As Omicron peaks, the US healthcare system is left 'broken beyond repair'

[YorkRd]

Despite Covid hospitalizations trending downward, 80% of hospitals across the country are under ‘high or extreme stress’

Dr Brian Resler, an emergency physician in the San Francisco Bay Area, recently polled a group of doctors on an overnight shift about their jobs.
“Everyone of us said if we could go back, we would choose a different career,” said Resler, who spoke on the condition that the Guardian does not identify his hospital.


[link:https://apple.news/AZbM56LpsQx2VNmistNKnHA|

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Headlines like "broken beyond repair" are almost always wrong when discussing social issues. . . nt

[Meowmee]

2. It was already broken before the pandemic

Now it is a disaster. The people who treated my father on numerous occasions in er and hospital should have their licenses removed at the least. For one example, they tied up an 87 year old man ,drugged him on haldol and did a toxicology scan instead of doing a ct scan/ code bat, he was having a stroke while in their er. No ct scan for 15 hours with clear signs of stroke. Then they lied about it and tried to say it was an old stroke but the radiology proved it was acute.

[LittleGirl]

3. When will these doctors finally

Put their foot down and tell the government and the people that our healthcare system is not working! The insurance companies have too much say in how healthcare is distributed.

I just had a cancerous lump removed here in Switzerland and from diagnosis to treatment surgery was 2 weeks only because of Christmas. I spent two nights in the hospital and the total bill was 4200 bucks, so very affordable. My deductible is 500 per year. I consider that fee rather reasonable! The insurance I have covered everything. There was no calling for pre approval either.

Healthcare is the #1 reason we are staying abroad. Those US insurance companies can go to hell.

We are going to lose outstanding doctors, nurses and teachers unless something changes and now!

[IbogaProject]

4. Uh our health "system" has never worked

Over recent decades our country has become one if not the most unhealthy industrialized country. We were the most of 2nd most healthy back at the start of the 20th century. Our system wastes so much time and money with just the insurance part. And the only mandatory care being the emergency room have left us near the edge of collapse for decades.
I'm a type 1 diabetic, the consistent level of chaos in our ers, compared to Europe or Morocco is dramatic.
This is one of the big reasons we need universal care, to reduce ER usage to mostly only true emergencies. We need reserve ER capacity. We need less health care delay. We need a total list of health care outcomes so we can see what works, and what is worth the price. We need to do some of our own clinical trials as a extraparallel double check on big pharma.

[RobinA]

6. The ER Situation

way predates COVID and has been exacerbated by COVID. It needs to be fixed. I'm not sure what universal healthcare would do for that. Insurance needs to fix hospital reimbursement so they can maintain a functioning ER through normal daily ebbs and flows of need. Obviously you can't staff an ER to handle a mass casualty event at all times without batting an eye, but your average ER is lucky if it can handle a slow day. I think there needs to be some thinking outside the box when it comes to ERs.

[Demsrule86]

5. That is a ridiculous headline...all opinion.

[Phoenix61]

7. The problem is it's not a system. It's an illness treatment industry.

where success is based on profit. We need a health care system where success is based on the health of the population it serves.

[YorkRd]

8. The supply and demand situation for healthcare workers is out of whack.

Healthcare workers want to leave their jobs in masse and there is are short term replacements.

[haele]

10. There's also an entrenched attitude to medical education as an exclusive club

rather than a national service. The AMA and medical colleges have done the medical profession no favors, by making it so damn expensive to get through medical school and leaving new doctors, nurses, and medical specialists with 10 year student loan debt equivalent to a mortgage in California. And internship is brutal.
Medical school should be subsidized, just like pharmaceutical companies developing new drugs using research from state universities do...

But the biggest problem with health care in the US is that it's been treated like a profit generating commodity rather than a profession and a service.
And no one likes to talk about that because one would have to admit that profit and status has always been and still is always more important than people in this country. We were "founded" by European investors and bankers, and used as a dumping ground for the "extra heirs", undesirables and criminals to be discarded from "more civilized" nations and states. These people were used to extract wealth from North America for those investors, who didn't really care who lived or died so long as they made a profit.

Haele

[MissMillie]

9. I keep wondering about future health issues of survivors

and what THAT is going to do to the system.

My guess is that despite surviving the disease, their nightmare is not over. Permanent organ damage may end up bankrupting a lot of people.

[YorkRd]

11. Anecdotal evidence many healthcare workers calling suicide hotlines