[lit-ideas] Re: Life or death
- From: "Carol Kirschenbaum" <carolkir@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2007 15:32:39 -0700
Julie,
More people in the US need to know what's up. Most don't realize that the
treatment for people without health insurance (or the money to pay for
treatment outright) is, simply, lack of treatment. I posted a statement to this
effect on the John Edwards for President website recently, after voicing best
wishes to Elizabeth. (I'm an Edwards fan.)
Edwards has been yakking about the need for universal health care since before
the last election. But somehow, loads of voters are skittish about the very
term "universal," and rail in panic against "socialized medicine" as if the
gestapo were knocking on their doors. )Ah, the power of fear propaganda...)
Okay, so if you're sick in this country and don't have money for treatment, you
go without, just as in the old days before medical technology, when people
"wasted away" from some cause unknown to them, and families just accepted it.
We have people dying from infections (sepsis) that could be cured--CURED--with
ordinary antibiotics. These folks don't tend to use emergency rooms, since
there's no apparent emergency. Ditto for the cancer patients (and a long, long
list of other diseases). They hurt, they suffer, they die.
Now here's a bit of news (maybe it's news to some). The
healthcare-for-medically-indigent situation in the US varies state by state,
even county-by-county. In San Francisco, for instance, there's a strong network
of community "free" clinics for "the working poor" and anyone else who needs
medical care. (Remember the old Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic of the 1960s? It's
still going strong.) But in the San Joaquin Valley, a few hundred miles south
in the same state, no such creature. In fact, in this broad swathe of
California, it's a trick to find a doctor who accept the state-brand Medicaid,
or even Medicare. (That doctors can refuse, as a group, to accept this
insurance strikes me as an appalling breach of medical ethics, but that's
another matter.)
Oh! Oh! Oh! And I just came across this--a nonprofit organization that's
dedicated to providing free medical care and access to drugs for everyone who
is HIV positive. No other cancers (or other diseases) but if you've got HIV,
you're in luck. Such is the power of lobbying.
Oh yeah. Drug and alcohol intervention. In this huge county, it ain't free
except in jail.
I'm a little more than overwrought about this whole "healthcare" situation.
Medically, we might as well call the US a third world country, unless we intend
to get serious. I just lost a neighbor (working woman in her 50s, no health
insurance) to untreated asthma. She went to a doctor, finally, but couldn't
afford the drugs. Had COPD for the last two years of her life. Meds,
oxygen--treatment is available, for those who can pay.
And in case anyone here is wondering why this woman did not get a job that
offered medical benefits and instead worked without benefits...It's rare for
someone with a medical condition to be hired by such an entity. The Americans
with Disabilities act does not prohibit employers from conducting
pre-employment drugs screens OR medical exams, believe it or not. Forget that
showpiece legislation.
Carol K.
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