New Orleans' Uninsured Get Primitive Care

[KamaAina]

Just appalling. Absolutely appalling. We're almost six months into this thing, and Americans are still living like this. :grr: :banghead:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060223/ap_on_re_us/katrina_hospitals

The swelling stretched the fabric. Even though the pain was nearly unbearable, she did not consider going to the hospital, because in this flooded city there is only one for the uninsured and it doesn't treat broken bones....

In Jaster's case, the doctors X-rayed her arm inside a tent where images of broken limbs hung like posters. But with no orthopedist on call, she was given an appointment at a hospital a 1 1/2-hour's drive away (likely in Baton Rouge -ed.) to get a cast.

"I don't have a car. The bus leaves in the evening, they can only see me in the morning — and there's no vacancies in the hotels," said Jaster, who a month after her fall has run out of options and says she plans to let the break heal on its own, treating the pain with nothing more than ibuprofen, a non-prescription painkiller.

And the most chilling of all:

"If you have cancer, my advice is move. If you need dialysis, go. Get out of here. If you have any major illness and are uninsured, we cannot possibly accommodate your needs. You will die sooner if you stay here," said Dr. Peter DeBlieux, the head of emergency services for what remains of Charity Hospital. :scared:

To my knowledge this is the first time since just after people got back in in September that certain groups of people are being openly disinvited to return to New Orleans. Also note that one hospital, Touro, has been operating in the city for a while now, and Tulane just reopened on a limited basis -- just not for the uninsured underclass. Oh, in case you're wondering, it has long been the practice in Louisiana to keep Medicaid rolls down to the bare minimum and provide most care through the network of five -- now four :( -- "charity hospitals". Brilliant move, guys. :sarcasm:

edit: spelling

[GrumpyGreg]

1. God almighty---and I whine if I get a slight ache or pain.

These poor people.

[Ecumenist]

2. This is fucking ridiculous

Hell, you can get a broken bone set in the wilds of Africa and you can't get it taken care of in a FUCKING AMERICAN CITY??!!!

[mtnester]

3. I don't know if it is just our state, BUT, every emergency room has a

zillion signs saying they are required by law to treat you whether or NOT you have the ability to pay. They cannot deny treatment (I understand about the orthopedic thing, unless you need surgery everyone gets to schedule an appointment at a later date with the orthopedic person to get cast) however, this is simply appalling.

So maybe Tulane ought to get ready for the "uninsured underclass" if the "Must treat patient no matter their financial ability" is a federal law.

[depakid]

7. It's called EMTALA -and it applies in every state

Federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, also known as the Patient Anti-Dumping Law.

http://www.emtala.com/

[mtnester]

8. I thought it was....

thanks!

[bettyellen]

13. the policy is to treat only if you are unstable..... OR have insurance...

otherwise many hospitals will turn you away. that's been standard for a while now in urban areas where the hospitals are often understaffed.

[Xithras]

16. They're only required to treat life threatening emergencies.

It's a common misconception that ER's have to treat everyone (many do, but it's not required). Federal law only states that ER's are required to assist in life threatening emergencies, and even then only until the patient is stable enough to be transferred to another facility. Basically, they can't let you bleed to death on the floor.

Most hospitals will treat anyone who walks into an ER simply because it's incredibly bad for their image if they turn away sick people because they're poor. If you're injury or illness presents no risk of immediate death, however, they have no obligation to treat you even if you DO have health insurance.

[Mnemosyne]

4. Why isn't this on the Greatest yet? Argh!!!!! n/t

:grr: :nuke: :grr: :nuke: :grr: :nuke: :grr: :nuke: :grr: :nuke: :grr: :nuke: :grr: :nuke: :grr: :nuke: :grr: :nuke: :grr: :nuke: :grr: :nuke:

[Raster]

5. It is now!!! Absolustely disgraceful! There are no words....

:cry:

[Mnemosyne]

9. Thanks Raster! Is there anything beyond

disgraceful? Because what continues to happen along the Gulf is definitely beyond it.

[Ladyhawk]

6. I feel a wash of fury encompass me whenever I read anything

about how Katrina was "handled."

This is royally pissing me off. Where are our tax dollars? Where is the money I sent to help these people? Who is spending it and what are they spending it on???? There was such a great outpouring of concern (and money), these folks should be at least treated like human beings.

Is there any way to make the red cross and other organizations explain what they did with the money? I know the government isn't going to give an account. :grr:

[kurth]

10. Meanwhile, half a trillion dollars will be WASTED on Iraq

Where is the outrage?

[ehrnst]

11. And they're promoting Mardi Gras - when the ERs fill up every year.

[trogdor]

12. Hugo's mess wasn't around that long.

Cat 4 storm hitting Charleston, South Carolina, in 1989. Cut a swath of destruction as far inland as Charlotte and into Virginia. By spring you'd hardly have known anything had happened. The beaches were ready for spring break, the bars were open, and most people at least had some idea when their house would be fixed.

How far we've sunk.

[ninkasi]

14. I am so outraged by this shameful situation

that my post probably won't make sense. We are pouring billions of dollars into Iraq, money picked from U.S. taxpayers pockets; we are saddling our grandchildren with huge amounts of debt in order to shower more money onto the ultra rich; what we are NOT doing is helping our fellow citizens in New Orleans.

We are, according to conservatives, supposed to feel sympathy for The Dick because he almost killed a friend, poor Cheney, his hunting trip was ruined because a lawyer foolishly got mistaken for a quail, and all of the pity goes to The Dick.

New Orleans is a different story. First, they were abandoned by the government. Bush's poll numbers were slipping, so he had to spend hundreds of dollars more of our money to fly there for phony photo ops, and he promised to rebuild the city. That was just one more Bush lie.

Now, U.S. citizens are still abandoned. After the hurricane, Bush wasted no time giving millions to Halliburton for clean-up, which remains uncleaned-up, people live in tents while mobile homes deteriorate somewhere else, and people can't even get basic medical care.

Reading the story was sickening enough. I made the mistake of reading some of the responses on the discussion page. There were so many hateful, bigoted comments, that I had to stop. Again, the victims are the ones being blamed. They are being subjected to the most vile attitudes I've ever seen. Some of those posters seem to think that the victims are at fault for not having insurance.

Some DID have insurance, until the place they worked got swept away in the flood waters, or blown down by the wind. Some cannot afford insurance. These poor people have lost loved ones, their homes, everything they owned, and our country doesn't have the will to help them. It's not enough, though, for some of the people who wrote the hateful comments.

What happened to us? I think that having Republicans in charge has unleashed the most hateful feelings of some who, in the past, would not have been so quick to voice their bigoted, loathsome thoughts. Republicans have made it ok to hate, ok to look down on others, ok to swagger around like a school yard bully, because people look to their government as an example.

I've been thinking that it might be a good idea to have a protest against the deplorable conditions in New Orleans and the other areas which remain in ruins. We march to protest Chimp's invasion of Iraq, maybe tens of thousands "Walking to New Orleans" would do something to make the government wake up and take notice.

I don't know what the answer is, but I do know that for the richest country in the world to allow it's citizens to live in misery and squalor because of a natural disaster is both shameful and disgusting. And freepers think Bush will keep America safe? What a sick, sick joke.

[suffragette]

15. Our country has abandoned its own citizens, even as

they struggle to rebuild their shattered lives, homes and city.
From the same article:

Founded in 1736, the storied institution had a nationally recognized trauma center where decades ago, the inventor of the first artificial heart trained.

~snip~

Although the Aug. 29 hurricane laid waste to much of the city and dispersed as many as 300,000 of its 500,000 residents, the stress on the health care system has not lessened, because many of the people who returned lost their jobs and their health coverage, said Smithburg. They tend to come in with more severe injuries, a reflection of the dangerous work by many who are rebuilding the city, he said.


This is beyond disgusting, beyond vile, beyond callous.

[iverglas]

17. I want to say something

but I really can't think of what to say.

Has no one in the US got even the vestige of a conscience left?

Perhaps it's time for Médecins sans frontières to pay a visit ... as if they didn't have enough to do caring for people in places where there genuinely are no resources for the job.

[KamaAina]

18. I actually thought of them

known in the largely monolingual USofA as "Doctors Without Borders".

They wouldn't be allowed in because their members are not licensed to practice medicine in Louisiana! There was an exception during the acute crisis phase last autumn, but it expired, I believe, last October.

So you see, it is actually easier to provide relief in the Global South (the term "Third World" is a bit condescending, don't you think?) than it is right in the middle of a city that has helped make the USofA the great nation it is (was?) :eyes: