Dear Editor:  

I have a close friend, a young woman who worked here several summers ago and lives in Lipetsk, Russia. She has a 3 and a half year old son who sometimes suffers from respiratory problems. Russia has a "socialized medical system." Her son was recently taken by ambulance to the hospital because he was having trouble breathing. This has happened several times before. She is able to ride to the hospital with him, stay at the hospital in either a private room or ward with other kids and their parents, access doctors and respiratory therapists, and stay until he is deemed healthy enough to return home and to nursery school. She does not pay for any of these medical services with the exception of a small out of pocket charge for a private room which amounts to about $20 a day. 

This young, single mother works at a factory. I was concerned that she might lose her job because of the number of days she has had to miss work due to her son's illness. She assured me that she had a doctor's letter which not only allowed her to stay with her son but also get paid for the days of work she missed due to his illness. 

What is wrong with our system in the United States? If this happened here, the mom would be worrying about the extreme cost of all the services, losing her job for her work absences, whether she should stay home and not call a doctor because of the expense and worrying even more about her child because of the lack of care. If she did choose to go the ambulance/hospital route, they would be released from the hospital in the shortest time possible  instead of being allowed to stay under a doctor's care until the issue was resolved.  

Something is wrong with this picture. 

Lisa McSwain
Edgecomb