An EMT Anecdote On Universal Care

TW: I could post an anecdote a day on the ramifications of our lack of universal care. But this one seemed more real given its spontaneous nature. The theme rarely changes though. There are gaping holes in our health care system, those holes either result in folks not getting care or folks getting care with funding indirectly provided by taxpayers or privately insured folks. Much of the health care reform is about reducing the voids and formally funding them as opposed to the current system which hides the costs whilst leaving some folks floundering amidst the voids.

From Karen Tumulty at Time:
"...The Senate was holding a noon vote, and I was loitering near an elevator where I had a hunch (okay, a tip) that one Senator who had been eluding my interview requests might be appearing at any moment. The police there, as you might imagine, keep an eye on everything, and when they see you hanging around--even if you are a middle-aged woman with a press credential around your neck--they will politely ask you what you are up to. So it was yesterday, and when I told the uniformed officer the name of the Senator I was hoping to catch, he immediately guessed that I was working on a story on health care reform.

That's when the officer began to tell me about his own experiences as an emergency medical technician. Many was the time, he said, that a critically ill or injured person would try to stop him even as he was loading them into the ambulance. "I don't have insurance," they would say. "I can't afford this." Over and over again, he would tell them not to worry on that score, that the hospital would admit them anyway and ultimately add their bills to the growing amount of indigent care they provide.

The officer said he is mystified by all the talk he hears about how covering the uninsured would be too expensive for the government to take on. "Don't they know?" the officer said, gesturing to the Senators who were scurrying in and out of the elevator. "It's getting paid for. We are all paying for this. We are paying with our tax dollars[TW: and private insurance $]..."
http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/09/23/a-health-care-expert-speaks-up/