Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Best Health Care in the World: Spider Bite

Tribune Public Forum:

In May, my wife applied for private insurance and was rejected outright by the free market because of previous bad health. She's 22; I'm 23.

Last Wednesday while fishing up Black Smith Fork Canyon in Cache Valley, she got a bug bite on her hip. The next day it started oozing, aching and she got a fever and headache, so she called poison control. She described the spider she'd seen while sitting on the ground and the progression of the wound. They said she was describing a hobo spider bite and told her it can be serious.

As recommended, she went to the Instacare in Logan on Friday. The woman told her it's $120 to see the doctor. We don't have $120 in our bank account. The woman pointed to the bold-letter sign: "Payment due before receiving service." My wife left. That's the end of the story. We hope it's not a hobo spider bite.

This is free-market health care. Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch are fighting for our right to choose which doctors to be turned away by. Thanks, you brave, government-health-care-insured men.

John Gilmore

Logan

3 comments:

Jay said...

Awesome...

Lorne said...

quite cruel...

Anonymous said...

Sad story. I'm tired of all these anectodes on both sides trying to claim that one story represents all of free-market or government-run health care.

The fact is that our health care system is just about half private and half public now. Government pays for Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, etc. and runs county and state clinics. This influence runs through the entire health care system, especially costs. Thus, one anecdote, or even many, cannot provide evidence for which system is better.