Kitsap Caucus

Chris Henry’s story about the search for shuteye actually opens a door to talk about health care reform.

Late last year I finally decided to have the test done for sleep apnea. I’ve pretty much been sleepy since 1976, when I started high school. I attributed it then to, of all things, not getting enough sleep. Go figure. I was attending early morning seminary (Religion classes for LDS high schoolers) before school every day, but was going to bed at normal times.

Where it really became pronounced was after I quit working night crew (Midnight-8 a.m.). I went on a Mormon church mission to Chile (Concepcion, as it turns out. I’ve got dear friends I’m really worried about.) and never did seem to adjust to a regular sleep schedule. At least that’s what I thought, that those months on the night crew messed up my body’s sleep schedule. All through college and beyond I’ve battled pretty much daily with the urge to fall asleep at my desk, or at city council meetings, or in class, at church. Oddly, I’m fine when I drive, assuming I get a few hours sleep the night before.

The reasons I never suspected apnea were because I had lifestyle issues I could point to, I don’t remember anyone talking about it until the 1990s, and also because I didn’t start snoring until I became overweight. I had a friend who had it, but he always snored loud enough to frighten cats.

When I got married my wife said that once in a while when I sleep I will go silent, then make that noise when I remember to breathe. There’s also the issue of the legs kicking. Those are apnea signs.

Last year I had another friend who got a CPAP machine and said the difference was amazing. So I decided to finally talk to my doctor about it. She told me that people who get treated for sleep disorders and have them solved with something like CPAP find the change to be “transformative.” I liked the sound of that.

The problem was I was changing insurance coverage. To keep the same traditional plan I had it was going to represent a huge pay cut. So I opted for what President George W. Bush touted, the health care savings account.

The savings account system basically means instead of paying huge premiums I pay a much smaller one and set as much as I want (up to federal limits) aside to pay for medical costs. My insurance company pays nothing (save some discount on prescriptions, and physicals and other preventative things) until I reach $2,800 per event or $3,500 overall. After that it’s all free. The positive with the account is that if we spend nothing this year (Like that’s going to happen.) We keep it all. The potential negative, though, is we will avoid going to the doctor unless it’s pretty darned necessary.

Then again, maybe that’s not a negative. I decided to not do the sleep test, because it would have blown through my entire deductible. We kind of like the idea of having money in the bank next year, which would mean less need to set as much money aside for health care. Nothing might drive the health care cost down more than people opting to be cautious about spending money on it.

The downside is if this is really a serious issue. Instead of getting this checked out further, I’m risking lifestyle changes I should be making anyway will solve the problem. I’ve lost some weight and will continue doing so for quite a while. I’m doing better at getting to bed at an earlier hour. Still, it’s tough to not doze off during some meetings on the sixth floor of the Norm Dicks Government Center, or in the Port Blakely room at the county administration building. There are witnesses.

It was not an easy decision to wait on the sleep test. For a while I was getting pretty excited about the prospect of living life on sound sleep, or finding out that I didn’t have a problem that wasn’t self-inflicted.

The question, one that we’ll be asking for years, is what the cost to society is for having people avoid treatment, to have people at less than their optimum health? I’m confident that my work has been fine. Anything I’ve missed in this job hasn’t been because I was literally asleep. But I know vigor, which I’ve mostly attributed to the right dose of Diet Coke. How much more productive might I be, I wonder, if the right amount and kinds of sleep became a regular thing for me. I’d like to find out.

For now, I’m willing to wait.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 12:40 pm by Steven Gardner and is filed under National. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.