Monday – This Isn't Rationing?
Aug. 31st, 2009 12:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ninanevermore.
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For the past few months, there has been a flier taped to a jar at the courtesy booth at my local grocery store. It has a photo of a 15-year-old boy with dark wavy hair that hangs in his eyes. It says he was in a serious accident and suffered from head trauma. He was comatose and in intensive care. His family has no health insurance, and was asking for whatever cash anyone could spare to help cover the costs.
Welcome to the United States of America, the only industrialized western nation that does not promise healthcare to all it's citizens. I see these fliers a lot in my little town. A little girl needing a kidney transplant, but the family must provide the more money up from than I bring home in a year before anyone will give her one. Another area child needs a liver, and the family is in the same bind. An 11-year-old has cancer; friends of the family are having a barbeques fundraiser with live music and the public is invited. A 14 year old boy who fell into a campfire and his father who jumped into the flames to pull him out; the boy suffered burns over 90% of his body, his father was burned over 40% of his. The father was a musician, and for over a year I saw fliers advertising benefit shows other area musicians put on to raise money for that family.
I've lost count of how many of these fliers I've seen. Sometimes it's for a sick adult, but mostly it's for a child whose parents can't pony up the cash to save their baby's life.
With no affordable healthcare available to so many people in my country (and to 25% of all people in my home state of Texas), how do they pay for it when something dreadful happens? With barbeques and benefits and pickle jars set up at the courtesy booth in the grocery store. The fliers feature a photo of a smiling child on them, taken when they were healthy and still cute enough to tug at the heartstrings of strangers.
The situation has gotten worse in recent years. I used to have a job where I ran credit reports of mortgage brokers who wanted to use my company's service. Whenever I came across anything like a bankruptcy, home foreclosure or a large unresolved debt, I had to ask that person for a letter of explanation. When I started that job in 2002, most of the letters of explanation contained words like "nasty divorce" or "business deal gone bad." By the time I left 5 years later, 60% of them contained heart-breaking stories of medical catastrophes: cancer, car accidents, sick kids and the like. A lot of these people were insured, but not enough. These were independent small business owners, and the health insurance they could afford often times did not cover the extent of their bad luck
But people in this country fight the idea of health care reform tooth and nail. "It will lead to rationing!" they squawk, ignoring the fact that health care is being rationed right now based on how much money you have or how generous your employer's health benefits are. "We have the best healthcare in the world!" others exclaim. But what good is having the best when you can't get to it? It's like owning a mansion, but all the doors and windows are bricked shut: no matter how nice it is inside, it doesn't matter when you're still stuck out in the rain.
I've read about the paranoid fears and talking points that have been used to get people riled up against the whole idea of doing anything to fix the US healthcare fiasco: the idea of death panels, rationing, etc. People point to these make believe boogiemen, but ignore the very real flier on the pickle jar at the check out stand for the very real child who will die if they can't spare any change.
I'm not anti free market by any means. I don't care if the free market sets the price of my car or my house or what I pay for a pizza. But it turns out the free market doesn't give a rat's ass whether I live or die, and so I don't want it deciding whether or not I can get health care. Call me selfish, but that's how I feel. Right now, I have good insurance, but I can show you whole stack of fliers for barbeques and benefit shows benefitting people who don't.
My husband has a friend, Clint, who still lives in Spokane, Washington. Clint's beautiful 20 year-old-daughter was recently burned severely by a campfire when she accidentally kicked over a gas can that was set too close to the blaze. Clint is unemployed, and has no insurance. His daughter was a part-time nanny (I say "was," because it will be along time before she works again. She is now a full-time burn patient). Part time anything in this country is another way of saying "no health insurance." The helicopter ride to the hospital, before she received any treatment whatsoever, costs $20,000. The skin grafts, surgeries, antibiotics to fight off massive infections, rehabilitation therapy, and everything else she has ahead of her? I have no idea, but I hope they have some friends who can play guitar and sing, because they are going to need them. I'm not sure how many benefit concerts it's going to take, but there is a family in my hometown that could give them a good idea.
(To see their story, go here: http://www.king5.com/video/featured-index.html?nvid=393539&she=1).
As a footnote, the flier on the pickle jar at the courtesy booth my the grocery store It still has the same picture of the 15 year old boy with dark wavy hair hanging in his eyes, but the text has changed a bit. He succumbed to his injuries. The family is still asking for help with his outstanding medical bills, but now they also need help paying for his funeral expenses. At the bottom of the flier, I read the same words I've read on every other one I've seen like it: "Anything you can spare is greatly appreciated. Thank you and God bless!!!"
You see these same words on the signs that the vagrants hold on the street corners when they beg for money. This is how we ration who gets healthcare in America, by how eloquent the family's plea is and how cute of a picture they can find of their child to put on the pickle jar.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * # * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
.
.
For the past few months, there has been a flier taped to a jar at the courtesy booth at my local grocery store. It has a photo of a 15-year-old boy with dark wavy hair that hangs in his eyes. It says he was in a serious accident and suffered from head trauma. He was comatose and in intensive care. His family has no health insurance, and was asking for whatever cash anyone could spare to help cover the costs.
Welcome to the United States of America, the only industrialized western nation that does not promise healthcare to all it's citizens. I see these fliers a lot in my little town. A little girl needing a kidney transplant, but the family must provide the more money up from than I bring home in a year before anyone will give her one. Another area child needs a liver, and the family is in the same bind. An 11-year-old has cancer; friends of the family are having a barbeques fundraiser with live music and the public is invited. A 14 year old boy who fell into a campfire and his father who jumped into the flames to pull him out; the boy suffered burns over 90% of his body, his father was burned over 40% of his. The father was a musician, and for over a year I saw fliers advertising benefit shows other area musicians put on to raise money for that family.
I've lost count of how many of these fliers I've seen. Sometimes it's for a sick adult, but mostly it's for a child whose parents can't pony up the cash to save their baby's life.
With no affordable healthcare available to so many people in my country (and to 25% of all people in my home state of Texas), how do they pay for it when something dreadful happens? With barbeques and benefits and pickle jars set up at the courtesy booth in the grocery store. The fliers feature a photo of a smiling child on them, taken when they were healthy and still cute enough to tug at the heartstrings of strangers.
The situation has gotten worse in recent years. I used to have a job where I ran credit reports of mortgage brokers who wanted to use my company's service. Whenever I came across anything like a bankruptcy, home foreclosure or a large unresolved debt, I had to ask that person for a letter of explanation. When I started that job in 2002, most of the letters of explanation contained words like "nasty divorce" or "business deal gone bad." By the time I left 5 years later, 60% of them contained heart-breaking stories of medical catastrophes: cancer, car accidents, sick kids and the like. A lot of these people were insured, but not enough. These were independent small business owners, and the health insurance they could afford often times did not cover the extent of their bad luck
But people in this country fight the idea of health care reform tooth and nail. "It will lead to rationing!" they squawk, ignoring the fact that health care is being rationed right now based on how much money you have or how generous your employer's health benefits are. "We have the best healthcare in the world!" others exclaim. But what good is having the best when you can't get to it? It's like owning a mansion, but all the doors and windows are bricked shut: no matter how nice it is inside, it doesn't matter when you're still stuck out in the rain.
I've read about the paranoid fears and talking points that have been used to get people riled up against the whole idea of doing anything to fix the US healthcare fiasco: the idea of death panels, rationing, etc. People point to these make believe boogiemen, but ignore the very real flier on the pickle jar at the check out stand for the very real child who will die if they can't spare any change.
I'm not anti free market by any means. I don't care if the free market sets the price of my car or my house or what I pay for a pizza. But it turns out the free market doesn't give a rat's ass whether I live or die, and so I don't want it deciding whether or not I can get health care. Call me selfish, but that's how I feel. Right now, I have good insurance, but I can show you whole stack of fliers for barbeques and benefit shows benefitting people who don't.
My husband has a friend, Clint, who still lives in Spokane, Washington. Clint's beautiful 20 year-old-daughter was recently burned severely by a campfire when she accidentally kicked over a gas can that was set too close to the blaze. Clint is unemployed, and has no insurance. His daughter was a part-time nanny (I say "was," because it will be along time before she works again. She is now a full-time burn patient). Part time anything in this country is another way of saying "no health insurance." The helicopter ride to the hospital, before she received any treatment whatsoever, costs $20,000. The skin grafts, surgeries, antibiotics to fight off massive infections, rehabilitation therapy, and everything else she has ahead of her? I have no idea, but I hope they have some friends who can play guitar and sing, because they are going to need them. I'm not sure how many benefit concerts it's going to take, but there is a family in my hometown that could give them a good idea.
(To see their story, go here: http://www.king5.com/video/featured-index.html?nvid=393539&she=1).
As a footnote, the flier on the pickle jar at the courtesy booth my the grocery store It still has the same picture of the 15 year old boy with dark wavy hair hanging in his eyes, but the text has changed a bit. He succumbed to his injuries. The family is still asking for help with his outstanding medical bills, but now they also need help paying for his funeral expenses. At the bottom of the flier, I read the same words I've read on every other one I've seen like it: "Anything you can spare is greatly appreciated. Thank you and God bless!!!"
You see these same words on the signs that the vagrants hold on the street corners when they beg for money. This is how we ration who gets healthcare in America, by how eloquent the family's plea is and how cute of a picture they can find of their child to put on the pickle jar.
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no subject
Date: 2009-08-31 07:03 pm (UTC)God help them if they're ever on the wrong end of a hospital bill.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-31 07:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-01 03:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-01 03:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-01 04:13 pm (UTC)Per Jacob S. Hacker of UC Berkley: the United States spends nearly six times as much per capita on health care administration as the average for Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations. Nearly all of this discrepancy is due to the sales, marketing, and underwriting activities of our highly fragmented framework of private insurance, with its diverse billing and review practices.
For the record: 11% of each dollar paid to private insurance goes toward administrative costs, including paying people to look for reasons to deny you the healthcare your doctor says you need. Less than 2% of Medicare goes to administrative costs.
Not only can it be paid for, it would cost us less in the long run.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-03 06:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-04 02:39 pm (UTC)This idea is not untried: it's what the citizens of Germany and Switzerland have right now. They seem pretty happy and - more importantly - healthy.