My Injured Back and the Domestic Policy Agenda

So, I injured my back. Just one of those things where I woke up yesterday morning in a bit of pain. It's happened to everyone. I was hoping it would marginally improve during the day, and just slowly mend itself. Unfortunately, it started spasming, got a lot worse, and has left me in a borderline unbearable amount of pain. Couldn't really sleep, can't really lay down without being in pain (which I know doesn't make a ton of sense, but there you have it), etc. The pain's pretty localized, so I've probably just done a number on one of my back muscles. But, it's really painful, and increasingly incapacitating.

All "my injured back" and no "domestic policy agenda", huh? All right, let me see if I can square the circle and fulfill the promise of the post's title.

You see, regardless of my street-corner medical diagnosis, the wider issue here is that it also happens to be a bit scary. I've thought about scheduling an appointment with my doctor, but I don't have one. I could go to the emergency room, but that's likely an even more expensive option, not to mention a fairly inefficient use of emergency resources, as I probably don't fit the bill of having a truly emergent health situation.

Like nearly 1 in 5 adults in the United States I don't have medical insurance. I'm not highlighting my situation as an impetus for anyone to feel bad for me. Really. I'd just like to raise my hand in voting for how stupidly inefficient this situation is, and how many undesirable social consequences exist because my situation is not in any way unusual.

The point I'd like to highlight here is the cost-benefit analysis the uninsured engage in when deciding whether or not to seek medical treatment. The idiocy of trying to decide if your injury/medical condition, etc. is serious enough to seek medical treatment that you can't afford, when you have no actual medical expertise should be apparent to everyone, and yet (to quote Chuck Klosterman) this shit happens all the time.

Quick note: For those of you thinking, "This is stupid. Your health is too important to ever engage in some dumbass 'cost-benefit analysis'. Just go to the damned hospital/doctor." I admire your inability to empathize and the fact that you've never been uninsured. I really do. But, this post has nothing to offer you. Go read PW's post linking to that article about China. It's really good.

Sorry about that. Anyway...where was I? Oh, this shit happens all the time. Right. See, this shit happens all the time. And, I'm not highlighting it out of some, kum-ba-ya, we should all feel sorry for the great uninsured masses. I'm only illustrating that the social costs of such a stupid health care policy are legion. Continuing on with my own example. Assuming it is no big deal, and things get better, we're probably all better off. I didn't waste a doctor or emergency room's time, I didn't waste the pharmacist's time filling a script, or use any gas to get said prescription. But, if it really was a non-serious injury these costs were pretty small, the doctor wasn't going to spend more than his 15 scheduled minutes with me, nor was a hospital going to admit me. If I went during non-peak hours, the only ancillary detriment was me interrupting the on-call nurse's viewing of Letterman or Days of Our Lives.

Now, what if the injury's really serious? In this case my delaying or deciding against treatment could create a significantly larger social expenditure. I'd be out of work longer, I'd waste more taxpayer dollars (somebody's got to pay for it), I'd require more medical resources and medicine. I don't have kids, which is lucky, but I wouldn't be doing my girlfriend or her employer any favors as I peripherally sucked up their time and resources. Remember that small cost from the above paragraph? How many of those do you need to offset the negative social consequences from this one?

Perhaps I'm whining, but I have an enormously difficult time seeing who benefits from me sitting here in pain, hoping that my injury's not a serious one...from the standpoint of the wider domestic policy agenda of the United States, of course.

Update: I believe this was our 400th post. Yay for us. For those of you that have been around from the beginning, you may remember a wager I made with my friend Dome about whether the blog would survive for more than a single week. Well, it has. And that bastard still hasn't settled the bet.