Last week, I was watching Now on P.B.S. The program was about healthcare in the U.S, and as I watched it, my health was in danger. My blood was boiling.
The program featured a couple with a very young son with a rare breathing disorder. Because of lack of funds, the child had to be sent house, hooked up to a complex breathing machine with all sorts of wires and tubes. Not only did the doctor have to give the parents detailed instructions, paramedics had to transport the son.
But that’s not all. There is no funding for a nurse. The husband works nights, so the mother, who has a day job, has to stay up all night to make sure the machine is working correctly. If she drifts off to sleep, even for a few minutes, her son could well die.
Something is very wrong with this. At the very least, no parents should be put in this situation.
I was reminded of when, years ago, I had an attendant who got very sick. He had no health insurance - par for the course for my state-funded attendants - and went around sick for weeks. Finally, he gave in, went to a clinic, paid big bucks and got, as he said, "a big shot in the butt." He was better the next day.
Yes, this is crazy and sad. Yes, this is sick. But more than that, it is criminal.
It is a crime when, because of money, a child can’t get the care they need and is in danger of dying. It is a crime when, again simply due to money, anyone is blocked from not being ill, from being decently healthy. America is the only developed country where this happens.
Meanwhile, as we’ve seen lately, "socialism" is a dirty word here. My blood is simmering...
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Hey, I was talking to my doctor just the other day, and he and I started bringing up writing, and how it is a perfect outlet to say what really is sort of a rant. Nothing new, just a vehicle of expression, which brings to the point, why do we have to rely on mainstream? The veiws are not that nobody has ever hear of them, it is just that the way things are with the media being more one sided, let's say the anology of putting a debated discussion between two persons with similar beliefs, does not really give a fairness to the issues, especially an opposing veiw. There is a not so varied media that assumes we don't know other avenues to obtain information, hence we have to look for other resources besides the influence of baised airwaves. More like we have to keep writing the opinions that are controversial, contradicting and more informative to the less than covered veiws of the socially unacceptable or liberal comments. As I am refering to my doctor, he was describing to me how he is writing a book, as I said, nothing groundbreaking, just something so he can get it off his chest, without being put in the spotlight, and where he can just express or rant his political veiws.
ReplyDeleteI told him that is what my writing is all about! We exchange ideas, as he described the health care as being more of a legal embezzalment. Why does everyone say socialized medicine, as he describes the insurance as ripping off the consumer to pay them as they reap the profits even though we may not be sick. This idea really hit me to believe he is right! Why should anyone pay if it is not needed at the time of treatment. This only drives the person when we do need a shot of a pill to be out of luck if we don't contribute to this ill advised method of payment, being the dreaded word, premiums, instead of pay as you go type of health care. In other words if you are not sick, why should someone pay for nothing? My only gripe is that we need to have preventive medicine, not bankrupt individuals who fear of hospital costs are extorted out of the financial savings, for over payment or forced premiums.
We need as a society to challenge this system of payment without sickness. A better way of putting it is only treat the sickness and not the healthy.
My other point and I will be brief is that, we only have to look at the industry that drives our health into obesity and over medication. We have the meat, and tobacco and the pharmacutical, to just name a few, that really cause us concern of why a society would have to break ranks just to suggest a better lifestyle, like eat healthy and have support other than a prescription and a tip to exercise more. We need more people who want to expose the driving industries that waste the most. The meat industry, who keeps using up most of the agriculture to feed an animal, is more expensive than just eating the product which comes out of the ground. The cigarette industry, what a no brainer, and the pharmacuticals who finally have pushed doctors in the corner of unaffordable medicines. They now more than likely refer patients to less expensive alternative drugs, which is at least found to be generic and on the formulary to many profiles, which is always found to change, causing the insurances to be always in play. Let's face it, when people started to get there medicines from Canada or Mexico, you have to change the rules like lowering the cost to four dollars at your favorite pharmacy, which all are now being sensible, immitating the Wal-mart incentive.