Medicare System is so Difficult, You May Just Rather Be Dead

1. What are the author's primary messages?

I believe that the author's primary messages in Mama Might be Better Off Dead, are to expose the health care system and to show how the poor black families are discriminated against in regards to health care.

The author exposed things in the health care system such as doctors did not want to help patients who could not pay, doctors could not relate to their patients, and doctors discharging patients too early. Doctors do not want to help poor patients because they are unable to pay for the services provided. The doctors do not get paid for helping patients who do not have primary insurance, Medicaid or Medicare.

The doctors would rather spend more time with patients who have a primary care provider. When a doctor has a patient without insurance they often will only do what they have to do to help the patient and will not go out of their way to help them. They want to move on to the next patient who will pay for their services. To them health care is a business, a way of making money.

All of the doctors in North Lawndale were born and educated in other countries; their ethnic background is completely different than that of a poor black person. The doctors feel that they have a higher education and knowledge than their poor patients. The doctors feel that they are unable to relate to their poor patients based on the difference in ethnic backgrounds.

Often when a Medicaid or Medicare patient is in the hospital it seemed that the doctors would discharge these patients earlier than they would a patient who had a primary care provider. The doctors do this because Medicaid and Medicare only pay a set amount for the Medicaid and Medicare patients that stay in the hospital regardless of how long they stay. In most cases the patients are not well enough to leave the hospital, but the doctors discharge them as soon as possible, by keeping them they will be losing money. Take Mrs. Jackson for instance; when she had her leg amputated she was discharged from Mt. Sinai and sent to Schwab Rehabilitation Center.