PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

In the immediate aftermath of an experience with socialized medicine in England, the time seems right to reflect on the experience.

Here is what started my sojourn with medicine in the U.K., along with my wife who guided me through the experience.

After boarding our cruise ship for a run down the Atlantic Coast from Amsterdam to Dover, to Lisbon, I made what now is a clear mistake by using prescription motion sickness ear patches. Either on their own, or in combination with other medications, they sparked a reaction in me that involved dizziness, slurred speech, hallucinations, and poor depth perception.

I basically have of no memory of most of the next two days as I was seen by the ship’s doctor, then went by ambulance to a hospital in Ashford, England and stayed there for a battery of tests over 14 hours – yes, 14 hours — including about five EKGs, two brain scans, an angio-gram and various blood tests.

In the end, I received a clean bill of health. A stroke, heart attack and other problems were determined not to have been involved. An adverse reaction to medication was the culprit.

As I write this from home – and I am very glad to be home – here’s a bottom line:

The entire experience with U. K. medicine didn’t cost us a dime!

What would have happened had we been in the United States?

Well, it is likely that, in advance of each test beyond the clearly emergent ones, we would have been asked if we wanted to go through with them, including paying for them.

We would have been asked to pay or at least identify our health insurance company. We would have answered both, but there would have been a cost, either for our insurance company, for us, or for both.

We might have moved through the system more quickly in the U.S., underlining a key question here: What is more important, thoroughness or speed?

Upon reflection, I would pick thoroughness, given the possibility of serious health jeopardy.

The experience provided us (my wife and me) with a first-hand experience with socialized medicine in Europe. You could argue both sides of the question – which system is best, the one in Europe or the one in the U.S. And, of course, neither is perfect.

Further, someone is always paying for the services I received; it just wasn’t me in this case.

My fond hope, as a long-time health care lobbyist, now retired, is that the best minds would get in the room in this country and do the hard work of hammering out an effective health care system in the middle – one that capitalizes on the best of Europe and the best of the U.S.

The task would be “to give and to get,” which is the very nature of political compromise at its best.

So far, politicians in the U.S. — from the president, to his Administration, to Members of Congress, to governors, to state legislatures, to state Executive Branch officials have been unable – or perhaps unwilling – to do the hard work of compromise.

Experiences of the type I just had overseas only serve to underline the need for action. Find the best of Europe. Find the best of the U.S.

Do something.