabid Republican tonight raging on the radio against ACA/"ObamaCare." I swear his description of the care ACA will offere came straight from the pages of William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch. Dr. Benway in particular:

"Dr. Benway. . .looks around and picks up one of those rubber vacuum cups at the end of a stick they use to unstop toilets. He advances on the patient. . .'Make an incision Doctor Limpf,' he says to his appalled assistant. . .'I'm going to massage the heart.'

Dr. Limpf shrugs and begins the incision. . .Dr. Benway washes the suction cup by swishing it around in the toilet bowl. . .

Nurse: 'Shouldn't it be sterilized, doctor?'

Dr. Benway: 'Very likely, but there's no time. . .Did I ever tell you about the time I performed an appendectomy with a rusty sardine can?'

Dr. Limpf: 'The incision is ready, doctor.'

Dr. Benway forces the cup into the incision and works it up and down. Blood spurts all over the doctors, the nurse and the wall. . .the cup makes a horrible sucking sound.

Nurse: 'I think she's gone, doctor.'

Dr. Benway: 'Well, it's all in a day's work.' "

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