Free market, my ass

I found this piece by David Atkins on his healthcare travails to be of some interest because I had a similar encounter with the "best" healthcare system in the world earlier this year.

After several days of being sick with the flu, I began to feel a tightness in my chest and was having some difficulty breathing.  I felt so weak that just trying to stand was a Herculean task.  I was at work, so I called the Beautiful Girl (I was too weak to even think about driving) to have her pick me up and take me to the emergency room.  Once there, I told them my symptoms, and--no surprise--was admitted immediately.  I spent the rest of the evening with a series of nurses taking my blood pressure and a number of doctors coming in to talk to me (one of whom looked like she'd just left a goth convention, which isn't exactly comforting when you're very sick--Wednesday Addams is a cute character but I don't want her for a doctor).  The following morning they ran all the usual tests--and could find nothing to explain my symptoms.  After approximately 24 hours, they sent me home saying all was well.

I went to bed fairly early the evening I came home--if you've ever been in an ICU ward, they wake you on the hour and this particular one was about as warm as a fucking igloo, so I didn't find it particularly odd that I was tired.  I slept for ten hours, and felt well when I woke...for about an hour.  And then I proceeded to feel worse and worse, until eventually I went back to bed.  I woke up and told the Beautiful Girl that something was seriously fucked up with my body and asked her to drive me to the local clinic.  Once I got in to see the doctor, he listened to my chest and had an x-ray taken of it.  About fifteen minutes later, he walked in the room and said, "Two more days and you would have been in a lot more trouble."  In a nutshell, my lungs were full of fluid and I was on the verge of having pneumonia.  He gave me a steroid shot and a prescription for some antibiotics.  I literally started feeling better within a couple of hours.

Here's the kicker:  my visit to the hospital (including doctor's fees) totalled over $12,000 (of which $1500 came out of my pocket).  Twelve thousand fucking dollars to completely fail me as caregivers.  It wasn't as if this was some fucking episode of "House" with some bizarre and exceedingly rare disease.  I had the flu--my lungs were full of fluid.  One would think this wasn't particularly out of the ordinary.

The bill from the clinic?  $150--I paid a $30 co-pay and went on my way.

And like Mr. Atkins, this is where healthcare in America is failing all of us.  I--and the insurance company--paid seriously good money for an utter failure.  There was no recourse for this failure.  There is no accountability for this failure.  And I seriously doubt that those who created the free market envisioned a system wherein failure would be rewarded.  And the worst part is we just accept it.  I mean, if you went into Wal-Mart and one of their managers told you the new Cheesey Doodles were great so you bought them but when you got home you found they tasted like oak bark, you'd take them back to the store and get your money back.  Why do we accept any less from medical providers?

Figure that out and you might actually do something to help the staggering increases in healthcare costs.

Peace,
emaycee