Rowan we need one million stories like this because we know the stories are out there.

I do question one thing. Candide saw a bill have this big and found out his insurer only had to really pay 750 bucks. I mean the insurer had to pay it was just through some agreement, that was the amount actually paid.

If fifty million have no coverage at all, I bet another fifty million would have been stuck with paying half your total bill. Or the entire bill for that matter.

This is a great post, an important post.

Rowan - first, my best wishes for your health, and I thoroughly agree with you about the need for universal access to adequate healthcare through appropriate and fair insurance mechanisms. Just about every other civilized democracy already knows this, and we've talked about it at TPM enough for me not to repeat the same explanations.

Instead, your story is so compelling that I will use it to vent rage that has smoldered inside me since yesterday, when I read comments from a participant in another thread that left me almost speechless in its callous indifference to the welfare of others.

This individual suggested that we should abandon the health insurance concept. In her view, every ill person should simply apply for a government loan to pay for the services they need. If necessary due to the expense, they might have to pay it back gradually throughout the remainder of their lifetime, or from their estate after death, rather than "ripping off" the rest of us to pay it for them. She suggested that the government might step in to help, but only if the ill patient was so poor that he or she could never pay back the loan.

I apologize to others for taking space to rant on this atrocity, because there is no possibility it would ever earn any credibility in the social or political arena. Nevertheless, there are millions of Americans currently in the situation she wished to impose on all the rest, and this emphasizes the urgency of reforming healthcare to meet the needs of these people. By personalizing it, you have lent added force to the sense of urgency we should all share.

I wish you well in your political advocacy, and even more in your personal battles.

I agree Rowan.

I want to see health and justice for all.

I will keep fighting for universal, single payer health care and taking the profits out of our health care system however long it takes:)

I am glad you were able to get the treatment you needed. So many people cannot. I am well and grateful to be so.

But I fight for so many people who are suffering right now over their health or the health of a loved one and for those declaring bankruptcy today due to health care expenses.

We need to get universal health care in place for sooooo many reasons and then as Jason keeps pointing out, let's look for more of the causes of so much disease and unhealthiness and do something about those things causing our population the most harm.

One of the things about this whole healthcare debacle that makes me CRAZY is that the very people who are screaming that they don't want the government involved in their health care are the same ones that would be screaming bloody murder if their parents (or themselves) were taken off of medicare...go figure.

AND, the ones that are saying to leave things the way they are, will not listen to anyone who says that the status quo is leading to a place where none of them will be able to afford the insurance they have now in a very few years...

Too many people have already made their minds up based on faulty information and scare tactics, and few are listening to each other, or the people who know what is going on. It's a mess and it's about to turn my brain into oatmeal and cause my husband and I stop speaking to each other...

Rowan, I wish you all the best in your recovery.

Rowan, I too think of you often and wish you a total and rapid recovery.

Like Stilli, I am amazed at the people with Medicare that don't understand the connection between it and the government. However, the politicians do understand and that's why the conservative ones are so afraid of it. Just like in 1994, they understand that the best way to remain in the minority in Congress is for health care reform to pass under the Democrats.

Rowan. Don't quit your job

Oy! Whatever you do. Don't quit.

(hugs)

Rowan,

My bill for a recent five-day stay at the hospital was $72,000+ (and counting) and I didn't have surgery or cancer treatments. I "inherited" a life-threatening blood disorder and required daily infusions of immune globulin as well as the occasional infusion of blood platelets. What happened was that my blood wasn't clotting and I was in danger of bleeding to death internally.

The doctors at the military hospital emergency room strapped me onto a gurney, told me not to move or cough, and sent me via ambulance to a city-owned private hospital for treatment.

Apparently, I had experienced a "rare" reaction to one of the 4 antibiotics previusly prescribed for a staph infection by three different doctors(all because I couldn't get an appointment to see my doctor). And I wonder who is keeping track of the "rare" instances of negative reactions to sulfa, the antibiotic generally prescribed for the treatment of MRSA staph (it turned out not to be the MRSA strain).

Long story short: I nearly bought the farm because I wasn't allowed to see my primary care physician (wait time is generally 5 - 6 weeks), not at the onset of the staph infection and not even after my release from the second hospital with orders to see my physician two weeks later (no amount of pleading or explanation could get me an appointment).

Actually, I have never met the man (my assigned PCM), even after the month-long ordeal invlolving 10 doctors and 30 or so nurses. Needless to say, I now have a new PCM. Once able to do so, I catapulted off the hospital bed in a barely-contained rage and confronted the people who refused me care when I needed it (nevermind the outlandish hospital bill that could have been avoided). All hospital approvals had to be approved retroactively. I dared them to refuse.

I would have dropped dead either of the staph infection or of the blood disorder if I hadn't gone to the emergency room (twice). The staph infection that started as a tiny blemish on my check advanced quickly and spread to the lymph nodes in my neck, which required 2 days in a military hospital and intravenous antibiotics. That was just a few days before the bad reaction sent me back to the hospital.

Lucky for me I have health insurance, though I was refused use of it until I went and pitched a holy fit, and that was after the fact. Without health insurance, I would now be responsible for paying more than $80,000 in medical bills. We don't happen to have that kind of cash lying around as I'm sure is the case for most Americans.

This is one reason to fight this fight with both barrels blazing. There are 50 million+ other reasons. Three days ago, I found out that my mother has cancer. Her doctor ignored her medical complaints for over a year. Her new doctor finally ordered a CT scan and found a large mass. A biopsy revealed that the tumor is malignant. Her previous doctor refused even to order an X-ray... for more than a year, despite her contant complaints!

I'm so pissed I can't see straight. I'm done playing nice. Our entire health care system is one giant boondoggle no matter what kind of health insurance plan you have, and we need to stear it clear of the profit motive, period. At the very least, a public plan is an absolute must.

Rowan, I wish you a speedy recovery. Thanks for the post.

I am up at this hour for one reason only. Mr. TheraP has an infection in his gum. Not gum disease. In fact the dentist doesn't even know what it is. But gave him 10 days of antibiotic. Of course Medicare doesn't cover dental care. And thank goodness we live 5 minutes from a hospital and can go there if this thing gets worse over the weekend.

In my concern for his health, I wasn't falling asleep and went out to the kitchen - only to see 2 deer lying on the back lawn. That led to a concern, what if his yard work last week has led to lyme disease? Could that cause a gum infection? Which is why I got on the web. It doesn't look like it...

Rowan, I am glad you feel well enough to have written this stunning blog! You laid out the issues so well. There's nothing like a bright person able to make use of their own difficulties to get to the heart of the health care problems. They are legion!

I think the biggest obstacle is willful blindness on the part of people who are well and blindly assume they will continue to be well. And continue to be insured. Who also seem to lack empathy or a willingness to really consider that all of us are here on this earth as fellow persons and that we both need each other and bear responsibilities for each other. It's a moral issue. It's got a spiritual dimension. And it's become a political football, in which political terrorism lies at the worst end and simple lack of empathy at the other end, when it comes to people opposing something which should be a basic social good (not, as you say, a commodity).

Grrr..... Rant! Rant! Rant!

Super blog! Super discussion. And what galls me the most is we're likely wasting our breath here. Because we iz the little guyz - and we getz the short end of the stick!

All my best in your healing, Rowan! May the writing of this blog bring you endless good karma! Much love too of course. :-)

These are all reasons why the majority of health care should be either non-profit or limited profit. After all, in a for-profit business, it's all about raising revenue and cutting costs. That being the case, where's the incentive? Is it to provide the best care, or to make and keep the most money?

By limiting or eliminating the profit motive, many of these stories wouldn't be told.

I'm not saying that health care professionals shouldn't be well paid, they should be. They undergo a lot of training to gain their abilities. A hospital, HMO or health insurance company operating with a profit motive will be more loyal to the bottom line than to patient care, as we see everyday.

Ask yourself if the people disrupting the town halls care a rats ass if you die tomorrow because you don't have health care.

Ask yourself if the far right media keeps the hate boiling because they care if you lose your house paying off a health bill.

The real issue is why do we spend ONE TRILLION dollars a year in so called defense of a country that has no real enemy that could attack it?

I have long argued that defense should be cut to a max of 200 billion dollars to pay for health care and to rebuild a falling apart nation.

The real fight Obama should have taken on was a massive reduction in the defense budget.

Nothing can change in a meaningful way until the concepts that define the discourse in this country change.

That's why I do not have any faith in a meaningful reform.
I don't believe the congress has enough decent people to achieve it.

And BTW, I do not need health care, my coverage is as good as the presidents.

I do however believe the first priority of any civilized people is to take care of each other.
It has never been a question of enough money.
It has always been about politics and enriching the wealthy few.

I am disgusted beyond belief as to what is going on in the health debate and see massive violence coming,as I have posted before, because a health bill will be passed and Obama will be around 7 more years, and all the crazies will not be able to contain themselves.