Today’s thoughts, on Healthcare Reform and the Maine Campaign for Better Care
I am sitting home today, sick with a cold. I will certainly survive my little virus, but it is keeping me down today. I can only imagine being sick, gravely sick, day after day. I have been blessed with good health and I have never had an ongoing illness with daily ongoing suffering. In my work as a nurse I was confronted with the suffering of others every day. But, I never considered that I could do much about it outside the constraints of my hospital practice. I have found my voice, my bravado and my true calling. The older I get, the more I realize that so many suffer. They not only suffer the pain of ongoing illness, they also suffer the frustration of lack of or inadequate insurance. Because of lack of insurance, they do not get the care they need, so the suffering persists and gets worse. Their finances suffer. They suffer the emotional pain of knowing they may never get better. Their physical and emotional pain and suffering is multi tiered and never ending.
My father’s suffering was horrible. It started the day he collapsed with MRSA pneumonia. The severity and the weight of the illness put him down and and kept him down. His unnecessary and preventable illness and death motivated me to do something to help others to avoid MRSA. And now that work is taking me even further into activism to help direct healthcare reform money and policies to benefit the most vulnerable of all …the elderly and the most gravely ill patients of all ages.
My recent experience with the Maine Campaign for Better Care made me aware of just how important and exciting the new Healthcare Reform law is. We all know it isn’t perfect. My perfect HC plan would eliminate ANY profits on the backs of sick and suffering people. I believe it is immoral to profit that way. But, as we all know, there will still be profit. We have to make the best of the HC reform we got. the MCBC’s goal is to focus on improved quality and accessibility of care for the elderly and for severely ill and handicapped people of all ages. The plan for doing this is still in the formative stages, but many capable members of this group will set about at this work soon. They will identify, categorize and work on problems.. Their approach will involve better coordination of care for all. Redundant, repetative and unnecessary “care” and or diagnostics will hopefully be minimized or eliminated. Volume or “more care” doesn’t equal quality or safe care. They will also work on better communications between patients and their providers. This group will put the patient at the hub of their own care. What a concept!! They will empower patients and encourage patients to question their healthcare providers and pave the way for better communications.
I love the concept of all this. I find it very exciting and way overdue. If the MCBC does a public campaign asking for suggestions and stories from everybody, please contribute to their ideas and their effort in general. It is everybody’s chance to help direct and influence policies of the HC reform law. The MCBC is bringing the new law to every citizen in Maine and will ask for their help. In turn, Maine may set precedent on policy because only 5 States are running this campaign.
