Access to Healthcare is a US Problem, Too
Dr. Chris Stout
LinkedIn Top Voice | Best Selling Author | Adventurer | Startup Whisperer | (Accidental) Humanitarian | APA's "Rockstar" Psychologist | éminence Grise
My last post was on World Health Day and in it I discussed what generally comes to mind when thinking about global health issues (i.e., poor health outcomes in resource limited areas, preventable diseases not being prevented, etc.). But I closed noting that we may tend to think of healthcare issues to be more so an international problem, but that’s not really the case.
Long before my involvement in global health matters, I was involved in various flavors of failed healthcare reform dating back to the early 1990s and Hillary Clinton’s plans. Before that, as an undergrad, I minored in Medical Sociology. And while most of my day-jobs have somehow been in the applied side of medicine or healthcare service provision for near 30 years, I have worked to be an amateur wonk on the topic. So, in the spirit of opining about what’s what, I’ll now use this LinkedIn venue.
In my World Health Day piece, I noted the horrible numbers of preventable deaths in the developing world. But it’s striking to me in a jingoistic way that approximately 45,000 people die from preventable deaths in the United States annually. That’s a rate of about one every 12 minutes. How come? According to a study by Harvard Medical School it is due to not having health insurance and thus not getting adequate healthcare. That study was published in 2009 and it is no coincidence that that was about the time the growing public ground-swell for reform was (dare I say?) reaching a fever pitch.
This was preceded by the pretty unbiased and highly respected Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) publication Hidden Costs, Value Lost: Uninsurance In America. As a former long-term Board of Health member, I already knew that the uninsured use the local hospital’s Emergency Department as their de facto primary care provider, if care was sought out at all. By the IOM’s math over a decade ago, it cost about $98.9 billion annually to provide care for the uninsured—including $35 billion that the hospitals and healthcare providers had to absorb as totally non-reimbursed care.
Looks like the need for humanitarian medical services can be way closer than generally thought.
Prior to the advent of the Affordable Care Act you may actually have insurance at a new employer, BUT your pre-existing medical condition may NOT be covered under your new employer's plan. Had you not changed jobs you'd still have been covered. Perfectly legal for the new insurer to deny you, but not right. Not right at all. There ought to be a law. Well now there is.
We're Number, er… 46…?
Pick a ranking, any ranking. I trust the IOM and they said the US healthcare system ranked last or near last in many of the areas canvassed out of the 17 countries evaluated. I'm a big Bloomberg fan, daily user, and subscriber. In their ranking analysis of countries having the most efficient healthcare, we were 46, right after Iran, and even further behind Libya and Cuba.
How come? According to an op-ed in the New York Times by Nicholas Kristof, “The reason is simple: While some Americans get superb care, tens of millions without insurance get marginal care. That’s one reason life expectancy is relatively low in America, and child mortality is twice as high as in some European countries. Now that’s a scandal.”
I know there will be many political spins when it comes to looking back 5 to 10 years from now as to how the Affordable Care Act has made whatever kind of difference. I know it will not be a panacea for all the ills we face, but I cannot for the life of me not believe that it will help save lives that otherwise would have been lost. As Mother Theresa once said, if you cannot save a hundred lives, then save just one….
(NOTE: Thanks to Gracie Wang for her research help in this piece!)
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Sr. Vice President of the F.C. Tucker Company residential division. An impressive career spanning from 1994. Chris has a keen knack for excellent negotiation and top level customer service!
10 年Excellent, excellent article. Eye opening and very thought provoking. Thank you for shaing....
Owner
10 年Sad but true:(( I'm not sure if it will ever actually be able to HELP us :(
Retired Behavioral Health nurse Farming
10 年When I started as a nurse MD visits were $20 and the family practice Dr did everything from small surgeries to delivering babies to admitting patients to the hospital. My last MD visit was billed at $286 dollars and the MD never even touched me- he spoke with me for 5 minutes. I have quit nursing because all the healthcare companies I worked for wanted nothing more than government documentation and my signature to comply enough for reimbursement. I became clinically depressed due to the farce of medical care and the continuous pressure to LIE in documentation brought about by pressure to produce- not to care for people- just document. I also went through cancer and knee surgery. I had to refinance my home to borrow 30,000 to support my family while I was ill. I watched the hospitalist at a hospital kill my father by moving him out of ICU when he was in critical shape to a small room on a medical floor saying he wasn't ill enough for ICU. He coded just a few hours later. Then they moved him to ICU. After that they did surgery for a trach and G tube so they could get him out of their hospital before he died. I can't change it but I can't face it anymore either. Now even though I have wonderful free insurance from my husbands retirement I am being placed on Medicare and will have to pay $350 a month out of my small social security check for worse insurance. I go to the MD 4x yearly. The Medicare dept. said I would be sued for all of the disability they have paid me and dropped from social security if I refused medicare. Don't tell me this system is not broke- The government has sold us out to the insurance lobbyists and the hospitals. I dare not try to work as a nurse because I would assault the first hospitalist who killed someone to save the hospital money.
Therapist in private practice
10 年I am insured through my employer, but I think three times before I go to the doctor because the deductible and co-insurance usually leave me paying the negotiated insurance rate out of pocket. It is really just a discount plan for me. The limiting of the FSA to only $1,750 for a family is not helpful either with a deductible of $2,500 per person, per year. I would be better off if my company did not offer insurance to family members so I could cover my husband and daughter under another plan.