Medical care is a big business and big business loves to manage medical care. There are three healthcare myths conservatives in the United States love to perpetuate. Usually they do this because they do not want the current system changed. Many believe it does not need to be changed. They are clever people and they are successful in provoking action because they know how to stir up fear. Conservatives love to say that they do not want someone between their doctor and themselves, influencing decisions that affect their health. They are also fond of creating visualizations of acute rationing of medical care throughout the country. The last fear tactic recently gained much attention nationally. It causes violent emotional reactions because no one wants to hurt someone they love, by having a person or group of people discuss end of life decisions with them. Death panels, those two words strike fear into most people’s hearts like Darth Vader’s appearance in Star Wars. Conservatives love to throw around those two words like rice at a wedding. I might actually be able to sympathize with their conservative position if I did not already know that all three of these situations exist in our current system.
About a decade ago, my mother discovered she had cancer. This was not entirely unexpected. My mother was indoctrinated into the smoking culture when she was 16, long before it became unfashionable. Malignant tumors were found in both of her breasts and to make matters much worse the cancer had decided to use her lymphatic system to further explore her body. She was T4, N3, M1, which is a Stage IV classification. That translates into something very, very, very bad. The proscribed course of action was a double mastectomy with radiation and chemo treatments to follow. The treatment needed to be aggressive and the possibility of cancer return was extremely high. My parents had insurance through my father’s company. Insurance covered most of her treatment, but it would not have covered enough of it to prevent bankrupting my parents. Luckily, my grandmother had money saved that allowed my mom to get the treatment she needed without putting undue financial stress on my parents. If my mother had chosen the most aggressive treatments, at cancer centers, experimental techniques, alternative therapies, or simply wanted different course of action, her insurance provider would not have covered most of those choices.
Sometime, probably a long time ago, health management organizations, insurance providers, pharmaceutical companies, and to a much lesser extent physicians had mulled over my mother’s very situation. Well, not her situation, they are not prophets, but a hypothetical situation exactly like hers. They would have crunched numbers, weighing profit versus loss, played the probability game, accessing risk, and decided exactly how their results needed to be spun to hospitals, doctors, and patients to make them palatable. My mother and her doctor were able to make decisions, but only the decisions that were deemed permissible, by people my mother and her doctor did not even know. My mother’s case is far from unique.
Every possible medical and pharmaceutical circumstance has already been weighed and vetted through a panel that determines the course of action that has least impact on their business. If you are conservative and do not want people meddling in your medical life, you need to wake up. They already are and they have no interest in helping you or making you well. Hospitals and medical facilities are businesses. They are interested in minimizing costs and maximizing profits for themselves. The fact that people are involved is almost incidental.
Every possible medical and pharmaceutical circumstance has already been weighed and vetted through a panel that determines the course of action that has least impact on their business. If you are conservative and do not want people meddling in your medical life, you need to wake up. They already are and they have no interest in helping you or making you well. Hospitals and medical facilities are businesses. They are interested in minimizing costs and maximizing profits for themselves. The fact that people are involved is almost incidental.
My parents had health insurance and my grandmother helped to pay for expenses their coverage did not take care of. As long as you can pay, the system will help you. You could use your savings, run up your credit cards, borrow money from banks, and take out a second mortgage against your house. It may burden you with a horrible financial condition, but you can get care. What happens under our current system if you were in my mother’s position, but did not have insurance? If you cannot pay at all or if your resources are limited, you will find your choices evaporate quickly. Many health care providers and hospitals will take a certain percentage of pro bono cases, but that number is limited and they certainly cannot help all the souls in need of care. If you cannot find a provider that will help you, emergency care is your only option.
Emergency rooms will care for anyone who is sick, but they do not conduct preventative care, and they are not equipped for extended care. If your ailment cannot be dealt with quickly and effectively in the emergency center you would need to be admitted to the facility or hospital and you would be at square one again. You might even be able to get care for a time if admitted to the hospital, but eventually if you could not pay the expenses, the facility would be forced to cut you off. Health care is already determined according to economic factors. Rationing already exists in our healthcare system, but if you have money to pay for care, you do not see the rationing.
Over 46 million people do not have insurance in our country. How are they supposed to pay $ 50,000-$100,000 for cancer treatment? As many as 37 million live below the national poverty level. How are they supposed to get care? Conservatives say they don’t want rationing, but they do little to stop it from happening in the current system. The truth is they really do not care about most people or what happens to them. They care about themselves and their own care. Most conservatives in this country are WASPs and they have no interest in minorities, those who are disadvantaged, or people who are different from themselves.
Emergency rooms will care for anyone who is sick, but they do not conduct preventative care, and they are not equipped for extended care. If your ailment cannot be dealt with quickly and effectively in the emergency center you would need to be admitted to the facility or hospital and you would be at square one again. You might even be able to get care for a time if admitted to the hospital, but eventually if you could not pay the expenses, the facility would be forced to cut you off. Health care is already determined according to economic factors. Rationing already exists in our healthcare system, but if you have money to pay for care, you do not see the rationing.
Over 46 million people do not have insurance in our country. How are they supposed to pay $ 50,000-$100,000 for cancer treatment? As many as 37 million live below the national poverty level. How are they supposed to get care? Conservatives say they don’t want rationing, but they do little to stop it from happening in the current system. The truth is they really do not care about most people or what happens to them. They care about themselves and their own care. Most conservatives in this country are WASPs and they have no interest in minorities, those who are disadvantaged, or people who are different from themselves.
After my mother received treatment, she seemed to go into remission for a time. It did not last that long. In one of her follow-up visits, they found her cancer had returned, and it had returned with a vengeance. It was everywhere. The cancer was a bit different now, it covered some of her skeletal structure in her legs, her rib cage, her hips, and on her skull and it was spreading. She could have opted for further, more aggressive treatment at a cancer center. Short of a miracle my mother was going to die of the damage cancer was inflicting on her body. The insurance providers would not pay for more treatment. My mother’s condition was now considered terminal and it would not be effective to pursue treatment. My mom’s own death panel chose her options for her, deciding whether she was worthy of life or death. My mom did not want to have to go through more treatment anyhow, so it did not matter. Planning for end of life care began.
My grandmother had taken out in insurance policy on my mother, which she cashed in early to pay for the extensive care she would need while her life was ending. I’m not going to recount the months of struggle she had. No one can truly know what that is like, unless you have to go through it and I would not wish that on my worst enemy. I can tell you that the end of life process was well orchestrated, professional, and full of people in the medical field who cared about people. The doctors, nurses, CNAs and staff were wonderful. The people who give hospice care are some of the most generous and caring people in the world. My mother was well informed of her choices, her options, and believe me those people would have done anything to help her or to help us. My mom was 58 when she died. She was not only the person that brought life to me; mom was one of my best friends. I’ll tell you a secret. Death panels exist now, but they do not only target the elderly. They really do not discriminate at all. No one likes to talk about them, that kind of talk would be bad for business.
My grandmother had taken out in insurance policy on my mother, which she cashed in early to pay for the extensive care she would need while her life was ending. I’m not going to recount the months of struggle she had. No one can truly know what that is like, unless you have to go through it and I would not wish that on my worst enemy. I can tell you that the end of life process was well orchestrated, professional, and full of people in the medical field who cared about people. The doctors, nurses, CNAs and staff were wonderful. The people who give hospice care are some of the most generous and caring people in the world. My mother was well informed of her choices, her options, and believe me those people would have done anything to help her or to help us. My mom was 58 when she died. She was not only the person that brought life to me; mom was one of my best friends. I’ll tell you a secret. Death panels exist now, but they do not only target the elderly. They really do not discriminate at all. No one likes to talk about them, that kind of talk would be bad for business.
Mom taught me many things while she was here. In a sense, she will always be here while I am alive because she is a part of me. She left me quite a legacy. She taught me to learn as much as you can in life, love as often as you dare, and to help others to become free. I can understand wanting to be able to make your own decisions with your doctor. Nobody likes someone poking his or her head into business that is not their own business. I do not like the idea rationing healthcare services either. Who would? I certainly do not like death panels. It is silly for conservatives to fear these things from an alternate health care plan. If they did exist in a new plan they would just be a continuation of the ever-prevalent corporate mentality that pervades our medical culture. To deny that they exist now, under our current system, well that would just be a lie.
