Today I took a triage call from a patient, an active lady in her late 60's. She's been taking a beta-blocker for years to regulate her heart rhythm. This month, her insurance company took it upon themselves to switch her to a generic "equivalent." She had a reaction to it, passed out in her yard, and ended up in the ER in afib. She called to get a 30-day supply of the brand rx, which she's paying for out of pocket. I filed an appeal with her insurance to get the brand covered but they will drag their feet for a week or two, I'm sure.
As we were wrapping up the conversation, she said, "It's scary how insurance is getting." I agreed with her and said, in an empathetic tone, "I hope something will be done to improve it soon."
Well, she freaked out. "Honey," she said, her voice rising, "I'm telling you I'm SCARED. I'm almost 70 years old and in five years, health care will be rationed and people over 70 will be at the bottom of the list. They're going to let all the older people die so they can pay for more illegals to sneak over here and have babies. If Obama gets his way, everyone my age is going to be left to die and the [slur] are going to to take over!"
I was dumbfounded. I stammered, "Umm, ... I don't really think that's going to happen."
"Oh yes it will, honey. Just wait." she replied icily. I paused ... getting into a debate on the phone with a livid arrhythmia patient did not seem like a good idea.
"OK, then, I'll call your medication in to (pharmacy); make sure you save the receipt and call me if you have any problems," I blurted, and as soon as she agreed I said goodbye.
What bothers me even more is that this is not the first time I've heard a patient express that fear. And the big age cut-off they all cite is 70. Who the heck is putting this nonsense into peoples' heads?
As the whole health care debate kicks up, it's going to be front and center in the news and people are going to be paying attention to it and talking about it. The patients we take care of know we're in the trenches, they know it's personal for us, and it's inevitable that some will be curious about our thoughts. I'm always open to discussing any reasonable point of view.
But the experienced nurse in me also knows that things are going climactically downhill. I don't want to be confrontational, but I do feel some professional responsibility to discredit damaging myths when I hear one. Has anyone else encountered this? Any thoughts?
