There was a touching story on the front page of the local section of Bend’s Only Daily Newspaper this morning – touching, but also disgusting and infuriating.
The story told how there’s been an outpouring of sympathy and cash for Lisa Collins, a 44-year-old single mom who needs treatment for colon cancer. She can get treatment for free through Volunteers in Medicine – a wonderful organization, BTW – but Bend Memorial Clinic wouldn’t treat her until she paid $900 she owed for treatment of her daughters.
It’s a touching story because of the way local people have rallied around one of their neighbors in need.
It’s disgusting and infuriating because they had to.
In this, the richest (by some measures) and greatest (again, by some measures) nation on Earth, thousands of people every day are unable to get essential health care that they can get for free, or for very little, in virtually any other developed country in the world. Unless they’re lucky enough to get their story in the newspaper or on TV and arouse public sympathy (being a cute kid or a single mom helps) they’re screwed.
Personal example: The Eye recently underwent some fairly minor surgery. After the surgery there were some fairly minor complications. It was The Eye’s first real hands-on contact in many years with the American medical system, and it induced severe sticker shock.
The tab for the surgery (about a two-hour procedure done on an outpatient basis) was over $12,000. More than $200 for a single office visit (about 10 minutes) with a physician. In the neighborhood of $700 for a CT scan. And on and on and on.
The Eye is very fortunate to be able to afford health insurance, which basically covers about 80% of these costs (after a $5,000 deductible is met). The Eye also is fortunate to have a pretty decent family income and a few bucks in the bank. But those bills still will pinch our budget.
So how the hell could an average working American family living from paycheck to paycheck cover even 20% of such costs, assuming it had health insurance – which 47 million Americans, or almost 16% of the population, does not, according to the Census Bureau?
This, my friends, is an outrage and a national disgrace. And don’t tell me we can’t afford to do anything about it. As long as we keep shoveling $10 billion a month down a rat hole in Iraq and throwing away more billions on absurdities like the non-functional “missile defense shield,” I don’t want to hear anybody whining that we can’t afford to fix health care.
Also, while we’re thinking about affordability, maybe we need to look at the whole health care delivery system in this country. Does a private, for-profit system produce the greatest good for the greatest number – or just enrich insurance companies and health care providers at the expense of consumers? Does every doctor in America need to have a seven-figure income? Does every medical practice need an office building that rivals the Palace of Versailles in splendor?
Just something to think about the next time you’re in a doctor’s waiting room or sweating about how you’re going to pay your medical bills.
This article appears in Nov 6-12, 2008.
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Interesting…..why just limit doctors incomes?? Why dont you embark on a strategic crusade to set strict income limits on ALL professions? Those damn ODOT employees make WAY too much dough for what we recieve in return. And don’t forget the friggin attorneys making bank….BTW, while were at it,let’s restrict what print advertising should cap out at. better yet, let’s just cut to the chase and provide every working age adult with exactly the same wage….regardless of education or expertise…..yeah that should do it. Can you say Soviet Union boys and girls? Neurosurgeons and plumbers both making 300 bucks a month
lucifer: I could argue that health care is a special case because it is, at least in some cases, literally a matter of life and death. Other countries have adopted socialized medicine without socializing every other profession and occupation. Or there’s the Canadian model, where you have publicly funded insurance plans with private providers (“single-payer” model). I’m not saying which model would work best for the US; I don’t know. But I know that the system we have now sucks, and that yelling “SOCIALISM!” any time anybody suggests changing it is not going to solve the problem.
(BTW the same cry of “SOCIALISM!” was raised when Medicare was enacted, but I think few Americans today would say it was a bad idea.)
Lucifer, I got a better idea. Why don’t we take a really simplistic view of how economies work and put health care into the same category with media, government workers, and lawyers. Then we can pretend that these are all professions that function on the same life or death necessity. In that way we won’t have to point out that the entire concept of the health insurance company functions under the very lucrative and profitable model that ultimately you will not be in a position to deny (or negotiate for that matter) the use of their services. Not so with the law or ODOT or any other profession. It’s long past time to regulate the shit out of the insurance industry. Hopefully there will finally be some political will to do so. Can you say 21st century?
Here’s kind of an interesting article about the difference between salaries for Canadian physicians and American ones:
“According to a 2001 Canadian census, Canadian specialists make roughly $125,000 a year. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, specialists make about $228,000 a year. That $100,000 more isn’t always worth it.
“‘Based on a discussion with at least ten different American colleagues, I’ve established the idea that there is greater income in the U.S. is fallacious,’ says Dr. Barry Rubin, chief of vascular surgery with Toronto’s University Health Network. ‘There is huge competition for patients [in the US], a large amount of medical malpractice insurance, and a huge cost in running a private clinic.’
“The pros of running your own clinic do not necessarily match the cons, furthermore malpractice insurance can cost a practicing surgeon over $100,000 a year. Running your own private clinic also makes it difficult to hold additional research and administrative jobs, which greatly supplement a doctor’s income. ‘I have three full time jobs: I’m an administrator, I run a research lab and I run my vascular clinic. It’s therefore possible for me to make at least as much or more than an American doctor and in a much more stable environment,’ says Dr. Rubin.”
More: http://media.www.mcgilltribune.com/media/storage/paper234/news/2007/10/16/Features/Scalpels.And.Salaries.Where.Do.Doctors.Cash.In.The.Most-3033668.shtml
Ever since I opened up an HSA ( Health Savings Account) which I am responsible for keeping track of payments to dr’s, paying my meds because my deductible is so high it’s raised some hairs on the back of my neck. I tell you, I wished I had done this years ago, I question charges a lot more and ask about charges up front. In my daughters pediatricians office, they wanted to give my daughter an inhaler treatment when we were directly leaving for the pharmacy to get her inhalers (she was not in immediate need of a breathing apparatus) they just wanted to see if it would help. I asked the nurse to find out what the charge would be for the in house breathing treatment. She said she didn’t know and would find out, never heard back, they brought the tx machine in. I was charged $80 for the treatment. I question charges and often times now will get a reduced rate because they know I pay cash, but many people don’t know they can ask questions, buy generic, have treatments taken off, etc. There does have to be some regulation for the blatantly gross markup in human medicine. BTW, the breathing treatment in another office…$15 Before you all harp on what a physician makes, take a look at the hospitals? I want my doc to thrive. I have been looking into getting a hysterectomy, and yes shopping around for the best physician…the procedure Im finding might run between 3000.-7500 for the physicians fee but the hospital is some gross amount of 12,500 of which I have to pay 20% of, some up front. Its a shame.
Speaking of medical facilities, has anybody been inside the new orthopedic center at St. Charles? They have a WATERFALL and a STREAM running through the lobby, fer crap’s sake! Was this really necessary? Whom does it benefit? Does it have anything to do with delivering quality medical care? Who is paying for it? (If you can’t answer that last question I’ll give you a hint: It’s somebody very, very close to you personally.)
Speaking of our wonderful medical profession, I spotted this in today’s NY Times on line:
“An influential psychiatrist who served as the host of public radioรข โขs popular รข The Infinite Mindรข ย program earned at least $1.3 million between 2000 and 2007 giving marketing lectures for drug makers, income not mentioned on the program.
The psychiatrist and radio host, Dr. Frederick K. Goodwin, is the latest in a series of doctors and researchers whose ties to drug makers have been uncovered by Senator Charles E. Grassley, a Republican from Iowa. Dr. Goodwin, a former director of the National Institute of Mental Health, is the first media figure investigated.
Dr. Goodwinรข โขs radio programs have often touched on subjects important to the commercial interests of the companies for which he consults. In a program broadcast on Sept. 20, 2005, Dr. Goodwin warned that children with bipolar disorder who are left untreated could suffer brain damage, a controversial view. รข But as weรข โขll be hearing today,รข ย Dr. Goodwin reassured his audience, รข modern treatments รข ” mood stabilizers in particular รข ” have been proven both safe and effective in bipolar children.รข ย
That very day, GlaxoSmithKline paid Dr. Goodwin $2,500 to give a promotional lecture for its mood stabilizer drug, Lamictal, at the Ritz Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, Fla. Indeed, Glaxo paid Dr. Goodwin more than $329,000 that year for promoting Lamictal, records given Congressional investigators show.”
Dr. Goodwin is far from the only such case, although he may be the most conspicuous. Doctors all over the country are on the take from pharmaceutical companies to push their drugs, viz. the current mania to get everyone taking statins even if their cholesterol is well within healthy limits.
We tend to have an image of doctors as saintly, selfless individuals dedicated only to their patients’ health and well-being. We need to get over it. Doctors are no better or worse than the run of humanity when it comes to being greedy, corrupt, lazy, incompetent, etc.