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Published July 02, 2008 06:44 pm - A few weeks ago I wrote about the poor status of health coverage in the United States, especially in comparison with other countries. You could lose everything in a short time Robert Lebzelter column for July 6, 2008 Star Beacon A few weeks ago I wrote about the poor status of health coverage in the United States, especially in comparison with other countries. People here die sooner than in other industrialized countries and it’s likely it’s because our medical system is based on making a profit and what procedures are cost-effective. Other countries, Canada included, control the health-care system and it works very well. You don’t see people in Canada complaining about medical bills. You don’t see benefit dinners being held for sick people to pay the bills. When you are sick in Canada, you concentrate on getting well, not on how you will pay the bills. I got a call from a Conneaut woman who told what happened when she learned her husband had Alzheimer’s disease. She and husband had enjoyed talking about current events at night. They discussed politics. Who would they vote for in the presidential elections? But her husband started to act strangely and the doctor confirmed he had Alzheimer’s. Now that’s a pretty devastating diagnosis for family members. Imagine, your spouse or significant other for maybe 50 years suddenly doesn’t know you. How could it get any worse? The doctor then said treatment is expensive, even though the results are always the same, the patient dies. He told the wife to be prepared to lose her house and everything she owns. The doctor’s diagnosis turned out to be true, her husband died. She had been forced to put him in a nursing home, which was a tremendous drain on her income. But despite the doctor’s prediction, she didn’t lose her home. She got rid of her television. She scrimped. “I turned out every light in the house. If I had to get up in the night, I had a flashlight,” she said. She kept the house by the skin of her teeth. Folks, this is scary stuff. 
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