I was watching daytime tv something I rarely do and came across a talk show called The Doctors. I've seen it once before and it was okay. Well this episode was relevant to my interests because they had a family on who had a premature baby girl and they were darn near financially ruined by her early birth, and NICU stay. Well one of the docs made a comment about socialized healthcare and how it's great that places like France and Canada have it, but that the care is not as good as it it is in the US. My first thought was ,"Wait a minute, Elizabeth had the best healthcare in the province let alone Canada!" Heck Ste Justine is one of the top hospitals in North America for premature babies. Well it got me to thinking. Nic and I were damned lucky that I got my permanent residency when I did because if I had to deliver Elizabeth in Plattsburgh she probably wouldn't have survived. Chances are I would have delivered in the car during the 1 hour drive down, not including the wait time at the border. Even if I had made it to Plattsburgh, Champlain Hospital doesn't have as high a level of NICU as Ste. Justine so chances are again she wouldn't have made it. Plus given her case I doubt anyone would have thought of putting her in the coma for the status epilepticus which really was the closest point that she came to dying out of the four times that she was close to it. All in all I'm pleased and impressed with the care that Elizabeth received and is still receiving. Yes it's hard to get your foot in the door for healthcare here but once you're in, you're in. Yes there are hellishly long waiting lists for surgical procedures but there are people languishing on hellishly long waiting list for procedures in the US too. Now onto the financial ruin part. This family is and was in a horrible situation. I skimmed their blog and their little girl didn't make it. In my mind it takes a lot of courage to go begging for help like they did. It would be hard for me to swallow my pride and go on national tv to do that. There's been some controversy though over what they've done on other preemie blogs and I understand that outrage very well. Families are crumbling not just because of the medical situation but because of the financial strain of making sure their child is adequately cared for. Hell we're feeling the strain and her surgical procedure, check ups by numerous specialists, physical and occupational therapy are all covered. And that's not counting the base price of 2000$-3000$ a day costs of when she was in the NICU. I don't want to know how much it cost to keep her in the coma on a continuous EEG. The majority of the ancillary stuff is not covered in Elizabeth's case. Her colostomy bags aren't covered under Nic's private insurance, and neither is the O2 bottles, concentrator rental, and all of the tubing that goes with it. Her formula isn't covered and that's 20$ a can since it's a special formula. Her meds have to be paid for up front, and then they get reimbursed. So it's like why are they getting all this help and yet there are hundreds and hundreds of other families who desparately need the help to and are getting nothing. I hope though that the money they received goes to really helping them get out of the financial hole and not wasted. I'm not even going to touch the emotional cost of all of this adventure. So after that semi rant I return you to my regularily schedule broadcast of Elizabeth cuteness.
