If Health Care Reform Were an ICU Patient . . .
January 27, 2010The idea that the Health Care Reform bill is on life support is disappointing, but not surprising. It was admitted in a weakened state of health. It appears suspiciously a victim of domestic violence by special interest groups. The bruises on its body resemble the outline of handprints of the insurance companies it was created to protect our citizens from.
So writes nurse-artist-blogger JParadisi RN in a recent post, which (whatever your beliefs about whether we should do something major soon about the increasing numbers of uninsured Americans and the skyrocketing costs of health care) has particular resonance as President Obama prepares to address the nation tonight about this and other issues.
(Full disclosure: Paradisi’s artwork appeared on the October 2009 cover of AJN.)
This is heartbreaking. I went to school to learn to provide health care. I want to be able to do my job. Instead, I am drafted into unpaid work for insurance companies, trying to figure out what my patients qualify for.
I work in a NICU as an extern as well as going through my OB/Peds rotation in school. I am overcome by how the lack of insurance keeps a mother from receiving adequate prenatal care which increases so many risks for that baby. As I have learned recently, our infant mortality rate has been increasing as it hasn’t in 40 years. It just shouldn’t be that way.