This is what happens when we allow the government to intrude where it does not belong. Government has been trying to socialize medicine for years, probably since the onset of Medicare/Medicaid, and at first the system as it existed could absorb the increased cost and red-tape that necessarily resulted. I think we are beyond the point of no return now, though.
Medicine is being forced to be responsible for what are no longer medical problems but societal ones. Bleeding-heart liberals declared ‘insane asylums’ cruel and abusive to those who could not function in society. Instead of finding a way to make them effective and humane, they closed them down, forcing these homeless, non-functional, addicted souls onto the streets, which somehow to the liberals seems more humane, because at least these people have their ‘freedom’. These people then end up in emergency rooms throughout the country, where hospitals/medicine are expected to deal with them because society doesn’t want to.
Drunks are brought by ambulance to the ER because they were found sleeping on the street and the police don’t want the work and liability associated with them. Once there, they have to be monitored and literally ‘policed’ by hospital staff who should be taking care of sick people for fear that they will fall in the hospital, or leave and fall outside, opening the hospital up to all manner of liabilities. Of course they don’t go to the county hospital down the block, because they have a ‘right’ to be brought to the private hospital. So when you bring grandma in to be seen for chest pain, she may get a stretcher next to the local drunk homeless schizophrenic. And who do you think pays for this?
In order to remedy the imaginary societal problem of ‘unequal access’ to private medical insurance and private medical care, state hospitals and clinics were declared ‘not good enough’ to take care of the uninsured and under-insured because much of the care was by residents and students from various teaching programs. Teaching hospitals across the country were unable to serve the people they set out to help because Federal regulations mandate that care by residents (who are licensed physicians, by the way) could no longer be performed without a staff physician holding their hands. This drastically reduces the number of patients that can be treated, so now patients get NO care instead of what some bureaucrat deemed was ‘not good enough’ care. Not to mention the effect it has on physician training and experience.
Dialysis, chemotherapy, AIDs drugs, etc. are provided at no cost to patients who continue to actively use drugs, miss clinic appointments, and end up back in the ER for even more expensive care because of their non-compliance. No ‘death panels’ for these patients, but bring them on for those who actually pay their bills.
All of this in the face of threats of lawsuits, loss of medicare/medicaid payments, and the dreaded ‘bad patient satisfaction report’. Is it any wonder that doctors who actually want to take care of patients are abandoning ship? Hospitals are holding on by abandoning the idea that patient care is the goal, and they still believe they can ‘game the system’ enough to stay in business, but I think their time is coming, too. There is no longer a way to win the game, they just haven’t figured that out yet.
If something drastic doesn’t happen soon to change things, there is going to be a complete breakdown of the health care system. That may actually be what has to happen before we can rebuild it as it should be again, completely independent of government interference. I’m not completely pessimistic, I do believe that will happen. It is just going to a very painful process, and unless it starts pretty soon, I don’t think I’ll be sticking around to participate.
Whew, that was a little more than my usual 2 cents. :)
O2
You said exactly what I said in a later post.