May 11, 2005
What Price Pain?
by Lorraine Berry
I am writing this from a place of exhaustion: the kind of exhaustion where it feels as if every cell of your body has imploded, collapsed into black hole status. If I was a heavenly body, I'd be swallowing whole galaxies with my negative charge right now.
Last night, I spent the night next to my daughter's bed in the emergency room. And as usual, because I cannot see the forest without noticing the trees, today I reflect on her health crisis last night and how this might have all been different if I was like the 45 million Americans (including my parents) who have no health insurance.
The Center for American Progress puts the number 45,000,000 in perspective:
45 million uninsured Americans is more than...Last night, Saoirse came home from softball practice and told me that her side was hurting. When Saoirse, who regularly takes hits in soccer, or tears all the skin off her legs sliding into a stolen base--all without uttering a word of complaint--says that something hurts, chances are it really hurts. By 9:45, she was nearly immobile, and finally confessed just how much she was hurting. A friend who is a doctor told me she had all the classic signs of appendicitis. Off to the ER we went.
- All Americans age 65 and older (35.9 million)
- All African Americans (37.1 million)
- All Hispanic or Latino Americans (39.9 million)
Stepping through the door of the ER: $275
Saoirse was examined by an ER doctor who agreed that yes, she had many of the symptoms of appendicitis, but he wasn't quite convinced.
Having the ER doctor walk through an exam room door to look at you: $184
He ordered full blood work, a CT scan, and the insertion of an IV in anticipation of surgery. He also gave her a narcotic painkiller so she could get some relief.
The ER was full. Luckily for Saoirse, the dilaudid knocked her out, and she was able to sleep. We were in line for the CT machine, and she needed to drink chemicals that would light up her insides on the scan.
Estimated costs (based on past experiences) of these tests:
CT scan with contrast $700
Blood work $200
Radiologist's fee $200
Misc. $200
I'm also assuming that since the ER doc gave her a more complete exam, his fees will be significantly higher.
At the end of a very long night, the CT scan revealed a lot of fluid in my daughter's lower pelvis. The poor baby had a ruptured ovarian cyst. No surgery was required, and she will be sore for days and will not be allowed to play sports until she recuperates.
I'm estimating that when all the bills have been gathered, this 7-hour stint in the ER will cost close to $2000. Costs to me? If my ex has the same structured insurance policy that I do, probably a $50 deductible.
Am I lucky? Damn straight. Am I grateful? Of course.
But I think about a single mother without insurance faced with a similar situation. Would I have taken my daughter to the emergency room at 9:45? Or would I have waited for hours, hoping and praying that the pain she was in would pass? And if I had taken her, would I have listened to the doctor explain all the tests he needed to run and spent the hours next to my daughter's bed wondering what my family would do without for the next year while I paid off the hospital bill? If I had been an uninsured parent, would I have sat there and wondered why, despite the fact that I worked 40 hours a week, my employer didn't offer health care?
As I watched my daughter writhe in pain, and watched the relief drip into her IV bottle, would I have done the devil's calculus of trying to figure out how much my child's pain was worth?
As I sit here today, I reflect on how lucky I am. But I rail that I live in a country where we do not consider health care to be a right. Health care is still a privilege. Relief of excruciating pain is a privilege. Making sure that you're not going to suffer septic shock from a ruptured appendix because a trip to the ER was too expensive, is a privilege.
We consider education to be a right, and we pay for it. We consider traveling on superhighways to be a right, and we pay for it. We consider the military to be a national priority to protect our rights, and we pay for it. But we do not consider life to be a right. We do not consider the health of the human body to be a right, and we do not pay for it.
And as the number of uninsured grows every year, eventually, we will all pay for it.
Posted by in Body, Civil Rights, Health, Kids, Parenting, Testimonial, Young Voters
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» Trudge Forth from Destined to be the
Trudge forth was one of my mom's favorite sayings as I was growing up. I remember hearing her say those words frequently over the years, yet the words had slipped my mind until I read this post at culturekitchen this morning. [More...]
Found inMay 12, 2005 11:14 AM
Say it loud, say it proud!
Wonderful points! I hope your daughter gets better.
A number of months ago, my boyfriend wrecked his motorcycle and broke his arm. Both of us are used to thinking like broke-asses, and so he didn't go to the ER for hours. When he did, I was amazed at how far I had lost my mind--we both have insurance and his co-pay was $100. I assure you people will sit on their ass rather than get medical care if they can't afford it.
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Comment by: Lisa Stone aka Surfette at May 11, 2005 07:54 PM
Poor baby Saoirse! Si Dios quiere, she won't remember the pain. And thank goodness you listen to your daughter.
I am constitutionally allergic to feeling helpless, but America's health care situation brings me closest to that state.
Hope you can get some rest--know the world turns regardless...
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Comment by: Matt at May 11, 2005 09:18 PM
Well, being one of those 45 million uninsured, let me tell you that you're a very lucky woman. I've been putting off knee surgery for three years, and have a cracked molar in desparate need of repair that's going to have to wait until I have the cash to pay for it. But on the other hand, I'd rather it be me as one of the uninsured than people like my sister. I'm single (sort of), no kids, and don't have any real responsibilities. My sister has two kids, a master's degree in psychology, and a husband with a doctorate. Her family has had insurance for almost three months now, for the first time since 1997. They need it a hell of a lot more than I do.
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Comment by: ccw at May 12, 2005 10:25 AM
I grew up without insurance, so I can attest to the agony that my single mother faced whenever I got hurt. She usually just "slapped on a band-aid" and said "trudge forth". When, I think back to some of the things that happened to me, I know that in the same situtation I would rush my kids to the ER for treatment. Unfortunately for my mom there was no car to rush anywhere in and no insurance to cover such trips, so we trudged forth.
Luckily, I never had any serious medical problems, but I can only imagine the prayers my mother said to keep me safe.
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Comment by: Kim at May 12, 2005 12:27 PM
For a lot of people here in NH with no insurance, despite the super-high costs, the only choice for just about -any- medical treatment is a trip to the E.R. I can't speak for the rest of the state, but here on the seacoast, we're lucky in that we've got a few clinics like the Feminist Health Center and Planned Parenthood for gynecological care, and even a couple of general-practicioner-type clinics like Families First, but most of the uninsured people around here work long or weird hours, and the clinics are only open certain days of the week, or only a few hours out of the day. And for the many uninsured people who have no transportation of their own, it's even worse, because our very rural state has a very lousy public transportation system.
So, the usual answer for a lot of people, even for things that would be taken care of by a routine trip to the doctor's office, is a trip to the hospital. Cracked tooth giving you a toothache? Trip to the ER to get some pain meds, instead of the dentist to get the tooth fixed. And in the case of a friend of mine who did just that, she eventually took a pair of pliers to her own mouth and yanked out the offending tooth piece by piece, because she couldn't afford the ER trips anymore.
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Comment by: bitchphd at May 12, 2005 09:17 PM
Ow, ovarian cyst! Poor baby.
I hear you on the no insurance thing. A couple of weeks ago, my boyfriend got hit by a car while he was on his bike. Driver drove off (asshole). Couple of days of severe pain, finally, he talks to a friend or acquaintance who's a doc, they say it's "almost certainly broken" based on limited range of motion (presumably some kind of fracture, rather than a dramatic break, obviously).
He never went to the doc for an xray or a cast--no health insurance. Also, he's a bit of a stoic. But stil, people should not have to make those calcuations, not even grownup adult men.
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Comment by: BadTux at May 15, 2005 02:56 AM
I was lucky enough to grow up in Louisiana. We had a state hospital system that would provide low cost or free medical care to the uninsured. Still does, as far as I know. It wasn't/isn't the best medical care in the world, since the system is always overcrowded and underfunded, but it sure as hell is better than simply dying on the streets. I have a skin graft on my left foot from a motorcycle accident that happened when I was young and dumb and uninsured. Total cost to me: A whole lot of my time sitting in waiting rooms, and the cost of the medicines I had to buy (generic pain killers and antibiotics -- these doctors did NOT prescribe the latest expensive wonder drugs, they knew their patients couldn't afford it). Given that I had a total of $400 in the bank at the time because I'd lost my job a month before, there was no way I could have ever paid off a private doctor and private hospital, especially since I was not able to walk (or work) for almost six months after the accident...
When I was unemployed recently in Arizona, however, I freaked big time. I wouldn't even ride my rollerblades for fear I might crash and break an arm or something and have to go to the emergency room. And BTW, for uninsured people you get charged twice as much -- think $4,000 for a simple visit with tests, not $2,000. That's right, hospitals charge the people who can afford it the least more money than they charge the insurance companies. See, insurance companies are more important than people, in these United States of Delusion.
- Badtux the now-not-poor Penguin
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Comment by: Amanda Marcotte at May 11, 2005 07:26 PM