Sarasota Health News

Editor's notebook, Aug. 14

If you’ve been paying attention to the flare-up over health care reform, what I’m about to tell you will be no surprise. Our recent stories on some Florida doctors’ pushback against Congress’s efforts have given this website its busiest days yet: 385 different visitors since the stories went up Tuesday night. It made for our biggest day yet, bigger than our launch, and a nice way to wrap our first month.

But as I wrote to subscribers that Tuesday, don’t be concerned that this site is turning into a yet another politics blog, or that its is straying from the “independent” statement on the top of this page. We report health news, and when the leading Sarasota doctors’ organization leads its statewide brethren in opposition to an endorsement of a reform bill, it’s news. This site does not -- and by laws governing non-profits, cannot -- take political positions. But we’ll continue to report on the issue.

For me, the hue and cry has become personal of late. I lost my health insurance for about two months, thanks to a foul-up by my former employer. In that time, I learned a few things.

For those two months, my wife and I crossed our fingers and hoped nothing would go wrong. Then our boys got sick with colds. We held off on the doctor visit, fearing the bill and any future “pre-existing” condition nonsense. Then the colds turned into deep, racking coughs, and we cursed our decision to wait it out.

The kids got better, as kids usually do. The few days of coughing are a distant memory. But I learned two lessons, each preached by a different side in the current debate: That some level of healthcare safety net is important, and that when you pay your own healthcare bills directly, you think differently about the costs.

I thought about that some more on Monday. David Heaton was a big, friendly bear of a guy and a lifelong Floridian. He worked two jobs, and in his spare time did handyman work, like repairing my backyard gate. He served with the Army in Desert Storm, but had issues with Veterans Affairs, and his jobs didn’t provide insurance. So no one noticed the melanoma until it was at stage two.

I was going to add his story into a series I wrote for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, stories that to this day sit in an editor’s file, never published, so I’ll tell it here instead.

Dave did go back to VA, and the agency got him care through Tampa’s Moffitt Cancer Center. He had two surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation, and not for a minute did he lose his optimism and cheerfulness. I remember how one day, not long after his surgery, he stopped by, saw a dent in the fender of my wife’s car, came back with tools and gingerly lowered his bulk to the driveway and tried to hammer it out. I told him not to, but there was no stopping Dave.

Except, of course, there was. The cancer spread, forming inoperable tumors in his chest and brain. He fought for more than a year, but died at Tidewell Hospice last week. His funeral was Monday. Dave was 40 and leaves three young sons.

You could argue, I suppose, that Dave had a chance at health care. VA has an excellent reputation now, but I’ve talked with veterans who distrust it, and I’m not going to judge. But I’d like to think if he had easier and wider access to care, he might have had a checkup, and might still be around to fix my fence again.

Not long after his diagnosis, I used my insurance and saw a dermatologist, who excised a suspicious (but ultimately benign) spot from my back. And this week I used my COBRA plan -- which I simply could not afford without the stimulus plan -- to go through two days of tests for something else my doctor spotted.

Health insurance matters, and healthcare reform matters, too. There are many ways to get there, and we’ll be writing about it more this month.





	Editor's notebook, Aug. 14 If you’ve been paying attention to the flare-up over health care reform, what I’m about to tell you will be no surprise. Our recent stories on some Florida doctors’ pushback against Congress’s efforts have given this website its busiest days yet: 385 different visitors since the stories went up Tuesday night. It made for our biggest day yet, bigger than our launch, and a nice way to wrap our first month. But as I wrote to subscribers that Tuesday, don’t be concerned that this site is turning into a yet another politics blog, or that its is straying from the “independent” statement on the top of this page. We report health news, and when the leading Sarasota doctors’ organization leads its statewide brethren in opposition to an endorsement of a reform bill, it’s news. This site does not -- and by laws governing non-profits, cannot -- take political positions. But we’ll continue to report on the issue. For me, the hue and cry has become personal of late. I lost my health insurance for about two months, thanks to a foul-up by my former employer. In that time, I learned a few things. For those two months, my wife and I crossed our fingers and hoped nothing would go wrong. Then our boys got sick with colds. We held off on the doctor visit, fearing the bill and any future “pre-existing” condition nonsense. Then the colds turned into deep, racking coughs, and we cursed our decision to wait it out. The kids got better, as kids usually do. The few days of coughing are a distant memory. But I learned two lessons, each preached by a different side in the current debate: That some level of healthcare safety net is important, and that when you pay your own healthcare bills directly, you think differently about the costs. I thought about that some more on Monday. David Heaton was a big, friendly bear of a guy and a lifelong Floridian. He worked two jobs, and in his spare time did handyman work, like repairing my backyard gate. He served with the Army in Desert Storm, but had issues with Veterans Affairs, and his jobs didn’t provide insurance. So no one noticed the melanoma until it was at stage two. I was going to add his story into a series I wrote for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, stories that to this day sit in an editor’s file, never published, so I’ll tell it here instead. Dave did go back to VA, and the agency got him care through Tampa’s Moffitt Cancer Center. He had two surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation, and not for a minute did he lose his optimism and cheerfulness. I remember how one day, not long after his surgery, he stopped by, saw a dent in the fender of my wife’s car, came back with tools and gingerly lowered his bulk to the driveway and tried to hammer it out. I told him not to, but there was no stopping Dave. Except, of course, there was. The cancer spread, forming inoperable tumors in his chest and brain. He fought for more than a year, but died at Tidewell Hospice last week. His funeral was Monday. Dave was 40 and leaves three young sons. You could argue, I suppose, that Dave had a chance at health care. VA has an excellent reputation now, but I’ve talked with veterans who distrust it, and I’m not going to judge. But I’d like to think if he had easier and wider access to care, he might have had a checkup, and might still be around to fix my fence again. Not long after his diagnosis, I used my insurance and saw a dermatologist, who excised a suspicious (but ultimately benign) spot from my back. And this week I used my COBRA plan -- which I simply could not afford without the stimulus plan -- to go through two days of tests for something else my doctor spotted. Health insurance matters, and healthcare reform matters, too. There are many ways to get there, and we’ll be writing about it more this month.