Ok. There Goes Your Argument. What’s Next?
(photo courtesy of Pixers)
I make no apologies for being a proponent for “Medicare For All” or universal health care. I do not believe that health care is only for the privileged and instead, is a right for every American. And I believe that during the Covid19 pandemic, our country proved that universal health care could work as it became necessary to deal with the worst health crisis in over one hundred years.
Bring up the fact that the United States is one of the only industrialized countries, and wealthiest that does not provide universal health care, and antagonists are quick to point out countries such as Canada and England and their most common complaint, wait times to see a doctor, and blaming universal health care for that. Well, please allow me to introduce myself.
I have had just three primary care doctors in my six decades, the current doctor, forty years now. I will admit, the incorporation of the hospital network has made it challenging to “seeing only her,” but to this date, I have prevailed. When I have needed to see her, I have gotten to see her, with relatively littley delay.
Of course, seeing my primary care doctor used to be fairly easy and routine, even during my days of being treated for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma back in 1988. But since my body developed late side effects from the treatments used to put me into this long term remission that I have enjoyed, I now have to see doctors other than my family doctor. In fact, I see at least seven different specialists to cover the more than a dozen diagnosis that I live with. I have done my part to make sure that they are all within the same “network,” making communication between all of my doctors as easy as possible. This is important especially when trying to make my appointments which has become like trying to assemble a jigsaw puzzle trying to work out all the appointments as well as the multitude of tests that need to be done for each appointment.
So today, as I tried to wrap up my scheduling for next month, I had two providers to schedule, as well as re-schedule two appointments that were being changed on their end. “The first available is in March,” went the first phone call. “The earliest appointment she has available is April,” went the second call. OF 2025?!?!?! But we do not have universal health care. These delays only happen with countries that have health coverage for all, right? So we are no different than other countries now with not providing more efficient health care in a timely fashion. Yet because our health care is for profit, between the insurance companies and the hospitals and medical facilities, we pay the most for health care than all of the other countries who have universal health care.
Brazil offers universal healthcare to everyone. It is actually written into their constitution as a right. In 1912, Norway, known to be one of the healthiest countries in the world, was one of the first countries to have universal healthcare. The United States? Crickets chirping.
Make no mistake, I do believe that the United States has some of the best medicine and skills, just as many other countries. But at one time, health care used to be affordable. Of course, I did not realize it because I was only six years old when the Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973 was signed into law by President Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon. The concept of the act, was to encourage alternatives to tradtional medical care and costs through companies called Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO’s). What these organizations did, was put “pen-pushers”, not the doctors who saw the patients, in charge of the health care. HMO’s would determine what tests and medicines would be covered, and if you needed something more expensive or necessary, the patient would have to waste valuable time applying for pre authorizations and likely appeals. If dealing with cancer or some other serious health crisis, this often meant the difference between life and death. HMO’s also restricted who you could see for your health care, which meant if the only doctor in the world who knew how to handle your health situation was not a participant with the HMO, you could not see that doctor and had to settle for the pot luck of anyone else. With the development of these HMO’s, profits became the driving force behind them, behind the insurance industry, and of course hospitals and medical facilities. Of course, many doctors were against this interference with patient care.
And the fact is this, a simple tax amounting to probably around $2,000.00 per person per year to cover universal healthcare, is much less than the $10-20,000.00 per year in personal insurance paid out. Look at that again, $2k or $20k, for the same access to health care. But there are two boogey men here, insurance companies, and those who do not want government in charge of their health care. Again, this is not the government telling you what to do with your health, these people just do not want the financial connection with the government and are willing to spend up to $18,000 more per year to make sure that does not happen. And if that means eventually that they end up without any coverage at all, at least the government did not help them. This is called “cutting your nose off to spite your face.”
There is a reason I am fired up today about this. One of the issues I deal with as a long term cancer survivor, is an increased risk of colon cancer, as well as esophageal cancer. And the precursor to a diagnosis, is the discovery of polyps, which need to be removed before they turn cancerous. Sounds like a good idea, right? Two of the surveillance appointments that I undergo are colonoscopies and endoscopies due to the treatments I received (radiation and the chemotherapy drug Procarbizine). The frequency of these tests is determined by the results. Typically, not everyone even without a history of cancer would like ever need an endoscopy, but colonoscopies are often recommended every ten years after a certain age. But with my history, and the results of my scopes, polyps every time, both of my scopes are ordered more frequently. Again, the goal is to remove polyps before they have a chance to turn cancerous. This is a good thing.
I have had these scopes done many times, usually every two to three years, and ordered by my lead doctor in my survivorship care. But something changed two years ago, as the prescription for the scopes was ordered, I was denied the procedures at the facility that I had it done at previously, ordered by the same doctor, as I was not a patient in the Gastrointenstinal Office. Though it did not seem to matter in the past, I thought, okay, I should have a GI doc anyway, made the appointment, which took three months, but then she said “not yet” to the scopes, regardless of what my other doctor wanted. So here I am, two years later than the order of the tests, still not completed, I went to make the next appointment to see her, and would expect to have the scopes scheduled as well, but then was informed, “not available until April.” OF 2025!!!!! And then, that is not even to have the scopes done yet which will put me to three years passed due at that point, so I can only imagine how many polyps I will have, but rather, will any be cancerous. And this is a legitimate concern. In recent weeks, several of my survivors have received news of either cancer, tumors, or other issues related to their scopes. In my long term survivorship world, many of my fellow survivors have had to deal with colon or esophageal cancers. So my anxiety right now is real.
We need universal health care. We need to be able to see whoever we need. We need to be able to go wherever we need. We need to be able to get whatever tests and treatments we need. It should not bankrupt us. Health coverage should not be a privilege. Healthcare should be a right, just as it is in nearly every other industrialized country. Using the arguement of wait times no longer holds water, because right now, corporate medicine in the US is doing just that. Enough is enough.
(picture courtesy of Tina’s Worlds)
I will get off my soap box now.
Paul's Heart 