Utoo

What bullshit.

As a pediatrician, and as a doctor who has treated many people who use the emergency room as their primary care due to lack of funds to pay for true medical continuity, this has got to be the most asinine, head-up-the-ass notion I've ever seen.

Yes, anyone and everyone can go to an emergency room for care. You won't be turned away, and you don't even have to pay. However, this does not make you "insured, but with an alternate source of payment." What it means is that the hospital pays for the few hours that you're in the emergency room---but that's all. It means is that you may get one dose of a medicine in the ER, but you will not finish the treatment course because you can't pay for the drugs at a pharmacy once you leave the ER. It means that you will not have one doctor as your primary doctor, thus you will never have one health care provider who knows your full health history--knowledge that is crucial to provide adequate healthcare. It means that you won't have any doctor following up with how you're doing, because that is not what will be done should you try to follow up in the ER. Finally, it means that you will clog up emergency rooms with general, run-of-the-mill non-problems, detracting the staff from dealing with true emergencies (I can't tell you how many runny noses and constipated kids I've seen in the ER over the last three years).

The sad thing is that this is already the case---walk into any ER in the United States and you'll see this in action. But what in God's name does it do to label uninsured people using ER as primary care as "without payment" or "paid for by hospital" instead of plain old "uninsured???" It will amount to the same number of people with the same crippling problem--just a different name.

This "solution" is yet another example of a lack of knowledge about the true situation, and a lack of caring for the people involved.

__________________

anitram

I posted this on another thread and was just as outraged.

Our ERs are not meant to provide ongoing primary care. It isn't where you go to get an allergy test done or to schedule a mammogram or get a physical. It's simply absurd and more than that, it's really irresponsible to suggest that emergency rooms are a poor person's equivalent of a GP.

McCain really has some out of touch advisors out there but this guy may be right at the top of that "distinguished" pile.

BVS

How presidential...

__________________
my music

Music Facebook

^Apparently he did.

MyBloodySleeve

deep

All of the "so called" health plans are total and complete crap.

"Insured" are only good for one party.

The "Insurance Companies".


Insured people get denied healt services all the time.

They get "rationed" health service.

The get kicked out of their Insurance plan if they require too much.

Politicians that want everyone insured are just doing the bidding of the Insurance Companies.

phillyfan26

So, let's solve the crisis of over-flooded ERs and the crisis of millions uninsured by combining them. Makes sense. I mean, before we had two bad problems. Now we have one really bad problem, but it's still less problems.

That's good budgeting right there. And you all said he knew nothing about the economy!

anitram

Can you explain to me why there is such a huge # of American citizens who support this and go absolutely apeshit about Communism anytime universal healthcare is mentioned? I am not sure I have ever seen such a phenomenon of people en masse voting completely against their own self-interest.

deep

Delivering Health Services through Insurance Companies

is about as logical

giving a contract that requires all gasoline to be delivered by Haliburton.

that would really make gasoline more affordable.

U2isthebest

By and large, it's because a lot of us Americans are idiots and don't really understand anything about any of the issues facing us. We've got more important things to think about, like, who Paris Hilton is sleeping with this week. There's nothing wrong with a little celebrity gossip and entertainment, but when it comes at the expense of intellect, learning and studying the issues that face us, politics and current events, something needs to be done. A grand majority of Americans choose to believe whatever soundbites the fringe, paranoid pundits/commentators tell them rather than actually using their own mind. For the love of God, there was a woman my grandpa overheard in the grocery store last weekend who was saying Obama is a Muslim. People don't bother to learn what universal healthcare plans are being offered; they simply think "universal" means that everyone will have to have the exact same coverage and that the government will be too involved in their treatment in terms of what they'll be allowed to receive and what they won't. Of course, the Right, fails to remember they've been trying to do this to women for years.

ETA: I should clarify that I'm not referring to you, deep, with this answer. I was thinking more along the lines of the average American joe/jane who don't really become engaged in the world, and yet still think they can shoot off their mouths about political issues.

Harry Vest

As a Canadian citizen I have often wondered this myself. Although our Healthcare system is far from perfect it is SO MUCH BETTER for the lower and middle class of the country than the American system. It seems a large portion of your citizenary have been brainwashed with terms such as "communisim" and "socialist" that they cannot see that there is a better way of doing things. It's sad really.

anitram

What I think this very foolish man has missed out on is that while ERs have to provide emergent care by law (which is enforced how?), what are people supposed to do for routine procedures? Like getting an allergy test or scheduling a mammogram or getting a physical? In his world, I suppose they should just get sick first and then when they need immediate intervention, hey good news, they're technically insured.

Utoo

You touch on a very important point. This ideology seems to belittle the importance of preventative medicine---a problem with the way our system is driven in general.

__________________

UberBeaver

Right on. And I believe it was Teddy Roosevelt that said, "If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population." <--- Now THAT is a healthcare plan. Don't need insurance for that, do ya?

corianderstem

Oh, everyone has coverage? Great! I'll tell that to the next employee I talk to who calls me in tears, freaking out because they're losing their benefits because they didn't meet the quarterly requirements.

No worries! This dude says we all have coverage! Have a nice day!

__________________
(RAH)² (AH)³ + RO (MA + MAMA) + (GA)² + OOH(LA)²

Se7en

i am aware of hospitals that require patients to set up payment plans and/or provide a down payment for procedures before services are rendered.

when under or uninsured patients cannot pay, hospitals generally follow up with a collection agency. people can be driven into bankruptcy for using the emergency room.

i really do not understand how this is being "insured" whatsoever. yes you survive, but your life is potentially ruined if you cannot pay massively inflated hospital bills.

melon

Sounds like we should push for a bill to remove the full health insurance coverage that the three branches of government granted itself.

__________________

http://forum.xeidon.com