Being sick is something all of us have to go through at some point in our lives. In many cases, the most amount of time that we will spend in a hospital is in the last few weeks or months of their lives, but that does not mean it is the only time. Earlier today, I myself made a trip to the hospital for a small surgery on my heel. However, while I was waiting for my doctor to show up, all of the other patients around me were senior citizens. Although I waited for about two and a half hours to actually see a doctor, once I was being treated, the procedure went perfectly. In other words, it felt like all the patients were being made to wait for a very long time in order to receive care, but because I am lucky enough to qualify for health insurance, the quality of the care was actually very good. Another thing that I noticed about my experience in the hospital is that for a large portion of the time that I was waiting, my mother and I were either reviewing or filling out new paperwork. So although it is true that all humans will experience illness and dying at usually multiple times in their lives, that does not mean that all of their experiences going through that process will be the same.
The process of dying is yet another inevitable circumstance that all of us will experience eventually. There are so many different causes of death and situations regarding family and environment that everyone's experience with dying will certainly be different. However, in Death and Hospital Culture, it is stated that, "Today, more Americans die in hospitals then anywhere else, and the most frequent response to critical illness there is to try to stave off with the most sophisticated technological means available." (Death and Hospital Culture, 25) As a result of this, in America, the idea of dying can often be associated with a hospital bed surrounded by many machines. This is not necessarily the case though; when our guest speaker Beth came in to speak about the passing of her husband, she talked about how for the last days of his life she took him back to their house and took care of him there by herself. The difference between dying in a hospital and dying at home can have a great impact on that person's experience. "Thus, while patient and family decision-making is considered paramount, decisions, when they are made at all, are constrained by hospital rules reimbursement mechanisms, and standards of care." (Death and Hospital Culture, 28) It seems that by choosing to die in a hospital, neither the patient or the family of the patient will have much power over the treatment of the one who is dying, while if that same patient was being taken care of in his/her home, they would have complete freedom at the cost of less machinery and trained staff.
There is not always a choice for patients whether or not they want to receive care in the hospital. Unlike countries like Canada, Britain, and France which have socialized medicine systems, good health care in America is not so easy to come by. In Sicko, a film created by Michael Moore, he describes how about 50 million Americans are without health insurance. He also speaks about a man who severed both his middle and his ring finger in an accident and was offered a choice of paying 60,000 dollars to re-attach his middle finger or 12,000 dollars to re-attach his ring finger. On the other hand, Beth did not have to pay a single penny for the care that Erik received throughout the time that he was dying, because their family did have health insurance. Many citizens who are covered by health insurance in America are not as lucky as Beth was, however. Things such as pre-existing conditions that patients may have forgot to mention when filling out paperwork can give health insurance companies a reason not to cover the costs of care. The reason for this is because the incentives of our health care system are for the benefit of the large companies, not the people. At a later point in the flim Sicko, Michael Moore showed us a recording of President Nixon having a conversation with chief advisor, who was describing his proposal for the new health care system to the president. What he said was basically that, "The whole idea of the new health care system is less care." Nixon responded by saying, "Well that doesn't sound too bad." It is clear that the American system of health care is making it harder for people to acquire health insurance, and equally as difficult to make sure that you receive care even when you are insured.
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