Health Care Reform

I had to go to the emergency room a few years ago because I had been sick for days and eventually reached a fever of 102 degrees. I was still in high school so my parents took me and I was covered under their insurance. I ended up being tested for mono and strep throat, had to undergo x-rays, a physical and a gynecological exam, even though I was not sexually active at the time. In the end, I was diagnosed with a mono-like virus and sent home with directions to stay in bed, drink a lot of orange juice and take ibuprofen for my fever and aches and pains. Thankfully the insurance paid for most of this. But all the testing was not what my parents and I were upset about. We stayed in the ER for over four hours because there were only two nurses on duty and had to call in an off duty doctor to examine me. Because of this, I just wanted to go home instead of having to undergo all of those unnecessary tests but the nurse insisted that I stay and wait for the doctor because there could have been something terribly wrong with me. But even after an hour of waiting and my fever decreasing, we were still waiting for the doctor and encouraged to wait. I do not know if this was solely because they want to make money or need a certain number of tests to run or patients to evaluate each day. The amount of workers, however, were definitely a problem and if there were more, I could have been treated and tested quicker and possibly not subjected to the expensive bill.

The health care system around the country is obviously lacking in the worker department. And something to think about it how necessary it is to actually admit someone to the hospital; this increases the patient to nurse ratio and ultimately results in medical mistakes and sometimes death. The heart of the matter really lies in how well people are educated about health, preventative medicine, and insurance coverage. People will wait until they absolutely have to go to the hospital, which can increase capacity and doctors and nurses have too many patients to properly care for. It’s definitely something for our government to think about changing.

Katy Lawrence