At least as important as separating the ideas of medical care and health insurance is the desperate need for medical care not to be so expensive.
When I was younger, I didn't have to stop and think about making a doctor's appointment -- or ask myself whether I was sick enough and whether I could afford this. Now I do. And the answer is almost always , "No."
I wound up in the hospital about 7 years ago and more than one doctor asked me, "Why did you wait so long?" Stupidest question I'd heard in a long time. Because I wasn't sick enough -- or too sick ... take your choice -- to sit in an emergency room for 7 hours waiting for someone to see me because "I didn't feel good." But when I turned glow-in-the-dark yellow from liver failure, finally I had something we could talk about -- at which point they were willing to see me right away.
The health care system in this country is far more broken than equating health care with medical insurance. There's a lot more to it than that.
True the system is far more broken than just equating health care with medical insurance but people need to understand the basics before you can move on to the complexities and explain in more detail. The news has it programmed in peoples minds that the two are one in the same and they are not.
A person can get treated without any money or insurance at the county hospital here at Ben Taub Hospital, the wait in the emergency room is quite lengthy, but that is because people use it as their "family doctor" in some cases rather than the free clinics in the different community areas of the city.
There is medical care available for sure, even for the most financially challenged person, and good care at that.
The expense is the real issue that needs to be addressed, both on the care side and the insurance side. The explaining of that will come in a future daily dose.