State of Health

I just got back today from a meeting where various state organizing groups were discussing what impact they had had on their local healthcare systems, and what action they might take to further "fix" our terribly broken system.

For the most part, these are groups that have been at it for several years and, while significant in their own way, have pretty much been successful at making only miniscule changes to the system: managing to get local governments to raise the threshhold of "indigent" from 21% of the federal poverty level to 25% of that level (mind you - that's the equivalent of working for 7 hours at minimum wage/week), raising awareness of how local governmental entities will "sluff off" their indigent care responsibilities onto other agencies, that kind of thing.

We heard stories of how varying segments of the healthcare system, through willful neglect or ignorance or just plain idiocy, caused harm to those present, their family members, friends, or others they had contact with. The stories are powerful witnesses to just how broken the system is: those with no insurance paying the "full" cost of care (that amount that medical care providers have to charge in order to receive adequate reimbursement from insurance companies or governmental entities), care denied for a breast tumor the size of a golf ball because "it wasn't an emergency" and then reaming out the patient because she didn't come in sooner for treatment once it had finally reached the size of a peach and then denying the prescribed chemotherapy/radiation treatment because, once again, her condition "was not life threatening", medical doctors in various specialties refusing to participate in government sponsored programs for indigent care because reimbursement rates didn't even begin to cover the costs (occasionally that excuse sounds like a base cannard, but when you start figuring in all of the costs of staffing and equipment, sometimes it's legit), paperwork and bureaucratic red tape causing children to be dropped from programs they qualify for and then taking too long to rectify the problems (Texas has been struggling with some vast red tape problems), and on and on.

I truly admire those people who can organize groups and write-in campaigns and work the system in such a way that politicians and appropriate executives are embarrassed into making things right for large numbers of people. I realize that I'm not one of them. My strong suit is more along the lines of agitating in the background, poking and prodding at things and lifting up the stuff that gets missed. For example, one of the things I noticed at the meeting was a lack of representation of those affected by various disabilities. Don't you think they might be prime candidates for advocating for adequate healthcare for all? But I digress ...

I think it's fairly obvious that our healthcare system is broken. My mom's biggest fear is that healthcare will be rationed if we convert to some kind of universal healthcare system. It continues to bug me that I'm not able to convince my own mom that rationing is already taking place. It's just that we ration according to one's ability to pay. At which point I cry "Not fair! Not fair!" Yet she worries incessantly if one of her kids or grandkids is in a position where they don't have health insurance. *shakes head*

The one thing this meeting convinced me of is that the system is quite broken. Oh! I knew that, but hadn't seen all of the pieces together at one time. How can we fix it? Lord, I don't know! But I'm not convinced that the only way to fix it is piecemeal with one portion of this huge state getting a concession here and another getting a concession there. It seems to me that if enough people put their heads and their petitions and their voices together, comprehensive change could become a possibility.

The one thing they said over and over at this meeting was that local people have power. What if we all began a campaign to push and prod our elected officials to change the system for the good, regardless of who's lobbying for what? You get enough people on the bandwagon, the number of votes might cancel out the effect of the lobbying dollars lurking in the shadows. I wonder what it would take to start a national initiative for a change in the state of our health. Any suggestions?