we need to address the REAL crisis--health care in the USA (lack of)

[rodeodance]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/11/opinion/11krugman4.html?th&emc=th

April 11, 2005
OP-ED COLUMNIST
Ailing Health Care
By PAUL KRUGMAN

Those of us who accuse the administration of inventing a Social Security crisis are often accused, in return, of do-nothingism, of refusing to face up to the nation's problems. I plead not guilty: America does face a real crisis - but it's in health care, not Social Security.

Well-informed business executives agree. A recent survey of chief financial officers at major corporations found that 65 percent regard immediate action on health care costs as "very important." Only 31 percent said the same about Social Security reform.

But serious health care reform isn't on the table, and in the current political climate it probably can't be. You see, the health care crisis is ideologically inconvenient.

Let's start with some basic facts about health care.....

[Jamastiene]

1. Tell me about it. (long anti-hypocritic oath rant)

I've got a personal reason for believing that too. I'm a victim of a health care system that just doesn't care. I have to beg to get my high blood pressue prescription renewed because I don't have any medical insurance. Apparently, because I'm a single female with no children, I am not allowed to get medicaid or any other help for that matter. I was born with spina bifida and in the last few years I've had to suffer with backaches, headaches, and what I believe is severe pmdd with no hope of getting any of it treated. My mother did send me to get a massage from a chiropractors office 2 years ago as a birthday present. When the woman got to my lower back I almost jumped off the table. She said it was probably my kidneys and started checking ever so gently to see if she could feel anything wrong with my spine just to be sure it wasn't my kidneys. First she checked where my kidneys are apparently located. No pain. Then she checked the spine itself. Guess what? It wasn't my kidneys. She felt extreme tension in my back due to a couple of slipped disks. Apparently, those years working with the dog groomer fucked my back all up. She said I should see the chiropractor right away. As if. I can't afford a doctor. I have to try to ask questions to my regular md the one time a year I go without raising too many alarms to keep the cost down so I can afford to pay him. I'm so screwed. Right now the pain has reached a crescendo. I can only try sitting or laying in different positions when it happens to ease the pain. No decent medicine or medical care for me. And I better not miss a single day of a job or school for the pain, because I have no real medical excuse because I can't pay the doctor for "real" tests to prove it.

An awful lot of doctors, nurses, shrinks (don't even get me started on the profession that the nazis "advanced" so much), and the like just gripe my ass. They lie to you about pain and can't seem to understand what pain is. I wish more of them would try to understand what pain is before they brush you off. If I had only had an unlimited supply of cash to pay them, I may get treatment and feel a little better. That leads me to the biggest problem I see with them.

Money. $. Moolah. $5.00 for a QTip if you use one while you are in the hospital. $3.00 for a single piece of peppermint candy. $80.00 just to check my high blood pressure, which is something I do all the time myself for free, and tell me yep, the medicine seems to be working. Great. What bullshit. I'm disgusted.

Whoever says it's a topic we should hold every congressman's and every senator's most delicate soft tissues betwixt the legs to the fire on, is absolutely correct. I couldn't agree more. As a matter of fact, I say let's not only hold them to the fire, but give them a sharp twist if they start feeding us more of that "it's the malpractice insurance" excuse. No more excuses. Get something done about it or I break out the roast beef slicer. And trust me, you don't wanna know...

[KitchenWitch]

3. Well put Jamastiene

I deal with several chronic conditions, WITH insurance, and the copays alone for the office visits I am supposed to attend are in the thousands of dollars. WTF are we paying for...more premiums and less service. Factor my drugs in for all these chronic conditions, and, well, you get the picture.

Managed Care has made healthcare in our country a joke. Doctors are scheduled to see 8 patients an hour - how the fuck are they supposed to make any kind of accurate diagnosis beyond simple respiratory infections in less than 10 minutes per patient? THIS is the reason the malpractice insurance goes up...because they cannot possibly be accurate when under that much pressure.

[Jamastiene]

6. You are right.

If you think about it, the entire system is fubar. They also have this system directly out of doctor school (whatever they call it) where they send them to do internships in 24 hours shifts and 12 hours shifts. I mean they expect them to work for 24 hours straight. WTF? I don't want some doctor that is half asleep getting me mixed up with the person who is supposed to get their finger amputated for some reason. I'd be devastated without my fingers. I need 'em all. Imagine how hard it would be to type without my fingers. I'd need to write translator software to cypher my words. I mean seriously depending on which finger Sir Needs A Snooze took, my words would come out missing the letter that finger would normally type. It'd look like crap. I'd never be able to communicate again as I've already forgotten how to speak. <tongue in cheek>

But seriously,

You are right about the coverage too. Even with coverage, you still gotta pay out the wazoo and the old joke about an arm and a leg would be an understatement using today's standards. They are liable to take a kidney, a chunk of liver, a lung, and an eye while they are at it.

I have always wanted to form some sort of Red Cross liason where people agree to give blood on a routine scheduled basis in trade for health care. They always want people's blood and it seems like a fair trade. I bet they'd laugh me outta there though. It would be a good idea if they'd give it a chance. People used to be able to give blood for money years ago.

[NewJeffCT]

2. great article

Krugman always has a lot of facts to back up his assertions.

I've gotten several LTTEs published on this - my last one was saying that having national health care could be the most pro-business move our country could make - huge corporations like GM and UTC have major operations in Canada not because the wages are slightly lower - it's because they don't have to pay health care for their employees!

[Vinca]

4. How do we get health care moved to the front burner? It seems

people who still have insurance (like Senators and those in Congress) are in no hurry to take this on. Last December we had to give up trying to pay for insurance when it went up 39% to a quarter of our income . . . and that was with a huge deductible and no out patient coverage. We never received a dime from this insurance company in the 7 years we had the policy. As luck would have it, about 3 weeks ago I got sick. In the middle of the night I apparently passed some gallstones which managed to cause acute pancreatitis. The pain was beyond belief, but I soldiered on through the night because I didn't want to rack up an ER bill. By morning the pain had subsided, so I figured I'd be okay. The pain was intermittent over the next week, so I finally relented and went to the doctor. He was about to admit me to the hospital until I relayed the critical bit of information that I didn't have insurance. He agreed to do some basic tests and "wait and see." So far, so good. It appears I'm recovering. What has me more upset than anything is that I've only just learned my condition might very well have gone in the opposite direction and I could have been in a coma or dead right now. My worry about incurring medical bills might have cost me my life. This has to change.

[dbt]

5. Note to CFOs at major corporations: SHUT the fuck UP!

Bill and Hillary TRIED to do something about this crisis in 1993. But your bought-and-paid-for Republican$ would have none of it. This is what you so obviously wanted, a dozen years ago--or you would have called off your dogs.

Enjoy it and quit your whining.

[Jamastiene]

7. That's right.

Bill was going to let Hillary straighten the whole mess out, but the nasty selfish repugs would have none of it because their corporate backers didn't want to invest in their employees the slightest bit. They'll pay for it though when employees start getting sick and can keep productivity up. If I had the power to get enough people on board, I'd call for either a national "sick out" or a targeted (picking the worst corporation when it comes to health coverage) "sick out" where everyone called in sick on one certain day maybe at intervals to protest crappy health care and coverage. Might need to do research to see if several days or a single day would make the biggest impact, but it'd certainly make them scramble to get something done. If enough people did it, there'd be a major dent in the profits for those corporations. Then they'd take notice.