By Desi LaPoole
Healthcare is a human right. I’ve pretty much always believed in that statement, but never more so than I do now.
Last Monday, my uncle passed away in his sleep. This news came as a shock to me. My dad saw him just two weeks ago and reported that Uncle Don was just as healthy as a 61-yearold could be. There was really no reason why he should have died so suddenly. So, what happened?
On Thursday, four days before he passed away, the old tree that was always planted outside of his front door fell and crushed him. He was rushed to the hospital, where he sat for hours in the waiting room as he suffered the pain of one bruised kidney, a bruised stomach, one punctured lung and seven broken ribs. They treated him for two days before clearing him to go home. Uncle Don died the next day.
There’s something wrong with this picture. How does a man being treated for injuries as severe as a punctured lung and seven broken ribs get released from the hospital two days after being admitted? I’ll tell you how: he didn’t have health insurance. After being laid off from the company where he had worked for 22 consecutive years, he lost all of his benefits, including the health insurance that could’ve saved his life. He was only one year away from qualifying for Medicare, which could’ve saved his life. It’s deeply ironic that after decades of being covered, the one time he needed that insurance the most, it wasn’t there.
Now, I’m upset. Incredibly upset. Not only because I lost my uncle in a freak accident, but also that the hospital he went to did little to nothing about it. The thought that my uncle was wheeled out of the hospital with the same injuries he came in with two days after being admitted angers me to no end. How could the hospital turn him away in that state? How is it that they denied him care because he didn’t have the money they wanted?
Unfortunately, this isn’t a story unique to my family. All over social media, I’ve read stories about people being sent away by hospitals because they don’t have insurance, diabetics skipping their insulin because it’s too expensive, people losing teeth because they can’t afford a dentist, people dying because going to the hospital costs too much or people taking Ubers to hospitals because ambulances are too much money. This is dystopian to me.
I’m not comfortable with the fact that we are asked to trade absurd amounts of money for our lives. I mean, it can cost $30k to give birth to a baby.
Everyone living in this country should have full and equal access to healthcare. Honestly, I don’t know a whole lot about the ins and outs of the debate over healthcare, but I’ll still give my two cents: I don’t care how it’s done, as long as everyone, regardless of their income, is able to receive adequate and affordable care. Because, at the end of the day, I wouldn’t wish what my Uncle Don went through on anybody