An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
WWGD? (What would the government do)
This post got me thinking about another scenario.
This baby was born at 28 weeks gestation. For those of you who don't like math, that means he was born three months premature. His parents didn't get to hold him at birth, as he was whisked away by doctors and nurses. When the doctors came to talk to the parents, the news was frightening. They were told that if this little boy survived, there was a very real possibility that there would be mental and/or physical abnormalities. Over the next few days, a machine helped that child breathe. He was fed through a tube. He was hooked up to all manner of machinery.
Over the next few weeks many tests were done. The parents were told that in a baby that premature, particularly a boy (don’t know why, but prematurity affects boys more severely than girls), there was a high likelihood that there would be bleeding on the brain which could lead to brain damage. The child also had a condition called Retinopathy of Prematurity which will have one of three outcomes 1) it would correct itself…2) he would need glasses as a toddler or 3) he would go blind. The baby’s birth weight was 3 lbs, 3 oz but dropped dangerously to 2 lb 5 oz.
Months later, that baby went home, but his parents had more than a year of follow-up with various doctors, physical therapists, what have you.
If we had government run health care, would the decisions that were made by the parents and the doctors have been the same? Or would the bureaucrats in Washington have decided that the financial risk on this child was too high?
Meet that baby, my son, 12 years later.
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He is a happy, healthy, normal 12 year old boy. Well, as normal as one can be with me as a mom!! It makes me physically ill to think what may have happened had we not had the freedom to decide what is best for our son. It literally brings tears to my eyes as I write this to think that had it been up to the government, my beautiful son may have been "too high a risk" for the healthcare system to save.
Think about it friends. It can happen to you.
You’re lucky the insurance company was on your side. Often, you’re not.
Actually, you’re mostly lucky you had insurance at all.
Absolutely beautiful post, my dear. You brought tears to my eyes. Thank you for sharing this.
I think sadly, we already know the answer don’t we?
b.c…having insurance isn’t luck..…you pay for it. Do you ever say to people with a car “Wow you sure are lucky to have that”? Unless it’s a Lamborghini,of course not….and even then it isn’t luck ,it’s hard work that got that person that car.
Do we need to get the prices on insurance down? Absolutely and I have two words for you on that [which will never happen in the O-barry-O ] TORT reform.
Found your post from Sara’s blog, Chris. Thank you for sharing your story. The questions you ask are indeed very valid–and I don’t believe we (the people at large) are getting the answers we need to reach a common understanding or solution. As an employee of a large manufacturer of medical equipment and a doctor in training, this discussion could not be more timely or pertinent to me.
To me, it seems that when you ask “would a government-run system have given your son the treatment he needed to live?,” there’s an unspoken assumption that the answer is “no,” and that the current system would have. Perhaps it’s my cynicism, but I don’t give the current system any more credit than a government-provided health care option. The cost of health care, without some form of insurance, is so beyond the reach of any average American that insurance is a necessary evil. The devil in the details is that insurance companies, like anything else in the capitalistic system, are ultimately motivated by profit. Without some sort of checks and balances (typically provided by legislation and government oversight), they will act in their own interests–which may or may not be in your own interests. To your hypothetical of a government-run health care option I would counter that a private insurer, in the absence of a compelling reason to do otherwise, may very well deny life-saving coverage to an insured because it doesn’t make good business sense.
Okay, so what about a public option? Well, whether or not one believes a government-run health care option would work at all depends on one’s opinion of how well government would run it, but to reach a measured conclusion we must try to find as much objective evidence as possible. Given that we can merely look to the public record to assess how private health care options have worked, we should try to do the same with a potential public option. One thing to consider is that government already oversees the VA and Medicare–do these examples allow us to predict how a public health care option might fare?
Perhaps the public option isn’t the answer. As one of my co-workers said at lunch just today, his belief is that even to provide a public option would lead to the collapse of employer-provided private health plans: what reason would companies have to bundle cheap health insurance with employment if the government provides a cheaper option? I think that’s a valid concern. Also valid is the concern of people who can’t afford health insurance because of their employment status (it’s not just the unemployed who can’t afford insurance). What is the baseline standard of care that we, as a society, are willing to agree that we will make available for one another?
Those are just some questions I’ve been having run through my head ever since health care reform entered the media spotlight, and they’re questions whose answers I haven’t yet found anywhere because our media only broadcast the sensational. This discussion has to continue; but to be productive we have to be able to debate dispassionately, we have to keep our hearts and minds receptive to others’ opinions, and we mustn’t let our worst fears get the better of us.
Thanks for reading, and God bless.
b.c., I can’t think of anyone I know whose insurance didn’t do everything possible to save their premature babies. Not one.
And I hardly think you could call it ‘luck’ to have insurance. Many of us have worked very hard to ensure that our families have insurance. Calling it ‘luck’ is an insult, at best.
@joey Thanks. You’ve answered b.c. as I would have. And thank you for the kind words about my post. It was the most “personal” post I’ve done, and it was a little nerve wracking…
@Anthony I will agree that we need some sort of health care reform. My insurance costs me a bundle, but I’m damned glad to have it. There are many who are employed AND unemployed that can’t afford it. My fear is that if Obamacare goes through, we will have lost all choice. I truly believe that our government today wants power, and if they offer a low cost alternative to private insurance along with fees and taxes to employers who offer insurance, they will own the monopoly. Once that happens, what will happen to parents of children like my son? What will happen to the elderly?
What I would like to see is a clear and LOGICAL debate on the issue. No screaming from the left or from the right. I’d love to be able for this country to come up with a solution that really works. I don’t know if that can happen, but one can only hope and pray.
You are absolutely right Chris. Under Obamacare not only the young but the old are especially at risk. This is not to say the rest are going to get the care they are used to.
Also they can expect care from foreign doctors I hope can speak English. This is what is happening in other countries with socialized medicine
It just occured to me that if we’d had ObummerCare when Brat was a tyke, fell on that broken bottle, and severed her artery, losing 50% of her blood volume, she would have died. I’m not really sure how those people can live with themselves knowing that children will die due to their actions. I see a very special place in hell just waiting for them all.
This is a very touching post, and it points out the very real threat that lowering our healthcare standards poses to all of us.
Luck? I don’t think so; it’s called hard work, and paying for the services and benefits that you choose to have.
…Fat fingers; sorry about the spelling.
Actually, you’re mostly lucky you had insurance at all.
I don’t think there’s any neonatal ICUs who throw unaborted babies without insurance into a closet to die–not even Michelle Obama dumped preemies without insurance. They collect what they can, accept donations, and write the rest off. Helping “the least of us” is the mission of most religiously-affiliated hospitals. I doubt they’ll be allowed to voluntarily operate that way under the Ezekial Emanuel plan.
Every week there’s a story from Canada about a woman in labor being flown hundreds of miles in a helicopter (usually to the US…) because there’s no open NICU, or a story from Britain about the NHS sending women in labor home or letting them give birth unattended in a hallway because there’s no hospital beds period. To paraphrase Mark Steyn: The problem won’t be “continuing Monkey Boy’s care”, the problem will be “getting Chris and Monkey into care in the first place.” You’ll have to get helicoptered to the Bahamas, or Costa Rica.
Great post, Chris. I also wonder what would have happened to my son under a government run program. At three weeks old my little guy had a stroke. After NINE spinal taps (to rule out meningitis) and dozens of other tests performed by top-notch doctors, I was more than happy to pay my share of the bill just to bring him home healthy. Being self-insured, my share of the bill was around $25,000 – OUCH!!! I seriously doubt he would have received the quality care he did and, after reading the healthcare bill (and I did), I’m not so sure “the panel” would have considered such care “cost effective” for a three week old baby.
As I see it, there are four problems with our healthcare system:
1. Lawyers – lawyers drive up the cost of health care and malpractice insurance. Period. Unfortunately, congress is made up of lawyers and torte reform will never even get on the table.
2. Patients – how many of you go to a car lot and pick one out based on what the salesman tells you you need. Of course the price is not listed on the car anywhere, no one knows what the price is, but you decide to buy the fully loaded luxury sedan with the extended warranty anyway. Think I don’t know what I’m talking about? Just look at any private practice plastic surgeon – they’ll do a top notch breast augmentation in a state-of-the-art facility for under $10,000, but you go to an emergency room for an appendectomy that is a much simpler procedure (and takes less time) and you’re shelling out about $18,000.
3. Health care facilities – see #2, billing is a joke, no one knows what anything costs, there is NO (price) competition, many procedures are CYA (see #1), and a large portion of their costs are administrative.
4. Insurance companies – increasing prices for CYA (see #1), completely ridiculous “pre-existing condition” restrictions, unintelligible billing processes, horrible customer service, no “healthy” incentives, stupid set of health guidelines, etc.
We need a healthcare overhaul, but not by a bunch of idiots whose greatest successes are the post office, social security and medicare.
Wow Scott!! That must have been quite scary. I trust things went well?
As far as the problems in the system, I couldn’t have said it better m’self…otherwise I would have!
You nailed the problems, now what we have to do is come up with solutions…and NOT the kind of solutions the boneheads in DC want to foist upon us.
BTW – The little guy had nine spinal taps because the first eight were unsuccessful. He was so small they had to have it in the perfect spot to get fluid. They finally had to use an MRI to guide the needle. I was in the room for the first eight…that was really hard to watch.
Believe or not, I can imagine. Watching everything they did to my son absolutely killed me!! I’ll never forget the first time I heard him cry – I believe he was about 2 weeks old…now look at him!
[...] My friend Chris asks a good question… “WWGD? (What would the government do)” [...]
Hi,
My friend just had twin baby boys born at 28 weeks. We live in Australia and we have a public health care system. Doctors, by their oath, do not leave living babies to die, not while they have a chance at living. And our public health system will ensure that everything is thrown at my friend and her babies to ensure their best chance of survival. I loved hearing about your son, it gives me hope for my friend’s boys, but turning it into a political statement built on ‘what ifs’ – that is slightly disturbing.