Pity the folks in charge of Cover the Uninsured Week. All they want is a little publicity so they can raise public awareness about a growing health-care problem and at least get people talking about solutions. But every year, something gets in the way.
Last year, they started a press conference on March 12, only to watch cameramen and reporters literally fold up before their eyes and dash out the door. Elizabeth Smart had been found.
A week later, the United States invaded Iraq.
The uninsured? Not now, please.
News stories are like cookies in a jar, each one trying to look as tasty as possible so an editor can't resist. But in this case, it was like having two giant pound cakes dropped on top, covering everything else.
This year, things looked better. Just as Cover the Uninsured Week began last Monday, local papers printed an Associated Press story about a young Utah woman who had to live for nearly four months without part of her skull because she couldn't pay to have it replaced. Briana Lane told a tale so compelling, and so painful, that some readers may have had trouble getting through a few parts, and it was all caused by her lack of insurance.
As the story went, a traffic accident on an icy road Jan. 10 left her so badly injured that doctors had to temporarily remove a large part of her skull, letting her skin grow over the void. Then the hospital released her, keeping her skull in the freezer. Officials were wrangling over who would pay to put her together again, and they didn't want to act until Medicaid went through a 90-day process to determine her eligibility. She was sent home with little more than a helmet — the kind of thing kids wear to play street hockey.
We joke about brain cramps or airheads. But to Briana, it wasn't funny. At night, while she slept, her brain would shift in ways she could physically detect in the morning, like the exposed inner tube of a bicycle tire.
As she told an Associated Press reporter, she couldn't believe she was treated that way. "When you think of weird things happening to people, you don't think of that. It's like taking out someone's heart — you need that!"
Here was the tempting morsel the advocates for the uninsured were seeking, and the timing couldn't have been better. Briana might still have been living in a helmet if she hadn't contacted the media. It was shocking. An outrage. Anyone without insurance could end up this way.
But then came the rest of the story.
Police have charged Briana with drunken driving and driving with an expired license. At the time of the accident, tests showed she had a blood-alcohol content of .15. She counters by saying a beer can in her car must have exploded at the time of the accident, covering her and making her smell of alcohol.
Presumably, it penetrated her blood stream through osmosis.
As this story broke, you could almost hear the crowd turning and walking away. The tempting morsel had become something stale and hard. The woman who could represent anyone became the woman who had asked for trouble. Protect her? How about protecting everyone else from people like her. The wronged became the wrong — someone to cast aside and disregard.
And that's a shame, because Briana's guilt or innocence is unimportant here. Her character doesn't matter. She could just as easily have been some uninsured person hit by a drunken driver. The issue here is that someone was sent home to live for nearly four months without part of her skull, just because she couldn't pay.
Nationally, 44 million Americans don't have insurance. In Utah, the number is 300,000. True, a portion of these are people who make good livings but deliberately choose to forego insurance. Others are between jobs. But many others work for companies that no longer can afford rising premiums.
As health-care costs climb, the 21st century is looking like the dawning of an age when medical miracles will cure just about anything — but only for the privileged few who can afford it.
This week, Republicans released a package of proposals aimed at helping the problem. Some of the solutions would allow trade associations to offer health plans to their members under federal, not state, regulations, or would give tax credits for insurance expenditures. But virtually everyone agrees the issue is in the deep freeze, like Briana's skull was, at least until the elections pass.
Meanwhile, the Utah organizers would rather have people look at more typical cases, such as one young mother with an employed, uninsured husband. She recently needed surgery and now has to choose which prescriptions to fill based on her monthly budget.
But that story is too familiar. We won't pay much attention.
Publicity can be a tricky thing, indeed.
Jay Evensen is editor of the Deseret Morning News editorial page. E-mail: even@desnews.com