COLUMN: Universal healthcare? How a busy newsroom showed me the need for healthcare reform

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Imagine getting in a serious car accident, or surviving a gunshot, stab wound or other assault. Imagine a long, difficult battle with cancer or some other serious illness. Imagine yourself watching a loved one suffer through one of these unexpected, unplanned and undeserved experiences.

Then during the long and difficult process of recovery or grieving by those left behind, you get a bill for tens of thousands of dollars owed for the ambulance ride, maybe even a helicopter transport, emergency room, surgery, operating room, recovery room, and every single cost down to the hospital gown.

If you don’t have health insurance, you’re toast. Even if you do, you might still be left with a big chunk to pay out of pocket.

Now, in addition to the trauma of losing a loved one or being seriously hurt, you’re facing bankruptcy, foreclosure, a lifetime of trying to climb that mountain of debt for something you sure didn’t ask for.

It feels like the hospital is just trying to kick you while you’re down.

We’ve all seen the political discussions, heard the talking points and seen the proposed fixes — from Obama’s Affordable Care Act to the GOP’s American Health Care Act in response to the likes of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez fighting for universal healthcare.

But allow me to share a more local point of view.

I spent last semester working as a full-time intern in the Deseret News/KSL combined newsroom. It was a great experience, but sometimes I had to cover pretty awful stuff: an alleged drunk truck driver flipping over the highway barrier and killing all six occupants of an oncoming vehicle. An elderly couple driving their Jeep through a snowy mountain pass on Thanksgiving morning, sliding off and killing the man.

Even when I was assigned to write wholesome stories about people doing good in the community, I would see the daily emails about the latest bad car crash, workplace accident, assault, murder, etc. I sat by the writers tasked with covering these stories for the paper. I heard TV reporters and anchors recap these incidents and giving daily updates on some. Every day, there was another tragedy.

Then, almost without fail, a few days after each big incident we would receive an email about a GoFundMe account for the family’s medical and/or funeral expenses.

Fortunately, donors almost always seemed to come through to help these families in emotional and financial ruin.

But it shouldn’t have to come to that.

As many successful GoFundMe campaigns as I saw, I’m sure there are so many families in Utah and across the country whose campaigns didn’t get shared enough or who nobody thought to make one. Now they have to face a seemingly impossible debt to pay (often made harder if the family’s provider was either dead or physically unable to work).

Now, this isn’t an indictment of the medical providers. I applaud the medical personnel who treated and continue to treat these life-threatening injuries, and even have to watch as someone dies in front of them in the ambulance or on the operating table. They cannot receive enough praise. (Or pay, for that matter.)

But the financial side of the healthcare industry leaves the uninsured and underinsured with two options: either go viral, or go bankrupt.

I’m no political or financial expert, and I understand that there’s a lot of nuance. But I believe our country can and should do better.

Sure, it will be a challenge. Changing a centuries-old private healthcare system would have countless complications behind the scenes. People don’t want to lose the doctor they know and trust. People don’t want to pay more taxes.

But I believe the basic principle of universal healthcare is possible, good and just.

You might have to increase taxes to pay for the program. No one likes the sound of that, but remember: you would no longer have to pay for health insurance, and neither would your employer. You’d never have to pay for out-of-pocket medical expenses.

Everyone will have medical expenses in their lifetime, often beyond their control. The only question is, who will pay for it? Insurance companies cover big expenses from a pot of yours and others’ monthly premiums. GoFundMe campaigns rely on sometimes hundreds of compassionate  donors chipping in. Why don’t we formalize that process and ensure that proper healthcare is available for everyone?

No family deserves to lose a loved one unexpectedly. No one deserves to be injured in a car accident or by an attacker. And nobody deserves to face crippling debt after enduring these traumatic experiences.

Spencer Burt is a news writer for The Utah Statesman and a senior studying journalism, public relations and marketing.