A Healthcare Crisis

I think I picked up my husband's unhealthy habit of waking in the middle of the night with a brain in full gear, thinking to a fault, and I can't go back to sleep.  Not so rough when you are at home and can pop on the TV and watch some boring show until you get sleepy or crack open a book to dull the raging thought processes.  But, unfortunately, better yet, fortunately, I am sitting on my house boat, moared in a little cove with little more than a battery operated tablet and a little dog keeping my feet warm.  And I just can't stop thinking. 

I had a blog idea earlier in the day while driving with my mom to come to this very house boat.  We were talking about the state of health care.  More specifically, the state of my parent's financial situation now that their health is beginning to become more of a challenge.  It was then that I decided that that topic sounded like a little blog to vent.  But damn if tonight, my mind says, "A  little blog?  Hell NO!  It's a giant blog, a huge problem, an elephant in the room of our society!"  Thus the 0426 middle of the night blog session.

I'm lulled into a false sense of respectable and decent health care by being an inpatient nurse at a non profit children's hospital.  We don't turn anyone down for the inability to pay.  Families come from all over the mid west to bring their kids to our hospital because the believe they can count on us to provide top notch care even if they can't afford it or don't have insurance.  It's a lull because, as an inpatient nurse, I don't have to deal with the aftermath of bills that still arrive on the door step, even if you don't have insurance.  I don't have to deal with the follow up care and costly prescriptions that may come as a result of the hospital stay.  I don't have to deal with a devistating diagnosis that at only 3-4 months of age, a coworker and friend's baby is suffering and the costs are just beginning to mount.  I provide the top notch care that is expected of me, I try be cognisant of the limited resources that the hospital works with and I try to end my work day feeling like I've done something good for my families.

Then, I visit with my mom.  I become reoriented to the plight that so many retired and non retired adults are facing every day of their lives.  Now, my parents are great people.  Their marriage began when they were both in their late 30's, early 40's after previous marriages.  They had challenges to face even before they got together.  My mom is smart even without the certificate of an advance degree; my stepdad, a hard working, responsible man.  They have encounted experiences in their marriage that that didn't lead them down the yellow brick road of secure financial retirement.  My stepdad suffered a devistating job loss in his mid 50's when his company went bankrupt.  What does a man in his 50's with a particular set of skills do when his job of numberous years ends?  There certainly isn't a demanding market for a man in his situation.  But they carried on as best as they could.

I'm sure they thought about retirement and how that might look.  My mom had her job and some 401K, they both had social security to rely on (not so much an option for our generation, folks!  Be ware.)  And that is a conservative lifestyle at best, without any health care issues.

Now pan to today's reality.  My parents, being raised in the 50's and 60's didn't have the "luxury" of knowing that the diets and lifestyles they had then, would negatively impact their lives down the road.  A silent heart attack later, my stepfather's coronary function is not half what it should be and years of smoking is beginning to effect his breathing.  He takes a plethera of mediations for his heart function, blood pressure, breathing, diabetes, cholesterol and so on.  My mom, lucky in that she knows that there is a family history of heart disease, takes statins for her resistent, herediarily elevated cholesterol.  Many medications in comparison to some individuals, few medications, compared to others.  They live on a fixed income and pinch in so many ways to accomidate this.  And here it is; it's a huge struggle.  It makes me angry when she tells me, "well, honey, we couldn't afford to buy my medications this month."  Or she tells me that her medication, of which there is no generic, is so expensive, they have looked into purchasing the medication from Canada, because, there, they do have a generic and it will save her 2/3 the cost.  It pains me to think that they don't go to the doctor when they really should because they can't afford one more office visit copay that month, on top of the others they have already paid.  It hurts me to see that they have to struggle.

But the truth is, their story is really no different than so many other people in the middle and lower class here in the great ole country of the United States.  So many people are just one paycheck away from financial ruin.  So many people are one copay away from not having money for food!  So many people are one bottle of medication away from treating their pain or prolonging their disease process.  And yet, we are lulled into some security when we keep our blinders on, focusing on our narrow view that is our life.  There are stories much worse than my parents, I'm 100% certain of it.  There are people, everywhere, with so much less.  And of course, because we are the land of possibilities,  home of corrupt politics and center for self serving bureaucrats, this plight of so many draws nigh.  There will be a time in my parent's lives that something will have to give; they will not pay a bill because my stepdad is sick and needs more medications or my mom can't do those odd jobs she does because her bum knee is too painful to help suppliment their income.  They will stress about the $50 copay to see the cardiologist when all they saw was the nurse practitioner.  They will sell their belongings to help pay the rising cost of their prescriptions.  They will enjoy their much anticipated retirement years less and less. 

And our fucked up healthcare system, widening, YAWNING gap between the rich and EVERYONE else and self serving politicians will remain, will worsen before it gets better, will see great people suffer and die because they can't afford to stay alive, will see parents struggle to provide anything and everything they can for their precious baby. 

We are lulled.  We think there is nothing we can do.  We think that our one vote, our one voice won't be heard.  And as one person, it likely won't be heard.  But our essense of humanity is more than being one voice, one person.  Our RESPONSIBILITY as humans, as soulful, thoughtful, moral people is to put our voices together to raise the volume to be heard.  To care for one another, to be a community, to be a society.  We are better than what we are doing for ourselves right now.  But as the citizens of this country, we are lulled to believe that we really can't make much of a difference, we are lulled to believe that the bureaucrats will take care of us, at some point.

Not gonna happen, folks.  Not until we become one loud voice of reason and demand that there is equality among healthcare, fiscal responsiblity, exclusion of wasteful, greedy politicians, transparency and humanity among our leaders.  Because, the truth is, our "leaders" are leading us to our own demise, sheep to the slaughter.  And until we begin to take responsibiltiy for one another, care about one another, operate as an evolved society, our futures will be mired in struggle.  I don't want to struggle; I want to live and I want my family, my friends, my coworkers, my aquantences, my people, my society, my country, my specie to live.  Do you?