The End of Health Care

Photo by Matheus Ferrero on Unsplash

During the 2018 MLB season, Tyler Skaggs of the Los Angeles Angels overdosed on fentanyl, oxycodone, and alcohol while the team was on a road trip playing the Texas Rangers. Outside of sports fans, few in the United States know about this death, or who Tyler Skaggs was in the world of baseball. At the same time, Skagg’s death highlights an epidemic plaguing the American health care system — prescription Opiod addiction. We are not discussing the chemical compounds originating from the illicit drug trade of the War on Drugs. Certainly heroine, crack cocaine and meth continue to ravage rural and working class communities around the country. In terms of the Opiod epidemic, we are speaking about products developed from the pharmaceutical companies of the United States— tax payer funded, industrial manufactured, prescription drugs.

This past year, another high profile L.A. athlete died alongside his young daughter in a helicopter accident, Kobe Bryant. This was a sudden death, confounding basketball fans, and fans of his celebrity at large. In both instances, the death of an athlete is sudden, and tragic in the sense that myth, story, archetypes are genetic. We remember the death of significant people in our lives as if they were milestone events. Immediately following the death of Kobe Bryant, his family filed a civil suit against the helicopter operator. Few would argue with this motion, justice is generally sought after tragedy results from reckless actions. At the same time, Tyler Skaggs’ family has not, and might not be afforded the same sense of justice in regards to the parties that are liable for his death. One would presume that MLB and the Los Angeles Angels hold a degree of responsibility. After all, they have an in-house medical staff that rivals the best health care money can buy. At the very least, they missed the warning signs of an opioid addiction — consciously or subconsciously, this is generally what a civil court determines regarding issues of liability and damages awarded to plaintiffs. Certainly, the pharmaceutical companies themselves hold a degree of liability — they are manufacturing and marketing lethal products to unknowing consumers. This debate is playing out in federal courtrooms across the country.

The unique nature of Skaggs death was yet another death at the hands of prescription Opiod based drugs. The Opiod epidemic is unique from past generations of drug addiction in that: 1) its users are from every socioeconomic level of the American economic hierarchy; 2) its users highlight how money is able to purchase the best health care. At a time when pharmaceutical companies across the country are in the process of litigating billions in damages for predatory behavior and illicit distribution there is a historical disconnect in the actions of congress in the wake of Skaggs’ overdose — the death of a professional athlete, in say the 1980s, would foreseeable lead to a congressional investigation. I am speaking of the Chicago Bull’s Rookie Len Bias who died from a heart-attack resulting from a cocaine overdose. His death was a catalyst for ramping up the war on drugs through the Anti Drug Abuse Act of 1986 championed by Senator Joe Biden and signed into law by President Regan, and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 championed by Senator Joe Biden and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. Skaggs is an example of the terror that the Opiod epidemic has truly developed into because he had the means and he was within a system that provided the absolute best health care money could purchase — and yet, our system, so desensitized to prescription drugs and liberal with their proliferation, missed every sign of his demise.

In the 1980’s and 1990’s, the U.S. Government with champions like Ronald Regan and Joe Biden found equal ground in establishing laws on policing, sentencing, and public health access that targeted low-income communities and communities of color. During this time, both the incarceration rate and cost of medicine increased at exponential rates. The result is a new millennium where drug addiction transcends class and socioeconomics in that it will impact a majority of the U.S. population. Meanwhile, the best health care is only provided to those who can afford it, ensuring that a great deal of medicine and health care coverage will only go to a minority of the U.S. population. And here we stand, in the midst of another drug crisis, this time caused by the pharmaceutical and health care industries that funds our politicians and campaigns. I doubt we will see Vice President Biden proposing a plan for incarcerating CEO’s, corporate upper management, doctors, health care administrators, and other providers for their reckless dealing of prescription opioids. I doubt this for the simple fact that he is receiving millions of dollars in funding from these same companies.