Needing help to breathe: Phoenix's body had been working so hard for 2 1/2 days, and then finally gave up. A trip to Las Vegas for a long overdue break, turned into a trip to Primary Childrens Hospital instead
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The US health care system is one bandaid fix, upon another bandaid fix, upon another. The doctors are as good as anywhere else, the staff are trained and the floors are clean - and yet as a country, the United States is ranked #37 as a health system by the World Health Organization.
This is because actually accessing care is impossible for tens of millions - even those that have health insurance, because they simply cannot afford to pay the bill.
The United States spends nearly $7000 per capita each year on health care - the highest in the world - and yet it is estimated that 18,000 people die needlessly each year, simply because they are uninsured or underinsured.
Phoenix's intensive care doctor was sickened to receive her into intensive care yesterday. She was sickened because Phoenix could have had an RSV vaccination two months ago, but because of the highly inflated cost of $3,300 for three needles, we had to literally turn the delivery man away at the door. This was a very difficult decision for us to make and it ate away at me for weeks because Isis nearly died from RSV at Phoenix's age, as many of you remember. Earlier that morning, Phoenix's doctor had admitted a young mexican boy who had become blind from an untreated tumor - this tumor was untreated for the exact reason that Phoenix didn't get her RSV shots - the cost.
The US health care system is one bandaid fix, upon another bandaid fix, upon another. The doctors are as good as anywhere else, the staff are trained and the floors are clean - and yet as a country, the United States is ranked #37 as a health system by the World Health Organization.
This is because actually accessing care is impossible for tens of millions - even those that have health insurance, because they simply cannot afford to pay the bill.
The United States spends nearly $7000 per capita each year on health care - the highest in the world - and yet it is estimated that 18,000 people die needlessly each year, simply because they are uninsured or underinsured.
Phoenix's intensive care doctor was sickened to receive her into intensive care yesterday. She was sickened because Phoenix could have had an RSV vaccination two months ago, but because of the highly inflated cost of $3,300 for three needles, we had to literally turn the delivery man away at the door. This was a very difficult decision for us to make and it ate away at me for weeks because Isis nearly died from RSV at Phoenix's age, as many of you remember. Earlier that morning, Phoenix's doctor had admitted a young mexican boy who had become blind from an untreated tumor - this tumor was untreated for the exact reason that Phoenix didn't get her RSV shots - the cost.
What is the price tag to live? It is estimated that 18,000 people needlessly die in the US each year due to lack of insurance or inadequate insurance and yet the US spend the highest per capita on health care, in the world
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Australia spends just over $3000 per capita and every person has access to care. The current Australian system, known as Medicare, coexists with a private health system. Medicare is funded partly by a 1.5% income tax levy (with exceptions for low-income earners), but mostly out of general revenue. An additional levy of 1% is imposed on high-income earners without private health insurance. As well as Medicare, there is a separate Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme that heavily subsidises prescription medications. Doctors still make great incomes and the public hardly notices the tax.
As my sister put it last night sitting by Phoenix's bed, "In Australia, we all take care of each other". I hope to be able to sit by my children's hospital beds in the future and be able to focus all my worry and attention upon my sick child living and recovering, rather than how on earth we are going to pay for it.
I hope for the day where we all take care of each other here too.
Are we saying that these beautiful special needs children do not deserve to live? Because that is what it feels like. To be profited from so ruthlessly is wrong to the core. They make this world a better place and are such a light to the people and community around them.
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Thank goodness for modern machinery and modern medicine, if only it was affordable...
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