The Contented Cow Blog

Building Workplaces That Work

There is a saying that old folks’ conversations ultimately center on one of three things: Their wallet, their next meal, or their bowel movements. My grown son who has for years worked in the restaurant industry jokes that, by virtue of his job, he’s got perfect triangulation on graybeards.

We can add a fourth thing to the list, one that is no laughing matter and likely isn’t going away any time soon… health care, specifically health insurance. Sit in a doctor’s office, or just about anywhere else for more than fifteen minutes, and you’ll hear someone talking about the inability to get/afford coverage, or the utter nonsense one has to go through to get an appointment made or a claim paid in our system of managed, ‘er… mangled care. While by no means exclusively the domain of seniors, its effect on them is indeed more pernicious.

Last week, my 83 year-old father got worked into a lather after being notified for the second time in as many weeks that his primary health care coverage was being canceled. He had neither terminated the policy nor failed to make payment. Rather, the cancellation occurred because of conditions associated with new secondary coverage being issued to replace a policy my mom had covered him on prior to her death.

My dad almost never calls, preferring to fight his own battles and not “bother” my brother and me. This time he called, and I could tell he was really worked up. I would be too at the thought of having to work my way through a bureaucratic maze at not one but two insurance companies, with the more immediate prospect of being denied coverage for medicines and treatment that at his advancing age aren’t exactly optional, and oh by the way, he’s upheld his end of the bargain for.

Thankfully, I had sensed earlier in the week that he could use a visit, and had less than an hour of drive time remaining on my 600 mile trip to pay him a surprise visit when he phoned. We discussed the matter in person that evening, and I am hopeful that the change foisted upon him by some faceless, soulless bureaucracy has now been undone.

Tuesday evening, an MSNBC television audience was witness to another retiree’s story of a much more dire circumstance. During the AFL-CIO Presidential Forum, a debate among the leading Democrat presidential candidates, “Steve Skvara, a retired steelworker, told of losing a significant chunk of his pension”, and health care coverage for himself and his wife owing to the bankruptcy of LTV. Mr. Skvara’s voice cracked when he spoke of sitting at the kitchen table with the woman he has been married to for thirty-six years and being unable to pay for her healthcare. His question, “What’s wrong with America, and what will you do to change it?” drew a standing ovation from the crowd, and no doubt left many with misty eyes.

We need to do more than get misty eyes, though. The caption above the YouTube video box says it all, “Steve Skvara is all of us.” Without question, we need to rebuild our healthcare delivery system such that all American citizens have better, more affordable access to healthcare. The answers aren’t easy, they will take time, and require pain, but we’ve simply got to go there. This endeavor should rank equally in importance with defending against Islamic radicals and protecting our nation’s borders, and ahead of whatever misadventures remain in Iraq.

In the meantime, we should be ashamed that in America, people who have played by the rules, paid their dues, and have the fewest options available to them get jerked around by a system designed to frustrate them until they get tired and just go away. We should be ashamed that our bankruptcy process allows an organization to shed core obligations to retirees and then emerge squeaky-clean and debt free only months later. We should be ashamed that senior citizens who have worked hard, paid their taxes, and behaved responsibly can’t restrict their worries, if they so choose, to their wallet, their next meal and…

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