Lately, I have been hearing a whole lot of naysayers tell these increasingly idiotic tales about health care reform in this country and what it means for us, the US population. I always do what I can to refute their tales with a simple thing I like to call "an ounce of common sense." Rarely does it work, but I feel compelled to share it anyway.
Yesterday, my MIL's neighbor began telling me about her "friend" who lives in England who, GOD FORBID, had a midwife and was in labor 36 hours and then had to have an emergency c-section anyway. Horror of horrors! Clearly this dear woman has no understanding of history because otherwise she would know that virtually everyone born prior to 1940 was birthed by midwives of some sort or another, and at home too. Ob/gyns are a modern phenomena. My father was born at home in 1942, and my mother was the first of her siblings to be born in a hospital in 1938.
Today I am sending an email to the Administration, my senators and representatives and anyone else in Congress who I think needs to hear someone say, "Keep working on this. It has to be done." And in my dear little blog, I'm gonna say why people who think health care reform is the worst possible course for our country are downright fools.
Mind you, I am not studying this in my "free time." My knowledge is limited to what I am able to read in the newspaper, online occasionally, and in the snippets of tv news I see. What I have is my experience and, more importantly, common sense.
1. CANADA and UK
If the health care system in Canada and the UK was so bad, then we would hear a LOT more complaining about it. As best I can tell, I don't know of many demonstrations by Canadians and the Britons denouncing their system. I do hear alot of Americans complaining though about our current system. I do read about more Americans filing bankruptcy as a result of their increasing medical bills.
What I do hear are "tall tales" that go like this: "So-and-so had to wait 3 months for hip surgery in Canada." I've never had hip surgery in the US, so I really don't know how long it takes to wait, but most people don't just wake up one morning with a bum hip. They spend months and years feeling their hip slowly decline and then after medication and batteries of tests, go in for surgery. So, honestly, if this is what a person in the US has been experiencing, what is another couple of months? Ah yes, I forget, we Americans are the Veruca Salts of the world: We want it now.
1a. If the health care system in Canada was so bad, then why are all these American working like dogs to get their medication from.....Canada? We like Canadian health care when it saves us a buck.
1b. A family member recently shared some insane notion with my mother that in the UK they just let people die who are on dialysis (this person's hubby is on dialysis after years and years of diabetes coupled with an utter refusal to eat properly and exercise). Again, countries with nationalized health care do not just let people die. With the media like it is, we would hear about this. Maybe if a person is in their 80s or 90s in terrible health, they might say, "No, you've got terminal cancer, I don't think knee replacement surgery is warranted." But this is COMMON SENSE!!!!!
2. SMARTER CONSUMERS?
D works for a relatively small company which went to a high deductible plan a few years ago. It took a long time to get used to it. One premise behind these plans is to help "consumers" make smarter health decision, and to some extent this has been successful for us. When one has a $4,000 deductible (and is responsible for 10% of costs up to $10,000), you tend to think a little smarter about how often you run to the doctor.
When my kids have a fever, I don't rush to the doctor after days 1 or 2. I usually let them go 4-5 days, treating as needed with fever reducers. Because common sense tells me that if they are running a fever and have a stuffy nose, they have what is called a virus. The doctor is going to charge me between $70-90 to tell me, "Let it run its course." And I let their fever go up to about 102 degrees before dosing them with ibuprofen. A fever is a good thing--nature's way of fighting illness naturally.
Now when G was an infant and began having tons of ear infections, I didn't just let them go. I saw the doctor sooner because of his age. And over time, I recognized the signs and symptoms better. For me, part of being a smarter health-care consumer has been learning better how my children react to illnesses.
(And I don't demand antibiotics. This could be listed as #1 health care pet peeve following closely by people who don't finish their antibiotics as directed.)
But here is one problem with this attempt to be a smarter consumer. There are TONS of health care plans with slight differences depending on which company you work for, which plan it is, and what benefits you have. So I can't just call my doctor's office or pharmacy and say, "How much does such-and-such cost?" in order to determine my cost or whether I really want to have the test or use the medication. The doctor or pharmacist can't just tell me. Believe me, I have tried this approach, and it simply doesn't work.
And even if you try to be a smarter consumer, there are just some costs you simply cannot avoid. With this new baby coming, we are gonna be out $10,000. It is a given. The baby has to come out some way.
My practice doesn't do VBAC, and I opted to stay with the practice rather than search for another doctor. So my c-section will cost an extra $500 for the doctor (it is $2500 for vaginal birth, $3000 for c-section), extra for the anesthesia (although women who do have vaginal births with epidurals pay this amount too so don't poo-poo the c-section's "must use an epidural" thing"), and extra for day 3 in the hospital to monitor me.
If there was a true birthing center in our city with midwives and nurses, with immediate easy-access to the hospital for emergency situations, I would do it no problem. But there is not. Every birthing center is IN a hospital. Every option is an ob/gyn. And when these are the options, there is no option. A woman is going to be over-monitored and over-intervened because that is just the way hospitals and obs are. In order to find something like this, I have to cross the bridge into Indiana (which for me equals more time costs, more gas costs, and potentially another c-section anyway depending on how the birthing process would go.)
When G was breech, my doula knew of 1 doctor who delivers breech babies. ONE DOCTOR in my city. And he is considered a "high risk" doctor because no one else wants to chance delivering breech babies and all the "potential" complications. I wasn't about to switch doctors at 37 weeks of pregnancy and incur the "costs" of seeing a new doctor and the stress.
So the point I'm trying to make here, although I feel certain I've gone off on a tangent, is that even if you try to be a really savvy health care consumer, there are limitations to what you can realistically do (or feel comfortable with) because of the current mess called US healthcare and insurance.
3. PAYING FOR IT ANYWAY
People worry about taxes to cover reform. But what they forget is that they are already paying for the uninsured. Health practitioners, facilities, etc, charge extra to help manage the load of the uninsured or underinsured. It is already worked into your cost in the same way that the cost of the sweater or tv you buy covers all the little tiny, unseen expenses associated with making it. The cost of a sweater is not just the cost of materials----it is the materials, labor, benefits for labor, insurance for the company that makes the sweater, machinery used to make the sweater, advertising to sell the sweater, and so on.
So as more and more people are uninsured, so too does your cost keep rising. As the cost for physicians to get liability coverage goes higher, so too does your cost keep rising. Anyone besides me notice how this has been happening?
To CONCLUDE (although I doubt I can go back to sleep now)......
I know there are inaccuracies in my "mental picture" of health care. But I simply get tired of hearing people lament as if our current system is the best in the world. It is NOT!!!! This has been researched. There is proof that despite all the money we collectively spend, it is not working in its current state because so many people are uninsured, because so many other people are underinsured, because so many people are spending increasingly large chunks of their pay for health care.
There used to be a time not too long ago, when the majority of people spent most if not all their money on meeting their basic needs: food, shelter, clothing, In many countries, this is still the case. The US is slowly moving towards that time again, which just drives us mad because we want to ooze money and spend money on our toys and entertainment. That time, I believe, will come sooner rather than later, if we continue on our current health care path.
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