Pink Floyd's Welcome to the Machine
Patient M-0253 Summary Second Session:
Patient M-0253 was agitated throughout this session, in marked contrast to the passive demeanor during the first session and that reported by his primary, Dr. Forestaller.
“What are you thinking about now?” I asked.
“The Machine!”
“What machine?”
“The damn machine running things, that’s what.”
“What things?”
“Every damn thing you can think of! The healthcare system for one thing!”
“It seems to be running smoothly to me,” I offered.
“It seems so to you because you are a part of it. That’s exactly what the Southern District Claim Manager of Healthcare Insurance United’s Disadvantaged Patient Medicare plans said about the confounded Machine: ‘It’s running smoothly.’
“Not! At last not to the advantage of the beneficiaries on the whole. She does not know what she is talking about because she has been brainwashed for forty years, taking two workshops every year to update her credentials. She maintains the irrational process is reasonable and treats you like a nitwit for seeing it is obviously not after you appeal from its algorithmic denial of your claims.“
“What do you propose to do?”
M-0253 arose from the couch and raved: “What can one do? The Machine is remote, inaccessible, pointless, with invisible rulers! The Machine does not care about anyone. It grinds everyone down to numbers. I could not do a damn thing about the mechanical process. It was hostile and punished me for my honesty when I exposed its absurdities. I lost my bearings, delayed my career…”
“Your career?” I asked. “And what is your career?”
“To become the greatest author the world ever or never knew, and to save the world with the crystal lingam I found in the cave. I need more time for that, another lifetime. I need to live 150 years, I need stem cell brain regeneration for that, but the Machine is blocking my way. Watch this.”
M-0253 proceeded to dance about my office in a mechanical fashion, chanting:
“Welcome to the Machine, Welcome to the Machine, Welcome to the Machine….”
Signed: Sara Luna, M.D.