When people deny the facts …
I had an op-ed piece published in the Citizen-Times today (http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20100228/OPINION03/100226027/1006). I talked about the fact that 47,000 people die every year because they don’t have health insurance — one every 12 minutes — and I got an e-mail from a person who believes every American has access to quality health care. He didn’t believe anyone dies because they can’t get care.
He didn’t have anything to back up his claim. I e-mailed back with Mike’s story and told him the 47,000 number comes from a study by Harvard Medical School that was published in JAMA.
It wasn’t enough. Facts don’t exist. I don’t know what his source if information is, but it’s wrong.
About 50 million Americans don’t have insurance and the access to health care that comes with it. That’s a fact.
Insurance companies routinely deny or delay tests and treatments to people who do have insurance. That’s a fact.
You can deny the facts, but you begin to sound like the old Monty Python sketch about the arguement service, where John Cleese simply disagrees with whatever is said to him.
Or the “Spinal Tap” bit where Christopher Guest’s character insists one guitar is better than the others because, “This one goes to 11.”
That was one of Mike’s favorite sayings. Whenever anyone refused to listen to reason or denied the facts, Mike would shrug and say,”But this one goes to 11.”
You can’t talk to some people.
It’s like saying you don’t believe Earth rotates around the sun.
The fact is, it does, whether you recognize it or not.
And this one goes to 47,000 dead every year.
Patient Pals & Family Friends
Life o' Mike has a peer support program for people with one or more serious or chronic medical issues or disabilities.
We aim to reduce isolation and fear among people who have conditions, including psychiatric illness, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, mild dementia or other cognitive disorder or disability, thereby reducing depression and complications as people learn to improve self-management of their medical conditions.
Patient Pals help alleviate feelings of isolation and frustration. They can help people develop a list of questions to ask the doctor and then accompany the person to the doctor to make sure all the questions are answered, taking notes to be sure the person understands the doctor’s answers.
Our trained volunteers also accompany their “Pals” to art exhibits, movies and walks outdoors, meet for coffee, call to check in and more.
Our Pals have experienced weight loss, improvement in diabetes, HIV, psoriasis, depression and more, just because they have someone who cares about them. Some relationships develop into longer-term friendships; other Pals move on to more independent lives.
Family Friends are there to help caregivers and other family members grow into their new role.
We need volunteers, who are asked to donate a minimum of one hour a week. Training is free and includes information on active listening, ways to help and when to know more help is needed.
And of course, we need funding.
To learn more, call Leslie Boyd at 828-243-6712 or e-mail lifeomike@gmail.com.
Heck, I was working in South Korea as an English teacher from 2006 to 2009 because, first, I couldn’t find any work here except low-end, fast-food jobs with no health benefits and second, because I need health benefits because of my my various health issues. When I was there I paid $45 a month for my half of my medical coverage for Korean National Health Insurance. The school I worked for paid the rest. The one time I had a major operation and eight days in the hospital it cost me only $1000, as compared to probably $30000 in the US for something similar. And yet because of our MORALLY CORRUPT Congress and greedy, STUPID people who are Republicans who vote for these people, we can’t have national health insurance. It’s ok for people to go bankrupt or just flat-out die for lack of care. Or better yet, wait hours at a place like ABCCM free clinic for meds, and then be turned away day after day. Or, be told since January that WNCCHS, which is supposed to handle health care for the poor in Buncome County, isn’t taking new patients, DESPITE getting $2.1 MILLION from the county for JUST THAT PURPOSE. People wonder why I am angry all the time. And why I am bitter. I am sick of living in an unjust society that treats poor people like trash and doesn’t make it possible for even QUALIFIED people to find work. It just pisses me off.