Putting the "Care" Back in Healthcare

January 7, 2008 - 3:00 ET

See the video

Since I've been out of work for a while recovering from surgery, little naive me thought that it would be a good idea to post a video up on YouTube over the weekend to explain what happened. Well, next thing I know, the video was picked up by the Drudge Report, it made the front page of AOL.com, and now over half a million people have seen it.

So, if you didn't hear the radio show this morning, you may be still wondering exactly what kind of surgery I had. And while I'd love to tell you that it was something "cool" like a face lift, a nose job, or calf implants, the Real Story is that I had surgery...on my butt. That's right, I had a big ass-peration; a party with heiny-kin and rump roast that ended with a booty call.

But the reason I went public with my whole debacle despite the inevitable public embarrassment -- and you can read all the gory details about what happened on glennbeck.com if you really want to -- is because of what it taught me about healthcare in America.

I've seen our system at its very best and, unfortunately, I've also experienced it at its very worst. But in each case, the difference had nothing to do with having the latest equipment or a facility that looked like the Taj Mahal, it had to do with compassion. It had to do with respect. It had to do with treating people the way you'd want to be treated.

There were times over the last couple of weeks when I was quite honestly nothing more than a number; times when people literally turned their back on my cries of pain and pleas for help...and I believe it's all because we've forgotten that the secret to healthcare is contained right there in the word itself. The secret is "care." But somewhere along the way, we've lost that. So don't talk to me about universal healthcare or HMOs or how you need a new MRI machine until you can look me in the eye and tell me that you have a staff full of people who have true compassion for their patients.

Our politicians are right: we do have a healthcare crisis in this country. But it's not going to be fixed by them, it's not going to be fixed by the government, by insurance companies or attorneys, and it's certainly not going to be fixed by throwing more money around. After all, at the lowest of my lows, I didn't care whether the hospital had marble in its bathrooms or plasma TV's on their walls. The only thing I cared about was finding someone who actually cared about me.