Access to Healthcare
There are, unfortunately, many barriers that prevent people from proper access to healthcare. This includes (but is not limited to) the financial inability to afford insurance/copays/deductibles/medication and the lack of accommodations for people with disabilities.
I interviewed a patient whose 7-year-old daughter was born with cerebral palsy. “We’ve been very blessed,” she explained. Her daughter was born at Valley Hospital, and although she was only officially diagnosed at 11 months, she received full attention from a strong team from the beginning. After her birth, she spent 19 days in the NICU, and subsequently saw a neurologist, went into therapy, and began Early Intervention. “She can’t walk independently yet, but we’ve had a really wonderful team. Her therapist that she’s seen since she was 4 months old – she’s still in our lives.”
Although she and her husband have been fortunate in their ability to pay for their daughter’s medical attention, they are struggling with their school district to ensure that she will have the proper accommodations in school. She expressed, “As a teacher and as a parent I’m just so disappointed. In regards to money, she’s looked at like a number and not a child.” Between the insurance that she has from her school and her husband’s job, they were able to get an advocate and lawyer. However, she is well aware that the resources that she has for her daughter would not be possible if her family could not afford it. “I just feel really bad because so many people are just pushed along and not getting the care their child needs,” she commented. America’s healthcare system allows us to have quicker access to more advanced technologies and treatments (something that my great-aunt in Indonesia was not able to receive in the time leading up to her death), but it excludes those who cannot afford it.
On another note, access to information is not as easy as the Internet and social media makes it seem. Especially when newly diagnosed, learning what care and next steps need to be taken is overwhelming. “I just wish that it was easier to get information,” the patient stated. “Like a “bible” that anyone can access, not just certain people.”
Doctors in America are, essentially, businessmen and women. Healthcare is a service that is sold. However, the nature of their profession as providers makes them uniquely situated to find a balance between both work and service. A therapist who works with a child from birth is woven into their patient’s life, thus becoming more like family than a vendor.