Reply #182: Peace of mind

[ROFF]

There is another aspect that does not get discussed much, peace of mind. I retired at the age of 53 (10 years ago) partially because I knew I would not have to worry about health care costs. I was a maintenance man at multi-line retailer(food petroleum lumber hardware etc). The guy who took my job got a step up and so on down the line.

This peace of mind has a value that cannot be measured. For example. About 27 months ago, my mother, who was 84 at the time went to see her doctor complaining that she had difficulty breathing through her nose. This was on a Tuesday. He looked up her nose and scheduled her to see a specialist two days later (Thursday). The specialist saw her and diagnosed cancer. The next day she went to the Cancer Clinic to have a lead mask made for Radiation treatments. Her series of 35 treatments (5 per week for 7 weeks) started the next Wednesday. So, EIGHT days after seeing the GP her treatments started. She had a little trouble managing her medication and was put in the hospital for a week to get back in balance.

After the 35 treatments the specialist said that she was cured. This surprised the crap out of me because I thought a doctor would never say this to a cancer patient. But follow-on examinations showed that he was right. She is 86 now and goes every 6 months to be reexamined. Now that is peace of mind.

BTW her cost $0.00

Another thing to think about. It is to the Health Care systems benefit that the patient is cured the first time. Repeat visits for the same thing are expensive.

Anyway, there are many aspects that are not discussed but should be. I guess that I will have to post more.