Bad Post

February 10, 2009

So, it's been a few weeks since I blogged. I apologize for my absence. My goal to blog twice a week has turned into once a week. Unfortunately, I haven't even kept that commitment. I've been focused on work and retaining my job in this ludicrously harsh economy. You see, the salary is nice and necessary but the health insurance is essential. Without health insurance, I would be completely broke within a few months.

Let me dimensionalize this for you. Life sustaining dialysis costs over $10K a week and in the past year, I've rolled up about $800K in medical costs when you include surgeries and hospitalizations. Most dialysis patients average two hospitalizations every year. So, this is pretty common for my situation and for the foreseeable future. When you routinely rip open bills that have a $60K bottom line that say "not covered," well...you shit yourself. Then you spend hours on the phone with your insurance company who routinely tests your mettle and will to live with a ticker tape parade's worth of bureaucratic paperwork. It's a freaking part time job keeping them paying, getting approval for meds, etc.

Here's the secret. Insurance companies don't make it easy for you, not because they're grossly incompetent, as is the widely held view. No, it is because they would prefer that you die. At a minimum, they want you to give up trying to get them to reimburse. At best, they want to pass the expense along to someone else, preferably the government, your employer, the doctor, the medical facility, and especially you. Why aren't health insurance companies more efficient? Because there is no monetary incentive in it. There's no profit in streamlining the process. Make no mistake, the vast majority of health insurance companies are profitable.

Why do I tell you this? Why tell you that I'm working for the health insurance, how I'd be completely screwed without it, and then bash it like an electronics store window in a riot? It's simple; the system is broken and must change to benefit ALL of us. I don't like being a drain on the medical system and the economy, but I know something you most likely don't. It's only a matter of time and circumstance before you end up in my shoes, or worse, in some uninsured person's shoes. It's a part of the human condition, living a mortal life. Despite what you tell yourself, you will grow old (if you’re lucky), suffer an unspecified amount and die. It's all much closer than you think.

I urge you to hold President Obama and your local senators and representatives accountable for their campaign promises. The medical system must change. Your life and dignity depend on it.

Organ Trafficking (not the fun kind)

January 19, 2009

It is Martin Luther King Day. He is a personal hero of mine. I can't watch his "I have a dream" speech without getting electric shivers and wet eyes. It is also one day before the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama. The historical significance is not lost on any of us. Change is palpable. It is as if a stranglet has escaped the Large Hadron Collider and is spinning, infecting and consuming all rational matter. It's damned exciting. I made my satellite-high expectations clear for Mr. Obama's speech in my last blog. We're all waiting for the national policy, health care, and economic reforms to come. However, I'd like to appeal for one more change.

America must stop all illegal organ trafficking.

Not the change you expected me to appeal for? In Newsweek on January 10th, Janeen Interlandi reported in her story "Not Just Urban Legend" that human organ trafficking has made its way to the U.S. of A. It's a very informative article and I highly recommend you read it just for the horror factor.

I'm just going to cut right to the chase. There is severe tension in the system. As of 3:28 PM EST, there are 78, 197 people on the kidney transplant waiting list. In many parts of the U.S., the wait for a cadaveric kidney can be up to 10 years with a national median waiting time close to six years. The average patient on dialysis lives 5-7 years. Not very promising. Add to this the fact that a donation from a living person can extend the life of a transplanted kidney from 11 years to 19 years. This creates all the conditions for a thriving black market. Indeed, that's what happening. What's shocking is that some surgeons and transplant centers are pretending not to notice and do not ask questions a when a living donor emerges from thin air and doesn't speak English. I can tell you from personal experience that transplant centers review donor candidates rigorously. So, to turn a blind eye is deliberate. Why on earth would they do this? It is simple really; no one wants to see someone die waiting for an organ transplant.

The ethics here are complicated and not as black and white as they might appear. The basic question is...what would you do to stay alive? Especially if you have the means to pay. Is this fair to those that don't have the means? In contrast, if you are desperately poor and have no hope to improve the life of your family, what do you do? The world endlessly debates the right for people to treat their bodies as commodities without resolution. I must remind you that I am just at the beginning of this journey so I can't pretend to know the abject desperation a person must feel as their life dwindles away waiting for a transplant. I also live in a rich country. I have no idea what it is like to go hungry or have little hope for the future. However, I think it is important to take a stand based on my personal ethics.

Here it is: organ trafficking is evil and repugnant. I would rather die than deprive another person of their opportunity for life. I would rather die than exploit another who has no alternative means.

You see, I also have a dream. I have a dream that the world will wake up and the rich and poor will be treated equally. I have a dream that people will sign up to be donors in order to make sense of what could be senseless waste. I have a dream that healthy and generous heroes exist and will continue to give the gift of life. I have the dream that you will join me and sign up to be donor at http://www.donatelife.net/.

As for me, I will wait for my turn and hope to live.