Jimmy Kimmel Part II
As I mentioned in last week’s article, which you can find by clicking here, the son of comedian and late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was born with a birth defect in his heart. An attending nurse was astute enough to notice the infant’s condition and basically saved the life of Kimmel’s son.
Several days later on the national broadcast of his TV program, he thanked the nurse as well as all those who participated in his son’s care. The baby is now home and doing well. Click here to see Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue about his son.
Kimmel also mentioned that he and Disney-ABC had been contributing to The Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and that their child was on the Costco wing. I was surprised to see that corporations are now donating to hospitals around the country and, in Kimmel’s matter, that entire hospital’s section is called the Costco wing.
This reminds me of large sports stadiums and facilities that are now being named after corporations such as in my hometown of Indianapolis, which has Lucas Oil Stadium where the Colts play and Banker’s Life Fieldhouse where the Pacers take to the court.
Even our area children’s hospital is called the Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital. I find it surprising now that hospitals are being run like corporations. They are relying on and responding to corporate donations by naming floors and even facilities after them.
Kimmel also made a plea to Congress to make sure that they keep out the pre-existing condition limitations of any health care insurance. Otherwise, children born with birth defects would never be able to get health insurance.
Health care is a right and not a privilege. Everyone deserves adequate and appropriate health care. There should not be a 2-tier system or, if you can’t afford health care, you need to go to the county hospital and if you can afford health care you can go to a better facility.
Everyone deserves the same level of care. I think as nurses we all know and agree with that. Right?
However, the issue then becomes who pays for the uninsured’s care. For that, I don’t have any solutions … only questions.
But, what I would like to see is health care to go back to where it’s supposed to be; when as a society, we took care of citizens in our community through church hospitals or community hospitals rather than businesses whose purpose is to make a profit at the expense of sick people.
I would like to see our country shift to more wellness and prevention rather than a symptom management care approach.
Let me know what your thoughts are on this matter. How can we improve the system so that health care is delivered in a fashion where everyone can benefit and find the ways and means to improve the health of our nation?
Let me know your thoughts on these matters below.
