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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOn Purposely Getting Arrested, to Get Life-Saving Surgery
by Joshua Mezrich
A 41-year-old man who was incarcerated came to see me recently. A few years ago, he'd been incarcerated. While in prison he got in a fight, which led to a CT scan. He hadn't broken anything, but the scan did surreptitiously show two aneurysms. Both were in his hepatic artery (the artery that feeds his liver).
They were small, so the doctors kept an eye on the aneurysms without doing surgery. But the next time they checked, they had nearly doubled in size.
He was referred to a surgeon at a different hospital than the one I work at, and underwent an angiogram, to see the aneurysms better. The surgeons there said that he was sure to die if they did not intervene, and that they should schedule a surgery within the coming weeks.
Fortunately for him (or so he thought) he was released from prison one week later. When he returned for his pre-op visit, though, he was told that since he'd been released from prison, he no longer had insurance to cover the operation.
He asked what he should do. The told him to figure out how to get insurance.
more
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/02/on-purposely-getting-arrested-to-get-life-saving-surgery/273282/
bunnies
(15,859 posts)I was recently told the same exact thing by my doctor as I too am in need of surgery. And I have to tell you that I was SO pissed off at her when she uttered those words. As if there was some fucking magic way for those of us who don't have it to suddenly get it. No problem. FFS. If we COULD get it... we WOULD.
DreamGypsy
(2,252 posts)... about the realities of health care from the point of view of a transplant surgeon.
Some additional comments from the article that I found compelling:
<snip>
In my own field, transplant surgery, patients have to be insured to be eligible for transplantation. This is generally not a problem for patients with kidney failure, as anyone with a work history becomes eligible for Medicare regardless of age or disability status.
Any patient with end stage liver disease who does not have insurance (and is not eligible for Medicare) has the option of trying to qualify for state-funded Medicaid (which includes demonstrating both poverty and disability), stealing moisturizing cream from a department store, or dying.
I have personally taken care of a number of patients who did not want to put their family through the formidable weight of bankruptcy and opted for number three.
Difficult choices have to be made by individuals about health care decisions and the impacts on loved ones and society.
Thanks for the post, n2doc.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)SCVDem
(5,103 posts)Medical, dental and vision!
Any one without the rest is still debilitating.
DaveJ
(5,023 posts)One way or another, we need to be either in prison, working 70 hours a week, demonized for collecting welfare, whatever it is, anything but the feeling of security and happiness... which they see as a horrible weakness.
So that we never take risks, never try to fight for better things, or for better jobs. Fear is the goal.
avebury
(10,952 posts)forced to go to prison just to get life saving medical care.
JEB
(4,748 posts)Medicare for all would stimulate the economy and lift the doldrums that have engulfed us.