I am thrilled to be back communicating with my colleagues and fellow correspondents
after surviving a near terminal emergency illness resulting from a reaction to
a prescribed medication. Nine days in the Boca Raton Hospital plus further days of
convalescence have given me plenty of time to observe Obamacare in action and decide what about it I like or dislike.
My illness had a critical immediacy which made every decision about it a matter of TRIAGE (choices). An incorrect choice could have had fatal consequences. Because I had adequate health insurance the choices were all made objectively and I was made to survive!
I am now considering what the treatment and outcome would have been if I was uninsured with the same illness and there was no Obamacare.
Lets go through the triage in that situation:
1.The patient shows up at the E.R.--no insurance. The E.R. discovers he is critically ill and will require lengthy hospitalization, blood transfusions, expensive medications. Triage decision????
2. The patient requires immediate consult with a Cardiololgist, Renal specialist,
Gastroenterologist.They are called in, but ask if there is insurance. Told no,
they will "get around to it" when they "finish with their patients". When????
3. The hospital, under financial pressure begins to look for a place to dump the
patient!
4. The blood bank suddenly runs out of the blood type.
5. Do I need to go on?
By making health insurance mandatory none of that would happen, and the insured
population would not pay for the non-insured through higher insurance premiums.
More essays on the subject will be coming.
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7 comments:
I am so very happy you are well, Marty. I am so glad you had a great experience with the medical profession.
However, I don't agree with you that medical insurance ensures great care.
I have had insurance, and I don't have it now BY CHOICE. I find my care is better when I just pay for it myself and doctors love to see me coming. They get to practice actual medicine without regard to how, when, and if they will get paid. I pay at time of service. Easy. Cheaper. Better care.
<Kim, thanks for the feedback
If you are young and healthy your
illnesses are minor and cn be treated in office, most people with a rgar income can handle the expense. For older folks with more serious illess, requiring hospital care running in the thousands per day are overwhelmed. Marty
I admire your resiliency and your fortitude in spending nine days in the staphylococcus laden atmosphere of a hospital. I envy Kim's wealth and health that permit medical care without insurance.
I do not have a new Lexus in my driveway. Instead,it is implanted in my chest monitoring my heart until I has to be replaced by a new Cadillac.
Jacques
Marty,
I am also glad that you made it home with great hospital care. I wish that I could believe that if everyone had medical insurance that the type of care that you received would be available to all. In my delusion, perfection would be if everyone could be treated equally. Sadly, I don’t think this would be the case.
I admire your optimism for the human race and how we treat each other.
Best, Iris
Kim is right.
Several years ago I ran into a similar problem when I could no longer afford my insurance premiums and opted to drop my company-affiliated insurance to actually pay my monthly bills. One week later my daughter broker her wrist and I took her to an emergency room without insurance to pay the costs. I spent a total of $76 for all the treatment she received. I was also told at that time that had I been able to produce an insurance account the charge would be nine times higher.
Insurance is nothing more than an additional opportunity for overly wealthy executives to rape their clients without any restraint.
The medical sector is not to blame. The insurance sector has all the power given to them by our political system and that power will not be reduced unless our politos are willing to step forward and correct the several sins they or their predecessors have put in place over the past two or three decades.
Insurance only guaranties that fat cats will get fatter. The insured still loses.
If you really want good service from a Doctor, choose one with Concierge service. When needed he will show up quasi immediately provided you have paid his annual retainer fee of about $2,000 . Your insurance covers his regular visit fee.
So with about 500 patients the doctor gets a million dollars per year up front without having lifted a finger only maybe to play golf.
Jacques.
When in the hospital it is essential to have your wife to get that extra blanket when you need it, to check that you are getting the proper medication,to call immediately if the waves on the monitor become a flat line before the control station wakes up, to get you out back home through the hospital paper work .... So in addition to Obamacare we all need Mamacare.
Jacques
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