Last night one of my children ended up taking an unexpected ambulance ride. For those of you who follow our story, you’re thinking Noah experienced a setback in his chemotherapy regimen, but that’s not the case. Our 3 year old daughter slipped and fell, conking her head on the corner of a bookshelf, momentarily losing consciousness. Then with her eyes open, she looked dazed and confused. Not wanting to flirt with the possible consequence of a head injury, I called 911. Within minutes a mini-caravan consisting of first responders, an ambulance and a police officer rolled up out front. By this time our daughter showed no ill-effects from the fall, but according to the emergency medical staff protocol, she needed to be transported to the local hospital for a closer examination.
A Glimpse of Obamacare
After the initial triage…pulse, blood pressure, temperature , etc. An emergency room nurse showed us to the packed waiting room and assured we’d be called back soon. Five hours later, another nurse escorted us to a small room and we settled in to wait on the doctor. A kindly registered nurse asked a few more questions about her accident and apologized for our marathon stay in the waiting room, surrounded by folks with stomach bugs, sinus infections, and only God knows what other communicable diseases. While sitting in the waiting room, staring at a muted flat screen television broadcasting reruns on Nick at Night, a thought crossed my mind. If the protocol of EMT’s is to transport potential head injury patients to a hospital for further evaluation, why are we being overlooked and shuffled, waiting our turn behind people who suffered from cold symptoms and upset stomachs….Shouldn’t head injuries garner a bit more concern?
After sharing my daughter’s medical history with the RN, I innocently asked, “So, is tonight a preview of what’s to come?”
He smirked. “Tonight is like gravy compared to what’s to come.” He smiled wryly. “Of course that’s only my personal opinion.”
He explained that if Obamacare worked as those championing its cause suggest, it’d be a great program. “For instance, “ he said, “you would have probably gotten right in tonight. When everyone has health care insurance, they’ll be visiting their primary care doctors, freeing up the emergency rooms to handle catastrophic illness and injury.” He stopped typing on his computer and looked my direction. “However, lines to Primary Care Physicians will be weeks if not months long. Yes, tonight’s gravy….”
At 3:30 in the morning I’m not too quick on my feet, but I thought of several questions and comments that I wish I would have formulated before the nurse rushed off to check on other patients.
Personal Questions About Obamacare
- If lines to PCP offices grow to be weeks or months long, won’t people in need of special medications, for instance anti-biotics, still turn to emergency room care for a more immediate health resolution?
- Does Obamacare minimize the number of trips people can make to the ER, forcing them to sweat out illnesses instead of scheduling appointments three months out?
- Because of friendships forged through our hospital visits to St. Louis Children’s Hospital, we’ve heard the horror stories of government run healthcare in the UK. Many parents raise tens of thousands of dollars to bring their babies and toddlers to the United States to undergo surgeries that surgeons refuse to perform on the little ones in the United Kingdom. They fear diagnosing certain illnesses and maladies so that they can continue to brush off parents in need of quality medical care.
- The nurse suggested that he assumed doctors would need to add two or more hours to his or her day to shoulder the responsibility of a greater case load. What if doctors refuse to extend their hours?
- What if doctors refuse to take on new patients? Does the O-Care bill force doctors to add patients to their already crowded examination rooms?
And then two last questions crossed my mind…
Where will the people from the UK turn when Obamacare kicks us down the same socialist path?
Where will Americans turn?
“I lift my eyes to the hills – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth?” Psalm 121
God is truly our only hope. May He change America, drawing her back unto Himself.
Scary thoughts, Bryan. I think we need to pray harder than ever that God will open people’s eyes before it’s too late, and that they will research their voting options and not vote blindly.
It’s awful, Bryan. Mel is getting out, and he’s getting into private practice, cash only. He will not work himself to death, but we plan to keep some slots open for emergencies. The ERs have been this way for a long time, but never should your child have waited like that. There should have been a triage, and hers was higher triage. We’re dying in the ERs. Obamacare may just put a majority of hospitals out of business.
I think the ER and such forget the meaning of “triage”. When I worked as an EMR, we hit a huge scene where there were multiple injuries. People were tagged:black, dead. Red, urgent. Blue, mobile. etc.
Red was tended first, no matter if that person was first in line or not. Then those with injuries yet mobile and lucid. Then those mobile with non-threatening injuries. The dead were handled last.
That’s triage. Head injuries supersede those with colds, sniffles, stomach flu, etc.
First, Glory to God that your little one is okay! Second, God help us! The thought of what is coming if we don’t get rid of the health care mess is sickening. Everytime the government gets into something, it breaks and becomes unbearable for the people. God help us, please.
I’ve been waiting five months now to get in to see a new primary care doctor. I’ve had several visits to urgent care due to sinus infections (I wouldn’t bother with an ER for that!). I have state insurance because I am basically uninsurable due to some health issues I have. I have struggled with issues regarding one son too getting in to doctors and it’s been time consuming and challenging. This by the way started with Hillary Clinton. When she started messing with health care reform things took a dive. And the FDA will do whatever it can to close down any kind of cancer cure places (even if they prove they work). It’s all about money somehow – pushing pharmaceuticals and keeping people dependent on the government. I’m not saying there isn’t a place for catastrophic help etc and that people should be able to be insured, but Obamacare goes beyond that and takes away our freedom of choice for treatment.
I don’t think you understand what Obamacare does:
It gives the same access you have now to more people who need it. It looks like you’re a Christian. Ask yourself, would Jesus want these people to suffer or die when someone could help them? Would he want money to stand between the sick and the healer? That’s not the Jesus I’ve read about.
Jesus also wouldn’t have His people be forced to pay for things that go against their convictions and beliefs, such as abortion. Obamacare will force people to pay for these services, plus force those who cannot afford healthcare to purchase it anyway. There is a large percentage of people who make too much to be consider for state aid, but too little to afford insurance. If the healthcare is left to the doctors/providers/hospitals/clinics etc, and not controlled by the government, then it will be a system that will work.
A few weeks or months is actually pretty common when you start a relationship with a PCP. I suspect that routine things (like renewing prescriptions, etc.) can be handled by a nurse practitioner over the phone, so that might not mean there will be an extra long wait.
Honestly, I don’t think Obamacare is exactly what we need, but I don’t think it will be as painful/terrible as everyone is scared it will be. If you present people with the individual provisions of the bill, then most people love that idea. It’s only when you package the whole thing that people start getting worried.
Growing up in North Dakota, I know that our hospitals were always crowded with people coming down from Canada, as they couldn’t get the treatment/care they needed with their socialized medicine.
Obamacare makes me wonder a couple things. Where are Canadians going to go for health care now? And what will this do to the economy in border states? Not just the health care system, but hotels, restaurants, etc.?
Working in a doctor’s office I see how hard it is to fit our ill patients in to be seen. What is coming down the pike too is that less people will want to be doctors. They already work awful hours. The one I work for usually hits the hospital about 6am to start making rounds, gets to the office to start seeing patients at 8:20am and sees patients every 20 minutes until his last one at 4:40pm. This is with only a 20 minute lunch break. Then, back to the hospital to tuck in the patients we admitted throughout the day, revisit the really ill patients he saw that am who need more attention and see new consults there. That’s a normal day. If he is one call, that means manning calls from the hospital and patients at home all night. Then, they alternate weekends too. Where do they add on more? We aren’t a PCP office either. We see really sick people as a norm. We were talking about this today. We are going to end up like Canada. You are 60, have a history of a heart attack, no help for you if you come in the ER for chest pain. That truly happens! People really need to pray for our nation.
I have been there with you. My sister’s youngest son had a ladder crash down on top of his head. With two of her kids in tow, along with my two, she shuffled into the ER, Kirk’s scalp laceration staunched for the moment with a towel on his head. Yes, he was dazed and slightly nauseous. By the time I arrived, our brother had taken the three youngest with him and left my older son there with her. So, I sat and sat and sat some more with my pregnant sister and my nephew wondering why it took four hours for a 4 year old with a head injury to be examined. The reason: his head wasn’t bleeding anymore. Needless to say I had a few choice words go through my head but I settled for calling them stupid, idiotic didn’t-learn-a-dang thang hillbilly bumpkin nurses…and that was being nice. Took four staples to the head to close the gash…and it hurt because the doctor didn’t understand these words: our family has a high pain tolerance and pain medication takes longer to kick in for us than it does for other people.
Maybe my words were too large for the doctor. Anyway, we finally were able to leave. I thanked God that Kirk only had the gash and no other injuries such as a concussion. It was ridiculous. And why did others show up to see the doctor for a stomach virus or a cold? Go to a clinic, because I have no insurance and ended up in the ER with an a severe asthma attack, upper respiratory infection and pertussis (whooping cough). It cost me more as in ER bill and ER doctor’s bill. The hospital cut the bill by 90%, but not the doctor, so if I had waited until morning (which I couldn’t because I couldn’t breathe and had to have two breathing treatments), it would have cost me a little over $150 to $200 compared to $2000 knocked down to $200 plus $900.
ER should be for extreme cases like Kirk’s, mine, and your daughter’s, not for the people with a cut on the thumb or the sniffles.