Illness and dying are things that from the surface seem pretty straightforward. People think that you just go to the hospital, either get better or die. In reality there are many factors to illness and dying. The factor that I decided to explore for my final project is paying for care.
This aspect of illness and dying relates to two of the resources from the unit, Sick, by Jonathon Cohn, and Michael Moore’s documentary, Sicko. Both resources explain how caring for the illness and dying is usually paid for. In America, most people have healthcare. This is usually provided through their employers. The companies the issue healthcares are called HMOs (Health Maintenance Organizations) and they approve or deny certain treatments. What this means is that the HMOs can decide if they want to pay for operations. As we learned from Sicko, this system is flawed because the HMOs are all about maximizing profit. The less money they spend on unnecessary procedures, (and what turns out to be some necessary procedures too) the better.
One thing that I found interesting from the movie Sicko was when a man had to choose between paying $12,000 to reattach his ring finger or $60,000 to reattach his middle finger after he had cut the tips of each off with a power saw. I found it appalling that he had to make this choice. But then it made me think even deeper, what about the people that NEED amputations. They don’t have a choice; they’re paying that $60,000 no matter what.
To further my knowledge about healthcare coverage and amputation I researched what percentage of people have healthcare and how much amputations cost without insurance. The Daily News reported that the Census Bereau discovered there were 46.3 million Americans without health insurance in 2009. As well as the 15.4 percent people in America living without health insurance, 13.2 percent were living in poverty. Which correlates well because the leading cause of bankruptcy in America is because of health expenses. As well as the information above, I discovered that a amputation without health insurance costs on average $40,000 for the surgery itself. The total costs of it would be well over $100,000.
Taking these ideas in to the real world, I wanted to interview somebody that has been affected by these costs. I don’t actually know anybody that has gotten an amputation, and didn’t know where to look. But sometimes things just work out. Usually when you walk down the street you see homeless people, with dirty clothes and scruffy beards. Some you can see the effects of drug abuse and smell the alcohol. Luckily for me, I found one out of the ordinary. He had a clean shaved beard, fairly clean clothes, and smelt nothing of alcohol. Oh yeah, and he had no legs. I felt awkward approaching somebody on the street to talk about something that could be a sensitive topic. But I had no other options. He was reading the Daily News, so I assumed he was pretty educated. I explained to him about the class and then, I asked him what happened, and why he had his legs amputated. He wasn’t hesitant to answer at all. He said that he got into a car accident on the L.I.E a couple of years ago. He said the front end of his car was smashed and pushed up. It shattered his legs. When he arrived at the hospital (Northshore-LIJ) they explained that he had to have both of his legs amputated. But what he didn’t know is that his insurance wouldn’t cover the emergency surgeries. He explained that it cost $80,000 per leg. One from the knee-down, the other from above the knee. After his surgery he had to do months of rehab. This happened to him in 2009, when all the jobs were being lost. When he finished his rehab, he didn’t have a job to go back to. He went from making a steady salary at Chase. To being bankrupt living on the street. All because his health insurance (blue cross) didn’t cover his treatments. He said his name was Ryan, that he wasn’t all that bad off, as had places to stay, and he is currently looking for a job, and he thinks that he’ll be okay. I thanked him for his time and put a ten in his cup. He smiled thanked me and I walked away.
This experience taught me that sometimes things aren’t what they seem, that bad things happen to good people. That, and our health care system is messed up. I think that things need to be changed for our healthcare systems to be anywhere close to those of France or Sweden. It also shows the coorelation with the socioeconomic dived. 13.2 percent of people in America are living in poverty, 15.4 percent of Americans don’t have healthcare, there can be lines drawn between them. This matters because things are happening to people that don’t deserve it.
Sourceshttp://www.nydailynews.com/money/personal_finance/2009/09/10/2009-09-10_number_of_americans_without_health_insurance_rises_to_463m.html?page=0
http://www.costhelper.com/cost/health/amputation.html
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/hlthins/hlthins.html
Kevin,
ReplyDeleteThe best part of your writing is that you provided great evidence and statistics that really backed up your overall persuasive point that health care needs reform. The modality I chose was Perspective. Maybe something you could try is relate how you would deal with the health system when it comes your time to take up the responsibility to pay for insurance among other things. You provided a well-thought out narrative perspective of the homeless man though, a video would have probably provided much more of a visual aid that would have made me even more interested. One thing that I would advise for you to do is to give your introduction some more brevity. Though it is concise, you want readers to have a sufficient background knowledge on how health care started and how it became the way it is.
Bianca
Hey Kevin,
ReplyDeleteI read your post while looking for depth and insight. I liked the topic you chose; to be honest I wasn’t really fond for learning about the HMOs and the health care flaws in the United States. But after reading your assignment, I was able to fully understand our flawed system and how it makes “bad things happen to good people”. I thought you made a great decision of interviewing a homeless man. Usually in our society we try to ignore the homeless and go amongst our daily lives as they live their lives on the streets as wallflowers. From what I can remember, I have never made an attempt to approach a homeless individual to ask about their personal life. While you were sharing the experiment you conducted in the outside world, I was able to learn that this was only one person out of the many who are suffering from a flawed health care system. While reading this I was able to understand where you stand at regarding this nationwide healthcare dilemma. For next time, I would advise you to proof read as there were a few grammar mistakes. Otherwise, nice job.
Amber