Having read here and elsewhere of several people suffering chronic pain and illnesses that they are unable to have treated due to lack of health insurance, it seemed appropriate to comment notwithstanding the number of baggers, draggers and trogs that inhabit so many sites these days. These thoughts were stimulated by a recent illness of fairly considerable severity and extended treatment. My perspective simply is that of a liberal with an experience; I can claim no expertise with the Affordable Care Act of which thankfully I will have no need. Moreover, I recognize that this is a thoroughly knowledgeable audience, so this will be a preach to the choir.
Even when I was young, immortal and stupid (that is, able to think my way into amazingly stupid conclusions, situations), I had health insurance. Despite barely being able to afford ordinary and necessary living expenses, including cigarettes(!), I had a policy of health insurance throughout college and grad school. Fortunately I have no idea how good it was due to never having needed it. Because much of my family were employed by insurance companies, my not having coverage was inconceivable even though I had to pay for it myself. As we all know and readily recall, the young are immortal. For me that immortality ended shortly before graduation, but that’s a different story.
According to the Harvard Medical Journal in 2010 the last year for which statistics were then available, 45,000 people in this country died simply because they had no access to health care. Emergency rooms do not provide healthcare; they put out fires.
In late July, the day before my birthday, I awoke with a severe pain in my low back unresponsive to stretching or exercise. By sunset I had a fever ranging to as much as 104. The next day, the fever was still present but mostly in the range of 102-103 with only occasional spikes. That being a Saturday, I resolved to call the doctor on Monday morning. Sunday morning the fever was 103 with spikes. Possibly retaining the stupidity of a youth long receded, I refused to do anything but ride it out till Monday. Eventually I was convinced to call the doctor who said get thee to the emergency room IMMEDIATELY! In the ER I was begun on IV antibiotics and admitted to the hospital. That admission lasted just more than 10 days during which it was found that I had an infection that had taken residence in part of the skeleton and an abscess. They also learned that the bugger causing all this delight was a simple bacterium sensitive to a variety of antibiotics, that is, it was not a super bug or highly resistant strain. Released with an IV line in my arm, I was on an antibiotic (infusions three times daily) for 11 weeks and had a visiting nurse once a week. During that period, it was determined that surgery would be necessary. The surgery was accomplished requiring only two additional days of hospitalization but necessitating a walker (later crutches) in order for release. To me all this simply was a strange infection or rather a simple infection strangely skeletal that simply had to be endured though nothing really special. The extended treatment was because once resident in the skeleton, infections are devilishly difficult to get rid of. Subsequently I learned from the world’s greatest orthopod who unofficially shepherded my progress once he learned of the illness that in fact it had been life threatening. That revelation collapsed my sails!
The cause of my illness remains unknown. It could have been a simple puncture wound for which I had no recollection or even an insect bite. The doctors couldn’t even say how long the thing might have been incubating or whether it conceivably related to an illness following an Asian adventure. My shepherd told me that the only time he’d seen such involved an IV drug user and laughed when I pointed out that they don’t survive to my age. The point is that it could happen to anyone of any age at any time and in any condition of health. Put another way, “fat, dumb and happy” in no way equates with security.
The actual charges for all this treatment were significantly north of $125,000 (after which I abandoned the calculation). Of course only the uninsured and underinsured are faced with such burdens which explains why more than half of US bankruptcies are caused by medical bills. Being the beneficiary of exceptional health insurance programs, my share of the negotiated charges will amount to but a tiny percentage of the actual, an unpleasant amount but certainly bearable. (On the other hand, as a result of being extensively incapacitated, there was a considerable savings in non-essential spending—a silver cloud to my lining).
More than half of our population has no or inadequate health insurance. Tens of millions of us have no health insurance at all. This and the earlier statistic as to deaths occasioned thereby are unconscionable or if you care for such terms, immoral.
As repeatedly has been stated here and elsewhere, the Affordable Care Act is a gift to health insurance carriers (“socialized medicine” is made of sterner stuff, much sterner stuff). Primarily it requires that people obtain health insurance from extant companies whose business is inter alia providing health coverage (NB, the insurance companies never objected to the “individual mandate”). For individuals and families below certain income levels, there are subsidies to facilitate their purchasing coverage. Preexisting conditions cannot be used to deny coverage. Adult children to age 25 are allowed to continue on their parents’ policies. There are other provisions favorable to consumers, that is, correcting prior abuses by insurers. For all its faults, the ACA has the potential to provide affordable health insurance coverage to 10s of millions of people. Sadly it doesn’t cover all people.
The sick, like the dead and dying impact somebody’s balance sheet whether their own/their estates or those of companies that for profit spread the risk over vast numbers of people, or governments at all levels. For this reason the Congressional Budget Office has stated that the advantage to the economy of the ACA will be very considerable. The opposition including insurers and such billionaires as the Kochs in their various incarnations has spent more than a billion dollars fighting the Affordable Care Act. If that staggering sum alone does not cause you to smell something, clearly you should have your olfactory organs checked. As several have said, if the statute is so bad, why not save your money and watch it die a natural death?
What the opponents of the ACA have stated, indeed, broadcast at considerable length and with unfortunate success has been either blatantly false or misleading in the extreme. If your message can fit a bumper sticker, it’s false. However, this has been the pattern of business in the healthcare and other arenas since the days of Truman. An equally simple yet cogent illustration of this pattern was the opposition to seatbelts, etc.—too expensive, a consummate waste, untoward government intervention, ad nauseam…In virtually every instance the bases for the opposition have proved demonstrably false and unreasonable to downright silly; so too with the current paroxysm of self-righteous indignation. Should you doubt it, take a look into why you have an airbag in your automobile since the government relented in requirement after a campaign of many years and untold 10s of millions of dollars spent in opposition and electoral contributions. (It really is a fun story from many perspectives but not worth the time here.) Or look at the ignorami with their signs reading “Keep your government hands off my Medicare!” But never ever look at the history of opposition to THAT program!
As stated initially if you’ve read this, you’re in the choir, so I apologize for the length of my rant. I am become the old steer that can’t talk about anything but his operation.