Healthcare
in America has been a public and political obsession for quite a few years now.
Its availability and cost rarely go unmentioned on evening newscasts. The
rising cost of ACA/ObamaCare was fodder for the recent political party debates
and will continue to be for the candidates in the general election.
But there is and has been free diagnostic
care available to most any able-bodied citizen, and I’m letting you readers in
on it now. All you have to do is get involved with charitable organizations
that require a certification of your good health. Here’s an example:
·
Donate Blood at
the Red Cross:
The first thing you get is
a blood pressure reading. This is a huge indicator of overall health. Next, you
get a measure of the iron in your blood which could indicate anemia. Your pulse
is measured, since an elevated heart rate can indicate a variety of health
issues. Once your blood is taken, it is lab tested for a host of things to include
your blood type, e.g. A positive, O negative, etc., Hepatitis B and C, red
blood antibodies that can indicate pregnancy, TB, HIV, Syphilis and other
venereal diseases, antibodies that can indicate infection or the virus that
causes a form of Leukemia. The Zika virus has recently been added to the list
of infections for which donated blood is tested. If an infectious disease is
discovered in your blood, you’re contacted by letter or phone and offered a
chance to receive professional medical counseling. How’s that for free? All you
need to do is donate a pint of blood, and you can do it every two months.
·
Volunteer at a
Veterans Administration Hospital in a patient-contact capacity:
I’m a volunteer driver at
our local VA hospital, and my gig puts me in contact with veterans coming in
for or going home from their appointments. Drivers are provided a free annual
physical, and that physical includes blood work, blood pressure, TB, urinalysis,
hernia, physical mobility, reflexes, sight and hearing. Recently, I was offered
(and accepted) a Hepatitis B shot series and got an ‘immunity’ result
afterwards. As a vet myself, I’m hounded to get their free flu shot. Don’t want
to drive? There are several other patient-contact volunteer gigs in the
hospital facility.
·
Find a Clinical
Trial to participate in:
As a guy with fair, sun
damaged skin, I’ve participated in a half-dozen Clinical Trials involving
topical ointments. Trials will differ in the variables required of volunteers,
but I’ve routinely had my blood pressure checked, blood work performed,
urinalysis and even EKGs. Icing on the cake is that I’m paid for each Trial for
my mileage and time, often several hundred dollars. Since each drug is in
‘Trial’ phase, one might receive the actual drug or, rather, a placebo that has
no medicinal effect. That is, of course, how the drug company determines the
drug’s efficacy. If one does get the actual drug, then there’s a ‘treatment’
benefit as well.
Our society offers free (or nearly so) health programs for
older people, e.g. Medicare, and for low income folks, e.g. Medicaid, CHIP,
etc., so it’s unrealistic to expect people in these circumstances to pursue
such avenues for care. Working, mid-career adults most often have employee
health plans. So, the people who should be exploring just these sorts of
opportunities are the students or under-employed and/or part-time ‘Millennial’
young adults who had been expected to sign up for the ACA/ObamaCare but refused
to do so. Collectively referred to as “Young Invincibles”, since they believe
their youthful vitality gives them immunity to illness, they have the time and
energy to take advantage of one or more sources of free care. Indeed, since
each option I listed is heavy on tests that look for problems rather than treating
ones that are discovered, they allow an opportunistic approach wherein a person
delays ACA participation until a problem is discovered.
So, if you have a son or daughter of that ‘Invincible’
generation and are pulling your hair out over their cavalier attitude towards
expensive health insurance, maybe suggest they start giving Red Cross blood donations regularly. While
such a ‘mini-physical’ every couple of months may not motivate them, ask them
to consider the benefit that their ‘Invincible’ blood will provide for adults
and children whose health is less robust.
VA Hospitals are
located in most large cities, and they maintain websites for volunteer
opportunities, for example:
Though volunteering has rewards for any generation, it’s
older, retired folks who most often have the time and inclination to do so. However,
for Millennials, whose political focus on social welfare issues is well
documented, finding four or five hours a week to help out at a VA hospital
could be a hugely enlightening and informative experience. Each shift would,
indeed, be a free history lesson as they hear first-hand the unfathomable tales
of men and women who lived in an America the younger generation will have a hard
time believing ever existed. Receiving, for themselves, some free diagnostic
health information will seem trivial by comparison with those ‘lessons’.
Clinical Trials
can be found in local media and on a government website:
The time and duration of such trials may be an impediment
for many people, but the free medical diagnostic tests and financial
reimbursements provided can more than make up for the inconvenience. Moreover,
for younger professionals in the healthcare or related industries, to
participate in the ‘business’ of medicine, to actually see and participate in
the creation of a new drug, might foster a career-directional epiphany of
immense value.
Free medical care was the focus of this posting, but we all
know that nothing is truly without cost. The organizations involved incur large
expenses for the examinations and tests provided. But as non-profit or
governmental organizations (Red Cross, VA), our society as a whole ponies up
the money. The costs of Clinical Trials conducted by for-profit drug companies
will be factored into the cost of new drugs, and those costs are borne by the
consumer. Blood donors, volunteers and Trial participants are paying with time,
inconvenience or, literally, their blood. Thus, a young citizen who receives,
as a benefit of serving his or her community, a clean bill of health, might
gain a new perspective on ‘Entitlements’, and learn the economic lesson that
something valuable that’s given away, will always be in short supply.
Bill Gritzbaugh
September 23, 2016
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