[lit-ideas] Re: health care in the US

NB: Long post ahead. Not a rant, though.

A model American medical clinic:

For the past couple of years--and for the first time in my life--I've had 
the privilege of seeing a primary care physician ("my" doctor) the same day 
I call him. If there's a wait in the office, it's a short one. Most of myt 
blood work, for a chronic condition, is done on the spot, in the office's 
laboratory--I just go straight to the lab, once a month. There's a physical 
therapist onsite, too. My doctor takes his time with me, listens 
respectfully, and treats me like a real human being, in person and on the 
phone. I know everyone in the office by name, and they know me. When I need 
a specialist, my doc refers me pronto. There's a psychiatrist and a few 
psychologists onsite, if the need arises, on a walk-in and appointment 
basis. The onsite pharmacy charges about half the going rates at nearby drug 
store chains. Now, this clinic isn't glamorous, but it's a far cry from the 
horrors of the standard county emergency rooms, or community clinics.

And where is this friendly, efficient clinic? It's the student health center 
of the university I attend, and because of this congenial, highly unusual 
healthcare situtaion, I'm in absolutely no hurry to graduate.

True, most of the patients here are young, in their late-teens or early 
twenties. Yet because the university population is heavily Hispanic (rural, 
first generation), there's more diabetes and other chronic conditions than 
at most university health centers. A large proportion of these students 
didn't have health insurance, as children. Those who did were on MediCal, 
the state's Medicaid--the very program that's getting cut.

Anyway, if financially strapped Cal State Fresno can provide decent primary 
healthcare for about 30,000 students for $60 per semester (over tuition), 
it's not an impossible dream. Indeed, the folks working at the clinic only 
wish they could go here. Insanely, they can't--the place is just for 
students.  When I graduate from this joint, it'll be back to county 
emergency rooms with 8-hour waits for me, since I've been uninsurable most 
of my life. (In California, hospitals *do* turn away people who don't have 
health insurance, btw. They're not supposed to, by law, but they do it all 
the time.)

In addition to Bush's recent cuts to Medicaid, the governator of California 
has taken it upon himself to cut the state's healthcare system. Mental 
healthcare in Fresno County is broke. (Broken as well, yes.) With 1/4 the 
population here officially below the poverty line, no Section 8 housing is 
available. Very soon, due to the horrible Bush Medicare drug misery, lots of 
psych cases will be wandering the streets. (Psych meds, like other drugs, 
were free to indigent people until Jan. 1 of this year.)

I found out today that the university mental health clinic, where I work as 
a grad assistant, will remain open, but other clinics in this town will be 
shutting down. There's an emergency town meeting of psychs, about this 
deplorable situation, tomorrow.

But even relatively expensive HMOs here offer chintzy healthcare with long, 
inexusable waits for such life-or-death matters as heart surgery. The 
don't-deny-treatment-but-delay-until-death thing is modelled after 
congressional budgeting, I gather. Pass the bill but don't fund the project, 
and it'll die on its own. This is the insured version of the black comedy 
called American healthcare. The uninsured version...See Julie's original 
post.

Carol








------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html

Other related posts: