Absolutely incredible!There are lots of stories like this. Acts of kindness to provide medical care. Crowdfunding to pay for a hospital visit. These stories shouldn't have to exist.
Sweet Logan and his family came in to the Cedartown Home Depot with a mission. They were worried their insurance wouldn’t pay for the walker Logan needed, and had read about how to make one out of PVC piping online. Well, as soon as The Home Depot associates heard that, they told Logan’s family not to worry, they were on it! Those workers built the walker in no time and had Logan wheeling around the store with a HUGE smile on his face. It’s acts of kindness like this that make our world worth living in, and I am so thankful for those workers who took time out of their own day to make this family’s dream a reality!
Let's go back a bit. The child has hypotonia (a muscle disorder). But the family "were worried their insurance wouldn’t pay for the walker." Another version from Good Morning America: "Moore said the insurance process to get Logan a walker is a long one, and he has not yet been approved. While waiting, the Moores watched YouTube instruction videos on how to make one for Logan."
Why do Americans put up with this bullshit?? Why do we allow ourselves to be bullied and robbed by a gargantuan, soulless, complex medical insurance system? This boy didn't need a bone marrow transplant or tailored gene therapy. All he needed was a simple device made of aluminum or plastic with some old tennis balls on the bottom, for fuck's sake.
Go ahead and praise the Home Depot employees, but after searching for a long time this morning, I didn't find a single news source that cited the name of the godforsaken medical insurance company that created this dystopian nightmare. Report about them, interview their president, call this travesty what it is, and remind the American people that they can change this system at the ballot box.
Addendum: For a superb compilation of similar stories, see this article at FAIR. With a hat tip to reader escapefromwisconsin.
We'll said! I couldn't agree more. It's just like the gun violence problem, we collectively have the power to address it but instead have so thoroughly accepted our fate that we just work around it, as if it's some immutable truth :(
ReplyDeleteHear hear.
ReplyDeleteBut, that would require the press to do more than create a short good-feel story.
Well said.
ReplyDeleteThis article from FAIR makes the exact same point about the media's irresponsible use of "Perseverance Porn": The Homeless 8-Year-Old Chess Champion and Other Horrific ‘Uplifting’ Stories
ReplyDeleteThat's an outstanding compilation of stories of this genre. I'll append it to the body of the post.
DeleteAnd my first introduction to that website. Bookmarked. Thanx, escapefromwisconsin.
I couldn't agree more strongly. I'm a psychiatric crisis social worker who trained hard to develop clinical skills, but I wind up spending half my day trying to argue with insurance companies that people deserve treatment for very real concerns from schizophrenia to PTSD. I'm regularly told by insurance company's "clinical" staff (most of whom haven't practiced clinically for years and who have never evaluated to the client) that the person's suffering doesn't meet criteria to pay for their care. While that argument goes on, the client is waiting in a windowless, sterile room in an ER somewhere, feeling worse about their situation... Rant over. I need a vacation. Or a new job.
ReplyDelete(or a new health-care delivery system)
DeleteI wish I shared your confidence that 'the American people that they can change this system at the ballot box', but Trump's rise to power proves that we can't. The people spoke. Loudly. He lost the people's vote by a substantial margin, and the fundamentally broken system that we have allowed him to win anyway.
ReplyDeleteThe problem isn't that the American people have forgotten how to vote, it's that increasingly our votes don't actually matter. And I'm rapidly nearing the point where I don't see a way out.
I live in Australia, this just seems ridiculous to us, what is your government scared of that stops them providing proper care to it people.
ReplyDelete"This boy didn't need a bone marrow transplant or tailored gene therapy."
ReplyDeleteI personally don't see a difference: both should be provided.