When Our Neighbors Wish Us Dead or Broke, We're in Trouble with More Than Our Health Care System

[MADem]

84. As more people see the benefits, there's likely going to be more enthusiasm for SP down the line.

I live in MA, and I have a relative who had a massive stroke, who had been laid off, no insurance, unemployment ran out, at the end of his savings, older-and-unemployable, in deep shit. Talk about the definition of "fucked!"

Commonwealth Care paid for EVERYTHING. Ambulance, top notch medical care (he even got a private room right by the nurse's station because they wanted to keep a sharp eye on him), aggressive treatment to mitigate the stroke, and as quick as he could be moved, he was shuttled off to the same hospital Theresa Heinz just got out of, where he got some of the most intensive physical/occupational/speech therapy I have ever seen. After a month and change there, he was sent off to a step-down facility with more PT/assessment. Then, when they let him "out," (which they did because I agreed to take him in and provide day-to day assistance/support) he was provided with outpatient therapy, a leg brace, and medical devices.

Cost to him? Zip. Nada. Not a dime.

That said, he EARNED that care, IMO. He spent his life working with profoundly disabled adults (physically and intellectually) and he is one of the most compassionate human beings I know. I'm glad "the system" was able to give back to him a measure of the compassion he's given to others over the last forty years.

People will learn; they just need to have it hit someone close to home, and they'll start to "get it." We've had it for some time now, the sky hasn't fallen, people aren't tearing their shirts and running around with their hair on fire; it WORKS.

I can't wait for the day when the big jars by the diner cash register that say "Help pay for Fred Smith's Chemo" or "Contribute to the Sue Jones' Dialysis Fund" are a distant memory. I still see those in my travels here and there, and that's a sad thing, to have to hope like hell that some stranger will be moved to put their spare change in a jar in order to get treatment.