Health Care in L.A. County Trudged Along As Obama Pitched Reform
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After months of heated debate about how to reform health care-- the conversation often controlled by those in the political margins-- President Obama tried to reclaim command of the dialogue in a speech to a joint session of Congress last night.
The president used the speech to combat political attacks on the process of reforming health care and laid out some details.
Obama put a price tag on his health care plan of about $900 billion over 10 years, which he pointed out is "less than we have spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars."
The president suggested areas where he was willing to compromise with Republicans, including being open to reform of medical malpractice law. With an overt nod to Republican Sen. John McCain, his 2008 rival for the presidency, Obama expressed support for creating a high-risk insurance pool to protect people with preexisting conditions from crippling health care bills.
But at the very moment Obama was rallying support for his plan, the existing health care system trudged along in two emergency waiting rooms in Los Angeles County.
The Emergency Waiting Room At Long Beach Memorial Medical Center
More than two dozen people sat in the emergency room lobby at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center as a TV set showed President Obama addressing Congress.
The TV volume was hardly audible. Most people's eyes were not focused on the speech. But a full hospital parking lot across the street was an apparent sign of a system in need of change.
Eureka Henton, 23, was wearing a Food4Less uniform when she visited her mother at the hospital. Henton's mother suffered a seizure two days ago.
Henton said the county pays for her mother's health care, whereas Henton receives coverage from an employee plan. However, Henton had heart problems too in the past and paid out-of-pocket because her coverage had been recently reduced.
"I'm $2,000 in debt for health insurance now," Henton said.
Frederick Apodaca, 50, was sitting with his family in the hospital since 10 a.m. because his mother-in-law experienced heart irregularities and needed to be transferred from a clinic.
Apodaca said he supports a public health care option because "we should have a right to choose."
Magdalena Cifuentes, Apodaca's wife, said Health Net and Medi-Cal provide their family health insurance. However both groups have reduced certain coverages, including Apodaca's dental plan.
Stephanie Aquino, 20, was sitting on another side of the lobby next to an almost empty Coke bottle. Aquino said she waiting while her sister was admitted for a Meningitis-related sickness.
Aquino said her entire family has health insurance, and her sister had no trouble getting admitted into the ER that afternoon.
"I think everyone should have health care and I think it should be mandatory," Aquino said.
Ted Reidel, who was past his early 80s, said this was the first time he waited for more than half a day to be admitted into the ER.
"I've had pains in my head for the last two days and I thought it was time to have it checked out," said Reidel, who is covered by Secure Horizon.
Before Obama's speech ended, Reidel was finally checked into the ER.
-- By Len Ly
The Waiting Room At Good Samaritan Hospital
A stone's throw from MacArthur Park in central Los Angeles, it was hot and quiet in the Good Samaritan Hospital emergency waiting room. The room was small, no more than 15 square feet. It smelled of body odor. Only about half of the 16 seats were filled.
A nurse used a paper towel to open the door to the treatment area. A sign above the door read, "Demerol Free Zone." A small Zenith television hanging from the wall played "Ellen," and an inexplicable black box covered most of the bottom half of the screen.
Miguel, a 66-year-old man with a long gray Santa Claus beard and an LAPD baseball hat, sat silently in his wheelchair. He said he'd been waiting for about four hours to be seen.
A couple of German tourists hung out in the hallway to avoid the smell. One of them, Andreas, had gotten water in his ear in Miami. They'd been waiting two hours. They said in Germany, it would've been no more than a half-hour wait.
No one seemed to take any notice as NBC transitioned from "Ellen" to coverage of the president's upcoming speech. A Latino couple whispered to each other. A thin young African-American man with a pained look on his face played a hand held Play Station. The woman he was with texted. The Germans talked loudly in the hallway.
The president began his speech. More people trickled in. A name was called. People were paying about as much attention to the president's health care proposals as they had to Ellen's segment on The Real Housewives of Atlanta.
Miguel groaned loudly. He said his stomach was in severe pain. He wheeled himself out of the room, but returned a couple minutes later. He knew the Obama was on TV, but said he hadn't been listening. He didn't really care what Obama was saying. He said he didn't think health care was that bad. "You just have to wait awhile," he said.
At one point, the room got quiet, and Obama's voice percolated above the other sounds. "I believe it makes more sense to build off of what works," he said.
A young couple walked in, pushing a stroller with a cute 1-year-old girl. They had no insurance. They said they were illegal immigrants. The husband dressed in all black and sporting an adolescent mustache, said he worked at Subway. He ignored the speech.
After being told that the president had said that his plan would not cover illegal immigrants, he was not surprised.
"I guess I'm just used to it," he said. "He said it was gonna help everyone, but I guess not."
At the same time, he was not too upset about health care. He said it was better than Mexico.
The speech ended, and Rep. Charles Boustany was giving the Republican response. Miguel wheeled himself out of the waiting room, out of the hospital, and slowly down 6th Street. He'd had enough waiting.
--By Hillel Aron
