In the richest country on the planet . . .
He is all of us.
His story could be yours or mine, that's what makes it so damn powerful. So horribly American and so tragic.
Last night I spoke to one of us who is ill. I wasn't going to write anything about this, but you know how sometimes your mind won't shut down, you toss and turn, and you need to spill out your heart. Today is one of those days.
He and I had been exchanging emails, he sent me a bunch of pictures of his beautiful young children, then we decided to talk.
Who is this brave Kossack? He's a quiet, hard working, middle class American citizen hero.
We talked at length. He was coughing a lot. He has something internal which he believes is pressing on his diagphragm, he's bloated, he's lost weight--you can imagine. He is so damn calm, such an inspiration.
I gather he had some private Murder By Spreadsheet catastrophic insurance which was cancelled because he made a late payment.
Perhaps on a winter Saturday, one Congressperson will read this and hang his/her head in shame. I hope this representative of the American people, will ask God for mercy for allowing such suffering to be routine in the United States of America.
This Kossack lives in what I would describe as a merciful midwestern state and he hopes, as do I, that he will be enrolled in the state Medicaid system early next week. He described the enrollment process and I breathed a sigh of relief, and commented that it sounded reasonable, even straightforward. You know what he said? He said, "around here, we believe in helping one another." You remember those great American midwestern values we still hold dear. Those traditional family values which the thugs and criminals, running our country don't understand and have made every effort to destroy.
Once he is approved, God willing, he will be able to access healthcare. He's waiting and hoping--it should happen by Tuesday or Wednesday, meanwhile, yes, he's in pain. Whatever he has is making him very uncomfortable.
What this Kossack is enduring at this very moment is reality in America. Please don't look away. This is happening to millions and millions of American citizens, because healthcare in our country is not a right, but a privilege.
Here's another American reality, something that's going to hurt many more American citizens.
Pretty soon you can expect a Medical Credit Score.
Health credit risk weighed:
Industry develops a scoring system to judge patients' ability to pay
The new medFICO score, being designed with the help of credit industry giant Fair Isaac Corp., could make its debut as early as this summer in some hospitals.
Healthcare Analytics, a Waltham, Mass., health technology firm, is developing the score. It is backed by funding from Fair Isaac, of Minneapolis; Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp.; and venture capital firm North Bridge Venture Partners, also based in Waltham. Each kicked in $10 million for the project.
The score is already raising questions from consumer advocacy groups that fear it will be checked before patients are treated. People with low medical credit scores could receive lower-quality care than those with a healthy medFICO, they argue.
"How much assurance do I have that they're not going to look at this medFICO first, before they decide whether to treat or not?" asked Linda Foley, founder of the Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/...
The arrival of medical credit scores should really alarm you.
The good news is, as I discussed last night with my remarkable Kossack friend, I believe a tipping point will arrive. We're moving into a major economic slowdown. People cannot afford to heat their home, put fuel in their cars or put food on their tables.
Pay for healthcare? Forget about it.
Emergency rooms across America are being flodded with the uninsured and the underinsured.
As the healthcare catastrophe mushrooms, the rage is building to a deafening climax.
The mounting rage should really alarm the do-nothing political class.