THE GOOD NEWS on the front page of Monday’s Gazette was that weekend events had raised more than $21,000 for two Lyon County residents facing huge medical bills because of catastrophic illnesses. The donations were a remarkable demonstration of generosity by neighbors, friends and strangers.
But the community generosity was just a gleam of light in the darkness that afflicts the nation’s health-care system. Increasingly, Americans — insured or uninsured — are just one run of medical bad luck away from financial ruin.
For Emporian Dan Tebbetts, the bad luck started with a diagnosis of bladder cancer. Bob Lowder of north Lyon County hit his losing streak with an illness that led to heart surgery that led to an allergic reaction to medication. The reaction resulted in the amputation of parts of both his legs. A Wall Street banker rolling in bonus money or a U.S. senator with Cadillac-plan health insurance would be able to get through that kind of streak with family finances pretty much intact. But for ordinary folks, such medical bills are a one-way trip to the poorhouse.
Janet Bathurst, who helped raise almost $17,000 for the Lowders over the weekend, said that the community’s response was wonderful, but she acknowledged that the money was not enough to make things right for the family.
“It’s not going to be enough because of the rehabilitation and they are remodeling their house and getting prosthetics and wheelchairs and none of that is inexpensive,” she said.
Paying for necessary medical care is a national problem. Presumably, no one is keeping a tally of the bake sales, auctions and raffles that are held around the United States each week, or the number of coin jars that crowd the counters of shops and convenience stores. If there were such a count, it could serve as a National Medical Misery Index — a firm number indicating how far the nation is from the ideal of ensuring affordable medical care for all its citizens.
It is good that people are generous, but their private generosity can never fill the gap between the medical care people need and the medical care the the current system is willing to provide.
Barack Obama won the presidential election last year in part on the strength of a promise to fix the American health-care system. So far, he has been able to accomplish little on that promise.
That may change today, if the Senate Finance Committee finally gets off the dime and endorses Obama’s nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. The administration needs an HHS secretary in place before it can begin the process of health-care reform.
Would reform be expensive? Yes. The 10-year cost is estimated at $1.5 trillion. But considering that the 1-year cost of the financial bailout has a bottom end about half that figure, that does not seem that high a cost for an entire decade.
And no one is Washington ever expected the careless spenders on Wall Street to try to pay their way out of hell with bakes sales and raffles. That would not be sound fiscal policy.
Well, bake sales and raffles are not sound health policy, either.
But right now, they are all we have.
Patrick S. Kelley
Editorial Page Editor
dale011 (anonymous) says...
I can't wait for Gov. Sebelius to be confirmed so we can get rid of her.
April 21, 2009 at 3:12 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
tbluma (anonymous) says...
dale Amen
Patrick What the hell are you trying to say? I have no clue.
This article is completly uninteligible to me, but alas I'm just a mere conservative.
April 21, 2009 at 7:59 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
seriouslyfolks (anonymous) says...
My concern is that if personal medical bills can easily bankrupt individuals who are doing OK financially, what will a nations medical bills do to a country that is financially in the toilet. I'd feel a lot better if they would have cut all the pork out of the unnecessarily huge stimulus package but they didn't.
April 22, 2009 at 9:53 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
butterfly (anonymous) says...
well I guess if as a nation we are already giving out medical care to people who don't work - i guess maybe we should look at making sure people who DO work can afford medical care.
I don't know what the answer is - but maybe we should start looking at supporting hte working people first, and let those who aren't working depend on their friends and family.
just an idea.
April 22, 2009 at 12:19 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
johnmayer76 (anonymous) says...
If you are uninsured and does not have insurance, you should check out the website http://UninsuredAmerica.blogspot.com - John Mayer, California
April 28, 2009 at 12:47 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )