Fee for Services

The story began when she was 15. At that time, she has been bed ridden for six years. Summers were scorching hot and winters bitterly cold. The parents cannot afford the $1,500 operation that will close the hole in her belly. When she turned, part of her intestines would fall out from that hole. It was painful, infectious, and could grind the spirit of anyone, let alone a little girl.

When the story broke, the society and community opened their hearts and wallets. The hospital donated their services and the girl got the wish of her life. Too late. The hole has deteriorated beyond repair. She went home and soon died, of hopelessness.

The TV show a bone-thin girl that smiled sweetly and quietly. She stared with soulful eyes that brought tears to our eyes. We would have funded the whole operation on the spot. That program was aired several years ago, in China. It was about health-care reform.

By and large, China’s medical system is fee-for-services. Just about the first thing you do entering a hospital or clinic is settling your payments. You don’t see any doctor or receive any care before that. Rich people get first-class services, poor waited in the smelly hallways. Poor people die, rich live long and healthy. When I talked about the medical philosophy and laws in the US, that hospitals will treat people first and talk money later. They were flabbergasted. “You mean. The doctors knew that they may not get paid?” “Yes,” I replied. “The government will take care of it.”

This state of Arizona sure has taken some unusal and unpopular stances. Facing a $1 billion budget deficit, it decided to stop paying for several types of organ transplant, in addition to many other medical coverage reductions. If you cannot afford it, you don’t get organ transplant. Two already died and 97 may follow.

When we watched that TV program, we thought that Chinese girl would have lived a happy and healthy life had she were born in America. Her ailment would have been taken care of within weeks, if not days. She wouldn’t have suffered six years and died at the end. We would have seen a pair of innocent and naughty eyes, not ones from a tortured soul.

Only if she were born not in Arizona.