Healthcare? We Do Not Care: Blood from a Turnip
Over the past two weeks, my mother had a stroke and resides now in a rehabilitation facility, and my father died sitting beside her over this weekend, after deteriorating for months because of a failing heart.
My family has been experiencing the nightmare that is the consequence of living in a nation that worships money above all else: being sick and dying in the U.S. remains a financial disaster.
We in the U.S. have purposefully and willfully monetized illness and death.
While my mother was in the hospital, she needed her IV changed, but the floor nurse on duty was having trouble with the new placement. She called in the head nurse, who asked me about the care my mother was receiving at the hospital.
I eagerly praised the nurses, doctors, and staff—all of whom had been wonderful, and it is no hyperbole, they literally saved my mother’s life.
I explained, however, that this recent experience combined with my own accident on Christmas eve had reinforced how senseless the healthcare and insurance systems in the U.S. are.
She was quick to concur, noting how often the insurance representatives dictated what doctors have traditionally decided was best for patients.
My mother’s insurance was not a provider for the hospital where they Healthcare? We Do Not Care: Blood from a Turnip | radical eyes for equity: