Readers Response: Healthcare

Patients First
Andrew Hautau

After going to a church retreat about a month ago, I soon discovered that it was perhaps unwise to have played ultimate frisbee in the cold and rain. The next day I came down with the flu, and by mid week I was scrambling to find a walk-in clinic that might provide some help. I decided to go to one of the many "Patients First" walk-in clinics in town, as it seemed convenient enough. After giving the receptionist my insurance information and waiting for an hour, I was turned away because that particular office would not accept either of my insurance plans. I am covered twice over as a dependent, and I was still not accepted at this particular office. Over the flu.

I was pointed to another "Patients First" clinic on the other side of town that would accept my insurance. As I waited to see the doctor, I was dismayed to see what might arguably be the culmination of what I see as wrong with a capitalist health care system. Gift cards. Yes, you read correctly. A sign, apparently for the holiday season, hung over the cards that said something to the effect of "For that special someone this holiday season." The card is labeled as "Care Ca$h", as though one were buying the equivalent of a card from Best Buy.

If you find this as laughable, please pause for a moment and ask yourself, why is this so funny? The "Care Ca$h" gift cards at the "Patients First" clinics here in Tallahassee are only the logical culmination of a health care system that is built around profit. This system is built around distributing health care as a product or service, just as many conservatives and libertarians espouse as the solution to all problems. In fact, as the argument goes, government only stands in the way of real solutions to all the problems of the system. In a single payer system, there would be no need for "Care Ca$h" cards, and "Patients First" would become more than a pithy name. While greed and profit may be an excellent motivation for other aspects of our economy, it should have no place in dictating public health. Alexander Hamilton once said, "Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments." We desperately need that moderation.

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