To Ralph Munoz (I tried to keep it short)
Here’s a story that you may find interesting: I finished watching your movie Sicko on Thursday. It opened my eyes about how America’s health care sucks and insurances are scams.
A couple years ago my dad got a new job, the one he is at now. His new job gives him health benefits for him and his family. Apparently though, the insurance does not cover my mom because of a pre-existing medical condition she has. The insurance companies rejected her. My mom has been living without medical insurance for about six years now. In those six years she’s gone through a lot of medical problems and countless trips to Tijuana where she has sought medical attention. As you can probably guess, Tijuana is unbelievably cheaper and from my past experiences, the care is incredibly better.
Back to how this ties into Sicko.. Jorge and I finished watching it on Thursday night. The following morning (no more than ten hours later), my mom wakes up with a severe headache and pain in her eyes, specifically her left eye. At work, the guy whose house she’s cleaning tells her to take the day off because of how swollen and bloodshot her eyes were getting. Furthermore, the guy even does my mom the favor of going online to find her a doctor. He succeeds in finding a few doctors, but none were willing to help my mom out because of her lack of insurance.
News spreads to my family in Los Angeles who also did their research and found a place that does eye exams in Culver City. Saturday comes along and my parents had already made plans on going to a family party in Los Angeles, so they decide to stop by the eye exam place so the optometrist can take a look at my mom’s problem. Turns out, the optometrist could not do anything except take vision exams and issue out eye prescriptions for glasses and contacts. Luckily, he knew of an eye specialist in the area that could look further into the problem my mom was having with her eye.
So off they go, instead of going to the family party and seeing family members they haven’t seen for years, to the other eye doctor. Upon arrival, the eye doctor sees my mom and immediately recommends she goes into Urgent Care at the nearest hospital. Her eye had suffered a nerve stroke and was literally, ready to burst. I guess how it works is that the eye is constantly pumping liquid throughout. In goes clean juice, out goes the bad one. My mom’s eye had somehow malfunctioned and the liquid was flowing in, but not flowing out - causing it to swell up.
Going to Urgent Care was out of the picture though - again, due to lack of insurance. The cost checking in, getting treatment, and any medicine that she may have to take would easily cost her hundreds (if not, thousands) of dollars. Plus, this was urgent. Urgent Care takes up to ten hours before actual service is given. Her eye could burst by then. The only option was Tijuana but since this was spontaneous, my parents were unprepared; they had no passports, no appointments with any doctor, and actually no idea where in Tijuana to find an eye specialist. The eye doctor gave her a small shot in the eye that would temporarily numb the feeling of pain that my mom was suffering through. The half hour visit cost my parents $85.
Pretty soon, my mom was making calls. Our family was making calls. Our friends were making calls. Everyone was looking to communicate with an eye specialist in Tijuana in hopes of getting one of them to see my mom in such a short notice. Even I had to meet them off a freeway exit to drop off their passports. When I got there, my dad was already looking at a Tijuana map that he had bought when he first started taking my mom years ago. After hours of trying to get a hold of an eye doctor, one finally picked up. Remember, probably more than 85% of Mexico is Catholic and this was Easter weekend. Doctors are out of town and with their own families. The doctor did not hesitate to agree to meet my mom at his own private practice. He would be running a little late though since this was last second.
My parents get to Tijuana and wait for the doctor for almost an hour, but he shows up and he brought along a friend who happens to also be another eye specialist. They open up their private clinic and begin to treat my mom.
They too tell her that her eye had suffered from a stroke and she was close to completely losing it. Immediately, they begin to work on her. They numb her eye again and use laser technology to cut open some veins so that the fluid can exit and reduce the swelling. Afterwards, they gave her medicine for the pain and talked with her about what caused the stroke, what they did, and what was going to happen. These Tijuana doctors walked her through it. Simple as that.
The cost of everything that these doctors did: $50. A mere fifty dollars gave my mom almost immediate medical attention, shots, laser treatment (which is a lot of money), actual medical care, medicine, and so much more. This does not make sense, right? The visit in Los Angeles cost my parents $85 just to look at the eye, numb it, and then recommend she goes to Urgent Care. Yet, the visit in Tijuana was $50 and it completely saved my mom’s eye and vision.
Let me tie this back to Sicko. America’s health care is garbage. In Canada, the most you wait is 45 minutes before getting medical treatment - and on top of that, it is free. The same goes with France and England and a good portion of Europe. All America wants is profit. Capitalism is profit - without giving a shit about the advancement of society. I wanted to tell you this because the timing of events was so coincidental. One night I am watching Sicko, the next morning my mom needs medical attention. I just wish the United States was simpler, you know?
My mom has to do a follow-up Monday morning. We’ll see how that goes.
