I work a few office spaces away from a waiting room filled to the brim with people who are so impoverished they have resorted to living on the streets. Those of us on the front lines battling homelessness in America know that the so-called American social safety net is tattered.
An incredulous gasp is my only response when a presidential candidate, worth a quarter of a billion dollars, publicly states on national television that this country has a "very ample safety net" for poor Americans.
Sure, our country provides Medicaid, food stamps, and housing vouchers to help Americans fight poverty. But these resources are not enough. Just walk in our waiting room every weekday and the numbers of people you see clamoring for help will dispel the myth of an "ample safety net."
Or, talk with America's physicians regarding what they see. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation recently commissioned a national survey of primary care providers and pediatricians that resulted in an unusual conclusion by America's doctors.
If they could, they would write a prescription to help Americans' social needs -- food, housing, fitness, and transportation assistance.
In fact, four out of five physicians felt that meeting the social needs of a person is just as important as meeting their medical conditions. Of those care providers in low-income communities, nine out of 10 felt the same.
The link between meeting social needs and good health is so strong that three of four doctors believe that the health care system in this country should pay to help patients meet their social needs.
Imagine the HMO's of this country paying to support homeless agencies, food banks, and affordable housing developers. Ironically, in these medical care organizations, their physicians whose primary goals are to help patients get healthy promote such an endeavor.
It just makes sense. Antibiotics and drug treatment are not the only avenues on the road back to health. Sometimes our doctors simply tell us to stay home and rest in the comfort of our beds, and to drink plenty of fluids and a healthy bowl of chicken soup.
But for more and more Americans the access to a secure home and nutritious food is just a fleeting hope.
Last week, I received a telephone call from a friend whom I've known for years as a hardworking single mother of three children. She told me that she lost her job and was recently evicted from an apartment building that had been foreclosed. She and her children were now living in a motel, and her savings was dwindling rapidly.
Her predicament is contrary to a presidential candidate's wrongfully perceived assessment of a sufficient social safety net. Her fear now is how to keep her children fed and housed. And she desperately hopes they will stay healthy.
In these difficult economic times, the chicken soup for this country's soul is a safety net that meets both social needs and healthcare conditions.
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If you really believe THAT, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell ya.
Doctors in most countries in the world are on a payroll, not trying to run small businesses. Nurses have can connect with patients because they are not chained to computers. Hospitals are places of healing and recovery, not assembly line factories that turn out a product in a day. A toothache doesn't turn into an infection that corrodes your immune system. A psychotic episode doesn't land you in jail.
In America today Doctors graduate with thousands of loan dollars. Nursing education is in a classroom where time for computer skills trumps time practicing patient care essentials. Prescription drugs are advertised on TV, yet mostly unaffordable. Two billion dollars a year is spent in paperwork to process insurance claims. Ambulance drivers can't rush you to the nearest hospital, but the one that takes your insurance. Hospital directors balk at requiring a surgical team to use a check list. Thousands sleep out for a spot in a fair-ground free health clinic.
Our "health care system" is an oxymoron. Our medical sector is almost 20% of our economy with 99% paid to those who wear suits, and 1% to those who actually give care to other people.
Imagine our America where this ratio was a little less lopsided, and we all felt a little safer in our ability to survive being sick.