Freedom On Toast

So unless you live under a rock, you have probably heard at least some of the debate about what we are going to do about our health care system.  Certainly change comes with a cost - sometimes to our benefit…sometimes not.  But failing to change comes with a cost as well.

I have a friend whom I admire a great deal.  She is a strong, smart woman.  Who is married to a man who became ill.  As if the initial diagnosis wasn’t stressful enough, I am certain she would say “dealing with the system” was at least as stressful if not more so than the actual illness.

Case in point.  She was informed by the insurance company (yes, she is one of the fortunate who have insurance) that she needed to check every statement for accuracy.  Well if you have ever tried to read a medical statement you know they might as well have sent it in Russian.  Looks slightly familiar but who knows what it says.  She was, however, able to read a couple lines, one of which was a charge for $18.00 for 2 Tylenol.  Straight up over the counter - no codeine added.  $18.00 for 2.  Not sure about you, but I can get a bottle of something like 500 at my local Sams Club for 8.99.  Figure roughly 250 doses at $18.00 is $4500.  Yep, I had to do the math twice.  So for a bottle of Tylenol, the hospital is eventually collecting $4500.  Excuse the language, but that is a HELL of a profit.

So needless to say, if Tylenol costs $18.00, the actual treatment cost significantly more.  The hospital’s solution?  They told her she needed to turn over the Deed to her home.  This is so fundamentally wrong it makes my blood boil.  Here are hard working, smart, upstanding citizens who are basically being exploited during a time of crisis in their lives.  My friend, as I said, is strong.  I stand corrected, she is tough as nails.  I have no doubt she told them exactly what region of the universe they could relocate to.  And she didn’t turn over the Deed to her home.  But how many others aren’t that strong willed?  How many, in the face of crisis just do what they are told because they are worried about the life of their loved one?  Personally, I think this should be criminal.  As in a chargeable offense.  And I DARE a hospital to tell me ever to turn over the Deed to my home.  Trust me, I am a lot of things but quiet and passive aren’t two of them.

So, as you listen - and I hope you are - to the continuing debate, don’t forget the bigger picture.  While you may feel secure with your current health care situation, at any given moment, your family or friends may be faced with the unimaginable situation.