A sad story

I stopped for fuel at a Flying J and went for a coffee and light brunch at a Denny’s.  The waitress was a thin lady who looked in her 60s but she was keen to talk. The told me she had lived in Oklahoma for a couple of years since her husband died. She moved to live near her son and to be with her daughter. She had previously been a social worker in Missouri and she and her husband lived on a small farm. Their health insurance premiums became too expensive so they gave them up. Shortly thereafter her husband was diagnosed with some type of cancer and underwent two rounds of chemotherapy. Before he died they had incurred medical bills of about $600,000. They had to sell the farm and she to move. I asked her if she had considered going bankrupt. She said her son had suggested it but she decided against it.

A recent op-ed piece (June 11th) in the Times Colonist by Eike-Henner W. Kluge titled "Health Care: Be careful what you wish for" stated "Many US economic experts believe that elderly couples will need between $200,000 and $300,000 in US in savings just to pay for the most basic medical coverage. US studies have shown that 67% of all bankruptcies in that country are the result of medical expenses. 32.5 million people (still) have no access to health care. 96% of physicians who leave Canada to practise in the US return here."

Eike Kluge is a medical ethicist who used to teach at the University of Victoria.

It was sobering to meet someone who had been directly affected by the dysfunctional for profit health care industry here in the US.

The lady told me she was saving up for an air fare to enable her to visit some cousins in the UK who lived near Manchester.