My doctor read me the riot act. The first week of July was my annual physical, a requirement for out of shape 59 year old couch potatoes. And when the blood tests came back, I got the talking to — total cholesterol, 297, and an elevated blood pressure (at that point 140/93). My weight was pushing 200 pounds, a good 25-30 pound overweight. I was already scheduled for a stress test, and now the good doctor was about to order me on medicine for both blood pressure and cholesterol.
Then 3 minutes into the stress test, the cardiologist cut it sort and informed me that we would have to do a nuclear stress test, because I was showing signs of blockage.
The stress test was 10 days after the physical. I had already negotiated with the primary care physician a deal – we would wait until my medical tests (including a forthcoming colonoscopy) were complete, and meanwhile I would make radical changes in diet and in getting on an exercise program. He agreed to wait, on the grounds that he always encourages life-style modifications that are healthy, but that if there were problems with the heart test we might not be able to wait. And now the stress test was positive.
I got permission from the cardiologist to continue the program I had begun, with the nuclear stress test set another 10 days out. I was already walking, I had dropped all read meat and ice cream and whole eggs, and strictly limited my cheese intake. The beer I so loved was no -except for a rare occasion – history. A glass of red wine with dinner, sure.
And so I continued – first my walking got up to a total of about 4 miles a day. Then I began to add some jogging, difficult on my knees and ankles with the extra weight. But the weight started to come down, and the blood pressure began to come down.
22 years ago I had had a positive stress test that corresponded 100% with some tingling in my shoulders. I underwent an angiogram. During the procedure my blood pressure dropped precipitously, probably because the pressure vale in my arm had nicked the wall of the artery — within three days my left arm was almost black, but I did not sue the doctors or medical personnel. No blockage had been found, and I was hoping again for the stress test to have been a positive.
So, 2.5 hours at the doctors. Receiving an injection of a radioactive substance, having multiple pictures taken of my chest. Then another stress test, then out to lunch, and even more pictures. The cardiologist ran the stress test all the way to the end. He kept asking me if I was having any pain in my chest – I was not. At then end I asked if I should cancel the the colonoscopy, because if the were going to do anything further like putting in a stent (the normal process nowadays for mild blockage) I would be on aspirin and Plavix and unable to undergo the procedure. He told me not to cancel the appointment, that he would look at the pictures that afternoon (one week ago today) and if I didn’t need further followup from him he would not call, so that if I had not heard from him by midday Monday I should consider myself good to go.
So I apparently had another false-positive stress test. Meanwhile, my blood pressure has dropped, now somewhere around 133/84. I have since the physical lost 14 pounds. I can go out in the morning and do a combination of jogging for up to 3 minutes at a stretch at a bout an 8-minute mile pace, with my hour out being 2/3 walking briskly and 1/3 jogging. I do other exercise, and still watch what I eat. I’ll get the real news when I go back on August 19th for another cholesterol check.
So why am I about this for political blogs? So far I have had my physical with extensive blood tests, two stress tests, one with multiple x-rays plus the injection of the radioactive material, and a preliminary consultation with the Gastroenterologist who will do the colonosocopy. Assuming that and the followup check on cholesterol are all okay, what has it cost me? To date, $80 in co-pays, looking at another $40, for a grand total of $120. The cost of all these visits, consultations and procedures will probably be in the high 4 or low 5 figure range. Let’s assume conservatively 10,000. Would I have even had the physical if I had had to pay full freight? Probably not.
Think how many people who do not have health insurance do not have the chance to dodge the bullet that I have just had. They do not receive the information they need to make the changes that can lengthen their lives. Hypertension and high cholesterol are conditions that do not necessarily give physical symptoms until the onset of the heart attack or the stroke.
The biggest single cause of personal bankruptcies for people who are not wheelers and dealers is medical catastrophes. We have made access to bankruptcy more difficult. We have not addressed the increasing number of those lacking medical insurance. We see companies like Wal*Mart try to keep employee hours down so that they don’t have to offer benefits like health insurance, and when they do force the employee to pay most of the freight. We have seen companies move or locate auto production to Canada to avoid the costs of medical benefits to the employees, because Canada has a single payer national health care system.
I believe that we must begin moving more aggressively towards universal medical coverage. Perhaps we do not need one plan, a la Canada. Perhaps all we need is to universalize the kinds of choice my wife has as a Federal employee, where the individual (or family) has access to a variety of levels of insurance, but there is access at a reasonable cost for all. I am open to exploring a variety of methods.
But there is something inherently wrong in the level of medical care to which i have had access being denied to almost 15% of our people. Somehow that seems to be more of a necessity in meeting the goals of the Preamble than does enriching Halliburton and other companies in our misadventure in Iraq, which surely does NOT provide for the common defense.
When we negotiate “free” trade agreements which not only lack protections for workers and the environment, but allow companies to move production to countries where they will not have to provide medical coverage, we compound the problem we have. At least in NAFTA those jobs moved to Canada (but not to Mexico) were in an environment where workers do get medical insurance.
One cannot, in the words of our Declaration, meaningfully have “the pursuit of happiness” when a single medical incident can financially destroy a lifetime’s work.
I am a teacher. Those who read what I post know that for me I am passionate about education, and have called it the ground zero of our political battles. I must, however, give equal billing to our unfair situation with respect to healthcare. My recent experience makes that clear to me.
I dodged a bullet. My medical insurance enabled me to know I was at risk and to make changes. I was not bankrupted by the process. That I have such access and others do not is unfair, unjust, even immoral.
So please forgive my indulgence in being so personal in writing this. I believe that personal stories can help to make political – and moral – points. And so I have written, and posted this.
