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Preemies
thoughts?
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Re: thoughts?
Such a heartbreaking story. ?
I am not a political person, but having two high risk pregnancies and two premature births has really helped to shape my opinion on government run healthcare. ?I firmly believe that my doctor's decision making is the only reason why my girls are alive today. ?Decisions she made based on personal conversations she had with me and a gut feeling she said she just "could not shake."
With Claire, there was no reason for me to be considered "high risk" during the early weeks. ?Everything was going very smoothly. ?My doctor however had me monitored very closely by ultrasound b/c of hearing about my sister's history of delivering prematurely. ?My sister has delivered prematurely three times. ?My niece at 26 weeks, and two boys who unfortunately did not survive. ?If the government were to look at my chart they would see a healthy woman, healthy start to a pregnancy, and would therefore only want to pay for my delivery; ?Not bi-weekly "unnecessary" ultrasounds that my doctor just had a "gut feeling" about. ?Thank God my doctor had 100% control over my care. ?She saved my Claire when I went into labor at 22 weeks (and I didn't even know I was in it). ?She did everything in her power to keep me pregnant and succeeded for 10 more weeks. ?I can't even go into the intense medical intervention my doctor's needed to resort to keep Keira alive and thriving inside of me for those 27 weeks. ?
My thoughts? ?For me, I want to keep the government out of my medical care as much as possible. ?I want it in the hands of the talented doctors I have chosen for myself. ?I have hand picked them and have stayed with them because I have faith in them and that they have my well being at heart. ? Some decisions just can't be made from how things appear on paper from the outside.
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I couldn't agree more!
Our son had phenomenal care in the NICU (as did I on high risk). In general the government is inefficient and it scares me to think what could happen.
Yes, but what about those of us who might be denied care because of a pre-existing condition (pre-e, abruptions and ptl all fall under that category) or because their child was premature and is considered high risk? I don't think it's fair to say that just because health care is in the government's hands that you're going to get bad care. Imagine how many more people are going to have access to care because there are programs out there that allow low income women to have prenatal care? Think about what that will do for premature births!!
I think this is a horribly tragic story, but I don't see how you can blame it on the government. MANY hospitals won't intervene before 22/23 weeks because of a number a reasons.
Need help with high fat food ideas? Chunky Monkey
i have tears in my eyes after reading that story - i can't even imagine feeling so helpless (and i'm sure we all felt our fair share of helplessness in our situations)...
my only (additional) thought on this is that i'm not sure that the problem is directly related to government-run healthcare. i work for the government and i know better than most about its problems and inherent inefficient nature. the guidelines in this case were determined by a group of healthcare professionals which appear to be similar to our AAP and there are certain ethical issues that must be taken into consideration.
i suspect that insurance companies/doctors make similar "rules" every day without government-healthcare. the only difference between government-run healthcare and the current system is who is trying to find ways to deny coverage to save a buck. it's kind of like the synagis shot - they changed the "rules" and now i'm stuck because my insurance follows their guidelines.
that being said, i am not comfortable with the current government-run healthcare proposal. i wish, with every ounce of my being, that everyone would have adequate healthcare and i wish that the little boy would have been given any sort of chance. i don't, however, see the current proposal as being the best idea.
ETA: the fact that they didn't even try to stop the labor seems a little strange...but then again, i'm not a doctor, so maybe there was a medical reason?this scares me too, but it scares me even more with insurance companies. they are trying to make a profit. they have every incentive to deny every single claim that comes across their desks. it kills me that the people that are making decisions on my, my DH's and most of all, my DS's life do not have our best interests in mind - just the bottom line.
(please forgive me if i sound bitter, i've had a lot of insurance/doctor issues during our infertility/high-risk/premature birth experience)
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Our current system is far from perfect and in desperate need of a makeover. ?I agree with you 100% on that!!?
yep!
either way, this article made me sad. I just wish infertility, preterm birth, and unhealthy pregnancies would go away.
This is really a heartbreaking story. That I agree with.
However, the argument over government-run healthcare should point out that many low income pregnant women might be able to get access to medical care and save many more preemie babies.
I agree with some PP that the incredible instincts of our private doctors may have been what saved our babies (I know it was with my midwife). However, that doesn't take anything away from goverment healthcare. That's what I don't understand... no one is taking away our private healthcare through insurance companies. And if you have great competitive coverage through an employer or otherwise, AWESOME! Keep it! But what about those poor or struggling moms that don't have anywhere to turn for healthcare?
it was my understanding that you only get to keep your insurance as long as you don't try to switch companies or employers. you're grandfathered in, but if you try to move, you get kicked out and have government. i could be wrong though...
and i work for the government, so i'm going to guess we're going to end up with government insurance because they need someone to try it out....
I think it's perfect that Mr. President is choosing to dispel a lot of the rumors right now
Need help with high fat food ideas? Chunky Monkey
you can only keep it if you don't want to change (so one day you decide you no longer like the health insurance you have you get put into the public option) or lose your insurance. If you have insurance through your company then if they keep it so do you but they will pay extra taxes for not switching to public health care so what company will keep private health care? also if you pay for your own health care then Obama decides if you have enough and if he says you don't have enough then you have to switch or pay extra taxes. So no you really don't get to keep your private insurance.
being part of tricare (the government run military healthcare plan) i can say for a fact that government healthcare is a terrible idea.
right now tricare is tiny compared to the monster it would become should the government take over all healthcare... and i still had to wait 3 months to see my high risk ob, even though they knew i was high risk. (they ended up getting around the rule by seeing me in the "infertility" department, even though i had absolutely nothing to do with them. they're the only ones that "can" see patients before 3mo.)
the nicu was great. we had good experiences all around. here's the problem, right now, in the nicu, if you drop a binky, you get another one- no charge. if the governement ran ALL healthcare there's absolutely NO WAY they could afford to do that... so, if you drop a binky, you go to the store and buy another one, then you bring it in for your baby. (just like all other socialist countries that require patients to bring their own gowns, bedpans, pillows, gauze, etc. after waiting 6 months for cancer removal surgery that would have been done in a week in the US.)
whew. i guess you could say i feel pretty strongly about all this.
i should add, when we lost our son at 21 weeks last year, the same hospital that saved wren told me that even if he was born alive they wouldn't intervene to save him until after 24 weeks. (he ended up dying before birth.)