U.S. healthcare: Best not to get sick
Al’s Loupe
U.S. healthcare: Best not to get sick
By Alvaro F. Fernandez
alvaro@progresoweekly.com
I spend upwards of $600 a month for health insurance for my daughter and myself. My daughter is covered by Aetna. She can visit a specialist whenever she needs one. In my case, I have an HMO; its name is Preferred Medical Plan. So allowing for the best plan possible for my daughter, the amount I spend for both of us is the best I can do. The health insurance I’d like to have for myself would run me somewhere between 1,200 and 2,000 a month – and that’s me, alone.
But my case is just one of many which explains why the health care system is broken in the U.S. And I consider myself one of the lucky ones. Unlike 50 million Americans, I do have insurance and make my payments regularly. But a convoluted scheme based on greed (or what would you call a system that puts money before the health of a patient?) should cause us worry.
When President Obama announced he would be instituting a new system of health care, I quietly hoped. Now that congress has passed a watered-down plan, I have yet to understand how, as a citizen of this county, I might be helped. But what’s worrisome is the fact that republicans are already talking about dismantling the Obama system that has yet to be applied.
Let me give you examples of why I worry. And I insist, if this is happening to me I’d hate to step in someone’s shoes with no health insurance at all.
Not quite van Gogh’s ear
On December 12, 2010, at about 7 p.m. I could tell my sore throat was getting worse. At about 9 that evening the pain was starting to affect my left ear. Most of my life I have suffered from bad earaches and other ear-related maladies. At about that time I looked upwards and prayed that it wouldn’t get worse. At 2:30 the next morning I got in my car and headed for the Mt. Sinai Medical emergency room in Miami Beach. As I drove to the hospital I swear I thought of Vincent van Gogh. Every time I get one of these intense earaches I can understand why anyone would want to cut off his or her ear.
I was lucky; it was a slow night. I spent a couple of hours where they poked me until the doctor in charge showed up, looked in my ear and exclaimed: “Whoa! It’s really red in there and it looks like shit!” He then prescribed eardrops and a pill and off I went to look for a pharmacy that was open at that hour. I was told the only one was a Walgreen’s, about a half hour’s drive away. I went… things you will do when you’re in pain.
To make a long story short, it’s been more than a month now and I have yet to see a specialist. I am no longer in pain, but I am so congested I can hardly hear from my left ear. My insurance company is still investigating my case to see if they will approve my visit to a specialist, they tell me. Oh, and by the way, while I wait in hopes of getting my hearing back I am fighting them (the insurance company) over the $600-plus hospital bill for my December 12 visit to Mt. Sinai.
Still dizzy
Then there’s the case of my dizziness. Before I acquired my insurance plan with Preferred Medical Plan I had a bad incident of vertigo. It was May of last year. I was in the gym exercising. I became dizzy while on the treadmill. I stepped off and sat on a weight-training bench. The room started spinning and I carefully sat on the floor or I knew I’d fall off the bench. Again, to make a long story short, for almost a week I could not walk around my house without bouncing off walls, the first two days I spent vomiting.
But you know what the worst feeling of this whole episode was? When it happened, I thought I was having a stroke. And all that kept going through my head was the fact that I had NO health insurance. At a terrible moment like that, as I looked at my little daughter, my health insurance situation was my most prevalent thought, and I kept asking myself, what am I to do?
To date, almost a year later, I am still dizzy. Constantly. Imagine living your life drunk, but without that good feeling one gets when you’ve had a few too many drinks. That’s how I feel. Still, since it’s a pre-existing condition, I cannot have it checked out. My insurance will NOT pay for it.
Like I stated at the beginning, mine are small potatoes. Imagine someone who got sick, had a family and couldn’t function. Couldn’t work…
That’s why I have to smile whenever I hear people boasting that this country has the greatest health care system in the world. It’s probably true… but your last name better be Rockefeller, Kennedy or Gates. Or at least, have that kind of money.
As for good insurance. I told you my daughter is insured by Aetna. It’s not an HMO. In less than five years her premium has skyrocketed 62 percent. In March I am expecting another raise in premium. I took her to see a specialist last week. She’s got something on her ankle. Before seeing her, the doctor made me sign an affidavit, with credit card number on it, in case the insurance company refused to pay for the visit.
What I’ve learned from all of this is that it’s good to have the best health insurance company working for you. But you’re much better off not getting sick.
