Since Health Care is the Topic de Jour...
The bills for Lucy's birth have been pouring in. With our bank account dwindling, it is so easy to see why the majority of people are on the side of universal "free" coverage. Even with insurance, the birth will still cost us thousands.
But I understand the costs associated with the care that we received, not the least of which is the cost a medical facility has to pay to just bill customers. Think of all the personnel involved in that! And they are not exactly getting paid minimum wage.
I can complain about the delivery room, the use of which cost us approximately $1,000 per hour. Or the recovery room, which cost $100 per hour. Or the synthetic oxytocin that they billed me for, even though I didn't have any, since I didn't even have an IV.
But these things aren't what make me angry. The price that I paid for the actual 'skilled' care provider, the Nurse-Midwife, is what, to me, is so demonstrative of what is wrong with health care. The minimum charge for her services, which includes all prenatal visits and her presence at the delivery, is $4,600. So even though I was in my 3rd trimester when I started getting prenatal care from her, and showed up at the hospital 10cm dialated, I have to pay that minimum amount, $4,600. I could have started seeing her at 8 weeks pregnant and labored 12 hours at the hospital, and the price would have been the same.
Even that pricing structure I get. But when I got to the hospital, and was experiencing a very common phenomenon of natural labor (in the gear-shift from dilation contractions to pushing contractions my body just STOPPED having contractions all together, giving me a blessed period of rest) the nurse-midwife acted positively CONFOUNDED. What in the world was WRONG with me? WHY was I not pushing already???? Why was I calm and resting??? Drew and I, in turn, became concerned. Since she seemed to think that something was wrong with me, there must be something wrong, right? The labor process that had been so beautiful and relaxing to that point, became negative and scary.
After the cloud of labor cleared and I remembered how natural and normal the whole process had been, I was very confused about her behavior. A discussion at my 6 week checkup with her confirmed my thoughts: she did not see that what I was experiencing was normal. She called it very abnormal, in fact. She said she was sorry that her response to it made that part of my labor a bad experience, but she said she couldn't have been expected to know what was going on with my body at that time.
So, back to the statement that what I experienced was a 'very common phenomenon of natural labor.' It was the kind of thing that a Professional Midwife would have easily recognized. A Professional Midwife would have told me to be grateful for the rest, enjoy it, and not forced me to push when I wasn't even close to feeling like it.
Except that mere Professional Midwives, the only type of care provider that have a lot of experience with the natural and normal process of labor, are felons in the state of Illinois.
The particular Professional Midwife that I had originally hired to deliver Lucy was going to charge $1,500 for the birth. Period. Whether the birth lasted 60 hours or 6. And I signed on the dotted line, agreeing to pay that fee. Problem was, that was a black market contract. And before I reached my due date, the state started coming after her for practicing something very, very illegal. Practicing medicine without a 'license'. A felony.
So instead I was forced, by the state of Illinois to go to a much less skilled midwife, that happens to hold a 'license' and pay 3 times as much for sub-par service.
That is what is wrong with health care.
The whole debate is flawed. The problem is that we already have government managed health care. The power has been stripped from the hands of consumers like me. It is illegal for me to, in the privacy of my own home, pay a woman (or man) skilled in an art to assist me in a normal human activity.
Because judges and congressmen have seen it as their business to interfere in the normal function of the market as it relates to this. And it is not just birth. This is just an example of how the consumer has no ability to vote with his/her dollars. He must merely accept the narrow, legal options and operate within that realm.
Eliminate the idea of state-granted permission for health care providers to practice! Allow the market and diploma-granting institutions to be the ones giving the certifications and let that be that. We will vote with our dollars!
However, this is just a statement of a problem,, since there is slim to zero chance that said judges and congressmen will reverse their action and reinstitute freedom (lost long ago) in the health care market. And I see no "second best" option. Certainly none of the ones on the table that I have heard about.....
But I understand the costs associated with the care that we received, not the least of which is the cost a medical facility has to pay to just bill customers. Think of all the personnel involved in that! And they are not exactly getting paid minimum wage.
I can complain about the delivery room, the use of which cost us approximately $1,000 per hour. Or the recovery room, which cost $100 per hour. Or the synthetic oxytocin that they billed me for, even though I didn't have any, since I didn't even have an IV.
But these things aren't what make me angry. The price that I paid for the actual 'skilled' care provider, the Nurse-Midwife, is what, to me, is so demonstrative of what is wrong with health care. The minimum charge for her services, which includes all prenatal visits and her presence at the delivery, is $4,600. So even though I was in my 3rd trimester when I started getting prenatal care from her, and showed up at the hospital 10cm dialated, I have to pay that minimum amount, $4,600. I could have started seeing her at 8 weeks pregnant and labored 12 hours at the hospital, and the price would have been the same.
Even that pricing structure I get. But when I got to the hospital, and was experiencing a very common phenomenon of natural labor (in the gear-shift from dilation contractions to pushing contractions my body just STOPPED having contractions all together, giving me a blessed period of rest) the nurse-midwife acted positively CONFOUNDED. What in the world was WRONG with me? WHY was I not pushing already???? Why was I calm and resting??? Drew and I, in turn, became concerned. Since she seemed to think that something was wrong with me, there must be something wrong, right? The labor process that had been so beautiful and relaxing to that point, became negative and scary.
After the cloud of labor cleared and I remembered how natural and normal the whole process had been, I was very confused about her behavior. A discussion at my 6 week checkup with her confirmed my thoughts: she did not see that what I was experiencing was normal. She called it very abnormal, in fact. She said she was sorry that her response to it made that part of my labor a bad experience, but she said she couldn't have been expected to know what was going on with my body at that time.
So, back to the statement that what I experienced was a 'very common phenomenon of natural labor.' It was the kind of thing that a Professional Midwife would have easily recognized. A Professional Midwife would have told me to be grateful for the rest, enjoy it, and not forced me to push when I wasn't even close to feeling like it.
Except that mere Professional Midwives, the only type of care provider that have a lot of experience with the natural and normal process of labor, are felons in the state of Illinois.
The particular Professional Midwife that I had originally hired to deliver Lucy was going to charge $1,500 for the birth. Period. Whether the birth lasted 60 hours or 6. And I signed on the dotted line, agreeing to pay that fee. Problem was, that was a black market contract. And before I reached my due date, the state started coming after her for practicing something very, very illegal. Practicing medicine without a 'license'. A felony.
So instead I was forced, by the state of Illinois to go to a much less skilled midwife, that happens to hold a 'license' and pay 3 times as much for sub-par service.
That is what is wrong with health care.
The whole debate is flawed. The problem is that we already have government managed health care. The power has been stripped from the hands of consumers like me. It is illegal for me to, in the privacy of my own home, pay a woman (or man) skilled in an art to assist me in a normal human activity.
Because judges and congressmen have seen it as their business to interfere in the normal function of the market as it relates to this. And it is not just birth. This is just an example of how the consumer has no ability to vote with his/her dollars. He must merely accept the narrow, legal options and operate within that realm.
Eliminate the idea of state-granted permission for health care providers to practice! Allow the market and diploma-granting institutions to be the ones giving the certifications and let that be that. We will vote with our dollars!
However, this is just a statement of a problem,, since there is slim to zero chance that said judges and congressmen will reverse their action and reinstitute freedom (lost long ago) in the health care market. And I see no "second best" option. Certainly none of the ones on the table that I have heard about.....
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