I didn’t know Melissa Mia Hall, but I do know this: she didn’t have to die. She shouldn’t have died, in fact, because the U.S. should have already instituted a universal health care system that would have ensured she was covered and could control costs. She shouldn’t have had to call her doctor and beg for meds because she couldn’t afford an office visit.
And now a Georgia judge has ordered the ACA completely dismantled. The ACA isn’t my favorite way to get to a decent health care system, but it’s what’s possible right now. If the Supreme Court strikes it down… well, let’s just hope that it prompts Americans to support Medicare Part E (for Everyone)–just expand the Medicare program to cover everyone and empower it to actually negotiate for drug prices as well as instituting sensible controls on the costs.
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In other news, yesterday was a crazy-ass day. More details later, if appropriate.
This story is tragic on so many levels. Melissa Hall had a legitimate fear of a huge medical bill bankrupting her, but if she knew her situation was so critical would she have still made the same choices? Should her doctor’s office done a bit more phone triage before handing out pain meds? We don’t know the whole story.
If we had a national health care system (which I think we desperately need something) would it be such a mess that they still would have decided she had a pulled back muscle and put her appointment off for a few days? Oregon tried to implement a health care plan for uninsured Oregonians. I was working as a fairly new nurse at the time and I don’t remember the politics, but I loved the idea. The system was overwhelmed, Oregon could not afford it. It was a big frigging mess.
An emergency room visit would have likely saved her life. They can’t refuse service even to the uninsured but she probably needed preventative care long before this tragic event–which she could not afford!
It is such an embarrassing shame this Country let health care become such a snarled up mess that billions are spent on new technologies but can not provide community based preventive care for everyone.
Shit. I’m gonna crawl back into my hermit hole.
It’s difficult for states to provide UHC because their funding sources are not stable. That’s why we need it on the federal level.
And of course any emergency room would have been required to see her (which we would have to pay for if she couldn’t) but who wants to wait around an ER with a strained muscle?
As for her doctor’s office, I suspect they’re going to be less accommodating for their financially-strapped patients. It’s sad, and it shouldn’t have come to this.