Biopsy of the wallet
Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/wrvn/Editorial/4096/
Nearly 50 million Americans are covered by health insurance. Many of the great number of the uninsured are children whose parents work jobs and can’t make ends meet month to month. Meanwhile, the three largest health insurance companies report record profits.
The cold hard fact is the insurance industry, the medical field and the pharmaceuticals don’t want any change to the current system. They have their money and getting more all the time, while you and me have to suffer the indignities of not being able to pay, to live or buy gas to get to work so we won’t fall even farther into debt.
When going for medical treatment you are encouraged to “ shop around” for the best price for your dollars, which can be kind of tough when your heart has stopped or your arm needs to be reattached. You are asked to take “ personal responsibility” in ensuring that you gather the fruits of the free market. If you were more responsible you wouldn’t have had that heart attack until you could sell your house to foot the bill. It’s your fault if you are saddled with medical bills, because you weren’t the best provided for or do to your seemingly inability to save and spend wisely. Your insurance, if you are able to afford it, comes with high deductibles, co-pays, and paperwork that attorneys would have trouble interpreting. Yet you are the one at fault. If you would’ve given up that habit of eating you would be ushered to the head of the line instead of waiting for three hours in that lovely ER waiting room.
The last time I had to use the emergency room, at a stiff $ 600 tab for a few stitches, I had the distinct feeling that a biopsy was taken of my wallet before the skin was sown up. Little did I know that the elbow to the side of my son’s head would cost so much. I had the thought, briefly, that he just wasn’t worth it. I felt a hunk of meaty flesh was taken out of glutious maximus. It did hurt, for a while, not being able to buy that pain killer from the drug store.
America must provide health benefits to everyone. The inescapable truth is that we are in the clutches of the system and we are fighting a war with bean-flips while the “ industry” has cannons. The average person can’t pay politicians to vote our interests. We can’t sustain the cost of junkets for senators to get a proscription drug benefit. We can’t seem to ever get ahead. That biopsy of my wallet came back negative. I am worth more dead than alive, lucky me.