The budding faux-progressive counter-movement holds health care spending to be a massive boondoggle -- that patients are routinely
"overtreated." Now there is certainly evidence of treatment rendered that is not needed. Problem is the overtreatment critics have some problems coming up with a system that efficiently filters out the unnecessary treatment, instead suggesting clumsier schemes that would filter out the good with the bad. Kind of like "across the board" budget cuts that eliminate useful spending along with the other kind. As somebody with many recent adventures with the health care system, my bias is for them to do more rather than less. I could be wrong, or just paranoid, but stuff that isn't strictly necessary (or first best) seems less dangerous than foregoing something that is necessary, or best. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Gar Lipow > Sent: 06/25/08 04:28 pm > To: Progressive Economics > Subject: [Pen-l] personal stories from our broken health care system - ER > > Two friends of friends both had the back luck suffer serious injuries > in separate incidents. One went to the ER, was told he was unharmed > but sent to follow up with his doctor - who discovered he had a broken > neck (obviously must have been a hairline fracture since he was > walking around). The ER did not even given him pain pills. > > The second happened to a woman who was sent to the ER in an ambulance > unable to move. A triage nurse examined her, told she was fine, just > being a big baby ordered her to leave. The fof could not get up, and > finally a doctor was called in - who discovered she had a broken > back. > > > Oh a third case. A friend suffers extreme migraines, bad enough that a > pain management specialist made arrangements for her to be able to go > to an ER and receive intramuscular dialud. (Can't be > self-administered.) He had his orders backed up by a doctor on the ER > staff, filed permanently. > > Her experience: a lot of the time the ER would refuse to administer > the dialud, insisting on trying other treatments the pain specialist > had already tried with her which did not work. In others they would > insist on starting with a lower dose than the prescription "just to > see if that does the trick". She was a black woman you see, and the ER > staff just assumed that there was a good chance a black woman getting > strong pain meds was a junkie trying to scam the system. Doctors > prescriptions: maybe she had conned the doctors. Maybe the doctors > were acting as Dr. Feelgoods. But leaving someone in excruciating > agony that measured on official pain scales as a multiple of > childbirth pain was worthwhile, cause they weren't 100% sure that she > was not a junkie. Racism, sexism and war on some drugs combine to > torment a really nice woman. > > We desperately need single payer. Without it we are unlikely to fix > any of the systemic problem. But finance and administration are not > the only level at which our health care system is broken. Once single > payer is in place, we have a hell of a lot of other messes to tackle. > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l >
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