Health Care and Medical Judgements

I was actually going to write a much fluffier post about my kids and parties, but I have had health care on my mind a lot these past few days.  That is fairly unusual for me.  I don't go to the doctor.  I am lucky that my children rarely need more than a well visit to our family doctor.  I am blessed and I know that.It has also meant that I have not really had a lot of times in my life where I  have had to think about what insurance will and will not pay for.

 I wrote a while ago about Elisabeth being tested for her speech issue and how she was diagnosed as being eligible for at least 12 sessions of speech therapy.  We received an appointment for Monday and thought we were all set.  Wrong!  Our HMO denied the request, saying that her speech issue was not severe enough to warrent the therapy.  We are appealing, but these things take time.  In this instance, it isn't life or death.  In fact, as a tax payer, I can look to my public schools for speech therapy services.  I am entitled to them even though we h ome school.  We also received some flash cards from the clinician who did the testing and we can use those at home.  But it angers me that someone who does not know my daughter has the power to say she is not entitled to this care.

It angers me even more that my mother had to wait several weeks to even have a cardiac appointment scheduled because of issues surrounding her health care.

And it makes me insane, utterly and completely a raging babbling idiot that there are children who are denied important medical care because of cognitive delays.  I thought our society was past thinking that a dx of MR meant someone was less than human, but apparently not.  You can read the story that made me crazy here

\Cost/benefit analysis vs a human life. Compassion vs clinical judgements. I can't imagine being in the position of my child being denied a life saving treatment.  Apparently I don't have to "imagine it."  It happens.