America's health care

America's health care ills hit close to home

For Michael Moore, America's ailing health care system is the basis of his latest movie.

For Dolly Habeck of Roanoke, America's ailing health care system is the basis of her personal nightmare.

Moore's latest movie is frightening, even for those who have health insurance. Consider the 47 million Americans who walk a daily tightrope, with no safety net to break their fall into medical and financial catastrophe.

"If I had insurance, then I wouldn't have to worry," Habeck said.

She should worry. Habeck, 46, hasn't had insurance for about 12 years, and she suffers with diabetes and hypertension.

She is a cashier at Dollar General, and her husband, Sidney, 53, works at Elizabeth Arden. Together, they earn about $30,000 a year. But health coverage is out of their reach.

"They have insurance," she said of her husband's employer, "but he can't afford it."

Laura Wall of Garden City hasn't had health insurance for nearly three years. She was a full-time college student until May when she graduated from Hollins University.

"To be somebody without insurance, that's scary," said Wall, 50. "It's a great worry that hangs over your head."

In his movie "Sicko," Moore makes a strong case for government-run health care. And why not? Americans enjoy government-run education and postal service.

Whether Americans agree that universal care is the answer, it's hard to deny that the nation's profit-driven health care system is broken.

Moore's film grabs his audience early with footage of a man stitching his own knee wound because he can't afford to go to the emergency room. Viewers relive the heartbreak of a feverish young girl's death because of medical delays. Her mother took her to the closest hospital, but the woman's insurance company refused to pay for tests unless she took the child to one of its network hospitals.

Between the bureaucracy and her mother's unsuccessful pleadings, the child suffered a seizure. She arrived at the insurance company's preferred hospital just as she suffered fatal cardiac arrest.

The congressional testimony of an insurance medical director is startling. The physician remorsefully admits she denied a man's procedure nearly 10 years earlier for no good reason. Her denial saved her company a half-million dollars, raised her professional profile -- and cost the man his life.

Then there's the scene in which a hospital patient is dumped off by a cab driver in front of a homeless shelter.

But Roanokers don't have to look to Moore's big-screen examples to see America's health care infirmities.

Dolly Habeck had insurance with her job at Hardee's, but she also was having child care concerns about her young daughter. She put the child's need over the job. When Habeck left Hardee's, she left behind her family's health care benefits.

Subsequently, Habeck developed hypertension. A doctor treated her and billed the lowest amount possible.

"He told me I needed to get insurance, and I couldn't get insurance," she recounted.

About six years ago, Habeck was hit with appendicitis. She said she went to the emergency room three consecutive days before she was diagnosed. At one point a doctor told her, "We can't tell you what's wrong with you, but you know you're diabetic."

Habeck didn't know. During that time, her husband injured his shoulder.

"They were sending bills [from] everywhere," Habeck said. "It kind of freaked me out."

In all, the family racked up about $3,000 in medical bills, which Habeck said they have paid.

Moore spends the second half of his movie traveling to nations with government-run health care. Canada, France, England, Cuba.

Habeck, a soft-spoken woman, said she didn't know much about Moore's film. Wall hadn't seen "Sicko," but she's an outspoken supporter of its premise.

"There is no excuse for anybody who lives in the United States of America not to have health care," said Wall, who will begin a job this month that includes medical benefits. "Take care of your own damn people first -- at least 21 years old and under."

Without such a system, folks in Roanoke such as Habeck and Wall rely on services such as the Bradley Free Clinic and New Horizons Healthcare, and physician networks such as Project Access, all of which serve the uninsured for free or at a low cost.

Bradley, where 61 doctors and 38 dentists volunteer, recorded 15,675 patient visits last year. New Horizons, which employed one doctor and one physician's assistant last year, recorded 7,532. Project Access, which counts more than 470 family practitioners and specialist volunteers in its network, recorded 1,734 patient visits. They're necessary stop-gaps for thousands of Southwest Virginians.

"People have absolutely no idea the amount of free work that physicians perform -- and always have," said Estelle Avner, Bradley Free Clinic's executive director. "There are patients that ... change jobs and lose insurance, and physicians keep seeing them for free until they get on their feet again.

"There is a wonderfully shocking amount of care donated by physicians to patients in need," she said.

Critics of universal health care argue that it would cost too much.

In Moore's film, he interviews a former member of Great Britain's Parliament.

"If you can find money to kill people, you can find money to help people," the man says.

Shanna Flowers' column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays

source:www.roanoke.com