Our health-care debate has degenerated into a shouting match, so I wade into the subject gingerly. But three procedures in a month, plus the early arrival of my grandson, give me a fresh perspective.
For the record, I don’t think insurance companies are the devil. Same for the proposed alternatives. But I offer some observations.
Observation #1: Check-in at the hospital took longer than the first procedure and recovery time combined. Altogether, four people were involved – doctor, nurse, anesthesiologist and paperwork lady. The hospital billed nearly $1,500 for my hour in the recovery room. I could have recovered in a five-star hotel! So I saw waste and inefficiency in the present system that might be squeezed to help pay for a new system.
Observation #2: I have now been poked, scanned and bled like a lab rat. One recurring complaint in health-care discussions is doctors ordering expensive and unnecessary tests. For procedures one and two, the tests were reasonable and clearly necessary.
For procedure three, I have my doubts. I couldn’t help but notice the nearly empty waiting room – the economy has hurt doctors too. Assuming the worst, Doc 3 immediately ordered four tests that found nothing, while the fifth revealed a less serious ailment. He was either being thorough or was there an element of, “Hurray – a live one with health insurance!”
Observation #3: Technology is a fine thing. And it has a price. Technology allowed a technician to peer into my innards in 3D and to slice and dice them inside the computer. Goodbye exploratory surgery. Technology enabled doctors to do two procedures with nary a cut and show me color photographs of my organs as if they were prized pets.
In the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the banks of wires and monitors keeping my grandson and a dozen other tiny, delicate people alive are testimony to technology, highly trained doctors and nurses, and leaps in scientific knowledge. Outside, the hallway is lined with photos of preemies grown into normal, active kids. (Our little guy is now out of ICU and doing fine.) All this doesn’t come cheap, and we’ll gasp when we see the bill, but who wants to turn back the clock?
Observation #4: We’ve heard about the cost of risky behavior – drinking, smoking, obesity. While I’m not guilty of those, my second procedure resulted from risky behavior – skin cancer from too much unprotected fun in the New Mexico sun. Too late, I joined the Big Hat and Long Sleeves Club, like a smoker quitting after he has emphysema. Lucky for me, it wasn’t the fatal kind of skin cancer.
My fellow New Mexicans, have you seen a dermatologist lately?
Observation #5: Even though I have health coverage, a surprising number of costs bounced back to me. When I called the provider, some hapless clerk in a call center (who represents 15 to 20 percent of system inefficiency) attempted to explain. She could have been speaking a foreign language.
“I have no idea what you just said,” I told her. And I’ve worked for two insurance companies, written reams about the industry, and taken accounting classes.
The exclusions seem arbitrary. Lucky I’m working, I thought. The schedule, I’m pretty sure, was written by a guy named Igor, who’s chained in a cubicle. “Mwahahahaha!”
I admit that insurers have their problems. The current system doesn’t work for them either, so they’ve erected elaborate barriers. In the process, they’ve lost their way.
Observation #6: My care ranged from pretty good to OK, certainly not “the best in the world.” I was one of many on an efficient, fast-moving medical assembly line. In two procedures, doctors spoke briefly to me before I’d fully regained consciousness. I don’t know what they said. In general, information was in short supply, and I ran into walls trying to get my questions answered.
There are no silver bullets. We need to stop shouting and keep talking.
© New Mexico News Services 2009