Now, if you refuse your MediCare benefits I may just start listening to you (you self-righteous ass)
First, can we just acknowledge that what’s going on currently is in no way a health care “debate,” but rather a pile of stinking lies shouted and repeated and shouted again. Because that’s how it looks from here in the cheap seats.
I want to be clear and upfront-I’m in support of health care reform. I work in health care. My first job was at one of the largest county health care systems at LA County+USC Medical Center. Four hospitals filled with three primary groups of patients:
- local residents (most of whom were from low socioeconomic status from nearby neighborhoods in Monterey Park, East LA, and South Central LA)
- patients with the strangest of the strange medical disorders (this is a premier academic medical center providing a lot of medical research and cutting edge medical care; heck, I attended an inservice when I was in my first year of PT school on BoTox, which was brand new and created for the use of abnormal muscle tone seen in neurologic disorders and torticollis)
- and people without healthcare insurance from all over the LA area
Ironically, I started working there during the Clinton and Hillary-care time period. And recall many heated arguments with a particular co-worker about government healthcare. I still find it incredible that someone who worked in that setting couldn’t seem to see how the lack of a basic insurance policy meant that lots of patients would use the emergency department for their primary healthcare (at a greatly increased cost) and would be consistently admitted to the hospital with problems that might have been managed or even avoided with regular healthcare. And how many of my patients had the bad luck of being on the wrong side of an accident (many times completely without fault), and found themselves in the hospital. Some with minor issues like broken bones or mild burns, but more frequently with life-changing medical issues like a complete arm degloving injury or a spinal cord injury. Most of these longer term medical conditions would get transitioned to MediCaid, another government healthcare plan. Which you, as a tax payor, are funding. Already.
Now, I’ve had a few strange run ins with healthcare insurance.
- When I was a kid we had no insurance. At one point in high school, I had a terrible spring cold with an awful cough. It got so bad, I actually coughed my voice away (and those of you who’ve heard my voice and me talking, that’s something!). My grandmother ended up taking me to the pediatrician. An office visit, two shots and a prescription paid at full price later, I went back home. There was some debate about getting xrays. I knew even then to down play how sick I was, because I knew we didn’t have the money for that. The pediatrician called to talk to me at home the next day and I BS’d that I felt better and was much improved. Was I? No way, but I knew that it would just be more money we didn’t have. Did I get better, yes. But I was young and otherwise healthy. But how awful that without being told, I felt I had to wait and to lie because I knew that healthcare was expensive and we didn’t have the money.
- Four and a half years ago I was in a bad car accident. I was the passenger in a car crossing the street completely legally (within the speed limit, with the light), when the car I was in was hit by a car going at least 85 mph driven by a guy high on crystal meth with a revoked license in his girlfriend’s car that wasn’t insured. The first 24 hours alone cost nearly $35,000. That’s right-for a 0.25 mile ambulance ride, an emergency department intake as a trauma patient, a night in the hospital, radiology, and a neurosurgical consult. I can guarantee you that if I didn’t have insurance to cover that (both the auto insurance coverage and my health insurance) that this would have sunk me financially. All because I had the bad luck to be hit by a FELON breaking at least 6 laws. Sunk.
- I’ve had my fair share of heated discussions with insurance companies and their billing departments. My favorite was the time I had a small blood clot (probably in my foot). I knew the signs and symptoms, tried to call my physician to find out if I should come to the office or the emergency department. Their phone system was down, so I waited most of the day, and ended up going to the emergency department. They were concerned enough to order a Doppler ultrasound, which was negative. Two months later I get a bill for the radiology department in the hospital for the ultrasound. Mind you, they covered my emergency department visit and found that justified and I had used an emergency department covered by my plan, and claimed I didn’t use an approved radiology group. Mind you, the ultrasound was done in the emergency department and it’s not like you really get a choice when the emergency physician orders you to have a test done there before you leave. Thank goodness I could explain this to the insurance person I called (and the next two I got booted to because I seriously think they hire people with pulses for the bottom two rungs of insurance offices), and how ridiculous this was. It got figured out, and I didn’t have to pay, but what if I didn’t know what I know about medicine and the healthcare system? What if that first person saying I had to pay it scared me? I would have paid that. And I had health insurance. Private insurance is usually great, don’t get me wrong. But it’s not perfect either.
- I could go on and on with stories of friends who’ve lost their jobs and their insurance, who’ve got a pre-existing condition and fear losing their insurance, who have health histories that they worry will have them be excluded, who have to file appeal after appeal for coverage or to get payments covered. Are there great things about our private insurance, absolutely! But people with no insurance don’t have the benefit of any of that. They are left with free clinics, sample drugs, long waits at underfunded county facilities, the constant fear that their attempts to self-medicate and treat won’t work, and the imminent possibility of going bankrupt should they have an accident. Can we, as Americans with the luck of being citizens of this wonderful country, justify letting over 40 million of our fellow citizens deal with those concerns?
A few points I’d like to make:
- If you think that if we don’t institute health care reform we can avoid paying for health care for the uninsured, you are so very, very wrong. We pay MORE for healthcare for the uninsured, because it’s only when they get very sick that they need more healthcare (and healthcare dollars) to be treated. And you do pay for this-right now. Through city, county, and state taxes and spending for your county hospitals and health systems. That’s right-the way things are now you are paying, and you’re paying more than you would if we had more people insured.
- Would a government healthcare insurance plan have bureaucracy and be complicated? You bet! But seriously, have you ever tried to navigate your current health insurance? How many phone calls to get something approved? How much waiting in the doctor’s office to get an approval or find out what drug your plan will cover? How much time have you spent trying to find out if you need a pre-authorization or pre-approval or a primary care provider prescription to see a specialist or a physical therapist or a podiatrist or your OB/GYN? Yeah, that’s an argument. Because current private insurance is SO FREAKING EASY TO USE! Ha!
- And lastly, I would like to (and encourage others to consider) call out any member of Congress or Senator crying about how the federal government can’t be trusted to be involved in providing or running health care programs. Do you have MediCare? Because guess what-that’s a federally run health care insurance program. How dare you? How dare you! How dare you stand in a public forum and state that others without the luxury of health care insurance would be better off with NOTHING while you have the benefits provided by a government run program! Shame on you!