The Crisis in American Medicine

[stevedeshazer]

Harper's magazine, October 1960.

I got this in an email from my Congressman, Earl Blumenauer D-OR.

Link here: http://www.earlblumenauer.com/health-care/crisis-in-american-medicine/

I wish I could excerpt a couple of passages, but it's in PDF format.

It is definitely worth the read, long and detailed.

These are the section titles:

* Foreword
* The Politics of Medicine
* The Decline of the Healing Art
* The Patient's Right to Die
* Do You Really Want a Family Doctor?
* A Doctor Prescribes for His Profession
* Medical Research: Choked by Dollars
* Tomorrow's Hospitals
* Beyond Traditional Medicine


Forty-nine years later and we're still having the same silly argument.

Hell, even Harry Truman recognized the problem and tried to solve it.

Anyway, thanks to Congressman Earl Blumenauer for the link and for recognizing the problem, too.

Spread it around.

[napi21]

1. The diff now is that the dramatic rise in cost to everyone has refocused

our attention on all these issues. In the 80's businesses were just beginning to charge employees for a portion of their HC. My husband had a quad bypass in 1992 and other than the copay of $20 to his GP & $25 to his heart surgeon, there was NO ADDITIONAL COST to us for anything! He had his surgery, was in the hospital for 5 days, and when we walked out, all we got was big smiles and well wishes from the hosp. staff...NO BILLS AT ALL! Try that one today!

It really ticks me off when I hear about 80% of Americans are satisfied with their HC! My guess is that the majority of that 80% have not had to really USE their HC either!!!! I was always happy with mine too UNTIL I BROKE MY ANKLE 2 YEARS AGO! I had what I thought was great HC coverage, but I ended up with copays of $2,500 when I added up all the different bills and that did not even include the meds & the wheelchair I rented for 6 weeks. Our annual income was $24,000 and I didn't HAVE $2,500 laying around to pay those copays. That 80/20 coverage is very deceiving folks! When you hear the ins is going to pay 80% of the bill, it sounds goo...UNTIL you find out what the total bill is! 20% of $15,000 is $3,000!!!!!!

[stevedeshazer]

2. I hear ya.

Thanks for your personal example.

When hospitals were not-for-profit compared to the ripoff that racket is today, it's not even close.

We desperately need universal single-payer health care.

[davsand]

3. There IS no such thing as a "not-for-profit" hospital these days.

They may claim they are "not-for-profit" but the billing is every bit as high as it is in the "for-profit" hospitals. About the only thing that makes them "not-for-profit" is the paperwork they filed with the IRS at some point in time.

YMMV but that is what I have observed.


Laura

[stevedeshazer]

4. That's what I'm saying

:)