Who Would Have Thought Being Locked Up Could Be The Only Way To Stay Alive...

September 13, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
The Body Count at Home
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
In the debate over health care, here’s an inequity to ponder: Nikki White would have been far better off if only she had been a convicted bank robber.

Nikki was a slim and athletic college graduate who had health insurance, had worked in health care and knew the system. But she had systemic lupus erythematosus, a chronic inflammatory disease that was diagnosed when she was 21 and gradually left her too sick to work. And once she lost her job, she lost her health insurance.

In any other rich country, Nikki probably would have been fine, notes T. R. Reid in his important and powerful new book, “The Healing of America.” Some 80 percent of lupus patients in the United States live a normal life span. Under a doctor’s care, lupus should be manageable. Indeed, if Nikki had been a felon, the problem could have been averted, because courts have ruled that prisoners are entitled to medical care.

As Mr. Reid recounts, Nikki tried everything to get medical care, but no insurance company would accept someone with her pre-existing condition. She spent months painfully writing letters to anyone she thought might be able to help. She fought tenaciously for her life.

Finally, Nikki collapsed at her home in Tennessee and was rushed to a hospital emergency room, which was then required to treat her without payment until her condition stabilized. Since money was no longer an issue, the hospital performed 25 emergency surgeries on Nikki, and she spent six months in critical care.

“When Nikki showed up at the emergency room, she received the best of care, and the hospital spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on her,” her step-father, Tony Deal, told me. “But that’s not when she needed the care.”

By then it was too late. In 2006, Nikki White died at age 32. “Nikki didn’t die from lupus,” her doctor, Amylyn Crawford, told Mr. Reid. “Nikki died from complications of the failing American health care system.”

“She fell through the cracks,” Nikki’s mother, Gail Deal, told me grimly. “When you bury a child, it’s the worst thing in the world. You never recover.”

We now have a chance to reform this cruel and capricious system. If we let that chance slip away, there will be another Nikki dying every half-hour.

That’s how often someone dies in America because of a lack of insurance, according to a study by a branch of the National Academy of Sciences. Over a year, that amounts to 18,000 American deaths.

After Al Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 Americans, eight years ago on Friday, we went to war and spent hundreds of billions of dollars ensuring that this would not happen again. Yet every two months, that many people die because of our failure to provide universal insurance — and yet many members of Congress want us to do nothing?

Mr. Reid’s book is a rich tour of health care around the world. Because he has a bum shoulder, he asked doctors in many countries to examine it and make recommendations. His American orthopedist recommended a titanium shoulder replacement that would cost tens of thousands of dollars and might or might not help. Specialists in other countries warned that a sore shoulder didn’t justify the risks of such major surgery, although some said it would be available free if Mr. Reid insisted. Instead, they offered physical therapy, acupuncture and other cheap and noninvasive alternatives, some of which worked pretty well.

That’s a window into the flaws in our health care system: we offer titanium shoulder replacements for those who don’t really need them, but we let 32-year-old women die if they lose their health insurance. No wonder we spend so much on medical care, and yet have some health care statistics that are worse than Slovenia’s.

My suggestion for anyone in Nikki’s situation: commit a crime and get locked up. In Washington State, a 20-year-old inmate named Melissa Matthews chose to turn down parole and stay in prison because that was the only way she could get treatment for her cervical cancer. “If I’m out, I’m going to die from this cancer,” she told a television station.

Mr. and Mrs. Deal say they are speaking out because Nikki wouldn’t want anyone to endure what she did. “Nikki was a college-educated, middle-class woman, and if it could happen to her, it can happen to anyone,” Mr. Deal said. “This should not be happening in our country.”

Struggling to get out the words, Mrs. Deal added: “The loss of a child is the greatest hurt anyone will ever suffer. Because of the circumstances she endured with the health care system, I lost my daughter.”

Complex arguments are being batted around in this health care debate, but the central issue isn’t technical but moral. The first question is simply this: Do we wish to be the only rich nation in the world that lets a 32-year-old woman die because she can’t get health insurance? Is that really us?

“Nikki White would have been far better off if only she had been a convicted bank robber.”

This being the first sentence truly impacted me. How could you rather be convicted and be better off? I tried thinking about it, and there was really no answer logically I could think about.

This article talks about Nikky young women, with a chronic disease. For, this disease impared her to work. Therefore, she lost her job and her health insurance.
This is when it hit me, if she was a prisoner she would have been provided with the care needed, but since she wasn’t and lost her job she was screwed. She did everything she could to get help, yet no insurance would accept her with this condition. This sentence really shocked me

“She fought tenaciously for her life.”

Why did she have to suffer and go through all this, when a criminal who did have to pay the consequences for their action, didn’t? Was this really fair? Why would a criminal be treated better than an innocent hardworking person?

This just adds up to my theory of the illogical world we live in. It wasn’t until one day she collapsed in her house, and then she was immediately taken care of, without any hesitation.

My question is why do we have to wait for something serious to happen to take action? Why couldn’t they have done the same long before?
“and the hospital spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on her,” her step-father, Tony Deal, said, “But that’s not when she needed the care.”

Why did she have to suffer all along, why couldn’t they take action before it was too late? She died at the age of 32, therefore thousands of dollars just wasted away. If she was going to need them anyway, why didn’t they spend them when it was actually going to be worth it?

Amylyn Crawford, told Mr. Reid. “Nikki died from complications of the failing American health care system.”

How can we have such a horrifying health care system? We worry about all the deaths or at least we act like we are and then don’t do anything about it when we can save a life?

This quote speaks for itself,
“After Al Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 Americans, eight years ago on Friday, we went to war and spent hundreds of billions of dollars ensuring that this would not happen again. Yet every two months, that many people die because of our failure to provide universal insurance — and yet many members of Congress want us to do nothing?”

It is an ironic world we live in, there is just no justification for this happen. Doesn’t this tell us enough info to infer there is something wrong with the health care system? How can something so absurd happen in such a rich and powerful country?
This reflects the ineffective healthcare system we have, “That’s a window into the flaws in our health care system: we offer titanium shoulder replacements for those who don’t really need them, but we let 32-year-old women die if they lose their health insurance.”

Can we really be that ignorant to continue to let this happen? It is time to do something about it. For, from this we can infer that it is better to be a criminal get locked up and at least you will be taken care of. Committing a crime may not be so bad after all, it could actually save your life, so why not?

You might say to yourself,yeah right like if anybody would do that. Yet, it’s the reality of this absurd unpractical health care system. A clear example of this is Melissa Mathews, who was on parole, yet she insisted in going to jail for she would be treated her cervical cancer, outside of jail she would simply die.

Therefore, there is only one question to ask ourselves, “Do we wish to be the only rich nation in the world that lets a 32-year-old woman die because she can’t get health insurance? Is that really us?”

Life really isnt fair , but are we just gonna sit there and watch Nikkys die? Do we enjoy watching millions of people die right infront of us, knowing we could have save them? Do we love our people so much that watching them die doesnt bother us? What kind of heart do we obtain, if we have one at all?

It’s really up to us to continue to watch people die or keep them alive.