When Patients Own the System: A Progressively Financed, Single Standard of Care for All

[marmar]

Published on Sunday, March 14, 2010 by CommonDreams.org

When Patients Own the System
A Progressively Financed, Single Standard of Care for All

by Donna Smith


The national legislative healthcare fix that may be passed by the 111th Congress and then signed by President Obama will do little to relieve the stresses felt by most patients in this country. The steady decline most of us have seen in the kind of quality medical services we need is not likely to be mitigated. Insurance companies will grow ever stronger and more deeply ensconced, and the patient voice will fade more quickly from prominence than it has in recent years.

Patients have been props in this discussion. Patients are widgets in an economic system. Patients are an annoyance to insurance companies who worry about the medical losses (claims) as a loss of profit and often even to providers who must carefully screen patients to make sure they come with profit potential via their insurance coverage or very deep pockets full of cash for payment. Pesky patients.

And nothing - nothing - in the current legislation disrupts this process from deepening.

The results are mind boggling and devoid of any ethical grounding which would lead anyone to believe that healthcare is a human right in America.

I know scores of patients - people who need medical care - who tell me about their personal journeys. They are often shuffled from provider to provider getting whatever medical tests or procedures are approved by their insurance companies while not receiving even one stitch of treatment or relief for the issue that brought them to seek care. The money flows; the patient is not treated. Maybe a pill. Maybe. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/03/14-0

[nightrain]

1. knr. Sometimes it really takes brave nurses to speak the truth!

[azul]

2. The people are paying enough, they should at least own this turkey.

Nationalize the insurance corporations, then re-train the redundant workers to be nurses.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Kudos to NURSES!!!!!

[Doctor_J]

4. If Big Media didn't work for the Repukes, "government takeover"

would have correctly been called "people-run health care"

[seabeckind]

5. Perhaps we should forward it to the "enemy of the good" people n/t

[midnight]

6. It is so sad to know that this was the best our elected officials believed

we deserved...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. That article echoes my brother the doctor's biggest complaint about our current system

Too many doctors "process" patients through 15-minute office visits and hand them a pill instead of listening to them, taking a complete history, and figuring out what is actually wrong with them. He also thinks they tend to opt for the most expensive or trendy treatment first instead of seeing if the low-cost treatments work.