Vision Harvest 2009: Free Cataract Surgery Program Reveals a Health Care System in Crisis

As I stated in my previous blog post, November 25 was the inaugural Vision Harvest free cataract surgery day at River Drive Surgery Center.  Twenty patients without insurance, or the means to pay, were provided free cataract surgery.  I promised to post interviews of many of these patients the day after their surgery.  Well, here they are.  The video is in 3 parts, due to YouTube's 10 minute time constraint.

While you are watching these videos I am sure that you will notice several recurring themes dealing with a breakdown in our health care system.

• Many people who are gainfully employed cannot afford coverage.
• Tying health care to employment leads to no health care when unemployed, creating a vicious cycle.
• There are many large cracks in our current system which are not being addressed by the current health care debate.

After viewing these videos, I am sure that you will come to the same conclusion:  our health care system is broken and in need of an overhaul.  What do you think needs to be done?

Comments

[Brian H.]

Hello Dr. Silverman, I retweeted a link to this post. I hope more people will read it. Tried to DM you on Twitter but you don't follow me so couldn't. I'm going to try to tweet you in a moment to see if you could RT me and send some people to my site where I'm trying to raise money for cataract surgeries. Thanks, Brian H. @casadezach on Twitter.