http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXXBCFnhsUc
I was engaged in this health care debate long before yesterday, when it became a personal reality: I was wakened by a call from my grandmother’s nursing home, informing me that she had fallen and was very sick, and that she had been rushed to hospital by ambulance. I spent the day with her, watching the doctors and nurses perform chest films, two courses of blood work, an ECG, a CAT scan and three IV hookups to insure they came up with the correct diagnosis. Some of the nurses and one of the doctors in particular were stellar – at no time did I feel like Gran was being ignored or left in incapable hands.
This is probably a good time to note that the old bird will be 92 at the end of the month, and that the closest thing to a Death Panel was the doctor checking with me – as the only family member currently in the country – as to her End of Life plan, which he pointed out wasn’t an issue with yesterday’s treatment.
This is also probably where I should note that, for ALL of these procedures, including what will probably be more pokes and prods over the next few days that she spends admitted, the only charge I can expect will be for the ambulance, but it’s possible even that may be covered.
So for these reasons and more, watching the debate South of the border spin out into the lunatic fringes would be risible if it wasn’t so deadly serious. One line spoken by Roy Romanow summarizes the view from up here: “The whole system seems to be victimizing its people.” It’ll be interesting to see if the majority of Americans can set aside their ingrained tax aversion and capitalist obsessions to make the changes that will benefit their entire population.
(And just think, we can finally get Sarah Palin the psychological help she so clearly needs.)