This story from NPR caught my eye this morning. Even those who think I go a bit off the deep end when it comes to casting dispersions on insurance and other payor programs that should be paying for our healthcare and don’t… this will make you think twice.
The story concerns American soldiers who have fought in Iraq and have been injured, in this case, by bombs or rockets. They return to the States with long term effects from those injuries ranging from headaches to bleeding ears to insomnia, symptoms which never existed before they left and clearly result from their war injuries. Heck, some of them have been awarded purple hearts for those injuries.
If I understand the story correctly, if the soldiers are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress (PTSD) then the VA will continue to care for them. This is important because most of them don’t stay in the service past their original enlistment, so the PTSD diagnosis establishes that they have suffered from the effects of war. That ensures their care once they leave the service for the injuries suffered during service to our country.
That’s fair. And that’s the point being made by the injured veterans who testified before the US Congress yesterday. But, according to Paul Towns, who runs an organization called Veterans for Common Sense, there may be tens of thousands of soldiers who aren’t receiving that fair care they deserve.
Unfortunately, those tens of thousands are being denied care because, instead of being diagnosed with PTSD, the VA “discovers” that they had a “pre-existing personality disorder” after they return. Never mind that these soldiers passed all their physical and mental tests and exams before they entered the service. Never mind that they didn’t get blinding headaches, bleeding ears or suffer from insomnia before they went to Iraq.
Are you kidding me?
This seems like a travesty to me. That these soldiers fought on our behalf, to help America retain its freedom… and we would deny these men and women who stood on the front lines the healthcare they deserve?
And this is the government doing the denying – not a private health insurance company. That means it is our tax dollars that would need to be spent to take care of these soldiers. I, for one, think that it is a small price to pay to take care of these soldiers who have put their lives on the line to protect me.
Even aside from dishonoring these men and women in this way — for the government to be so underhanded, for the government to strip the possibility of care from these soldiers, establishes a precedent for other payor entities to do the same. Afterall, if a private insuror did the same thing and was sued, all their lawyers would have to do is point out that the US government denied care first!
It’s wrong. I’ll be interested to see what the outcomes of the congressional hearings are. If you have the opportunity to contact your congressional representatives, please do:
Contact information for US Congress Members
Covering the healthcare costs for injured American soldiers is only fair.
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Blamers and Fixers: Which One Are You?
Published September 5, 2007 Blamers and Fixers , Death , General Commentary , Health , Healthcare Quality , Media , Medical Errors and Mistakes / Misdiagnosis , MRSA /Hospital Acquired Infections , New Ideas in Medicine , Patient Advocacy , Patient Empowerment , Patient Safety , Patient Tools , Patients , Patientude , Self Help , Spirituality 10 CommentsTags: Mental Health
You’d be amazed at the email and postal mail I receive from patients who have been hurt by the medical system. Perhaps not at the numbers — I receive a handful each week. Instead, you’d be amazed at what they ask me to do.
I’ve put the people who write to me about medical errors they have suffered into two categories: The Blamers and the Fixers
The Blamers are those who livid-angry, and they ask me to do things that will help distribute their anger further. They want me to help them write letters to doctors or hospitals or others who have wronged them. They want me to help yank a doctor’s license to practice, or help them sue a provider, or participate in whatever form of punishment they believe is appropriate. In one case, the Blamer was a whistle-blower, and she wanted me to begin publishing her work on this blog or in my columns to bring attention to the plight of whistle-blowers (because no one is paying attention to her own blog.) Another lost both parents to hospital infections. In another case, a man wanted me to publicize his story about the towel that was left in him during surgery because the lawsuit dollars being proposed just weren’t big enough.
Their anger is just so palpable. And I get it! I was there! After my misdiagnosis, I talked to anyone who wanted to listen in hopes it would somehow diffuse my anger.
It didn’t.
My guess is that in many cases, these are people who have been so wronged by the system, that they are grasping desperately for something to fix the wrong. Of course, it can rarely be fixed. Apologies can’t fix the hurt, frustration and pain. They think that punishing the wrong-doers will fix it.
It won’t.
The Fixers are a step beyond. Fixers are people who have been hurt by the system, and have turned that bad experience into something else more positive.
Among my advocate-colleagues, you’d be amazed at how many of us are fixers. Very few have just chosen to take up the cause of patient advocacy out of the blue. Instead, their children have been killed by bad surgeries, or they’ve lost a spouse or parent to a medical error, or a diagnosis has been missed (or misdiagnosed all together) and someone they love — or they themselves — have been treated incorrectly.
The Fixing itself becomes the catharsis for the anger, and it is extremely powerful. Helen Haskell, Ilene Corina, Patty Skolnik, Julia Shopick, Bill Thiel — among many others — are all fixers. They lost children and spouses to a system that didn’t do what it was supposed to do.
In some cases, their work is a spiritual mission. In others, it’s simply their way of dealing with anger. In all cases, they took their anger and sadness and refocused it toward something positive.
I am a Fixer. And I am proud of it.
We, the Fixers, are working toward improving the system that caused us the anger to begin with. We put our voices together and patients and providers are hearing us! We are saving lives with our work. There is NOTHING more powerful, nor cathartic, than saving someone else’s life.
If you find this blog post and you are still one of the Angry Ones, a Blamer, then please consider becoming a Fixer. I promise you, it will make ALL the difference in your quality of life.
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See follow up post: Doctors are Blamers or Fixers, too
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