Sometimes things happen that make us go completely nuts. I hear stories every day that make me finally want to shout ENOUGH! We now have a new president and he has promised to focus on comprehensive health care reform, but we still are confronted with scenes from the past where Medicaid patients are routinely denied coverage by doctors’ offices across the country because Medicaid won’t pay the doctors enough. This clearly is not the fault of the new president, as these policies have fermented and percolated over the last several years with zero attention paid to them be the administration in charge.
America is currently focused on all of the money that banking executives are making, so health care providers are taking a back seat in the media, and I’m sure they’re enjoying staying out of the limelight. They don’t want everyone to know how much they are making. The average price for an office visit is in the $100 range these days, and that gets you maybe 5-10 minutes with actual face time with a doctor. That can quickly add up to about $1000 per hour, or $40K per week, or around $2 million per year. Now of course some of that money goes to utilities, rent, staffing, and equipment. But at those rates, they might be expected to forego a few minutes of fat pay to attend to someone who is in need.
Now, you may not be worried about this issue, after all, this is only affecting the people on Medicaid right? So if that isn’t you, then maybe you are reading this and saying to yourself, not my problem. Think about it. The unemployment rate is rising every month, and with this more and more people will be left without insurance and will be at the mercy of Medicaid as their only form of insurance. This may not be you now, but it very well could be you in a few months.
It often seems like we have lost our sense of caring for the less fortunate. Our self centered lives have isolated us in a way that requires money to play, and not everybody has money. It is a problem that we live in a society where a person in need is turned away because they have no money to pay.
We must step back and take a look at the system and realize that we’re all in this together. Our ability to unite as a people is one of the greatest things about our country. We must set aside our selfishness and greed and start to live by the basic principle of treating others in a way we would want to be treated. The people must begin to change the process, and once we do, then the government leaders will follow.
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