rabid1st | Health Care Costs Today

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Health Care Costs Today

Here is a link to an article about the cost of health care today.

http://www.iom.edu/?id=19175

In case anyone is wondering, the government, meaning you and I, the taxpayers, pick up the cost of the uninsured even now. We just do so inefficiently and inhumanly. For example, my friend is taking her internship in psychology at a local mental hospital. The hospital built a new ward last year, costing millions, which they got in government grants and loans. They even asked their STAFF to pitch in with donations. Now, they cannot afford to repay their loans...so they will be doing a number of corporate things to get by...1) cutting salaries and laying people off [we taxpayers will pick up the unemployment tab] and yes, those are the same people who donated to build the wing 2) writing the loans off as a tax break for corporations, so we taxpayers [even those who've lost their jobs] pay for their error 3) letting the less dangerous [or uninsured] patients go so they are wandering the streets, asking you for loose change. Some of them will insist that you learn about the aliens that have taken over the Qwiki-Mart. Those poor people are not only going to be cold and hungry and frightened, they will also be frightening you...and causing the police, whom we taxpayers pay, to have extra patrols.

Jails, which we pay for, too, will be full of people who should be getting proper mental care, sociopaths who as of their 18th birthday are no longer covered by child care laws. They will cause costly fights and we will need more room, officers and medical personnel. We also pick up more costs than that, though. Because sick people don't just wander out into the streets and get arrested or die, not right away. So property values decline and people are forced to give more to church kitchens and shelters to compensate for their "tax cuts." Would you stand by and watch a sick person die or would you try to help? Shall we begin to take our elderly, childless neighbors in? Well, even if everyone refuses to help and the sick and the homeless do die...we taxpayers would pay for the Hazardous Waste pick up and disposal. Funerals, even pauper funerals, are not free.

So, this isn't REALLY about government spending. It is about priorities in spending. And there is no excuse for all of this clutch-fisted inhumanity. One of my LJ-friends said she met a lady during a health care town hall who was uninsured and told her "We don't want government insurance. We take care of our own." Yes, but really, she will apply for food stamps, medicaid, social security and church charity when she's sick or homeless. Even if she doesn't we will bankrupt our hospitals taking care of her when she comes in to Emergency, and we will pay higher and higher insurance premiums to compensate. Hospitals and doctors and dentists and drug companies will keep raising their rates to cover costs as more and more people have to get stealth care. Or maybe we will carry on being callous and pass laws that let "take care of our own" woman and her 4 children huddle on a trash heap somewhere until she dies. After all, what is she to you and I...but a tax burden, right? The way things have been going in this debate, maybe we should just admit that our fellow Americans are not "our own." Japan takes care of its own...so does Cuba. Little countries, poor countries and somehow they manage to care for their sick. It's not that we can't afford to; it's that we REFUSE to do so. If we don't manage to pound out a bypartisan bill, then maybe America really is motivated by nothing but self-serving, short-sighted greed. Maybe we are a lost cause when it comes to humane behavior toward our fellow Americans.

Rae
being bitter and stuff.

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Believe me, Lisa...it doesn't suck. I've been in the American system. As both a "well insured" person and a destitute person. We have long waits for doctors. I couldn't see my specialist for 2 months. My sister waited 3 months for a scan to see if she had cancer. Both of us were insured via our employer. And we have no hope if we lose our insurance. That article above is right...people just die and their dying often costs much more than if they had simply been treated.

So...how long do you wait for care? To see a doctor for example?

For me personally to get diagnosed, it started with a visit to my GP. I got an appointment seven days or so but he didn't refer me on to anyone because the symptoms I could remember didn't match any known illness. It was simply written "multi-symptomatic" and not followed up by him. The University, believing I had depression because CFS had been 'ruled out' put me on a waiting list to see a Psychological Therapist. Twelve months later, I saw said therapist and she held my hand while I battled for more physical tests because she was sure I had CFS.

By this point, the government had introduced a reduced waiting time scheme for GPs, so my surgery would only let you book two days in advance. If there weren't any appointments, you had to phone the following day. Baring in mind all appointments would be taken in the first ten minutes of the line opening. So it probably took longer than seven days from wanting an appointment to actually getting one. It's one of those 'government targets met but patients worse off' things.

Armed with my outpatient piece of paper, I waited in a four hour queue for blood work, which three weeks later came back negative for the things they tested for. I was then put on a waiting list to see a Rheumatologist, but I gave up waiting after 4.5 months and paid to see one privately. So, it took... over eighteen months to get diagnosed once I'd made first contact, but I'd been ill nearly three years.

Since being diagnosed, I get an annual visit to my GP (when I remember to book) to confirm I'm still ill and the medication still doesn't do much. In five years, I've had one visit to pain management for an hour consultation... one visit to physiotherapy for the maximum thirteen hour-long sessions... and I think two visits to rheumatology to confirm I still have FMS.

My personal favourite visit to rheumatology was the doctor saying "I won't put you on the waiting list to be referred to pain management because it's too long." Another example of meeting government targets but failing to care for patients.

My Dad is slightly better since he's been diagnosed with cancer. It took them three years of check ups before they found it, but the doctor nags the admin that if he says he wants to see my dad in three months, he really means it! There was a twelve month gap of 'rescheduled' appointments (i.e. given to newly diagnosed) after removing the initial tumour, but now he's seen monthly because he's trialing a new cancer drug.

So, the NHS has its weaknesses. I'm very grateful for it, because if I lived anywhere else I'd be dead by now. But the limited funding (and by limited I mean it goes to middle management and not the ground staff and patients) means regions and illnesses are prioritsed. My local hospital is poor... my dad travels to one a two hour drive away because the resources and appointment times are much better. Plus, he is prioritised because he has one of 'the big five.'

I've got a rubbish illness. Pain is recognised but not prioritised, but fatigue is ignored. I am not good for 'tick box statistics.' Take hydrotherapy for example. Someone with a broken leg makes quantifiable improvements each session, and there is an end point when they will no longer need the treatment. My improvement in the water is not cumulative, and I'd need it for life... my long life because my illnesses don't reduce longevity.

So, over there your treatment is determined by your wallet, and over here it depends on where you are, what you've got and whether you're useful.

Lisa

Not sure if it makes you feel better, but I went through a near-identical rigamarole to get diagnosed with FMS 17 years ago. I reported symptoms to my GP as early as 1991 and didn't get a diagnosis until 1994 after a barage of tests and being shuffled from one doctor to another.

I became sick for the first time in 2004 but my primary illness wasn't identified until May of this year. I was sent from doctor to doctor. Worse, I was given many different types of treatment. First I was written off as stressed, then depressed, then sensitive and then I was diagnosed with Sleep Apnea and they blamed it for everything. I kept being given medication that didn't work, taking tests that showed I was in pain or that my muscles were injured...or that I was seriously suffering from exhaustion...but no conclusions were forthcoming beyond the Sleep Apnea, Chronic Fatigue and Fibro...so I, like you, was left to stuggle without proper care.

The difference here is that I kept forking over money for these tests and procedures. I imagine...well...let's see...if I was to go with the once a month visit to some doctor and the six times a year lab work...and the sleep studies...which are refused, my insurance would pay to discover I HAD sleep apnea...but not to treat it with a secondary study. I suppose they expected my doctor to GUESS how to set my machines. But...let's do the math on my health care out of pocket...with insurance...about 8000 dollars out of pocket over the last 6 years.

And now, I have no insurance, no way to pay for my required medications...which means...I am not going to be able to even think about working or exercising or feeding myself or anything like that. And, if I can't keep up my blood pressure meds...well...it won't matter because I'll just keel over...unless I have a stroke or something and have to go into some sort of state home.

Seriously...lines and paperwork are frustrating. I know...because I had to deal with them during my youth. We were very poor and we went to free clinics for health care...and waited for hours with very sick people all around us. Every system is going to have it's share of tragic failures. But the system we have...is frighteningly inhumane. We need to do much better for the poor and disabled in our society.

Rae
one of the disabled...and so...now...one of the poor, too.

... have what is called 'war time spirit.' We were on rationing during WWII and the decade afterwards. Everybody was treated the same - given the same booklet of tokens - but it was so little everyone clubbed together and helped each other out. I think the NHS was born out of that spirit, that regardless of who you are, everyone should be entitled to free hospital treatment. I suppose it helped having all these wounded soldiers in need of care, and the motto "the army should carry its wounded."

On a slight tangent...

The poor and disabled are easy targets in a recession. Because tax revenue is down with businesses closing, the government are looking for easy targets to put money back in the public sector. They plan to take away Disability Benefit from individuals, pay it to Social Services (three years and counting for a downstairs toilet) who will then administer you a 'personal budget' to cope with your disability. That's over half my income, that will pay someone else's wages... meaning there's no money left to spend on me.

Lisa
Like I need any more stress

I know you are fighting for income...and yes, I agree that creating more departments won't solve anything. But the alternative is to regulate our insurance industry...along the lines of Japan or Germany...and that will really put a lot of people out of work. Because American businesses are like French aristocrats...they believe in throwing wild parties and ignoring the bread lines outside the ivory towers.

Rae

Forgot to mention,

There's no money for research at the moment in the NHS. I'd sign up for sleep studies and drug trials in a heartbeat, to know I wasn't being ignored as a bad statistic. I only found out about the Modafinil because my Dad was listening to the Radio at 4am during sleep week (target audience for insomniacs). The only study I've been a part of for FMS is to help someone (by coincidence, from my old University) graduate.

The insurance people are the same over here in terms of treatment. The people that came to fit our windows last winter, he barely had movement in his right arm. The doctors wanted to enter his wrist to ease the muscle tension so he could move his fingers more, but the insurance would only pay if they entered the skin through the existing surgery wound... by his elbow! Those would be an impressively long pair of snips.

Lisa

There are experimental drugs over here, yes! For example, the drugs I was offered that were just found to cause Lymphoma in 1/3 of the patients taking them. They were dropped on the unsuspecting market thanks to deregulation and television advertising and door-to-door pharma reps spread their use to a lot of desparate people. Or the drug my sister used to help her breathe...it has eaten a hole through her septum...now she can't breathe again.

My doctor did know about Modafinil and did not hesitate to prescribe it...but many other doctors are not so savvy.

Still, your point is well taken. I believe anyone in our condition, anywhere, would be frustrated with their medical system. And it is probably true that Americans do not want NHS. What we appear to want is regulated health care...insurance that is affordable...and doctors and hospitals to make a lot less money. I do think a lot of people would be happy to have fewer, less harmful drugs at a more reasonable cost. I think that the "magic research" phase of drug discovery has given way to exploitation and poisoning over here.

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Health Care Costs Today

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I, too, have been going through a similar diagnosis purgatory

I think the British

Well, yes, there is that

Insurance

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