Op-ed: The Body Count at Home

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Registered: 03-18-2000
Op-ed: The Body Count at Home
18
Sun, 09-13-2009 - 9:09pm

Nikki White died at the age of 32. She had lupus, a chronic inflammatory disease that was untreated because she could not afford health insurance.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/opinion/13kristof.html?_r=1&ref=opinion


In the debate over health care, here’s an inequity to ponder: Nikki White would have been far better off if only she had been a convicted bank robber.


Nikki was a slim and athletic college graduate who had health insurance, had worked in health care and knew the system. But she had systemic lupus erythematosus, a chronic inflammatory disease that was diagnosed when she was 21 and gradually left her too sick to work. And once she lost her job, she lost her health insurance.


In any other rich country, Nikki probably would have been fine, notes T. R. Reid in his important and powerful new book, “The Healing of America.” Some 80 percent of lupus patients in the United States live a normal life span. Under a doctor’s care, lupus should be manageable. Indeed, if Nikki had been a felon, the problem could have been averted, because courts have ruled that prisoners are entitled to medical care.


As Mr. Reid recounts, Nikki tried everything to get medical care, but no insurance company would accept someone with her pre-existing condition. She spent months painfully writing letters to anyone she thought might be able to help. She fought tenaciously for her life.


Finally, Nikki collapsed at her home in Tennessee and was rushed to a hospital emergency room, which was then required to treat her without payment until her condition stabilized. Since money was no longer an issue, the hospital performed 25 emergency surgeries on Nikki, and she spent six months in critical care.


“When Nikki showed up at the emergency room, she received the best of care, and the hospital spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on her,” her step-father, Tony Deal, told me. “But that’s not when she needed the care.”


By then it was too late. In 2006, Nikki White died at age 32. “Nikki didn’t die from lupus,” her doctor, Amylyn Crawford, told Mr. Reid. “Nikki died from complications of the failing American health care system.”


“She fell through the cracks,” Nikki’s mother, Gail Deal, told me grimly. “When you bury a child, it’s the worst thing in the world. You never recover.”


We now have a chance to reform this cruel and capricious system. If we let that chance slip away, there will be another Nikki dying every half-hour.


That’s how often someone dies in America because of a lack of insurance, according to a study by a branch of the National Academy of Sciences. Over a year, that amounts to 18,000 American deaths.


After Al Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 Americans, eight years ago on Friday, we went to war and spent hundreds of billions of dollars ensuring that this would not happen again. Yet every two months, that many people die because of our failure to provide universal insurance — and yet many members of Congress want us to do nothing?


Mr. Reid’s book is a rich tour of health care around the world. Because he has a bum shoulder, he asked doctors in many countries to examine it and make recommendations. His American orthopedist recommended a titanium shoulder replacement that would cost tens of thousands of dollars and might or might not help. Specialists in other countries warned that a sore shoulder didn’t justify the risks of such major surgery, although some said it would be available free if Mr. Reid insisted. Instead, they offered physical therapy, acupuncture and other cheap and noninvasive alternatives, some of which worked pretty well.


That’s a window into the flaws in our health care system: we offer titanium shoulder replacements for those who don’t really need them, but we let 32-year-old women die if they lose their health insurance. No wonder we spend so much on medical care, and yet have some health care statistics that are worse than Slovenia’s.


My suggestion for anyone in Nikki’s situation: commit a crime and get locked up. In Washington State, a 20-year-old inmate named Melissa Matthews chose to turn down parole and stay in prison because that was the only way she could get treatment for her cervical cancer. “If I’m out, I’m going to die from this cancer,” she told a television station.


Mr. and Mrs. Deal say they are speaking out because Nikki wouldn’t want anyone to endure what she did. “Nikki was a college-educated, middle-class woman, and if it could happen to her, it can happen to anyone,” Mr. Deal said. “This should not be happening in our country.”


Struggling to get out the words, Mrs. Deal added: “The loss of a child is the greatest hurt anyone will ever suffer. Because of the circumstances she endured with the health care system, I lost my daughter.”


Complex arguments are being batted around in this health care debate, but the central issue isn’t technical but moral. The first question is simply this: Do we wish to be the only rich nation in the world that lets a 32-year-old woman die because she can’t get health insurance? Is that really us?

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 09-13-2009 - 10:08pm
Our aunt has lupus....she is 78 and in good health.
 
Avatar for ddnlj
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Mon, 09-14-2009 - 8:08am

<<>>


If I may restate your quote a little differently:


Do we wish that only the rich in our nation be the ones who can afford healthcare?


It's amazing to me that more people don't look at themselves and wonder what would happen to

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Mon, 09-14-2009 - 9:38am

Cost-wise it's cheaper to treat a condition than wait until it's critical & no longer treatable.


It's certainly gives one pause that 18,000 die every year for want of care because they don't have health insurance.

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Mon, 09-14-2009 - 9:55am

I'm of the age when I could use Medicare if I needed but instead I'm insured under my DH's plan through work. Those using MC still pay about a $100 a month out of their Social Security which is quite a chunk of change for those living on SS as

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-09-2001
Mon, 09-14-2009 - 12:19pm
"We don't need the so called "death panels" the whackos dreamt-up. We already have a death sentence it's called being unhealthy without insurance."



True enough. I have older friends in this situation. They choose between paying the rent, food and their Rx's. Their health deteriorates because they cannot follow the treatment prescribed. They wait hours in waiting rooms for blood work (if they can afford it) as well as to see a doctor because there are fewer & fewer doctors who will accept Medicare patients because of the low payments from Medicare. So, the waiting rooms are overflowing for doctors who will see Medicare patients. And some of these doctors turn around and send send a supplemental bill to the senior, for the difference between what Medicare pays and their rates. Which the senior cannot pay... It's a vicious cycle and there are many seniors in that situation now, with the recession, the losses suffered in their investments that were supposed to supplement social security and Medicare. :O



And we have younger family & friends who are "flying without a net" because their employers don't offer health insurance, and they can't afford to purchase it on their own. They are all one major illness that cannot be treated at home with OTC meds, one disease or one needed surgery away from bankruptcy... And losing their jobs if illness strikes the wage earners in the family. And they have children who are growing up without adequate medical care. These people don't qualify for their states' assistance because they are working, even if two jobs, etc.



Something's got to change. Keeping things the same will just increase the uninsured over 50% in this country, and allow the level of greed of the medical industry, drug industry medical insurance industry, to continue to escalate. It's incredible we have sunk so low in this supposedly "richest country in the world." Maybe when 75% of people are uninsured and denied access to adequate health coverage and treatment??? Then something will be done? :O


Blessings,

Gypsy

)O(





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"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night.

It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.

It is the little shadow which runs across the grass

and loses itself in the sunset.



- Crowfoot, Blackfoot warrior and orator



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Dog fighting is cruelty, which is a human activity and a human illness.

It's not the dog's fault.

All dogs need to be evaluated as individuals."

--Tim Racer, one of BAD RAP's founders



http://www.badrap.org/rescue/



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Mika Dog




"All things share the same breath;

the beast, the tree, the man.

The Air shares its spirit with

all the life it supports."

--Chief Seattle



"If there are no dogs in Heaven,

then when I die I want to go where they went."

~Will Rogers



"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress

can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

~~Mahatma Gandhi





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"Life is a state of mind." ~~from Being There.



Blessings,

Gypsy

)O(



Avatar for ddnlj
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Mon, 09-14-2009 - 12:34pm

Add in young people like my son and stepson, who are too old to be on their parents' coverage, yet aren't old enough to have career-type jobs that provide benefits.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-09-2001
Mon, 09-14-2009 - 1:01pm
YUP! And for my DH's and my age group, it would cost us over $1200/month for the coverage we have (and we couldn't afford heavy deductibles or huge office visit co-pays, etc.). And we pay into that by payroll deduction. DH is still working, or I wouldn't have been able to have my heart surgery this year, but would have waited for the heart attack to come...and I wouldn't be taking the Rx's I need, either, if he had been forced into retirement with a layoff,. Wouldn't have been sufficient coverage with what's exists now with Medicare. :O Our DD is 28, and has no health insurance. Her jobs provide no medical insurance coverage at all, either. She is back in school to get training so she can earn better $$$ and tried to qualify for state help in the state she's in. She got a letter saying she qualifies for their minimal health coverage, but there's no $$$ so everyone has to wait until the state has more $$$ for the program. So, if she gets really sick, her school loans & grants are in jeopardy, too, if she could not finish her schooling on schedule. And we are financially unable to help... :O


Blessings,

Gypsy

)O(





Photobucket



"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night.

It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.

It is the little shadow which runs across the grass

and loses itself in the sunset.



- Crowfoot, Blackfoot warrior and orator



Photobucket Photobucket



Dog fighting is cruelty, which is a human activity and a human illness.

It's not the dog's fault.

All dogs need to be evaluated as individuals."

--Tim Racer, one of BAD RAP's founders



http://www.badrap.org/rescue/



Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket Photobucket



Mika Dog




"All things share the same breath;

the beast, the tree, the man.

The Air shares its spirit with

all the life it supports."

--Chief Seattle



"If there are no dogs in Heaven,

then when I die I want to go where they went."

~Will Rogers



"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress

can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

~~Mahatma Gandhi





Photobucket



"Life is a state of mind." ~~from Being There.



Blessings,

Gypsy

)O(



iVillage Member
Registered: 08-30-2002
Mon, 09-14-2009 - 1:01pm

I have a Conservative acquaintance that would argue "where was this young womans family? Didn't her parents love her enough to pay for her medical care?" and such garbage. As if everyones family can simply afford to pay for their uninsured family members ongoing health care needs. As if entire families should bankrupt themselves and leave themselves insolvent if they really "love" someone enough. Of course this person has no children and no partner. They worked in a public sector job and have guaranteed healthcare for life now that they have retired. I've noticed that most the naysayers "have theirs" and probably aren't in danger of losing it.


My partner has a PE condition and in order for him to have state funded healthcare, he can have no assets. So that means no retirement savings for him at this point.



iVillage Member
Registered: 03-09-2001
Mon, 09-14-2009 - 1:09pm
Yeah, I've read that judgmental faulty rationalization, too. I wonder sometimes how many live in the "real" world, you know? Where by whim of an employer, you can get laid off. That employers play the games you mentioned so they don't have to cover an employee. Or, with the recession as it is now, and many people having LOST the money they have worked hard to invest and set aside for retirement, is GONE because the gov't and banks were asleep at the wheel...and damaged our economy. Like HUH?! Where do these people get off sitting on a judgmental high horse?! I just shake my head, consider the source, and that it reflects on them and their ignorance of reality for many working families in this country. :O


Blessings,

Gypsy

)O(





Photobucket



"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night.

It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.

It is the little shadow which runs across the grass

and loses itself in the sunset.



- Crowfoot, Blackfoot warrior and orator



Photobucket Photobucket



Dog fighting is cruelty, which is a human activity and a human illness.

It's not the dog's fault.

All dogs need to be evaluated as individuals."

--Tim Racer, one of BAD RAP's founders



http://www.badrap.org/rescue/



Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket Photobucket



Mika Dog




"All things share the same breath;

the beast, the tree, the man.

The Air shares its spirit with

all the life it supports."

--Chief Seattle



"If there are no dogs in Heaven,

then when I die I want to go where they went."

~Will Rogers



"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress

can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

~~Mahatma Gandhi





Photobucket



"Life is a state of mind." ~~from Being There.



Blessings,

Gypsy

)O(



iVillage Member
Registered: 08-30-2002
Mon, 09-14-2009 - 1:52pm

Another person I know who is like this married....to a DOCTOR! She's never worked. They live in a mansion, with an indoor pool and raquet ball court (we have



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