I Watched My Patients Die of Treatable Diseases Because They Were Poor

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/i-watched-my-patients-die-treatable-diseases-because-they-were-poor

The first patient who called me “doctor” died a few winters ago. I met him at the St. Vincent’s Student-Run Free Clinic on Galveston Island. I was a first-year medical student then, and the disease in his body baffled me. His belly was swollen, his eyes were yellow and his blood tests were all awry. It hurt when he swallowed and his urine stank.

I saw him every Thursday afternoon. I would do a physical exam, talk to him, and consult with the doctor. We ran blood counts and wrote a prescription for an antacid—not the best medication, but one you can get for $4 a month. His disease seemed serious, but we couldn’t diagnose him at the free clinic because the tests needed to do so—a CT scan, a biopsy of the liver, a test to look for cancer cells in the fluid in his belly—are beyond our financial reach.

He started calling me “Dr. Rachel.” When his pain got so bad that he couldn’t eat, we decided to send him to the emergency room. It was not an easy decision.

There’s a popular myth that the uninsured—in Texas, that’s 25 percent of us—can always get medical care through emergency rooms. Ted Cruz has argued that it is “much cheaper to provide emergency care than it is to expand Medicaid,” and Rick Perry has claimed that Texans prefer the ER system. The myth is based on a 1986 federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which states that hospitals with emergency rooms have to accept and stabilize patients who are in labor or who have an acute medical condition that threatens life or limb. That word “stabilize” is key: Hospital ERs don’t have to treat you. They just have to patch you up to the point where you’re not actively dying. Also, hospitals charge for ER care, and usually send patients to collections when they cannot pay.

[djean111]

1. The entire article is heartbreaking.

And effectively (but most likely a futile effort) illustrates why the assholes who glibly assert that people can just go to emergency rooms and get free health care need to STFU. Well, STFU and stop blandly denying the poor life-saving health care. Maybe try out the ER themselves.

[Laelth]

2. k&r for the truth, however depressing it may be. n/t

-Laelth

[LuvNewcastle]

3. I wish we had a way to punish those states that don't take the

federal funding for Medicaid. Those politicians like Rick Perry make me want to vomit. He's supposed to be this big Christian, but there's nothing godly about that man. He and the others like him have a lot of blood on their hands. They all belong in prison, not in positions of power and respect. Vile people, all of them.

[Scuba]

7. Another "Christian" ...

[LuvNewcastle]

8. We have some terrible Christians all over our government.

In fact, the more they talk about their faith, the more likely it is that they don't give a fuck about anybody but the rich.

[Scuba]

10. Yep, punch that Bible, then punch a hippie.

[intaglio]

4. kick and rec n/t

[Major Nikon]

5. 45,000 people die each year due to lack of health insurance

People who want to throw rocks at ACA need to realize that. I'd love to have single payer and universal coverage. I'd even throw support behind socializing the provider side of the system as well. However the reality is Obama is making a difference in the 45,000 number when nobody at the federal level has. The idea that we allow people to die horrible deaths from treatable conditions is unconscionable and it shouldn't have to happen to a loved one before people wake up and realize what is going on.

[Phentex]

9. It's mind boggling...

one of the charts showed how many people in GA are uninsured and I can't help but wonder WTF people are thinking? (Like our dumbass governor). WHY are these numbers acceptable to anyone??????

[brer cat]

12. Deal is a total a##hole, but then you knew that.

WHY is a very good question. I see very little push-back against our "leadership" and it is distressing. I am afraid that too many of our fellow citizens live inside the FOX bubble and have no clue what is happening. Are the rest of us waiting for someone to get us organized? It seems to me that we could get a broad coalition of people calling for Deal's head on platter...even many R's understand that the lack of medicaid expansion is a killer not only for the people being denied care, but also the hospital emergency rooms who will wind up having to treat uninsured with no chance of repayment.

We need to get control of the message. Deal is the problem, not Obamacare.

[zipplewrath]

13. They will still die

Yes, the 45000 number will be reduced. But it isn't really clear by how much. They still die in Mass. There will still be medical bankruptcies. We will still "allow people to die horrible deaths from treatable conditions". Which is why many are so upset that the ACA didn't go nearly far enough.

[azurnoir]

6. That this happens in the US is a national shame

that there are those who vote for this sh^t is even worse

[Enthusiast]

11. This is your health care status quo.

It is indefensible.

It is a crisis.

[Ilsa]

14. Every family that has to bury

a loved one prematurely because of inability to pay needs to publicize that information. Every nurse that has to "street" an uninsured, dying patient out of ER because her (his) employer discharged them needs to write a letter to the editor. Momentum needs to be gained. Everyone needs to be talking about this.

[marble falls]

15. You always seem to find good stuff and this is one ofthe best. Thanks for posting it.

[City Lights]

16. Disgraceful.

Thanks for posting, xchrom.

[myrna minx]

17. .

[PETRUS]

18. K&R

[Dustlawyer]

19. I have a brother that was turned away from UTMB for his pancreatitis. He finally got on

Medicaid. He racked up so many ER bills it was laughable, but what he really needed was treatment and surgery.
When UTMB was a charity hospital, people did drive 100 plus miles to Galveston. Everyone knew that was the closest hospital for treatment if you did not have insurance. The Catholic and Baptist hospitals in Beaumont, Tx., would only provide emergency care and looked for any excuse to turn my brother away. I get upset when I hear about "good Christian values" because those "values" don't extend very far at all when it comes to admitting an indigent sick person, giving them a bed and cancer treatment or surgery.
Everyday, across this once great land, people are dying of cancer and lack of surgery because they have no insurance. Fundraisers just don't cover it. My paralegal's husband has insurance, but his liver transplant and subsequent complications have kept him in ICU for the last 67 days. Their bills are over 2 MILLION DOLLARS and she is worried about the co-pays, the parts not covered by insurance etc. They will probably still have to file bankruptcy because he cannot work any longer and now they have all of the extra bills. She has used up her sick leave and needs to stay with him still. She is torn on what to do. Hopefully our employer will help her out, but it should have to be this way!

[Ilsa]

24. Those religious "nonprofit" hospitals really rack it up

in income from what I've seen in the past. And yet they turn their backs on the neediest.

[mountain grammy]

20. But, but, all those waiting lines and horror stories from Canada and FREEDOM!

This story will make you cry and it's common in America. I first read this in the "Texas Observer," a publication that proves there are still thinking people in Texas.

We must get past the hysterical right wing message and spread this story and others like it far and wide. I had a "discussion" with a person last evening about a mutual friend who died two years ago because she had no money and minimal access to health care. She got her Medicare card just in time to pay for her last week in a coma.
The other person told me our friend took good care of herself and didn't need the medicines. Ha, bullshit! Her medicines were controlling her health issues. Then I was told her prescriptions were only $4. More bullshit. I paid for two of them more than once and they were over $100. The last few months of her life, she told me she had her prescriptions. She lied because her doctors wouldn't refill without seeing her and she didn't want to go back to the clinic because she owed them money, which I discovered when I took her to the emergency clinic with symptoms of stroke. Her blood pressure was 212/120, I'll never forget that! The clerk came in with paperwork and her past unpaid bill and I gave her Pat's brand new Medicare card. Up until then, I was sure they were going to send her home to die. Instead, they did some tests and flew her to Denver. A doctor told me " a few weeks sooner, and she probably could have been successfully treated.

Fuck Republicans and their false "freedoms." It's the "freedom" to die in poverty.

[WillyT]

21. K & R !!!

[Mr Dixon]

22. SMH

Now that is a heart breaking story, this country can do better. At this point our society treats people like live stock, if you’re sick and can’t pay please suffer in silence, like a race horse with a broken leg if you can’t run what use are you to me? People should not be treated this way, Perry kicking back ACA funds for political reasons is shameful.

[colsohlibgal]

23. Good Old American Exceptionalism

It's just us, among civilized industrialized countries, who allow for profit health care. I cringe when I hear people say we have the best health care in the world. We may, but only if you can pay through the nose so some CEO can make 8 million a year. Also, our system is often not fair to the doctors either.

[Egalitarian Thug]

25. Not fair at all. Insurance companies are equal-opportunity parasites, they bleed everybody. n/t