We
used to get annoyed when the admission desk at the
hospital would hold us up from getting care with the
co-pay collection effort, but now the world of medical
finance and consumerism is about to take a giant leap
forward. Co-pay collections of the early 21st
century will seem mild and meek, and we patients will
more formally and openly be viewed as earnings units
and revenue streams... unless we act forcefully and
quickly to alter the coming reality.
Shocked as we might pretend to be, we have been a
party to the transition as we have stood by and watched
as so many of our fellow citizens went without access
to care at all – 47 million fellow citizens
uninsured. Fifty million more under-insured.
And the rest of us annoyed with the process
but silently and slightly smug about our own insured
status – else we would have been marching in
the streets, screaming for change and fighting for
one another and the human right that is our healthcare.
Oh, wait, some of us have been doing that. But we must get louder and more clear and we must do so in larger numbers.
We haven' t fought enough – yet. The financial gurus have wined and dined with the healthcare bosses and the corporate/government policy wonks in Washington.
And then the computer folks who brought us internet banking and online loan applications and adjustable rate, re-finance mortgages stepped in. The invitation list grew and now the stockholders were growing nearly rabid with glee and anticipation.
