Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Quick update

So the first test of my nursing school career went fairly well. It was mostly straightforward and I think I will get a high B/low A. Not bad. I got to school a little early today so I decided to update a little bit.

Last night was my first exposure to the political climate in GA. There's a public hospital that's on the verge of shutting down mainly due to lack of funding. This hospital is a teaching hospital and has ties with two prestigious medical schools here. Unfortunately, there's a lot of discussion about this hospital because it serves a majority of uninsured and under-insured patients who would be displaced should the hospital close its doors. The "solution" which has been proposed is a restructuring of the hospital which will allow private corporations and philanthropists to support the hospital. But there is a severe mistrust of the "restructuring" process and many think it will end this hospital primarily serving the uninsured/under-insured.

So last night I attended a panel discussion on the hospital's future. There was so much hostility -- it was palpable. The state representative (Republican -- ::vomits::) was awful. She absolutely tried to make the problem one of immigration reform, not about the growing population of uninsured Americans. She intimated that people chose to be uninsured because they thought they were invincible and didn't need coverage. WTF!? Is this woman living in the same country as us? People don't have insurance because it's fucking expensive. Outrageously expensive. I barely had insurance and know many who would *love* to have insurance but coverage is well beyond their means. This problem of this hospital is not an isolated problem, but a larger problem of health care.

Any thoughts?

2 comments:

None said...

Glad you think you did well on your first test.

Your story about the public hospital situation and the state rep's notion that people who go without coverage do so b/c they think they're invincible--as if it's a choice they make--is insane. First of all, a lot of the uninsured or underinsured in this country are children. Politicians like to forget that. They like to talk as if everyone who goes without insurance or benefits from public assistance is an adult, and that just isn't the case. Secondly, you're right that private health insurance is crazy expensive and impossible for some people to get even if they have the money. And a lot of times, even the insured find that their insurance doesn't cover x or y and they end up screwed. As you probably know, Bush is planning to veto a major health care funding bill b/c he says that it means the state will provide health insurance to people who could afford private insurance. Ha! I'd like to know why he thinks that people with low or even modest incomes can afford or even qualify for private insurance. I, too, wonder what country people live in sometimes.

I'm glad people like you are getting into the medical field. It can only be for the good.

Em said...

Ahhhh...Georgia politics.