It was making the front page headlines. A little boy needed a transplant to stay alive. He was 5 years old and poor. That was not a good place for him to be in. I felt calm because my mother worked for the State and would give me the "inside" scoop. Sitting quietly at her break drinking coffee with me,she says"your quiet." I ask about the little boy. She says their is nothing to say. The budget is used up and their is no money to pay for a surgery where the boy could die anyway.
I am trying to stay calm. THIS IS MY MOTHER! "Mom I ask, why not take the money from some other place in the budget,build one less road, something like that?" "Michael I don"t make those decision"s . Now I am talking very loud and making my Mom nervous. "Talk to someone" The boy died.
That event happened years ago but it forever taught me about what it meant to be poor in this country. Having a diabetic son I have never been able till recently to buy him insurance at any price.
One day he breaks his knee,I set up payments and my son goes in for surgery as a charity case. His knee is throbbing and he needs a urinal. He buzzes several times for a nurse who is next store but my son is ignored, Finally my son pees on the floor. The nurse comes a half hour later and in a mad voice says "what?" Nothing he replied.
As a diabetic,He needs shots. The nurse forgets. In the morning his blood sugar is over 600. Anybody who know about this sort of thing;knows it should be 120 at the max.
The Doctor who saw my son in the morning was unconcerned about his blood sugar and said to eat his breakfast. My son took his shot first.
When he was discharged, no followup instructions were given him and I had to scream to get a list of things that he should do to make his knee better.
Charity Care means if you have a broken knee it gets fixed. You pay for everything else. Your treated as someone to get rid of fast.
I am treated at the Veterans Hospital and have always received great care. I have no unkind words to say unless its the several month wait for a surgery that is deemed non life ending.
The Affordable care act,if it does anything, gives some people a chance to feel as if they can be treated with common courtesy when they are sick. I have first hand experience to say the largest hospital in Seattle treats the poor like dogshit
"Things do not change;we change.""
-Henry David Thoreau