Heathcare Realities

Where to begin ...

Given where we are with the government health care takeover, I felt like I needed to share a real world experience; to provoke some thought.

Dedicated Service
An older man started to feel different early in 2009. So, he went to the doctor to find out what was going on. His doctor started to run tests. After a number of months, the man had a massive heart attack and died. He was on Medicare. And, after his death, his family started to investigate the medical treatment he was receiving; trying to understand how a seemingly healthy individual, who was going to the doctor regularly, could just up and die. This can be summed up by a text message from the man to his son, which reads "Have not heard anything on my tests. I am taking no news as good news." Two weeks later, he collapsed in his kitchen.

Here's the thing: this gentleman was a model citizen. He was active for more than 50 years in a number of service organizations. I dare say that this individual did more things for more people than the average Congressman or Senator; and, he did it for far less compensation. After all of this, his reward was the simple epitaph: "A Life of Dedicated Service". Actually, this is not completely true. He served as an International Director for the Lions. He was a very well respected Mason. This individual was extremely well known. And, he was very well liked. He was very much loved by his wife, children and grand children. But, he still had things that he wanted to do. He missed his grandson's wedding. He missed a long anticipated family trip to Hawaii. He did not have to die. He should not have died.

Imagine what would have happened if this gentleman's medical treatment had been more prompt. But, that is what you get with Medicare: you have to wait your turn. Essentially, there are so many people in the system, the care has to be rationed. And, sometimes people will die. These appear to be acceptable losses. Except, I don't think this gentleman's family considers this an acceptable loss. Would you? I thought the purpose of universal health care was to actually provide health care. What good is poor quality health care? Imagine what will happen when everyone is on this kind of system? Don't think that will happen? Read on ...

No Vacancy
A family is in Hawaii on vacation. No, they were not invited to have dinner with either Rush or Obama. I digress. One of the family members started to cough the day after arriving. After three days, the cough became more serious. So, being concerned about pneumonia, the family tired to make an appointment with a doctor. No such luck. All the doctors were "full" (not taking new patients).

Stop and think about this. In this case, the doctors have just decided that they are not going to treat anyone, that was not already a patient. Thus, forcing everyone else to go to the single emergency room, at the single hospital within miles. Can you imagine? Only a short time after losing his father, a man is now trying to get his wife's obvious respiratory illness treated. And, this man cannot find a doctor to treat his wife!

What now! In an already crowded health care system, doctors are choosing to limit the patients they will treat. Its a simple matter of supply and demand. If doctors are leaving the system, then there will be less doctors to treat more patients. And, as we have seen from the first real world experience, this kind of thing will have unhappy results.

Reality Check
While waiting in the emergency room, a man is lamenting the lack of medical treatment options for his wife. After pointing out the supply and demand issue regarding doctors, the man is accosted by a liberal family member; the liberal family member exclaiming "the system was broken, and we had to do something". Sound familiar?