Get this: Healthcare denied is 'rationing'
Saturday, June 20, 2009 at 13:38 The clueless wingers and the Libertarians keep filling the print and electronic echo chamber with the propaganda that any meaningful healthcare reform would inevitably lead to ‘rationing’ , which they inaccurately claim is the case in Canada.
Well, my husband and I experienced rationing last night, thanks to the current for-profit system.
It was the first time we’ve ever just given up and walked out of an emergency room.
Mr. Maven had a pacemaker installed last fall. Last night, after dinner, he was watching a little television and asked me to come over and feel the pacemaker - something odd was going on. It felt like it was about to jump right out of his chest.
Since Natacha was also there, and a working CNA at a local hospital, I asked her to weigh in and she said that we should go to the emergency room. It was probably a case of the pacemaker just needing to be reset, but I didn’t want to take a chance.
I didn’t take him to the nearest Urgent Care … been there, done that. The last time I showed up at one of those while mentioning chest pains, I got a $1,000 ride to the big hospital in an ambulance thank you very much. They aren’t prepared for cardiac events. Down to the big hospital ER we went.
The staff was attentive. They were concerned. They were nice. They were doing their job as best they could. They were also totally slammed and overwhelmed.
The ER was overflowing with the poor and underserved. And, no, they weren’t all illegal Mexicans. In fact, I happened to know one of them- the daughter of a friend and her delightfully rambunctious bouncing baby boy. They were mostly white Americans. The old and the young.
My friends daughter had a seriously and painfully distended abdomen. She had been waiting almost an hour when Mr. Maven and I got there - with a three year old boy who has enough energy to solve the nation’s energy crisis. She’d lost her job and was on Medicaid. Ain’t that grand?
So, I entertained Trace as best I could while she sat there in agony. Time marched on. The staff even came and apologized. They told her they were doing their best… then gave her a specimen cup and told her to march down the hall to to the public bathroom to collect a sample. Several other women were given the same very public option.
The ER continued to fill with more people.
My friends’ daughter was finally taken back for care - at least 90 minutes after checking in. Mr. Maven and I could see that our waiting would probably be futile ( it was nearly 11 p.m.) so after some discussion we left.
Now, let me explain why this is rationing and how it could be solved by a healthcare system similar to what the rest of the modern world enjoys.
If all the people in that ER last night had adaquate healthcare - so they didn’t wait until a fever or sore belly became an emergency, the ER staff wouldn’t have been slammed and could have provided proper, timely care.
I’ve actually been in European emergency rooms. Both as the patient and as the one with the patient. Once in Switzerland. Once in Germany. Each one was a very empty and quiet oasis of sanity, not overwhelmed by every runny nose, turned ankle, and child with cholic in town. They were truly there just for emergencies. In fact, the European ‘rationing’ usually means that a doctor will come to your house - how silly and weird is that? - to take care of garden variety ‘after hours’ medical needs. I’ve been there, seen that too. He even left medicine.
We’re the one’s with healthcare rationing. Between the insurance industry underwriting - telling us what we can’t get in the way of care - and lack of insurance ( creating the emergency room mess ) we’re being denied healthcare.
It’s rationing. We’re there. Now.
And, if you don’t think an ad hoc non-system like this isn’t costing the country, the states and communities a fortune - you haven’t been paying attention.
I don’t know how to better explain that if you don’t take care of infrastructure, educational and healthcare deliver systems and the like … they will break and cost you more than had you done it right.
Buy a new car, and then never change the oil, rotate the tires, do a tuneup or check the brakes and let me know how that works out economically. The same goes for your house, the roads you drive on, the police and fire services you depend on, the educational systems that offer kids alternatives other than burglarizing your McMansion, and more.
If you think the Libertarian ‘every man for himself’ program works - take a good look at Mexico, Saipan or Iraq and let me know how that’s progress or even humane.
maven
Reader Comments (5)
Hope Mr. Maven is OK.
yes, so far so good. Thanks for asking. We just need to get past the medical 'gatekeepers' this week and demand an answer for this.
Honestly, it was like the thing was going to literally jump out of his chest.
Spot on. I've had my own observations of the health care system lately and I've taken the liberty of using you as my jumping off spot again.
One does not lower the cost of providing a service by increasing demand and leaving supply alone.
If you're wondering why the E.R.'s suck rocks, it's because the Government has already gotten it's greasy fingers into them: they are required to provide resources for the unproductive to consume. Any deadbeat who shows up at an E.R. *must*, by law, be treated.
Of course, that's on top of the AMA medical cartel to which we must all pay tribute in order to get any medical care at all. Knowing how to cure disease is not enough. You must also have permission from the cartel, and that is expensive.
Oh, Rich. The deadbeats are covered under Title 10 funds ... until they run out and then they get squat. Did you notice how the so-called deadbeats on chemotherapy down in Las Vegas were doing a while back? Not so good.They were being turned away.
As a cancer survivor who has been there and back, I can tell you that chemo denied is well, sort of a death sentence. Is that okay? That's harsh, even for a deadbeat.
You may have a point about the AMA. For them to sit there and 'boo' Obama was pretty bad. They've had it really sweet for a very long time, and have been all too happy to play ball with the insurance and private hospital industry and their camp following lobbyists. All they had to do when anybody questioned it was throw their skirts up over their heads and run like little girls.
Now, let me tell you how 'socialized' medicine works: I got nearly two years of the most advanced cancer treatment available in the world, at the pre-eminent University of Texas, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. All the physicians there work for the state of Texas. They're on salary, with no big offices to run and overhead to cover. They're also the best of the best.
It cost me less than had I stayed here in Reno, Nevada and gotten second, and perhaps third tier treatment. I've compared bills with similarly diagnosed patients here ... who by the way have died since. They really paid the price.
Thanks for reading and commenting. I do appreciate it. It enlivens the discussion.
maven