"I will not let an insurance company dictate how well my wife recovers from this stroke! I'll sell the car, my house... I don't care what it takes, she's not leaving here to go to some nursing home where she'll get a measley 2 hours of medicore therapy at best!" Mr. B's rage left me shaking. My head spinning in the emotional storm but also left me struggling to grip on to some sense of truth. Who or what's to blame here? America's disconnected healthcare system? The patient and husband for having her hypertension go untreated for 10 years? The insurance company who's insisting she move on?
Her husband is there every morning before we get in and at night he leaves after she falls asleep. They are living the words they said to each other 40 years ago, "For better or worse, In sickness and in health." But could his emotional response be clouding his judgement? Is it clouding mine?
What really is the best solution? Allow her to move through the continuum of care, moving down to a less expensive, less intense rehab facility. Perhaps she'll continue to progress at a SNF and eventually be able to go home. But what if she doesn't? After 6 weeks of steady progress with us, what if she starts regressing somewhere else? What if she never makes it home? Wouldn't that be more expensive for the insurance company?
