H1N1

Today Cameron and I were driving to a park. Along the way I had the idea to stop by Cameron's pediatrician office to see if they had the swine flu vaccine. They did and Cameron got a poke instead of a playground. Tough luck for him I suppose. But after hearing about all the long lines people have had to wait in, I was happy to get to walk right in and get him what he needed. I was ready to pay only to be told my insurance likely covered it 100%. Even better.

Since I was on a roll, I called my doctor's office to see if I could come in and get the vaccine since I thought I might be pregnant. We drove 15 minutes to get to the clinic, ran a pregnancy test that came back negative. (Negative, huh? Then how do you explain the recent sensitive and eruptious state of the "ladies?") They told me they were only allowed to give the vaccine to people who fit inside the CDC "at risk" criteria. So I left without the vaccine but with a referral for a pregnancy blood test since it would be more definitive at such an early stage. (Yes I am admitting I could be very early pregnant but it's because I want to illustrate a point. Read on.)

I stopped at the lab in the student health center since it is so close to my house. I asked how much the test would be. I decided I would wait and try my luck again in a few weeks with a free urine test at my doctor's when I heard it would be $42. I'm not ready to pay that much for something I can wait out.

This experience brought home to me a few points about our health care system that I want to share:
-In only a little over an hour I was able to visit 3 very nice, clean health care institutions where I was helped without any delay. I received one vaccination for Cameron and a pregnancy test without paying a thing (well, except health insurance premiums of course). I got exactly what I wanted very quickly at a good price. From where I sit, I think we must have the best health care system in the world. It's not perfect but it's pretty dang good.

-I have heard one reason health care is getting so expensive is because there are always third party payers, making people too distant from the true cost of their health care. I have heard it argued that when people have only catastrophic health insurance plans that they are more judicious in their health spending and the procedures, extra or not, they have done. Here was a perfect example. Since the student health care didn't bill insurance my test would be $42. I could have gone to a lab that would bill my insurance and probably gotten it for free but why can't I just wait a few weeks to find out if I'm pregnant the old fashioned way?

-My doctor's office denied me the H1N1 vaccine because they could not give them to people who didn't fit the CDC "at risk" group, which I wasn't. Is this fishy to anyone else? If I can pay for the vaccine (only for myself, not to horde the supply), took the trouble to go see my doctor and want the vaccine, why can't I have it? Because the CDC says I can't. The government says I can't. Even if I begged and said I have previous history of a very weak immune system and am very worried (I don't and I'm not) they could not give it to me. Because I don't fit inside a government table. It also wouldn't even matter that I will most likely be pregnant soon and am only 26 (the cutoff is 24): the lines are black and white. Everyone, this is what would happen when the government is in charge of your health care. Think about it. They would have charts and tables and "at risk" groups for every type of treatment you can imagine and only those who fit could be treated, no matter how much you begged, cried, or offered to pay. If you didn't fit the chart you couldn't have the treatment, you and your doctor's opinion be damned.

Well, you may say "But the vaccine is limited." But whose fault is that? Really? I'll give you one guess: it's not the company who makes the vaccine, it's the idiots that contracted with that terrible company that can't deliver. Seriously. With the government in charge, everything will be limited, that's the point! Not just because they are mostly corrupt, but because they aren't health care administrators! They're politicians!

Hopefully we will not have to see how much such a system sucks, how much it will suck to clean up the mess afterward when we realize it doesn't work, and how much it will suck to see the best and brightest leave the medical field/stop entering it. I hope everyone is doing their part to make sure our health care system remains great and improves.