Today is a guest Blogger: Barb Bloomfield
Barb Bloomfield worked as a union organizer for hospital workers, and later as an a geologist involved in investigation and cleanup of contaminated groundwater. Just before she retired, she got a bad case of arthritis in one of her knees. While she was getting physical therapy, which was paid for by Medicare, she thought about all of the people who had to pay out of pocket or couldn’t afford treatment at all and decided to get involved in the campaign to make health care available to everyone. Since her retirement, she has been volunteering with the Pennsylvania Health Access Network in the campaign for access to quality and affordable health care.
A SMALL WINDOW INTO THE BRITISH NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE
In August 2011, my partner Rich and I went to England. We decided to go to Cornwall, the southwestern corner of the country, where, I am told, half of England spends its vacations. We went because I love high cliffs with crashing ocean, I wanted to see a moor, and because Tintagel, the legendary birthplace of King Arthur, is there.
One day, we were having lunch at a cafe at Crackington Haven, a deep, horseshoe-shaped cove carved into the high cliffs by the local river and the ocean. The beautiful beach was made of coarse sand and ocean-smoothed pebbles and cobbles. We sat outside on the patio to enjoy the pleasant weather and dramatic view, but we and a young lady at another table were being attacked by yellow-jacket bees, so after trying to help each other swat them away, we went inside.
Our new young friend was wearing a T-shirt that had something to do with health care, which I asked her about. She told us the most amazing story:
She was in the middle of a 630 mile solo walk around Cornwall's coastal path, which follows the edge of the land just as it drops to the ocean hundreds of feet below. The Cornwall peninsula is a rugged plateau with steep narrow valleys carved by rivers on their way to the sea.
Shelly was walking to raise money to buy a physical therapy machine for a hospital - the Bristol Royal Infirmary - where she had been treated for a congenital deformity in her legs - extreme knock-knees - and was facing a lifetime in a wheelchair. She had had four surgeries, and then spent 20 hours a day in a machine which continuously moved her legs to strengthen her muscles. Now she could walk like any healthy young person does without even thinking. What a wonderful way to celebrate her full recovery, and what a story!
But, I asked who had paid for her surgery? The British National Health Service had paid for everything. Then why did she have to raise money? She said she was grateful for the medical care that had enabled her to live a normal life and decided a good way to "give back" would be to use her walk to raise money for another machine to help other patients get the treatment they needed.
Twice in the summer of 2011, I had seen people in the U.S. who appear to be living with this uncorrected deformity. Once was in July at the Butler County fair, where a beautiful young woman was walking painfully but gamely, and another time, in Philadelphia where at a downtown intersection a young man was struggling to get across the street before the light changed.
What if they had had the protection of the ACA and its basic patient protections such as insurance companies no longer being able to discriminate against people with preexisting conditions? Would they be able to access the amazing treatment Shelly received? What if doctors and care-givers didn’t have to make decisions about necessary health treatment based on a patient’s health insurance? Will these people be better off in 2014 when the uninsured can now access health insurance from an affordable new insurance marketplace called the exchange?
Shelly finished her walk on October 1, 2011. I am hopeful.
No comments:
Post a Comment