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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe health care exchanges could have saved this man's life
The health care exchanges could have saved this man's life
by Laura Clawson
Remember all the reasons we so badly needed to reform health care in America? Does it seem to anyone else like the more the media focuses on political battles over Obamacare, the less we hear about the people who have been struggling for years without insurance, who have faced losing their insurance the moment they got sick, or who have gone bankrupt because of medical bills even though they had insurance? A Texas Observer story by Rachel Pearson, a medical student and volunteer director of a free clinic in Galveston, makes clear that the massive human cost the media was telling us about in 2008 and 2009 is still there, even if the attention has moved on to broken websites and canceled junk insurance plans.
Gov. Rick Perry's Texas hasn't accepted Medicaid expansion, of course, and an estimated 9,000 Texans will die each year as a result. But there is hope for people who can get insurance through the exchanges who never would have been able to afford it before. Take Pearson's former patient Jimmy and his wife Vanessa. Jimmy had a full-time job, but it didn't provide insurance and they couldn't afford to buy their own, so they had to go to the free clinic and then to the ER when Jimmy got sick. Turned out, he had cancer:
Isn't an effort to help people like thiseven a flawed effortbetter than a policy that says "let them die"?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/02/1255827/-The-health-care-exchanges-could-have-saved-this-man-s-life
by Laura Clawson
Remember all the reasons we so badly needed to reform health care in America? Does it seem to anyone else like the more the media focuses on political battles over Obamacare, the less we hear about the people who have been struggling for years without insurance, who have faced losing their insurance the moment they got sick, or who have gone bankrupt because of medical bills even though they had insurance? A Texas Observer story by Rachel Pearson, a medical student and volunteer director of a free clinic in Galveston, makes clear that the massive human cost the media was telling us about in 2008 and 2009 is still there, even if the attention has moved on to broken websites and canceled junk insurance plans.
Gov. Rick Perry's Texas hasn't accepted Medicaid expansion, of course, and an estimated 9,000 Texans will die each year as a result. But there is hope for people who can get insurance through the exchanges who never would have been able to afford it before. Take Pearson's former patient Jimmy and his wife Vanessa. Jimmy had a full-time job, but it didn't provide insurance and they couldn't afford to buy their own, so they had to go to the free clinic and then to the ER when Jimmy got sick. Turned out, he had cancer:
Vanessa called from a hospital in Houston in early November, distraught, asking me to help her decide whether or not to let the doctors turn Jimmys breathing machine off. She was afraid she wouldnt be able to live with herself, no matter which she chose. I gave her the advice Id give a friend: that I trusted her love for her husband and her ability to decide from a place of love. Jimmy died late that night.
Vanessas request for UTMB funding wasnt approved. She has received a $17,000 bill from UTMB for the visit when Jimmy went through the ER, and a $327,000 preliminary bill from the Houston hospital.
If the Affordable Care Act had been in effect last year, they would have been able to afford insurance, get treatment early and avoid bankruptcy. I use stories like theirscancer storieswhen I am encouraging my patients to check out the insurance exchanges.
Isn't an effort to help people like thiseven a flawed effortbetter than a policy that says "let them die"?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/02/1255827/-The-health-care-exchanges-could-have-saved-this-man-s-life
Again, thanks to all Democrats who stood by and supported the health care law.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024227754
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The health care exchanges could have saved this man's life (Original Post)
ProSense
Jan 2014
OP
ProSense
(116,464 posts)1. Kick! n/t
area51
(11,920 posts)2. Single payer could have saved his life. n/t
ProSense
(116,464 posts)3. True, and the point is that the status quo failed him. n/t