Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 19
“AT NORTHERN WISCONSIN General Hospital, we'll help you to achieve your birthing
goals,”saidavoiceontheradio.Oh,God,Ithought.Thiswasyetanothernewdevelopment
since I had left America-the advent of hospital advertising. Everywhere you go you now en-
counterhospitalads.Whoaretheyfor?Aguygetshitbyabus,doeshesay,“Quick,takeme
to Michigan General. They've got a magnetic resonance imager there”? I don't understand
it. But then I don't understand anything to do with American health care.
Just before I left on this trip, I learned that my uncle was in Mercy Hospital in Des Moines.
So I looked up the number in the phone book and under Mercy Hospital there were ninety-
fourtelephonenumberslisted.ThephonenumbersstartedwithAdmittingandproceededal-
phabetically through Biofeedback, Cancer Hotline, Impotency Program, Infant Apnea Hot-
line, Osteoporosis Program, Public Relations, something called Share Care Ltd., Sleep Re-
ferral Services, Smoke Stoppers and on and on. Health care in America is now a monolithic
industry and it is completely out of control.
The person I was visiting, my elderly uncle, had just suffered a severe heart attack. As a
complication arising from this, he also had pneumonia. As you might imagine, he looked a
trifleundertheweather.WhileIwaswithhim,asocialworkercameinandgentlyexplained
tohimsomeofthecostsinvolvedinhistreatment.Myunclecould,forinstance,haveMedi-
cine A, which would cost five dollars a dose, but which he would have to take four times
a day, or he could have Medicine B, which would cost eighteen dollars a dose, but which
he would have to take only once a day. That was the social worker's job, to act as a liais-
on between the doctor, the patient and the insurance company, and to try to see to it that
the patient wasn't hit with a lot of bills that the insurance company wouldn't pay. My uncle
would,ofcourse,bebilledforthisservice.Itseemedsocrazy,sounreal,tobewatchinghim
sucking air fromanoxygenmask, all butdead, andgiving weak yes-or-nonodstoquestions
concerning the continuance of his own life based on his ability to pay.
Contrary to popular belief abroad, it is possible, indeed quite easy, to get free treatment in
America by going to a county hospital. They aren't very cheery places, in fact they are gen-
erally pretty grim, but they are no worse than any National Health Service hospital. There
has to be free treatment because there are 40 million people in America without hospital in-
surance. God help you, however, if you try to sneak into a county hospital for a little free
health care if you've got money in the bank. I worked for a year at the county hospital in
Des Moines and I can tell you that they have batteries of lawyers and debt collectors whose
