The Human Cost of Being Uninsured

Joanna Conti's picture
Submitted by Joanna Conti on Thu, 05/28/2009 - 18:21
in

A health care crisis hit my family three weeks ago.  It wasn’t my 80-year-old father or 77-year-old mother.  My 49-year-old kid brother had a stroke.

Jon has had a tough time in recent years.  He was let go from a job in his journalism field after 18 years.  He started working as a cook in a restaurant, a job he loved despite the long days, hard work, and low pay.

A thoughtful, compassionate man, Jon rarely talked about his financial struggles.  Always frugal, he somehow kept current on his mortgage payments and other bills even when the restaurant closed for several months every winter.

A few years ago, the restaurant stopped offering health insurance to their employees.  Instead, they gave Jon $100 per month towards his premium.  But, as you well know, health insurance costs many times that.  So my brother became one of the 45.7 million Americans without health insurance.  And eventually the restaurant stopped being able to afford even the $100 per month. 

Completely strapped, my brother cut back further.  One of the cost-saving measures he chose was to stop taking his blood pressure medicine.  And then, a month ago, the restaurant closed. 

After driving back late one night from helping our mother in Delaware, Jon woke up feeling very dizzy, light-headed and unsteady on his feet.  He had no money to see a doctor, so he tried to go back to sleep.  As his condition got worse and worse, he finally drove himself 18 miles to the hospital late that night. 

Due to the lack of money for inexpensive blood pressure medicine, my loving, funny, caring brother has spent the last three weeks lying in a hospital bed.  His whole right side is numb, his speech is slurred, he can’t write, and he can’t walk.  My heart is breaking. 

There are no villains in this story.  The Easton Memorial Hospital has taken excellent care of my brother and he’s getting steadily better every day.  But Jon’s experience shows the incredibly-high human cost of a health care system that excludes 17% of all non-elderly Americans from access to affordable health care.  Godspeed to President Obama to fix it.

Comments (3) Total

Comments

Submitted by Scott Slocum on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 20:02.

Villains? Greedy lawyers? Perhaps.

Joanna, your comment is well-taken: Jon’s experience shows the incredibly-high human cost of a health care system that excludes 17% of all non-elderly Americans from access to affordable health care. Godspeed to President Obama to fix it. You've noted that the hospital has done a good job in Jon's behalf. Can't blame them. When indigent patients check in, they must provide care - it's the right thing to do, but those who CAN pay end up covering the costs of the unfortunate. And, of course, there are hordes of attorneys who will pounce on any POSSIBLE mistreatment of patients. Big settlement for the "injured party," and... the law firm. The doctors charge high prices, because they've made major investments in their education, in equipment, and in exorbitant liability insurance. They need this because lawyers are making a fortune suing for outrageous amounts, and the legal system waves them onward. Can the bright folks from the Obama administration solve this problem? Hmmm. They will need to have Congress (comprised of...uh-oh.. mostly ATTORNEYS) pass laws that will do what? Regulate prices? That won't help the quality of available health care, nor will clamping-down on pharmaceutical companies for expensive medicines. They have R&D costs, and FDA approvals to battle. If you can't run a hospital or a medical practice or a drug company as a profitable business, you close it. Hey, perhaps they could....regulate ATTORNEYS? Not gonna happen. They're the real beneficiaries of a health care system gone wild, and they know how to protect that turf. Socialized medicine? I have friends from Canada who come here, because the fabulous government-sponsored health care system there is slow, inefficient.. just doesn't work properly. It's not so great in Europe, either, from what I've heard. I'm eager to find any decent alternatives here, but I suffer from a feeling of despair about the circumstances.

Submitted by Guest on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 03:01.

Moving our prayers to legislators desks

Teardrops fell as I read the heart wrenching story. Is there no insurance available at a reasonable rate/sliding scale for individuals like this who are not medicaid eligible due to age. We have MAIF for car insurance, yet we don't have it for human beings. Perhaps writing to the senators, delegates and cc'ing the white house to support people in these types of situations would help.

Submitted by Scott Slocum on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 08:05.

The faces of real people, attached to a national disaster

Joanna, It cuts close to the heart and home to see this picture of my cousin, Jon. The entire health care industry is a disaster, and it touches nearly all of us. The only health insurance that we can afford has a very large deductible, and that's the story for so many individuals and companies. If the solution were simple, it would have been handled long ago. We search for a scapegoat: ah, those thieving pharmaceutical companies. When you look closer, you realize that they have huge R&D expenses, then the extensive testing and waiting periods for FDA approval. They are businesses, and they lobby extensively to protect their interests. The folks in the political arena are always angling for the next reelection, so they accept the money, and the attached strings. Perhaps it's those greedy doctors? Well, the cost of obtaining that medical degree and any specialty degrees beyond is staggering, and I can't be too angry about someone who handles that kind of often-unpleasant work, which may touch on life-or-death. They've invested their lives in the necessary education, internships, and huge liability insurance costs. Those crooks who run the hospitals? No scapegoat there - they get stiffed by indigent folks who can't afford the pricey health care, and the costs of staffing, equipping and maintaining worthy medical facilities continues to rise. They also have substantial areas of liability. If we were to continue our quest to root out the troublemakers, it may come down to lawyers and judges. Between frivolous lawsuits and outrageous awards, the attorneys seem to come out of it as the only real winners, along with the occasional "lucky" person or bereaved family that sues for a settlement. Solve the health care crisis? Well, we've figured out that a government-sponsored health care system like the one in Canada is sub-standard. My Canadian friends often work out a way to come to the United States when they have medical issues, because of the waiting periods and other barriers. I hear of similar problems in European nations. Will the bright folks in the current administration be able to clear a path to affordable, quality health care? We can pray that they can, and try to be supportive when possible. As I noted earlier, if America's health care problems could be simply solved, we wouldn't be having this discussion. It's nearly a cruel, Darwinian circumstance: "survival of the fittest." If you don't make enough money to pay for expensive health care, take care of yourself as much as possible. Don't get sick.