As we noted in this space a few days ago, this is national Cover the Uninsured Week. But that cause was given new emphasis by the story of Briana Lane, the woman who shocked Salt Lake readers with her story of having to live for nearly four months with part of her skull missing.
Lane, as it turns out, is nobody's poster child. She was injured in a car accident but later, according to court documents, found to have a blood-alcohol level nearly twice the legal limit. She is facing criminal charges.
But that is only half the story. The other half is that no one, regardless of what they might have done, should have to endure the agony she was forced to endure.
Doctors had to temporarily remove part of her skull to save her life. But then the University of Utah Health Sciences Center and Medicaid entered a long and agonizing process to determine who would pay for the surgery to put her skull back in place. In the meantime, the hospital sent Lane home with something that looked like a hockey helmet to protect her now soft head.
Even reading about her story causes pain. She describes waking in the morning and feeling how her brain had shifted during the night. It wasn't until she got publicity that she found herself at the top of the list of hospital priorities. Eventually, her mother's insurance provider agreed to pay the costs.
We can give you the statistics again — 300,000 Utahns are uninsured at any one time, including 73,000 children — but cold, lifeless numbers will never have the impact of this one thought: Briana Lane's nightmare could happen to anyone without coverage. Utah Department of Health officials were quoted as saying her story isn't really that unique.
Frankly, it's appalling that any hospital could let someone go in a condition like that. Regardless of payment issues, this is a question of compassion and human dignity. Because of new federal privacy rules, the hospital won't give its version of events.
More often, uninsured people will simply suffer with infections or illnesses. Worse, they allow their children to do so without adequate treatment. People die from lack of care. Others who do receive care end up costing the many insured people more in premiums.
Lane may not be a sympathetic figure. If she did drive while drunk, she put the lives of other innocent people at risk. But no one is safe from the risk of possibly being injured due to someone else's negligence.
We're not advocating socialized medicine, with its many shortcomings and its own built-in issues regarding the rationing of care. But we are urging politicians, health-care workers, patient-advocates and everyone who is concerned about this societal problem to find a solution. With health-care costs skyrocketing, and many small-business owners foregoing coverage for their employees, the problem will get only worse.