TWICE

Now if you wonder why this is such a big deal, here comes a rather harsh statement, but you need to hear it. If you wonder that, you must be white and at least middle class with employment-based healthcare insurance. If that describes you and you are wondering just what in the heck I’m talking about, then you need to read on. I’m very serious.

People who can get “employment-based healthcare insurance”, i.e. you work a 40 hour week “for the man” and you get your insurance, vacation, sick time, etc., you will take yourselves to the doctor when you need to, do what you’re told to do, take the medicines you are told to take because you have the insurance to pretty much pay for most or all of the cost, and generally you lead a pretty healthy life. You don’t think a thing about it and you assume that everybody else leads the same kind of life.

They don’t. Not even close.

IF they are self-employed and IF they can afford to buy into a group program (which has premiums that will make you faint, I know because I was there for a few years), illnesses and accidents might be covered and sometimes routine work, but not often. If you are careful, you might find policies that cover medications at a discount (usually 50%). Other services? They’ll laugh at you.

Can’t afford those? Then you gamble that you won’t need the doctor and you use the Emergency Room if you just have to have one. (The ER staff just absolutely hate this, but these folks have little alternative.)

Ah, you say, but what about Medicaid? Peachcare for kids? Health Departments? Planned Parenthood? Other clinics?

What about them?

A. Medicaid –> (Includes Peachcare for kids, Health Departments) The problem with this is that often the care received is frequently skimpy and borderline sub-standard. Why? Because, by law, the fees that providers get is LESS THAN what they would receive from Medicare. Add to that the fact that all funds are channeled through the STATES, and do not come directly from the Federal government which means that funds do not have to be paid as promptly as they should be or could be. It also means that the fees can vary from state to state depending on the caseload. (The states get a lump sum of funds that they then budget out to the providers over the course of the year.) What this means for the providers is that very often they are providing care at below cost. Sometimes way below cost and they simply cannot afford to keep seeing Medicaid patients and keep their practice open. This is particularly true in inner city, poorer areas, and rural counties.

CLINICS–> (Planned Parenthood, crisis pregnancy centers, college clinics, church/religious based clinics) Various places try to keep these places staffed with at least a couple of nurses, and maybe a medical assistant, midwife, nurse practitioner, or physician’s assistant with a physician available by video consultation. It’s not perfect, but with telemetry, it can work as long as things go smoothly. But what if they don’t. That’s when the proverbial excrement starts hitting the curved surfaces of the rapidly rotating air movement device in ever-increasing quantities very quickly. The results are unpredictable at best. That is not what you want to hear when we are talking about your loved ones.

Non-profit, charity, for-profit–> It does not really matter. These entities are trying to SURVIVE in an environment and provide a service to a population that needs their services but cannot afford it on their own. I’m talking about low-income people who can be white, Native Americans, AAPI, but are more likely to be BLACK or brown.

It REALLY hits hardest for pediatricians and OBGYNs among the specialties. The cost of malpractice insurance has hit the stratosphere for them (last I heard was $250>K/year and that was 25 years ago. You KNOW it’s a lot more than that now.) The medical schools cannot graduate enough people and governments entice them with nice packages to go out to these places to work anymore.

Result? Women get pregnant and they are literally DYING. Or their babies are dying. Sometimes the children are dying. Or there are other undesirable outcomes such as brain damaged children, women left with scarred and damaged reproductive organs, hysterectomies, emergency surgeries, women who suffer strokes, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary emboli, heart attacks, permanent heart damage, kidney damage, diabetes, and other problems that either could have been prevented or treated in time would have been much less severe.

But what do we get here in Georgia?

A General Assembly that did not press the issue and a man in the Governor’s Mansion who VETOED the funding for rural healthcare for these clinics.

Now do you see why I am angry and want a seat at the table?

LIKE and SHARE this. HELP ME GET ELECTED TO THE STATE SENATE DISTRICT 29.

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