According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), for the first time in 25 years there was an actual drop in overall life expectancy in the US, calculated in the year 2008 (since the data take some time to calculate, the CDC usually puts things out a couple of years after the fact, and 2008 is the most recent year for which data were released). This is not very good news. The bright spots were infant mortality and death from stroke.
This stands as an indictment of our health care system as well as what we do as a society to prevent illness and promote wellness. We can only hope that more Americans will be adequately insured and receive more appropriate health care in the future, and that our health care system will turn more towards prevention, where its bang is likely to be much bigger for the buck.
Showing posts with label access to care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label access to care. Show all posts
Friday, December 10, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Medicare: Much Better than Nothing
One of my pro bono patients is about to get Medicare. I am breathing a sigh of relief because this uninsured man with a history of heart problems including valve surgery, a rhythm disturbance known as atrial fibrillation, who often needs dangerous anti-clotting medicines such as coumadin, and who has some serious gastrointestinal problems as well, is finally going to have access to a primary care doctor, a cardiologist, a gastroenterologist etc.
I am so amazed by the beliefs some Americans (Tea Party, anyone?) appear to have that the uninsured have access to health care. What planet do these people live on? Here in the San Francisco Bay Peninsula area, we have a safety net hospital, Valley Medical Center, which is the only place which will see uninsured patients. When this man needed to be seen by a cardiologist immediately and needed a cardioversion procedure (where a device is used to deliver an electrical shock to try to convert the heart from an abnormal to a normal rhythm), Valley was so oversubscribed that it took several months to get the procedure done and several months to get an appointment with a cardiologist.
Why not just put everyone on Medicare? It would cost the taxpayers less in the long run, since when gentlemen like this one cannot afford care and cannot get appointments, they end up in emergency rooms, which is much more expensive, and happened to this man twice in the last several months.
I am so amazed by the beliefs some Americans (Tea Party, anyone?) appear to have that the uninsured have access to health care. What planet do these people live on? Here in the San Francisco Bay Peninsula area, we have a safety net hospital, Valley Medical Center, which is the only place which will see uninsured patients. When this man needed to be seen by a cardiologist immediately and needed a cardioversion procedure (where a device is used to deliver an electrical shock to try to convert the heart from an abnormal to a normal rhythm), Valley was so oversubscribed that it took several months to get the procedure done and several months to get an appointment with a cardiologist.
Why not just put everyone on Medicare? It would cost the taxpayers less in the long run, since when gentlemen like this one cannot afford care and cannot get appointments, they end up in emergency rooms, which is much more expensive, and happened to this man twice in the last several months.
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