My friend Erin Kotecki Vest, whose husband works in the film industry, who has health insurance, and who is not an illegal immigrant, a bag lady, or an old person, has been a victim of health care rationing. What has happened to her over the past month is exactly what Americans always say happens in Canada or Britain, and why they don’t want national health. But Erin, from her hospital bed, is screaming “let me on OBAMACARE.”
How could it be worse with national-health-public plan-single-payer-socialized-medicine or whatever the ill-informed think Obama’s suggestions for reform are?
Erin has been puking for a month. She tried to ignore it. She didn’t eat much. She tried not to go to the doctor. She tried to hide it.
But then she began having episodes of rectal bleeding, and they frightened her. (This isn’t something she hasn’t already confessed on her blog). So she tried to see a gastroenterologist.
She doesn’t live in a rural community; she lives in the LA metroplex somewhere. In theory, there’s no doctor shortage where she is. But it took her almost a month to get an apppointment for an endocscopy and a colonoscopy, (tubes with cameras up the back and down the front to see what’s in there) and while waiting she finally landed in the emergency room, where –of course–she had to wait in a hallway for four hours to get admitted to the hospital.
Once in the hospital, it took three more days to get the tests, and the diagnosis of gallstones and diverticulitis (imagine having both of those at once!). In the mean time, she was cooling her heels in a $1000+ a day hospital room, waiting for outpatient tests. And she’s on some pretty stiff drugs.
Once the diagnosis was made, Erin had to wait once again. They have decided rhwy are going to take out her gall bladder, but not until Saturday!
You can read all this in her Twitterstream and that of her husband, who has been managing two kids back and forth from the hospital all week.
Once they make her wait all week, they will then perform what I presume will be a laparoscopic cholysystectomy (taking your gall bladder out with two tiny incisions) and then throw her out of the hospital on the same day.
And wait until she gets the bill for the part that isn’t covered by her insurance.
This is what the opponents of health care reform are fighting to keep? You have got to be kidding. It’s too bad we no longer have an educated population capable of reading and absorbing facts. There’s no way this would have happened in Canada or Europe, because of the amount of pain she is in from the gallstones.
People what the hell are you doing? Rise up in the streets and argue for ANY change in the current system, which is 25th out of 30 developed countries in effectiveness, and makes us 29th out of 30 developed countries in longevity. Quit kidding yourselves; our health care is suffering from an extreme case of #suckit.
Erin, get well soon; my thoughts are with you in the hospital. I am sorry you are going through this, girlfriend.
Yikes… and yeah – not a huge surprise either.
I'm playing a waiting game here on medical care and have been insured for a very long time…
I wish it made sense – but mostly? I just wish Erin an easier time than she's been having! 🙁
[…] Francine Hardaway […]
I just finished paying off – after two years of monthly payments that rivaled my car payment – the part of the hospital bill that insurance didn't cover – and I was “Fully Insured” by a large corporation.
I should be getting follow up checkups – but I am working as a 1099 contractor now because it keeps me from having to push my now-damaged body into a routine that would hurt more. So – I have some insurance through my husband's job – but it is limited in scope and high co-pay and high visit costs and high deductible…so I avoid.
What was so horrible that I have to live like this? I was bit by a brown recluse spider while putting some decorations in the attic. Nothing I did to myself – nothing I neglected – just an accident of fate.
And people say that our nation's health care system is 'just fine'? Try being unhealthy in this nation and see how 'fine' it really is.
You have my total sympathy. My mother was bitten by a brown recluse
and it nearly killed her. That is a life-threatening situation that
can ONLY be handled by medical professionals and hospital services.
I'm sure you believed you could rely on that insurance to help you in
an emergency situation like that, only to discover later that you are
being punished for something that was completely out of your control.
Grrr.
I almost lost my left leg – but I am walking and whole. Just a little 'wiring' issue. Nerve damage, joint issues and because of the trauma, fibromyalgia. I'll never be 100%, but I can be better. It just takes sooo frikken long. And I can't deal with the expensive meds that insurance wouldn't fully cover, etc… I have been using homeopathic and herbal remedies and lots of fortitude rolls (geek humor). So – I can wholly sympathize with QoS and the ignoring and now taking a breath to deal with the issues of body non-compliance.
Excellent article – have tweeted!
DON'T FULLY rely on what is avail in clinics and hospitals. UP your immunity by eating right. What Queen Erin really needs zinc and whatever mineral enzymes her diet may be missing. Avoid fizzy drinks that already have benzene, phosphoric acid and aspartame. Reduce white bread (has alloxan). Reduce eating charred meat at bbq!
Remember what happened to Michalel Jackson? He totally trusted his doctor to administer stuff for him to sleep and awake!
Rather than waiting and relying on an organ transplant, and unless you're mentally unstable, read about what can actually help you to heal without risky prescription drugs etc!! Chromium for example help type 2 diabetes patients' pancreas to heal and ditch the need for dependency on insulin.
The thing is, you have more control over your health than THEY want you to know.