The unraveling of America's healthcare system

A tragic story here in Ohio that got me to thinking.  God rest that child and her grieving parents.  I don't even like to think about it.  But here's the thing.  

Most who ignore the news media are aware that death from medical malpractice is no small thing, and hasn't been for decades.  Whether it's getting worse proportionately or not, I don't know.  As much as we like to imagine that there is some treasure vault out there with a stat for everything that needs proven, it doesn't always work that way. 

Especially when something, like the medical community, is what I call the Priesthood of Privileged Professions.  Like academia in general, or education (public or higher), or the scientific community at large - at least the scientific community that toes the line.  Ever notice that these are professions or vocations that the news media will promote, but seldom if ever critique, no matter how bad things are or how many failures stack on failures? 

So that there is no small number of Americans who die from medical malpractice each year, though it is seldom mentioned, is not surprising.  Likewise, there are the growing problems with medical care in general.  We've seen it ourselves in recent years.

The last time my mom had a stroke while she was still living with us, my oldest son and I took her to the emergency room.  By then it was not the first stroke she had, and we were fast learning the symptoms.  But you couldn't get anyone there to say she was anything other than just old.  Maybe a UTI.  Both of us fired back and said dig deeper, it's a stroke.  My normally introverted oldest became almost angry, telling them we've seen stroke, we know stroke, this is a stroke.  After about ten minutes of back and forth the ER doctor, she finally agreed to run some tests in that direction and, would you believe it? 

But then a year earlier, she had a stroke, they knew she had a stroke, and she remained in her ER bed for over a day, because there was no room at the inn.  Or the hospital in that case.  And this isn't some Billy Bubba's Hospital and BBQ medical place either.  It's one of the premier hospitals in Ohio.  Yet they just didn't have the beds.  Finally they discharged her because, well, that was that.  They set up some homecare visits instead. There simply were no rooms. 

This is happening more and more as well.  Even critics of America's healthcare who pine for good old socialized medicine have conceded that the one area American healthcare did shine was speed of service.  While the legendary wait times in more socialized environments is a thing, in America it's one problem we didn't have.  Until now.  

My third son had a health emergency a year ago.  He went to the ER, and they patched him up, but told him to call his primary care provider ASAP.  So next day he did.  He explained the problem, what the ER said, and his provider's office said sure, they can get him in.  In about three weeks.  He explained he actually needed seen, you know, now.  But that was that.  They told him to go to a clinic or wait.  It made me think of this scene from Caddyshack: 

Or, are you sick?  I'm afraid we can't see you.  What?  That's what you're there for! 

I've experienced the same thing.  As have others.  I know some who have said it seems like the medical offices are just not invested in things like making you better anymore.  I'm sure it's not all like that. But there comes a time when you start thinking it can't just be our little corner of the world and everything else is just peachy. 

But it's this sort of thing that is under reported, if reported at all, that so many don't want to talk about, that more and more people are seeing and getting fed up with.  I know it's tough to think things are as bad as they seem.  We love the ones who say 'Democracy isn't collapsing, America isn't unraveling, why things always seem that way but it always works out!'.  

Yeah, they often do seem that way in this fallen world.  They always seem to be falling apart, going from bad to catastrophic, or on the edge of collapse.  And often it turns out things finally cross a bridge and pick back up.  But sometimes they don't.  Sometimes those yelling the sky is falling loud enough turn out to be vindicated when, in fact, the sky finally falls.  And we know from history, the sky will fall.  And if the good guys don't admit things are unraveling fast, the bad guys will be happy to step in and do something about it, even if it's all the wrong things.