So you’re one of the millions upon millions of Americans living without health insurance. Howdy, partner, so are we! And as you probably know, living without that kind of net teaches you all kinds of skills you probably never knew you had before, like getting through a sinus infection without the aid of antibiotics (they’re for wusses) and coping with depression via an array of cheap street drugs and, not least, learning how to make splints. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia — “Birthplace of American Medicine,” doncha know — feels your pain; or, rather, sees you feeling the pain and recognizes that it is indeed pain you are feeling. To help us all cope, they’ve launched their Online Recession Healthcare Toolkit, which to our surprise, was not a coupon for a giant bottle of vodka and some rolling papers, but rather, a host of tips for how to get by in this New Wonderful American Ruggedness. If you’ve been living without insurance, most of it is stuff you’ve already learned: Ask for generic meds, get some goddamn exercise and try to prevent bad things from happening to your person, eat healthy, and so on. And while we’d much rather that the “Birthplace of American Medicine” concentrated its efforts on some radical new program of treating the uninsured at low-cost rates or lobbying for the American pharmaceutical industry to stop behaving like such unconscionable pricks, it’s baby steps, people. Check out the site if you’re currently freeballing with your health — you just might learn something not completely infuriating.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 26th, 2009 at 11:22 am.