She's Getting Help!, Thanks To Personal Connections

My dear friend who lacks health insurance and who I was most concerned about has gotten a test and for now she is okay and we are not to be worried. Thank, God! 

My family has several nurses employed in nearby hospitals, maybe four, and one of them so happens to be on a level of president of some nurse organization. When my friend needed help she got the full support of every nurse in the family as well as their connections. Madame President had a friend come over to her house and perform an exam, for free of course. Then when recommendations were made to see a hospital my friend got help with where to go, what to do, and how fast. It's really fortunate. Without giving away too many details, she got a pretty important test and it involved heavy equipment, but the point is she's doing fine, but not without a lot of luck and personal connections.

I can't help but feel that is unfair. I mean I love my friend, but what about people without health care insurance or immediate ties to higher echelons of health care community? Do we just throw up our hands and wish for good luck? Somethings need to be caught early, tested for, and dealt with soon and fast, but   without health insurance we just turn away until things get really critical. 

An example I learned from Contexts of Health Care is in regards to how diabetes is treated. It's a chronic illness, but chronic care is less cost effective than dealing with it in a lump sum. The example would be the cost of test strips for testing glucose levels is not covered well by health insurance companies, but the cost of an amputation due to diabetes is covered. Now, howabout those with no insurance? Goodbye foot, goodbye health, please go away and die. That is unacceptable to me, but that's just how it seems to be, that's what we have going, and that's what people are fighting to keep around. 

Just Launched!

Recently someone dear to my heart has begun to really need health insurance. She needs some diagnostic tests and she just hit that awkward: gap post-college and where the economic slump took her job, income, and health benefits. I was in a parking lot when I found out, and I was shocked and hollow the entire drive home. 


Not a few weeks ago I severely damaged my hand. Okay, it's not that bad, but the cut was to the bone on my middle knuckle. I was on a the military base at the time and rushed to their clinic. Corpsman Connolly saved the day, cleaning out asphalt bits and dressing my hand. He did so while being badgered by his commanding officer on whether or not I had been vetted for coverage. I was covered under my dad, but only because I had my military ID. 


Two weeks later, while at Camp Pendleton my wallet got lost (stolen) and I no longer have my ID. I am no longer able to get health benefits from my dad's serviceman coverage, it was going to happen, but it happened sooner than I had expected.  I just found out about being uninsured just three hours ago. It's pretty nerve-racking. 


Some 50 million Americans are in the situation where they are not covered. What this means is that they have to pay full price health bills*, they don't have the backing of an organization or a corporation to negotiate payments. We are at the whim of chance and luck, and if that luck goes bad, we face a decision to eat or be healthy, to have a home or have a loved one live five more years. How can you work if you're sick? If the rest of the developed world has universal health coverage, why not America?


I consider the economics, the psychology, the infrastructure, and the history of health care in America and I just cannot understand why we can't make this happen. I am optimistic, but cynical.