Guaranteed Healthcare

I don't understand the scare tactics of those against health care reform because I see those issues occurring now. My dad's brother, Roy, was misdiagnosed more than 15 years ago when he went to his HMO complaining about a bloody cough. By the time the lung cancer was discovered months later, it had spread throughout his body. He was told he had only eight weeks left to live. He was sent home with some prescription painkillers, a hospital bed and instructions for family members on how to care for a dying cancer patient.

Eventually, the pain was so intense, he begged for stronger pain killers. My dad called the doctor, but was told the insurance company denied anything stronger, such as morphine. My dad called the insurance company and begged them to allow the doctor to prescibe a stronger pain killer. He was told my uncle still had too many weeks left to live to receive morphine...at another point in time closer to his anticipated death, he could then qualify for morphine.

My uncle screamed and begged my dad to smother him due to the pain. Finally, my dad called 911 and lied. He told the 911 operator his brother was in pain and he had no idea why. The paramedics were skeptical when they saw the hospital bed in the living room, but they took him to a hospital where a young medical resident heard the full story and cared enough to prescribe morphine and personally assist my family in getting my uncle into a hospice, where he died just a few weeks later.

When I attended a health care reform presentation about a year later (early 1990s), the insurance industry person said if we changed the system we would be denied service, wait months for life-saving measures and be just a number in the system. I relayed my uncle's story, and she said it was his fault for not ensuring his insurance was adequate. Honestly, how many of us look at our policies to see if we get morphine when we have eight weeks left to live versus maybe when we only have three weeks left to live? We assume something as basic as pain killers when you're dying are not just an American right but a human right.