Million dollar baby

It once was thought that a medical bill adding up to a million dollars was a catastrophic economic blow to a family from which it would likely never recover financially, but that was before organ transplants and other medical technologies now able to save life where previously no chance existed, but can cost much more than a million dollars now.

In the early 70s, a friend’s daughter was born nearly three months premature. The bill reached over a half million dollars by the time the couple could take their child home. I lost contact with the father in the early 90s, but was told that the family was celebrating his daughter’s graduation...and having paid half of the outstanding medical bills from her birth. Obamacare (I’ve always wondered if a President’s name was to be attached to bills passed during their tenure, why Social Security wasn’t Rooseveltsecurity and Medicare wasn’t Johnsoncare) was government’s attempt to moderate the not so rare occurrence of the economic destruction of families from catastrophic medical bills.

If it is true that a camel is a horse designed by a committee, then the ACA (Affordable Care Act = Obamacare) has a precedent.

The goals were worthy and laudable, but then politics became the issue, not the health of the nation’s citizens. The question of whether good health care is a right of citizenship or not seems to have sunk out of sight and sound. Prior to ACA major disease survivors (heart attacks, strokes, cancer, diabetes, HIV, MS and a host of others) often lost their coverage eligibility or were non-renewed in insurance language.

Along with that there were numerous other situations or conditions which could cost the family eligibility for coverage such as birth defects, obesity, economic hardship (employment record was considered when applying), parental health histories, and many other general conditions because the companies wanted to insure the healthiest people possible.

Health insurers are now whining not because they aren’t making a profit, but because they aren’t making an immediate profit.

Instead of looking down the road a few years to a healthier clientele with fewer claims because of adequate care now, only tomorrow’s profits are the focus. They raise their rates to a bizarre level because “ we’re forced to insure sicker people.” Guess who who was paying for those people previously?

My friend’s daughter must be in her early 40s now, and I wonder if my friend has completed paying for her birth, and whether he was able to help fund a college education for that extremely fortunate young woman born into a loving family and a country that could provide such medical expertise...to those for whom it was affordable through insurance premiums or income.