Health insurance reform

There has been a lot said about health insurance reform. Certainly the politicians went on and on and on about it. And certainly everyone in the Facebook-o-sphere has been posting stuff pretty incindiary on both sides (seriously, people). I have nothing to add except my own personal rant du jour about it. Which I can do. Because I control the keypad (at least I do between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.).
I am for insurance/health reform. I am for this because I have children and I believe American children everywhere should have good, quality health care if they are ever going to have a chance to make something of themselves. This all came to me because I have seen first hand how insurance makes a difference in the growth and development of kids. Take Andy. He had bad ear infections. If I hadn't had insurance, he wouldn't have gone to the doctor 2,700 times for antibiotics. He wouldn't have necessarily had all those ear infections treated and eventually the tubes put in so he could, you know, hear and learn to process words and language skills. If he hadn't had all that, there's a good chance he would have been language delayed. It would have taken years for him to catch up, if he ever did.

I think about kids with less resources. Those kids have the same problem and enter school with a language delay. Because they're poor, they probably go to a crappy school and have fewer resources there, too, which puts him further behind his peers like Andy. By the time he finishes school, if he does, he's now several years behind a kid like Andy. That's not to say other things wouldn't have been a factor, but if giving him antibiotics would have fixed it, why not? It's a relatively cheap fix with such a serious positive upside for the entire country.

I also work in cancer care. I hear stories from the doctors I work with all the time about how lack of insurance keeps patients from being diagnosed earlier. That means they present with a worse disease and likely have worse outcomes. It probably also costs our healthcare system even more than the insurance would just paying for their Medicaid claims while we spend $250,000 on end of life care when if they'd had insurance, a $50,000 treatment regimen would have cured it. In fact, the American Cancer Society several years ago began a campaign lobbying for health reform because the simple fact of having insurance makes a person significantly more likely to beat the disease than without -- far more than any new screening, mobile mammogram program, surgical or radiation treamtent.

So, yes, I do think it's a good thing. I'm not sure about it being an entitlement. I'm not sure health care is a right per se. I'm not sure how much it's going to cost in the long run. But something had to be done and I'm proud of this big first step.

Rant over.

Wanted: One pediatric otolaryngologist

As I said earlier, Andy has to go see an ear, nose and throat specialist to talk about his persistent ear infections and if he needs to get tubes. The whole thing makes me unhappy, but I've been asking friends and relatives about it. So far, I've gleaned that the procedure itself is very short, like 10-15 minutes, and the results are great for kids who have been suffering. I also got some good recommendations of pediatric otolaryngologists (say that twice fast) to call.

Of course, this is happening just as we're switching from Guardian/OneNet to Aetna for insurance at work. Absurdly, you can't use the Aetna doctor finder feature unless you're a member, but since I'm not a technically member until June 1, things are complicated. I spent probably 30 minutes with Aetna customer support today in a harrowingly frustrating experience. First, the number I got from HR was for the HMO, not the PPO, so after sitting on hold for 15 minutes, they gave me the PPO number. I eventually got some names and phone numbers of doctors and proceeded to call.

I started with the highly recommended Dr. Choi at Children's Hospital. They'd be happy to see me. In August. I then tried Dr. McBride who luckily can see me...in July. Seriously, is this a big deal or not? I called Dr. Staats' office and played a friendly game of telephone where I explained the situation to the nurse, who talked to Dr. Staats and called me back. I wanted to know if two months was too much wait time. Dr. Staats' office called back to say it was too long to wait. I explained I had tried others and July was the soonest I could get without her intervening to try to bump me up the list. The nurse said she'd see what she said and call me back. She still hadn't called when I left this afternoon.

Anyone have a cousin in one of those offices I can sleep with to get an appointment? Geez. This sounds like the Canadian health system.

What stinks is this is all happening just before we have to get on a plane for Dallas this weekend. Fortunately, it's only three hours and direct, but I hate for his ears to be bothering him on the plane. That would stink worse than his usual restlessness on the plane.

The risk of not fixing his ears is delayed learning because he can't hear, but the funny thing is he is almost reading. Well, by reading I mean he can point to the letters on the page and knows them all. And tonight, he even sounded out a few. Granted, he does call pancakes panpakes and band-aids, band-baids. Those are totally adorable, I just wish if I wasn't so paranoid that his hearing was in such jeopardy.

Check out His Adorableness during a nap the other day. I love that he had completely turned himself around and these crashed on the covers.