In America as the financial crisis worsens, sick people are doing whatever it takes not to go to the doctor because even with junk insurance the costs are prohibitive.
I repeat, Americans are doing everything they can to avoid going to the doctor!
Simply put, medical care has become a luxury many Americans can no longer afford.
This is reality. My friend called me the other day, with her own story of financial woe which involved postponing medical care. Her story is by no means unique--it is commonplace in the United States.
The Washington Post is reporting that Middle class Americans are delaying or in some cases deferring entirely important healthcare as the financial crisis burrows deep into the wallets of Americans of every socioeconomic level.
Like I said, just yesterday my very middle class friend called me to say that her business is suffering. Long-standing clients are trimming their costs and canceling contracts with her firm. She's about to lay off people for the first time in 21 years. She said as an aside, that her health insurance deductible was so large that she would postpone just a little longer some long deferred routine screenings. She needed the money to use for her children.
You heard it. Right here in Manhattan, things are ugly. People are hurting and healthcare is fast moving right into the category of a luxury expense.
This identical scenerio is playing out across America. The California Nurses Association has been running a daily profile of an American under healthcare siege called Casualty of the Day. I urge you to read about the new casualty they post every day. It is scary. It is shocking. It is the truth in America.
We are all Casualties of the Day.
As the financial crisis worsens, more and more Americans will lose their jobs and their employer provided healthcare. But you'd think that as long as you manage to hang on to that paycheck and the health insurance benefits, you'll be okay if you get sick. Americans know that is just bullshit and nonsense. Americans know that even among the insured, healthcare bills are the number one cause of financial ruin and bankruptcy.
So what are Americans doing? Taking a pass on healthcare. Imagine healthcare has become a luxury, we'll just have to do without.
As Budgets Tighten, More People Decide Medical Care Can Wait
To monitor the multiple sclerosis attacking Ann Pietrangelo's central nervous system, her doctor recommends an annual MRI. Last year, the 49-year-old Winchester, Va., woman had to pay a $3,000 co-payment to get the imaging done.
This year, she's skipping the test. Even with insurance, it's more than her budget can tolerate, especially with the roller coaster on Wall Street devouring her retirement savings.
"I'm doing everything I can to avoid going to the doctor," she said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
And, as you know, we spend more than any other country and get worse results. Why? Because we have a parasitic middleman, the for-profit insurance industry, which skims 31 cents of every healthcare dollar.
How bad are things in the richest formerly richest country on the planet? How's this for bad?
U.S. infant mortality is increasing.
U.S. infant mortality ranks lower
After a century of declines, the U.S. infant mortality rate barely budged from 2000 to 2005, causing the United States to slip further behind other developed countries despite spending more on health care, according to a report released Wednesday.
The rate was 6.86 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 2005, virtually unchanged from 6.89 deaths per 1,000 births in 2000. In 1900, the U.S. infant mortality rate was 100 deaths per 1,000 live births.
The United States dropped to 29th in the world in infant mortality in 2004, the latest year that data are available from all countries, tying with Poland and Slovakia. The year before, it was 27th. In 1960, it was 12th.
http://www.mercurynews.com/...
And I'm really sorry to leave you with this, but not a day goes by that I don't think about my own grim healthcare future. I wonder how much more the insurance compnay will squeeze out of me when I renew in less than two months.
Health insurance premiums are escalating at an alrming rate. In California, they rose five times faster than earnings since 2000
Health care premiums soared five times faster than increases in salaries in California from 2000 to 2007, according to a report released Wednesday.
And there's no end in sight for this growing disparity between income and health care costs, creating the prospect of "diminishing economic and health security" for many Californians, added the report, released by Families USA, a national nonpartisan group based in Washington, D.C.
But the grim trend of health care costs carving deeper into incomes, or of health insurance falling out of reach for more adults, carries a potentially bright upside, Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, said during a Wednesday news conference.
The situation is so dire, he said, that it all but compels genuine health care reform in the coming years.
http://www.mercurynews.com/...
The United States of America is better than this. And on November 5th, we'll show the world we are better than this.