Healthcare overhaul - at what cost?

There are many terms and ideas being thrown around today, and one that seems to strike to the heart of many people (especially if you are getting a stint) is universal health care. Now I could bore you to death with stats and figures, show you what plans have the greatest statistical chance of success and what figures back up who's ideas.

But instead, I'd like to look at this issue from the eyes of the working class person who does not have the time or the desire to look up this information. Those of us who simply want to live our lives, be healthy, and be happy. What does universal health care mean for the average citizen and family?

You wake up one morning getting ready for work. A cry comes from the other room. You check on your toddler and feel a has a warm forehead while she coughs repeatedly. Your child is sick.

If you're a parent, you know that this event is filled with many different emotions, from no big deal to dire emergency. Is it simply a small fever, common cold, flu (swine being worse), or something worse. Step one for most parents is a trip to the local pediatricians office.

You have recently received your new government health care card in the mail, so the trip is should be a stress free one. No worry of the visit not being covered by a greedy insurance company, no co-pay, and the expectation of the beginning of great medical care in America. After all, the public officials healthcare plan is good, so yours now is too!

Upon arriving at the pediatrician, you notice the parking lot is full of cars. No worry you say, I'll park across the street. The walk into the office brings you an unfamiliar sight. The office is full, more than you have ever seen. Once again you are not worried though, the new government health care that covers everyone means more doctors because their are more people! The wait in the office beings as usual, but the emotional fatigue begins to set it after the first hour and a half have passed with many more still in front of you. Guess they didn't hire any more doctors for this office.

Finally after two and a half hours, your name is called for service. You enter the room with your child as usual, the nurse asks about the general symptoms, and tells you the doctor will be right in. At least your finally in the room.

Another hour goes by. You begin speaking to yourself of how ridiculous this is, and how it shouldn't take this long at a doctors office. A knock on the door brings relief as the doctor comes in to examine your little girl. He seems agitated, grumbling about the tests results he is constantly waiting for. After what seems like a very quick exam of your little girl, the doctor tells you "She has a cold. Take this antibiotic, and if it doesn't get better in a week give us a call."

"That's it? No further checks, no tests to be sure? Are you positive it's just a cold?" you ask as a typical concerned parent.

"If the symptoms are still there in a week, bring her back" he says with a fatigued look. You reluctantly accept the diagnosis and head home.

A week goes by and the symptoms get worse. The antibiotics haven't helped, the fever is getting worse, and you begin to get very worried. You decide you don't want to go through a three to four hour office visit again, so you decide to take your daughter to the emergency room. Didn't make much difference.

The wait in the ER is 4 hours, people from all walks of life are here to seek medical care. Everything from severe accidents to small splinters are seen in this ER today. The process repeats. A long wait for admittance, overcrowding of the hosptial areas, and what seems like the same or fewer doctors available to speak to you.

Finally a doctor arrives to take care of your daughter. After some general diagnostic work, he orders swabs and blood samples to be taken. You think to your self finally I am getting somewhere.

"The samples will be available in a few days, we'll let you know what we find."

How could this be? You go into an ER, your daughter with a fever and a bad cough, and you are sent home to wait on the results from testing. You remember the time when it seemed like things were taken seriously, when the doctors wanted to know you were ok before you left the hospital. This is not the same medical care you remember.

A few days later, as your daughter continues to lie suffering from cold sweats, fever, coughs, and is continually crying in what sounds like dire painyou get the much awaited phone call.

"Your daughter may have a possible appendix infection, appendicitis. Further testing will reveal this for sure, you must schedule an appointment for testing."

So you schedule the appointment, for one week from that day as told would be the earliest time, and continue to wait for your daughters medical care.

That little girl would have been a bright spot on this world. She had her whole life ahead of her. A life of fun, excitement, and joy of experiencing all life has to other. Now her mother, grieving in her daughters absence, will never be able to shop for a wedding dress with that girl, or hold her first grand child from her daughter. The girls father will never give her away at the alter, and will never get to give her first boyfriend a hard time. That little girl....is gone.

The rupture of the appendix was sudden. After a rush back to the emergency room, it was too late for the little girl. The doctors left others waiting int he beds to try and save the young screaming child, but instead they watched her last breath come from her little body, only to not see her chest rise again in a breath. If only they had got to her sooner, paid more attention, had the results right away, and treated her properly for the condition, she may still be alive in this world.

This is the reality under universal health care. A purely fiction story you say? Imagine 40 million more people, whom are generally those in need of the most medical care, suddenly showing up in hospitals and doctors officers. The doctors are now dictated their pay and services by the government, and must place patients in order of highest chance of survival and lowest probability of immediate danger. The waiting lists are long, the office visits are frustrating, and the obviously already overwhelmed ER's are packed to capacity.

There should be new doctors, but a flood of people have come before new doctors can come in. Less sleep for the current doctors in inevitable, more harsh working conditions, and a dictation of care from a committee of politicians sitting thousands of miles away under minds the care of which doctors are tasked with providing. People go to the ER more often for minor things now because it's covered, whether it could truly wait or not. This is the environment of Universal Healthcare.

Other nations use this system. Britain and Canada both have stories of coverage for all with longer waiting times and rationed care. Their governments decide who gets to live and who dies, not their doctors. Many people go untreated or under treated, as in our example, for lack of available doctors. Keep in mind their population is lower.

Take a look in a metropolitan emergency room on a typical weekend night before universal healthcare. They are packed with people and not enough beds as it is. Add 40 million more people to this without having a much greater infrastructure in place and you begin to see the trouble with rushing this idea through.

A better bet would be to fix this system, along with other issues, all at the same time. We are required to place money into social secruity for retirement, of which we will most likely never see the full benefit. We pay an income tax so that our government can buy car companies, give money to banks, and tax us for everything we do. It's time to realize that the answer is not the government, it's the people.

A private health care fund would be a much better investment in the health of our citizens. A system that allows people to save for their health, while at the same time decreasing the amount put into social security. As the governments own reports have said, social security and medicare are nearly bankrupt as it is. Can you imagine the medicare system when it covers everyone, along with paying for social security and income tax? In a time of slowdown all over the world, losing even more disposable income is a bad idea.

Our healthcare system isn't perfect. We have people who suffer that deserve better care. Government provided care however is not the answer. At what point do we as a society tell people that we cannot afford to care for everyone at all times. That personal resonsibility is necessary to survive in this world. When do we realize that it is not the responsibility of the government to care for our every need. I hope this epiphany comes soon, as we are most assuredly running out of time.