I work in a medical call center and the current US healthcare system is all kinds of bizarre .. in the US unions went to employers for healthcare; in the Europe the unions went to the gov't (back post-WWII) .. the Americans made the wrong call . .
PyronauticA said:
... some pertinent things about pharmaceutical companies, and then ...
I would also like to point out that people these days are so quick to go to the hospital for ANYTHING that they are digging their own grave when it comes to being able to pay for it. I talked to a woman on the phone the other day who had a headache and didn't want to take Tylenol, so she went to the emergency room just so she could get something stronger. Yeah, that was necessary. She turned a problem that could have been fixed with sleep or an over the counter drug for $7.00 into one that cost over $780. You do the math.
This "overuse of hospitals" meme is almost entirely a myth. I know many people who need (or likely need) medical attention to fix something. Most of them will - or already have - put off going to see a doctor until it becomes impossible to ignore their symptoms. At which point they require much more expensive, emergency care.
Most people - even those with adequate insurance - hate seeing a doctor, or going to the hospital (even to visit someone else.) With the exception of a couple of borderline-hypochondriac elderly women, I have never met a single person who sought medical attention when they didn't need it.
A different sort of mentality may be prevalent where you live, but in my experience, the problem is actually the reverse.
i haven't seen the movie and personally find moore's films to generally be over-sensationalized/ scripted to draw attention, good or bad. but at least in the geographic area i live in we see an obscene amount of misuse of the ER. this post is long enough without giving the 20 examples i've seen working in the er this week, but believe me it occurs.
and it is generally the uninsured OR medicaid clients who come in because they have a slight fever and vomited once, but haven't even taken a tylenol. then they complain about the wait to be seen because we are so busy. you're right it may just be a geographic thing. but at least in PA it frustrating as hell to have limited resources wasted on these morons.
i will say it seems to be a generational thing with most of these congenital idiots being under 30, older individuals very rarely come in, and sometimes as you stated not until it's too late due to fear of the costs.
being in the health care field i just have to say that unless we address the issues healthcare problems will get worse. but don't give up hope on some of the newer modifications such as PA's, NP's and free neonatal/preventative screening for mothers and children. it's a band aid on a bullet hole but at least it's some improvement.
SockPuppet
I'm lost
July 2006
JAN 12, 2008 05:20 PM