Angry

Yesterday, I came across a girl selling cookies outside of the grocery store. She is about 8. I was about to ignore her, when she said she and her mom baked them. I asked her what she was selling the cookies for, and she said her grandpa needed an operation. I asked if he was sick, and she said he is very sick. I bought a bag, and refused her offer of change or more bags. I told her that I wanted her grandpa to have the money.

The bag and cookies had been prepared with care. The bag was a party grab bag from the movie “Cars” with a ribbon tied on top, with the ends curled. The cookies were small, but cooked with skill and with large chocolate chips in them. As I ate the cookies, I recognized an additional flavoring not usually found in chocolate chip cookies: desperation.

I am angry that in this very wealth country I live in, that a little girl and her mom are baking cookies hoping to raise enough money to save her grandpa’s life. I am angry that a little girl has to basically beg to try to pay for the surgery. I am angry we do not have a safety net for those who need medical help. I shudder to think what will happen if they can’t raise enough money to pay for the operation. Will they feel immense guilt as they bury him, believing they failed in their efforts? Will they know they did their best, and will that comfort them as they celebrate Christmas, birthdays, and weddings with him missing?

I fear for them, as I can guess how much money they have to raise. I’ll bet they need to sell about 50,000 of those $1 bag cookies.

I wonder what would have happened to me and Sydney had we not had health insurance. Would I have gotten the level II ultrasounds that I needed every other week? Or would the hospital have cut me off, as they were not life emergency events? Without those ultrasounds checking and monitoring her growth, we would not have known how serious the IUGR was. Had this been missed, she would have likely died in utero, likely within a week of when she was delivered. Would I have been followed as closely as I was? Would the stress of the medical bills made the IUGR even worse? Would I have had the medical care I needed for her and I to get through this alive and healthy?

So far, I would have needed to sell over 20,000 cookie bags for my care alone (rough guess). Sydney’s bill for the neonatologists ALONE would be over 36,000 cookie bags. Yes you read that right. The bill for the neonatologists ONLY for the 41 days she was in the NICU is over $36,000. Of course, they got less than that, because of the adjustments for insurance. My insurance company paid them around $30,300. That is more than what my OB, the perinatologists, the pathologist, the anesthesiologist, and the hospital (in and out patient care) were paid for my care. See why we end up with little girls selling cookies in a desperate attempt to pay for an operation? WHO can afford to pay that out of pocket? We have not seen a hospital bill yet, but I’m expecting it to be over half a million dollars. I’m not arguing that the doctors earn their money, but I am saying that the cost of their care is unaffordable to most people. What would we have done if we were not able to afford this? Can I put a price on the life of someone I love? No, I cannot. I am grateful for the skilled care that Sydney and I received. This is not meant to be a condemnation of doctors, but of the cost of health care and the system we currently live under. I'm not sure that stock holders profit margins should come into health care decisions.

I know that we need money to pay for doctors, medicines, tests, drugs, nurses. I don’t know the solution. I don’t believe that socialized medicine is the way to go, but I also do not believe that needed health care should be the privilege of the wealthy or the poor. I say the poor as well as the wealthy, as the poor usually qualify for Medicaid. The middle class, too rich for Medicaid and too poor to pay for this themselves are the ones that fall into the cracks.

I don’t have any big ideas on what to do.

From the Declaration of Independence

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

I believe that health care falls under both Life and the pursuit of happiness. The next sentence says that is why we have a government instated, to secure these rights. Do I want a system like they have in Great Britain, not really, but I believe there is a better way then we have now, when decisions are made based on profit, not people. I also believe that the only way change will be made is if the government steps in and does something. This goes against my beliefs in a smaller government, but I just don’t want any more jars on counters, little girls at grocery stores, or car washes trying to raise money to pay for something which I feel should be the right of every person on this planet: access to affordable and excellent health care.