Question of the Week: How's your health care?

By Tom Peterson

Welcome to Question of the Week, a weekly news column that poses timely questions about life, politics, culture, economics, health, and more to people out and about in our communities. Our hope at CCC News is that having this space dedicated to being curious about other people’s experiences can help us to deepen our understanding of people from all walks of life.

This week’s question: How is your health care? 

Dave Owens, 44, The Dalles

“So, I think health care is quite shabby. It needs improvement. My own provider, she retired after COVID. And I don’t take enough care of myself.”

Correction from Dave:

This is the second time I have given you an interview to CCC News and this is the second time what I said was not reported accurately. When you asked your "Question of the day: How's your health care?" I stated that the health care as pertains to the entire country was "shabby" but that my own personal care was also "shabby". I focused on the idea of "shabby" as a sort of alliteration to make fun and at the same time make a salient point on the current state of health care in our country. We even shared a laugh about how neither of us were the best at being the healthiest we could be.
I do not idly choose the words I let slip out of my mouth. Please, in the future, either ask my permission to record what I have to say, take better notes, or do not publish statements that misrepresent my answers to your questions.

Del Quest, 62, Eugene

“Well, this is not fair. I work with the County, so I have really good health care. I am also a social worker, and a lot of people do not have good health care. It is one of those things that has to be fixed.”

Moss Person, 46, Dufur

“I don’t have any. So far, I have not needed it. I just don’t have it. I am a cheap ass. I would say it (the health care system) sucks. It’s way too expensive in America, and they need to put a stop to the monopoly on it. A doctor should not cost $130 for 15 minutes of time.”

Hello, World!

Steve Nimmo, 65, The Dalles

“You’re asking the wrong person,” he said. “I run on shoe string and we work  so many hours we do not have health care even though we’re at age 65.” He said finding the time to get the paperwork done has just not been possible as of late.

“I would like to see us go with a free, single-payer system. “There are lots of huge issues in the state, country, and world. And it’s hard to put a finger on a single issue in health care with wars going on, but this is important.  This seems like a realistic and attainable problem to address in this country. If we could solve that, it could have an overreaching effect on us, our state and our planet. I know in the past so goes the US so goes the planet. If we do the smart things for ourselves, it is likely the same smart things will transfer to other countries and the world.”

Daniel Cosgrove, 37, The Dalles

In relation to others, I have good comprehensive medical, vision and dental. But its hard to access and hard to use. I grew up with health care, but if I did not have that background, I would not know what to do. Do I have a referral to go to a dentist? If go to a dermatologist I would have to go to a gen practitioner referral? If my job gave health care to me but I do not know how to read a huge packet of information, and if I did I would not understand it anyway. I say it’s an ineffective system that’s broken. I’m not sure if tying it to employment is the best way to go.”  

Chris Sollis, 23, The Dalles - no photo, bad hair day;)

“So, right now I’m on my work’s health care. It’s  Blue Cross Blue Shield. I have had other jobs where I was making $500 a week, but I could never get Oregon Health Authority (OHA) benefits because I earned too much. The insurance I have now is pretty good.  I just think it should be free for all. You really have to be jobless to get OHA .”

Pete Kanter, 65, The Dalles. 

“It’s sufficient.”

Do you have a doctor?

“I do.”

How’s it been working?

“It works well for me.”

Kara Davis, 47, The Dalles 

“It’s all right. It’s paid for by the County. I hate health insurance, who doesn’t. It’s always denying, never covering what we want it to. There should be a simpler way. I also lived in Europe. It was nice. You show up, say you have a problem, and they give you what you need.”

Davis said she was not covered with insurance while abroad, and the care provider was apologetic for the amount she had to pay. 

“I saw a doctor, had labs and got a prescription. It was about $25.”

“Insurance is driving prices up instead of making it more affordable.”

This just in from email:

Lorri McCanna, 59, The Dalles

I would like to give some input to your question of the week regarding health care: Firstly, heath care is different than health insurance, and I feel like the responses you published are talking about health insurance vs. care.

Secondly, our severe shortage of doctors (vs. other medical professionals, although those are likely not enough either) compromises the integrity of health care for our region. MCMC has, over the years, obtained such a stranglehold on the medical profession that there are very few independent providers and many of them are not part of many medical insurance plans PPO's. This impacts the cost people have to be seen by their chosen medical professional.

Lastly, this country should be providing single-payer, graduated income-based health care... not health insurance. While I am not educated enough to figure out how to accomplish this, perhaps modeling and enhancing other countries’ already existing processes would be a place to start. And cost? So what! This country can afford to employ, at the very least, medical professionals who can provide for the majority of medical needs. We find money for everything except true social programs and it is just pitiful in the medical arena. Such a medical program may not cover some things (there may be some very expensive procedures that just can't be paid for at the time), but if the all citizens had, at the very least, preventative/diagnostic medical/dental/vision care, the majority would be more healthy (excepting personal choice that often is the reason many of us are sick or diseased).

If you would have run into me on the street, this would have been my response to you :)

-—-

Wishing you all the best this May 14th. And maybe I’ll see you next week with a little question.