Every once in a while I read a news story that sends a clutch of fear deep in my heart. This did it for me today.
WASHINGTON - Louisiana's public hospital system is on the verge of financial collapse two months after Hurricane Katrina and needs federal aid quickly, the head of the system said Thursday.
ADVERTISEMENT"We're out of money, roughly after Thanksgiving," Donald Smithburg, chief executive of the Louisiana State University Health Care Services Division, told reporters. "We are running out of time."
Many of my family members in Louisiana depend on the public hospital system. When they're sick they go to a "charity" hospital emergency room, since they, along with nearly 50 million other Americans, have no health insurance. (Quick, name another country that puts up with this.) They are still required to pay, according to their income, yet they will at least be seen after they produce the proper card.
But how soon, with layoffs expected? (Last time I went with my mom, we waited a couple of hours.) There are currently only a few of those hospitals, in the larger cities. How soon before they too close their doors?
We've spent hundreds of billions fighting phantom terrorists in Iraq, yet lack of health insurance is still killing more Americans than terrorism. Many more live in fear of getting sick, not from out of the ordinary bio-terrorism attacks but from quite ordinary viruses, heart disease, and stroke.
Still haven't thought of another country with no national health insurance? I can't either, and I've searched for the last half hour.
