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.
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