Too Many Bean Counters = Prolonged Suffering

by [courtesy of Blog for America]

The reasons I support HR 676 and the creation of a single-payer, not-for-profit, universal healthcare program for the United States would run many paragraphs if I tried to list all of them. However, at the very top is the fact that our current system is killing people. Nationwide, we lose thousands of Americans and leave otherwise happy children orphans every year because what passes for a medical safety net in the United States is broken, fundamentally flawed. 

In my campaign, the need for universal healthcare trumps all others because the service-based economy of Central Florida employs tens of thousands of workers without benefits. These people keep the tourism capital of the world running like a clock but often find themselves on their own when they take ill. This is one of the reasons why the Sunshine State leads the nation in mortgage foreclosures. 

A healthy workforce equals a healthy economy. The current system is fraught with gaping holes. Not only do many people die or spiral into bankruptcy because they don’t have access to affordable healthcare but when those workers without benefits become so ill that they are forced to visit the emergency room, the treatment they undergo often is much more expensive and longer-lasting than if they had seen a doctor regularly for preventive care. In the end, these people live to work instead of the other way around, as it should be. 

How did the problem become so bad? Why is HR 676 the best choice when we have competing plans from so many different presidential candidates? I have not endorsed one candidate over another but Congressman Dennis Kucinich is correct in his unwavering support of single-payer, not-for-profit universal healthcare. All other versions are half-measures. 

What some of our opponents on the right like to do is frighten people with the notion that extending Medicare to everyone who wants it will eliminate private insurance. Not so! If you have Aetna or Blue Cross or some other private insurance and are happy with it, why change? HR 676 would not force you to do anything of the kind. What it would do, though, is make it possible for people on the other end of the stick, either with no insurance or a plan which does not suit their needs, to upgrade. 

The situation with my wife is a perfect example of why we need a single-payer, not-for-profit system. Catrin has suffered from fibromyalgia for a long time. It affects many of her joints, especially in her lower extremities. Our HMO knows this. She has been to see MULTIPLE specialists over the years with no cure found. Until recently, the status quo she found with anti-inflammatory drug therapy and extended bed rest made her condition manageable. Then, the whole situation changed. 

Catrin developed excruciating pain in her knees. Increasing the dosage of her anti-inflammatory medicine and pain killers had little effect. Finally, she went to our primary care physician.

His diagnosis? She may have water on the knee.

His prescription? Given her level of pain and the tremendous swelling of the surrounding tissue, she needs an MRI.

The doctor issued the appropriate orders and the imaging center was contacted in order to schedule an appointment. 

The soonest time the MRI facility could see my wife was 3 weeks away. Our insurance left us few alternatives so Catrin decided to tough it out. Then, yesterday, the day before she was scheduled to have the exam, the facility called to inform us that the appointment was canceled because our insurance would not pay for the scan. They wanted her to see a specialist and try more drugs and physical therapy. 

That is exactly what she has been doing for 3 years with little to show for it and the insurance company knows it! 

HR 676 would give us the option in a case like my wife's to secure the scan anyway because our doctor believes it to be medically necessary. Under the current situation, a bean counter who neither has met my wife nor examined her knees has decided that her doctor is wrong. 

Tell me how that is fair or makes sense!