America’s healthcare system keeps us one accident away from devastation

Back in 2004, I wasn’t paying attention to traffic as I was crossing the street, and I got hit by a truck. That experience taught me about the deep anxieties people face when they know they’re one stroke of bad luck away from disaster.

I don’t remember much about the accident. I remember the truck was white. I remember trying to get up and people yelling at me to get down. I remember the quick ambulance ride to the hospital and being called “the facial” by doctors at the hospital. They didn’t know my name, and, apparently, my face had taken the brunt of the hit. A broken nose, two knocked-out teeth, and three or four concussions later, I was released from the hospital the next day after a stay at the emergency room. I slowly got better, and about a year later, I graduated from college.

I remember being proud on that college graduation day and feeling excited about what the future would hold… until I got a call. It was the hospital’s billing department, and they had been trying to find me for some time. The person calling made small talk. She asked me how I was. “Good, I just graduated college,” was my reply. She shared what seemed like sincere congratulations before changing the subject and informing me that I owed the hospital $30,000 for the ambulance ride and a one-night stay.

There are three lessons I’ll carry from that experience as your member of Congress:

1.  No matter where you are in life, you’re one accident away from devastation. I’m reminded each day how precious and blessed life is. Had the truck been going a little faster or had my body been contorted a little differently when I was hit, I would be paralyzed or dead.  The possibility of sudden physical devastation is real, and so is the possibility of sudden financial devastation.

2.  At your most vulnerable, you’ll get charged the most. Are you on the ground bleeding? Are you in need of a drug to keep you alive? Are you in serious pain? Even with insurance, you’re likely to be charged insane prices for medical care. It’s even worse if you don’t have insurance. We live in the world's wealthiest country. This is inhumane, unnecessary, and it preys on people when they’re most vulnerable.

3.  You are at the whim of insurance company death panels. Around 16 years ago, the extreme right and pharmaceutical companies made people afraid that a national system of affordable healthcare would create government death panels. Some may be too young to remember that. They made it seem like some bureaucrat in D.C. was going to decide whether you’d live or die.  Follow-up question: How do your insurance companies act differently than what you were made to fear? That’s not a trick question. They don’t, and you know that.

When Bernie Sanders rails against insurance companies and advocates for a single-payer system, he gets labeled a crazy socialist. But think about it. What have you been offered that’s better? Your doctors and nurses spend more time filling out paperwork than looking you in the eyes, not because it improves your health but because it makes an insurance company richer. 

There’s no incentive to make you healthier because nobody gets wealthier from it. You’re in an emergency, and your back is against the wall. Meanwhile, their hands reach deeper in your pockets to take your last dime.

This isn’t brain surgery—except when it is. Let’s incentivize doctors and nurses spending more time with their patients. Let’s leverage technology to reduce the paperwork demands on doctors and nurses.  And let’s fund a more humane system, ensuring nobody loses their physical or financial wellbeing because of a freak accident or a sudden illness.

Fellow West Virginians, we’ve grown too used to a healthcare system that does not work. We’ve come to think that the one we have is our only option, but every other developed democracy does things differently. We can have a better healthcare system. We just need political leaders that represent working people, not insurance companies. We can do better, and I will do better for you when I get to Congress.