Healthcare and Politics

*****Caution: May be insulting on some level to some*********

With the election and all the politics making the big news these days, it has made me start thinking some about the healthcare system.  While I’m not one to talk a lot of politics with people because I believe: politics, religion and money are the three subjects that will mess up in one way or another a good day.  I just choose to have my own beliefs on the three subjects and almost never discuss them with others.

However one of my patients has me questioning the way our healthcare system is set up.  And with this comes a personal examination at politics.  For the last year, my unit has been caring for a patient who is a vegetable.  They have very little brain activity left…and can do nothing for themselves and in fact may not even know quite as much of what is happening around them as we want to believe.  This patient has been in the hospital for a year and a half and has been coded multiple times.  One might ask why, if there is that little of brain activity.  That is a very good question and the only answer I can supply is that the patient is a ward of the state.  This means the patient will remain a full code and all efforts will be taken to ensure the patient stays alive.  Now from a nurse’s view this could be seen as a little unnecessary especially when looked at the fact that there is no way this patient will ever make a recovery. 

The patient’s son wants the treatment and care to be stopped and the patient sent home so that the natural process of death can occur, however because the son is still considered a minor he does not have a say at all.  So the care continues. 

Now as one of the patient’s nurses I know the cost that this patient is costing the taxpayers…of course because they are a ward of the state, the state is paying which means you and I are paying for his care.  Instead of accepting the inevitable, politics have deemed that this patient will not stop receiving care until the patient is dead.  This is frustrating to many healthcare providers because it appears there may be a real problem in the system if this patient can have all this care with absolutely no chance of a recovery when there are millions of people who cannot and do not receive any care because they cannot afford it. 

Obviously this seems a little messed up somehow.  And if it doesn’t let me mention another example from my personal experience.  As an acute care nurse, I see many patients who are admitted to the hospital for medical problems that are self-induced: liver failure (from drinking way too much), and endocarditis (from IV drug use).   These particular patients rarely if ever have medical insurance which means the taxpayers are paying for their visit (but this is not the point of my rant).  However, as they are in the hospital receiving care many times, they will revert right back to the self-harming habits that landed them in this position in the first place.  This means that these patients are remaining in the hospital for an extended length of time on the taxpayers dime, with no intention of getting themselves better, while other people who do want to get the chance to get better have no room for them in the hospital. 

Now I am not going to say whether any of the politicians running this year are right or wrong in their stance on Obamacare and the changes that are being proposed and made, however I am going to emphasize the importance of noticing that there is a problem that cannot and should not be ignored anymore.  This is a real problem in our society that is causing a lot of people harm, harm that could be deadly…and for many years NOTHING has been done about it.  In fact many politicians have just swept it under the rug because to them it’s not that big of a problem because they have insurance and can have what they need done.  The issue tonight is not whether anyone is right or wrong but the important thing to remember is that healthcare is important and because of that it is essential that politicians make healthcare important and if they can visualize a change, then maybe, just maybe they may be the one to carry it through for the good of the people.