I just found out that the wife of a good family friend recently lost her battle with breast cancer. My mom slipped and told me, she didn't mean to...she was planning on keeping that secret for as long as she could. I think she died around the time of my 3 month check-up and she didn't want to stress me out. I know her intention's were good. For many it's hard to hear that someone on the same journey as you didn't make. It can send your mind reeling and turn your world upside down. To be honest, I don't know how I would have reacted, it all depends on the day, minute, or hour that you talk to me. What I do know is that this woman would have lived a lot longer if she had treatment in a timely manner. I don't remember all of the details of her situation but I know that she waited an unusually long time before anything was started and I believe the reason behind that was lack of insurance or adequate insurance. In other words the difference between life and death.
Last week I had the pleasure and honor of attending a community forum about the state of health care in America. It was a community forum held at the request of The Obama-Biden Transition team. They've reached out to community groups all across the country, asking us to address and uncover key issues that will ultimately help them when they take on the huge task of re-vamping our current health care system.
It was a two hour meeting that could have went on for weeks...
It would be wonderful is President elect Obama could fix everything that's wrong with our system with the snap of a finger, unfortunately he's not superman and that's not humanly possible. Just like his campaign, it's going to take some grass roots efforts. Our health care system didn't get this way overnight and neither will the solution. The grass roots approach can be hard and often frustrating at times as it seems like you spend more time spinning your wheels than doing anything productive.
I hope that they hear "us". I hope they recognize that people are dying unnecessarily. Children are sick and are remaining sick because their parents don't know where to turn. People are penalized for having a pre-existing conditions, through no fault of their own. People are losing their homes because of mounting hospital bills and insurance premiums. Quality , affordable health care is a right. The freedom of choice is a right.
Without the freedom of choice I don't know where I'd be right now. I never once worried about whether my insurance was going to cover my medical expenses. My main concern was find the right team of doctor's to save my life. From my initial meeting with the gyn who found the mass on my ovary to my first chemotherapy treatment it might have been 4 weeks. That includes a meeting with a specialist, diagnosis, surgery and follow up care. I had top notch first rate care from start to finish, the difference between life and death. Can I say that about my neighbor?
2 comments:
this is something I find so hard to get my head around - in the UK, as much as everyone complains about it [sometimes things do take a LONG time], we have the National Health Service [NHS], for which we pay a monthly 'stamp', which entitles us to the care we need. I, like you, didn't think twice about medical bills, and I can't imagine where we'd be now if we'd had to. Both of us are self employed, and it would have been incredibly hard to find the huge amounts of money involved in my treatment if we'd had to. Even though I’ve had to work all the way through this, even if I had lost my job, my medical bills would still not have been an issue – just the ordinary bills would have.
I am so grateful for this, as the added stress of worrying about finding a way to ‘pay to stay alive’ would have been horrific. I wish you the very best luck with the re-vamping of your current health care system. I find it frightening that in such a wealthy country, people die for lack of health care.
people like you can and will make a difference Kia.
x
I know, it's amazing!! I don't think any system is perfect as there are flaws with all of them. Yet, the fact that you can go to the doctor, be seen, and treated without the added worry or stress associated with not being able to afford care, is something that many of us would be ever so happy and grateful to have!!
xoxo
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