What Has Happened to Our Healthcare System?

Be careful out there

Photo by RDNE Stock project: https://www.pexels.com/photo/male-doctor-talking-to-a-patient-6129441/

Stats vs experience

According to Our World in Data, life expectancy has been trending upward worldwide over the past 200 years. In 1800, that number was 40. In 2025, the expectation grew to 79.4 years for residents of the United States (retirementliving.com). Part of the explanation of this growth is advances in medicine and healthcare.

Some of the things I’ve experienced lately make me wonder why we haven’t started to regress. Before I was on Medicare, I had a few issues that went unaddressed due to my expensive and largely useless health insurance. The premiums were over $1,000 per month, and my wife and I had to spend $6K out of pocket before it covered anything.

With insurance feeling more like a punishment than a parachute, I kept my ailments to myself. I know I’m not alone.

Turning 65 and enrolling in Medicare changed all that. I’ve now seen six specialists over the past four years. The nasty rash I had for a long time is gone, and I can usually sleep through the night without needing to pee. Believe it or not, a cardiologist was able to tell me more about my heart than my Primary Care Physician (PCP).

Even with the federal government insuring my health, a few things are troubling me. First of all, it took me four months to get an appointment as a new patient with a dermatologist. Other specialists took between three and four months.

When your rheumatologist refers you to the cancer center, waiting for months is a longer emotional journey than anyone should be subjected to. Thankfully, they’re fine with checking my blood every six months so they can keep telling me I’m good. But what if I wasn’t? Wouldn’t months make a difference?

A gentleman in the congregation I pastored was diagnosed with three major blockages in his heart. He was told to go home and take it easy until they could schedule bypass surgery. They gave him a date three weeks out!

Meanwhile, he was allowed to do some work from home, but he wasn’t allowed to go to work. Graciously, his employer played along. The day before he was scheduled to have his operation, they called to say he was being bumped for a more critical patient. He finally got his surgery two weeks later.

Can you imagine waiting five weeks while feeling like you’ve got a time bomb about to go off inside your chest? Add to that the pressure of wondering how long your boss is willing to wait for you.

What happened to the day when they used to find significant blockages and send the person right into surgery?

Marty

That brings me to the reason I’m writing this article. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been reporting what’s been going on with my racquetball partner, Marty. We had been very competitive for a while, with each of us winning our share of games.

Gradually, he seemed to be slowing down. When I asked him about it, he said he’d been to the doctor, and they scheduled him for an EKG and a stress test. After the EKG, they cancelled the stress test and gave him an appointment for a heart catheterization three weeks later.

Two weeks ago, back on the court, he started missing shots he normally makes in his sleep. Then he couldn’t return anything. He kept telling me he was fine. I stopped the game several times to check on him, but he insisted that we continue. Finally, I walked off the court and told him he needed to get checked out.

Later, he said he was on a new medicine that had a side effect of dropping his blood pressure. He stopped taking the med and was back on the court the next day. He was better but still not winning.

Friday of that week, he didn’t show. He texted me later to say he was getting cramps in his legs. I begged him to go to the ER or urgent care because that can be a sign of blood clots. He chose to use ice and heat instead.

Yesterday, they finally did the heart cath and found significant blockages. They scheduled an appointment for him with a cardiovascular surgeon 12 days later to be followed by surgery.

Here’s the kicker: between the time they did the EKG and the catheterization, Marty has worked several 12-hour days as a UPS delivery guy, on top of his normal workload. It looks like they skipped the stress test for fear of causing a cardiac arrest, yet they sent him out the door and back to work.

“We’ll get to you when we can,” isn’t a formula for longevity.