Health Care: The Number 2 Issue

While the banking crisis is getting the lion share of media coverage, I have said numerous times that the number 1 problem facing this country is energy. It has supplanted our own monetary and fiscal regulatory agencies as the regulator of our economy. The headlines relating to the banking crisis are scary, but it will work itself out. It always does. The underlying energy problem, however, will still remain, reaping the rewards of 30 years of environmental dictatorship.

If energy is the number one problem, health care is number two, including Medicare, Medicaid, and general insurance issues for those both under and over 65. My experiences with the health care system in this country these past several years have been, in a word, awful. And it is getting worse. Here is a short list of my bad experiences with health care.

1) I cannot buy health care insurance. Although I am relatively healthy, I have had some problems over the years that preclude me from buying health care insurance. My wife carries our health insurance through her employer, and it makes it somewhat difficult for her to retire. Her retirement system currently allows me to buy it through it when she does retire, but there is no guaranty it will continue. There has been a lot of talk about cutting it out. Notwithstanding, the cost to me is almost ½ of her retirement income. It is expensive.

2) I cannot buy long term care insurance. Ever try to buy life insurance after the age of 50? Good luck. Long term care insurance is the same thing. Medicaid rules became draconian two years ago in an effort to force people to buy long term care insurance. The same issues I have relating to health care insurance also apply to long term care insurance. I have been refused by three separate companies.

3) Emergency room service is deadly. Have you tried to get emergency room service at St. Elizabeth’s Belmont lately? Be prepared to spend hours and hours and hours. When my mother had a stroke 6 years ago, I had to beg them to get her the needed blood thinning drug into her soon enough to prevent brain damage. Then, because there was no room at the inn, so to speak, they literally put her in a closet until they could find a room. She was in that closet for more than 24 hours. This place is set up as a trauma center. If you need help, get in line behind the gun shot or stab wounds. The pattern has repeated itself repeatedly when I, and other members of my family, needed emergency room care.

4) Emergency room service is deadly; Part Deux. My father suffered from prostate cancer and congestive heart failure. When he developed problems at home, his doctor said he needed a blood transfusion and told us to take him to the emergency room. They in turn, unbeknownst to me, pumped him full of fluids…the very worst thing you can do to someone with congestive heart failure. By the time my brother realized what they were doing, it was too late. They couldn’t reverse the effects and he died two days later. He only had a few months to live, and they would have been painful months…so we didn’t file any legal action. It is scary, nonetheless.

5) Elderly patients are given short shrift. My mother’s recent lengthy stay at St. Elizabeth’s was disturbing. I don’t want this to reflect on the staff of the floor she was on, as I believe it is an administrative problem more than a care problem, but her care was horrible. It isn’t that the folks weren’t nice, just not enough of them. Required assistance was non-existent as most of the staff was continually on the computer at the stations. The nurses’ aides were overworked, and seemed mostly interested in as whose patient belonged to whom. The floor my mother was on was generally senior oriented. The entire staff seemed to be dismissive as in “they are old, what difference does it make?” When it is your loved one, it makes a difference.

Throw in the outrageous cost of this questionable care, the nation is suffering a health care crisis that will continue to worsen and drain our individual pocketbooks, as well as the nation’s, in the future as the boomers reach the golden years. It must be addressed.