Catastrophic Brain and Spinal Cord Injuries – Where Is The Safety Net? – Time For Universal Health Care?

Today we had the father of a young man in his early twenties come in to the office. His son was involved in an automobile accident and sustained serious injuries to his spine. It appears that he will be paralyzed for life from the waist down. The young man’s medical bills far exceed the liability insurance coverage, the hospital has filed a lien which will consume all of the available liability coverage and, to make matters worse, the young man has no health insurance.
Last month we got a call from a young man, an employee of a tree surgeon company, who fell from a tree. He was also sustained a serious spinal cord injury and was rendered a paraplegic. His employer had no workers’ compensation insurance and he had no health insurance.
Last year a young women who had been an employee of our firm 10 years ago, was involved in an automobile accident and sustained a permanent brain injury from which she will never recover. She had limited medical insurance to take care of her initial medical needs but nothing to take care of her long-term care. She is now being cared for, at home, by her husband and family.
Last week my firm received a letter from our group health insurer, advising us that our health insurance premium will be going up 49% for the coming policy year! No one has even had a significant claim of any type. This rate increase news comes at a time when health insurers are reporting record profits. How long can this go on? More and more businesses will be unable to provide health insurance to its employees.
It is my opinion that the medical/health insurance crisis faced by millions of Americans, in this country, is a disgrace. We are a phenomenally wealthy country and no American should ever be in a position of having no health insurance and no family should be put in a position such as those in the above referenced cases of having no safety net. In a country that can spend over a trillion dollars to wage a war in the middle east and rebuild economies of other countries, why can’t we provide basic healthcare to all Americans and catastrophic assistance to families whose lives have been devastated by catastrophic injuries? For those corporate types who feel secure in the knowledge that they have health insurance and disability coverage, watch out! Unless you are very wealthy, even you would be hard pressed to finance the care needed by a loved one who has sustained catastrophic injuries and will need life long 24/7 care.