hamster care
n.— «One might wonder why it is necessary to pay a bounty to get a doctor to call you back. The answer is that under the watchful eye of managed care and insurance companies, the quality of care has gotten so awful that doctors refer to it as “hamster care.” Only those patients who pay more are going to get treated by the “concierge” doctors who get off the daily treadmill and practice good medicine.» —“Good health care should not be only for wealthy” by Arthur Caplan Witchita Eagle (Kan.) July 7, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Trivia time! Where in the United States can you visit Soda City? If you answered Columbia, South Carolina, you’re right! This nickname apparently derives from an old practice of abbreviating Columbia as Cola. The locals then referred to the town as...
If you speak a second or third language, you may remember the first time you dreamed in that new tongue. But does this milestone mean you’re actually fluent? And a couple’s dispute over the word regret: Say you wish you’d been able...