Frank Rich opines that Obama has given another memorable speech, this time on health care reform, but suggests it might be more effective if the President didn't allow the opponents weeks of unanswered propagandizing while he waits for the dramatic moment. It's a valid point IMHO, but I'd like to call attention instead to two other columns that demonstrate exactly what we're fighting over. The Wing Nuts win when they use their freak show to keep us from looking at why health care is broken in America - and what we could have if we only stick to our guns.
I'll tease you with two quotes, then take you the rest of the way after the jump.
"In the debate over health care, here’s an inequity to ponder: Nikki White would have been far better off if only she had been a convicted bank robber."
"Finally, the last thing I noticed about last night was something that wasn't there. I'm talking about that little meter in the back of my head, the one that whirred and spun and ticked off every charge from the minute I walked into an American ER until the minute I walked out again."
The first quote is from Nicholas D. Kristof writing in the same NY Times edition as Rich. He tells of two women - one died because she found it impossible to get health insurance because of an existing condition, and another chose to stay in prison because it was the only way she could get treatment for cervical cancer. Kristof notes something I picked up on a few weeks ago:
We now have a chance to reform this cruel and capricious system. If we let that chance slip away, there will be another Nikki dying every half-hour.
That’s how often someone dies in America because of a lack of insurance, according to a study by a branch of the National Academy of Sciences. Over a year, that amounts to 18,000 American deaths.
After Al Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 Americans, eight years ago on Friday, we went to war and spent hundreds of billions of dollars ensuring that this would not happen again. Yet every two months, that many people die because of our failure to provide universal insurance — and yet many members of Congress want us to do nothing?
Here's the numbers to know: 30, 50, 60. About every 30 minutes someone dies in America because they did not have health insurance. That's roughly 50 people every single day. That's another 911 every 60 days. Those numbers come out of the study linked above in the Kristof quote, and are from 2004. The numbers are almost certainly greater today - and increasing.
The second quote comes from Sara Robinson, writing from the socialist hell hole on our northern border. Struck in the middle of the night by excruciating pain from an unknown cause, she took herself to an emergency room at Lions Gate Hospital in Vancouver.
First, the waiting time between walking in the door and being admitted was literally about 45 seconds. American conservatives have filled people's heads with images of Canadians packed into old, worn-out, badly-lit, overcrowded emergency rooms bustling and echoing with writhing, moaning souls enduring waits that can stretch to days. Sorry to blow the fantasy, but last night, I walked into a newly-remodeled, gently-lit, serenely quiet lobby that I had completely to myself. There wasn't another human being in sight. Even the receptionist had apparently taken a break.
I doubled over on the counter, breathing through the pain (those long-ago Bradley childbirth classes are still paying off). Moments later, a nurse appeared to check me in. With a quick swipe of my BC provincial care card, my complete medical files glimmered onto his computer screen. He put a thermometer in my mouth, then confirmed the basic data while a printer spit out my wristband. The whole check-in process took under three minutes.
"It's really quiet tonight," I noticed, trying to look nonchalant while clutching my stomach.
"Actually, we're pretty full." This was my first visit since a recent remodel created a huge new ER ward. (They're expecting the world here: this particular hospital is the closest one to the skiing venues for next February's Winter Olympics, and also one of the province's major orthopedic centers. It's where Canada's athletes come to get put back together.) There were lots of people here -- but they were all already comfortably checked in and settled away in beds, rather than milling around the lobby waiting to be tended. In another three minutes, I was settled in, too.
Robinson's description of a visit to an Emergency Room sounds like a visit to another planet compared to the typical American experience. Granted it's in a major Canadian city and has been upgraded to prepare for an expected big event; the contrast with an overburdened system in America where ER's are the first and last resort for too many people is still striking. People with minor ailments aren't there because they can get those treated routinely elsewhere - and do.
Also missing is the U.S. paranoia about pain meds, in part because of the electronic medical records that save hours of paper-pushing and allow doctors to manage medication far more effectively.
Third: About those electronic medical records. I am a fan. A big one. Everybody in the BC health care system has their records in one big database, accessible within seconds in every doctor's office and hospital in the province. The doctors and nurses never have to waste a lot of time taking history, or guessing at the doses of the meds I'm taking (it turns out that dutifully reporting that "I think I'm taking half of that round green pill now" is surprisingly unhelpful) or wondering where those X-rays disappeared to, or cross-testing my blood type. It's all there -- including digital copies of all the X-rays, ultrasounds, mammograms, and EKGs I've ever had here. Every doctor that writes a prescription knows exactly what else I've been prescribed. It's hard to overstate how much this improves the level of care, even as it cuts costs.
(It's also another reason doctors can be so generous with painkillers. Since all the information from everywhere ends up in the same file, the e-records system automatically notices and flags doctor-shoppers and drug-seekers -- which, in turn, allows doctors to be much more confident about giving non-addicts what they need without being worried that they're enabling somebody they shouldn't be.)
Robinson closes by noting a really huge factor in getting good health care: not being nickel & dimed to death by charges, co-pays, and fighting over what is covered and what isn't.
Contrast that with last night, when my glorious morphine dreams were completely untroubled by the sound of that mental meter. By the time they checked me out at 10:30 am, I'd had a whole bank of diagnostic tests, including a long and detailed ultrasound exam that found twin bouncing baby gallstones. The ER then handed me off to an internist for further exploration of the issue. (I see her next week -- it's already set up.)
No bills. No worrying about how to pay for the surgery, either -- that will be covered, too. The morning nurse (the fabulous and charming Trish) pulled the IV. I got dressed, picked up my purse, and left. And that was it. No pain. No worries. No heartburn.
And that's all it should ever be. And could be. And will be, if we keep leaning on Congress to get this thing done right.
Go read both articles. Bookmark them, print them out, email them.
Then contact the White House, your Congress critters, and the local media to keep pushing for real health care in America. Donate money where it will do good. Write LTEs; call talk radio fear mongers and fight back. Public Option YES; triggers and Co-Ops NO! Demand a real health care bill, and don't settle for anything less. We can not afford to NOT get it right this time.