Health Care Debate

Well, I find it ironic that the day the House is debating Health care, I had to avail myself, or rather my husband of our nations horrid health care system. You see, he was mowing the lawn. It had gotten rather tall in one area under a trampoline and wham, he ran over a piece of aluminum piping and it shot out and hit him extremely hard in the ankle. It immediately started swelling and by the time he was in the house it was black and developing a huge goose egg. Not knowing if it hit bone exactly, we knew we needed to have it checked out sooner rather than later.

So off we went. I thought about hitting the closest ER but then remembered that Solantic ( local group of urgent care centers) was open and usually a bit faster. For non life threatening emergencies, they are perfect. You have ex-ray, labs etc right there and you know walking in (thanks to their handy medical menu) how much every service they offer will be.

Now, we are blessed enough to have health insurance through my husband's job. This was not always the case. For 3 years while he went to law school and the first year he was a contractor for the state, he had no insurance. We learned to use Solantic wisely. With their up front pricing, I knew how much it would cost to get a throat swab if my son's throat hurt. I knew that if we needed an ex ray and a cast, how much exactly it would be. Sometimes, with my primary care doctor, I would have no idea and they were often very reluctant to quote me a price for a visit. "It depends" they would say. "between $50-$700, depending on what we think needs to be done." Then they would just do test after test and then hit me with a huge bill.

So we walked into Solantic, checked in, got him in a wheelchair and within 20 minutes was in a room getting him ex rayed. In another 10 minutes, the doctor walks in and explains it is not a broken bone, just a horrible contusion. Tells him to stay off of it, gets a nurse to wrap it with an ace bandage, gives us crutches and a prescription for some pain meds.

Within the hour we were in and out with everything we needed.

Now, yes, had the ankle bone been broken, then we would have needed more. Maybe even have gone to the hospital where he may have needed more invasive treatment. And had that been so, we would have done it.

But how many people go to the hospital ER rather than going to one of these type of facilities when they break their nose, or their arm. When they have a sinus infection or horrible sty in their eye. They do that because they do not have a urgent care facility in the area. Or they have no insurance and they know they can skip out on the bill at an ER if it is too high, but maybe not their regular doctor.

But wait, here is the interesting part. While in the room waiting for the ex-ray to be completed, I heard the doctor in the hall saying "Well, when we have socialized medicine, we could be done by now since we would have met our quota. We wouldn't have to work so hard to help the rest that come in, that is how it will be with Obamacare." WHAT!!!! He went on to say " Everyone wants nationalized healthcare...so that is what they will get. It will be crap"

Wow, and he is a doctor. Not a rich overly paid specialist. Just a guy working at an after hours and weekends urgent care center, seeing lawnmower jockeys, skateboarding fiends, snotty nosed kindergartners and moms with backaches. And he doesn't want socialized medicine.

You know what, neither do I. And at one time, I was one of those uninsured who wanted health insurance. But there are better ways. Much better ways.