Health Care

That didn't take much time.

Average wait for a patient in an ER suffering a heart attack:

1997: 8 minutes
2004: 20 minutes

Pretty amazing - isn't it? Well how about this:

-- In 1994 there were 93.4 million ER visits (adults)
-- In 2004 there were 110.2 million ER visits (adults)
-- In 2004 there were 12.4% fewer hospitals offering ERs round-the-clock (24 hours a day) compared to 1997

Still not scared? Ok then let's try this:

Each year, from 1997 to 2004 wait times increased 4.1% (from 22 minutes in 1997 to 30 minutes in 2004).

And John McCain's answer? Let more people have to rely on emergency rooms.

Just remember - the next person who is stuck waiting to see a doctor while suffering a heart attack could be your spouse, parent or child. John McCain doesn't see that as a problem, he sees that as good policy.

Just say no to genocide John!

This always amazed me. You can pay for insurance for years, but once you actually need it, then the company can drop you. Well one insurance company got in some hot water for that practice:

One of California's largest for-profit insurers stopped a controversial practice of canceling sick policyholders Friday after a judge ordered Health Net Inc. to pay more than $9 million to a breast cancer patient it dropped in the middle of chemotherapy.

The ruling by a private arbitration judge was the first of its kind and the most powerful rebuke to the state's major insurers whose cancellation practices are under fire from the courts, state regulators and elected officials.

But as Duncan says, they will find other ways around it.

Since we do have one of the best health care systems in the world:

A nationwide study has found that the uninsured and those covered by Medicaid are more likely than those with private insurance to receive a diagnosis of cancer in late stages, often diminishing their chances of survival.

The study by researchers with the American Cancer Society also found that blacks had a higher risk of late diagnosis, even after accounting for their disproportionately high rates of being uninsured and underinsured. The study's authors speculated that the disparity might be caused by a lack of health literacy and an inadequate supply of providers in minority communities. The study is to be published online Monday in The Lancet Oncology.

Did you know it's not your doctors who decide which tests and treatments you get, it's your insurance company? Do you really want your health and well being put in the hands of some number cruncher who doesn't understand the human body? I sure as hell don't.

Bill Clinton said this yesterday:

"Her opponent excites more Americans ... but would in fact deny us universal health-care coverage for the first time," the former president said. "She represents the solution business."

For the "first time"? Is he saying we already have universal health-care? I heard of spinning, but this takes the cake.

hese are the "legal" drug dealers that Congress is now taking on:

Once Democrats seized the committee chairmanships on Capitol Hill, the big drug companies sharply aligned with Republicans knew a period of reckoning was coming.

Now it has begun.

The Democrats' investigations range from the drug-approval process to television advertising to the bilking of Medicare. And their targets include the world's largest drug makers - and the Food and Drug Administration itself.

It's about time something is done about these pushers. We have a serious problem when prescription drugs kill more people than illegal drugs. For example, here is how the FDA has ignored warnings on drugs:

Tuesday's House oversight hearing focused on the fraud scandal surrounding the drug Ketek, an antibiotic that in some cases was found to cause liver damage.

After the clinical trials conducted by the drug's manufacturer, Sanofi-Aventis, were found to have been fraudulent, Congress started asking who knew what - and when.

"There were sirens, red flags and bull horns, but it looks like the company and the FDA kept earplugs and blinders on," said Grassley, who testified before the committee about his investigation into Ketek when he was chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. "I smelled a coverup."

The Republicans were quick to put the blinders on during the reign of power in Congress. They have shown that profit trumps life, and that has lead to these problems. Hopefully we can see some new, tougher legislation controlling these companies. Also we need to see new laws forcing the FDA to actually do what they are supposed to do.

This could prove to be a problem for Hillary:

Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday she might be willing to garnish the wages of workers who refuse to buy health insurance to achieve coverage for all Americans.

The New York senator has criticized presidential rival Barack Obama for pushing a health plan that would not require universal coverage. Clinton has not always specified the enforcement measures she would embrace, but when pressed on ABC's "This Week," she said: "I think there are a number of mechanisms" that are possible, including "going after people's wages, automatic enrollment."

The fact is some people just can't afford anything extra. Sure if the person is refusing to pay for health care, yet has a lot of extra money, then this might work. The problem lies with people who live pay check to pay check and can't afford that extra bit coming out. Hillary needs to address those people also.

It used to amaze me when I went to my old doctor. Every time I sat in the waiting room you would see all these sharp dressed sales reps come in from different drug companies. Once you got back to the exam room, the walls would be plastered with posters from drug companies, as well as pictures, little models of different parts of the anatomy and anything else you can think of. All the mugs would be from a drug company and even the office supplies would bear their names. All the sudden I would get a prescription and it would be for the same drug that is engraved on the side of the pen the doctor was writing the script with.

That was about four years ago and also the reason I switched doctors. I now go to a doctor who doesn't have all these little trinkets given to her. She doesn’t have sales reps coming in and out offering free meals or vacations - sales reps that leave me sitting in the waiting room feeling horrible why they tie up my doctor with their sales pitch. She is there to practice medicine, not auction off her remedies.

Well it now looks like one health provider has realized this conflict of interest and is taking action :

When a Duluth-based operator of hospitals and clinics purged the pens, notepads, coffee mugs and other promotional trinkets drug companies had given its doctors over the years, it took 20 shopping carts to haul the loot away.

The operator, SMDC Health System, intends to ship the 18,718 items to the west African nation of Cameroon.

The purge underscored SMDC's decision to join the growing movement to ban gifts to doctors from drug companies.

Continue reading here.

Beans are now on the list. Why should we be any safer in 2008 than in 2007?

So much for the sovereignty of the states:

Several states and communities are moving to provide universal health coverage for their residents, but a federal law is blocking their efforts.

Many of the proposals require employers either to offer health coverage themselves or pay into a public fund to help cover the uninsured.

Some employers say that conflicts with a federal law that bars states from requiring or regulating employer-provided benefits such as health coverage. The law, which protects private-sector companies from having to meet a patchwork of state and local demands, is supported by businesses.

Again business is winning and the people are losing. Talk about giving capitalism a bad name.

One of the biggest talking points the GOP makes when talking about universal health care is that it will increase our waiting time for emergency services. Well it looks like that is already happening.

Patients are waiting longer for care in the nation's emergency rooms, a potentially deadly result of the shrinking number of emergency departments and rising demand for emergency services, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard Medical School.

Half of all emergency room patients waited 30 minutes or more before being examined by a doctor in 2004, a 36 percent increase from a median wait time of 22 minutes in 1997, according to the study, published today in the journal Health Affairs.

Of course there has been other talking points of how we would be like other countries with a universal health care system. Take this from Rudy:

Paul Krugman has the details on why Rudy wants Americans to die.

We all know billions of dollars have gone missing in Iraq and Bush hasn't batted an eye about it. I suspect we will see the same lack of concern over the billions wasted in Iraq:

After the United States has spent more than $5 billion in a largely failed effort to bolster the Pakistani military effort against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, some American officials now acknowledge that there were too few controls over the money. The strategy to improve the Pakistani military, they said, needs to be completely revamped.

Billions go missing in his foreign policy blunders and that's ok, but spend money to help our children? That is uncalled for in the eyes of the Bush administration:

The Bush administration yesterday eliminated about $700 million a year in Medicaid reimbursements to schools, sidestepping an attempt by Congress to block such a move.

The new rule, issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is expected to save the federal government $3.6 billion over five years, transferring those costs to school districts.

See $5 billion is nothing, but $700 million is too much! That is Republican math right there.

Tis' the Season for Republican greed and lack of compassion!

These insurance companies are monsters. They put profit above human life, and that lead to the death of Nataline. This is also the reason why I support John Edwards. He is the only Presidential candidate who has the balls to go out there and take them on:

"Are you telling me that we're gonna sit at a table and negotiate with those people?" asked a visibly angered Edwards, challenging the health care companies. "We're gonna take their power away and we're not gonna have this kind of problem again."

What I find interesting is the eerie silence from the right on this whole issue. The people who brought us Terri Schiavo and are the supposed champions of "right to life" have not said a peep on the horrible tragedy of Nataline. Now isn't that interesting? My only guess is that they are torn between the issues of corporate greed and right to life. Amazing how those two issues can blend together in totally opposite ways as we now see, and the sensible people have warned and talked about for years.

We need legislation and strong regulation of the insurance companies. Your doctor no longer makes decisions of your health care - some monkey answering a phone at an insurance company does. This is the great healthcare George Bush talks about. So we need to come up with legislation for cases like Nataline. If their inactions leads to the death of a person, then the heads of that company should be tried for murder. Let the CEO of Cigna face murder charges and see how quick the insurance companies start reevaluating their policies

If that isn't enough then perhaps we should classify insurance companies as terrorist organizations. They kill through their greed. I can somewhat swallow killing for religious beliefs, even though I don't agree with it, but killing for greed - that's something that can not be stomached.

This story is beyond the pale. To think that a corporation the size of Wal-Mart can do this to a former employee, and a federal judge agree with them:

A collision with a semi-trailer truck seven years ago left 52-year-old Deborah Shank permanently brain-damaged and in a wheelchair. Her husband, Jim, and three sons found a small source of solace: a $700,000 accident settlement from the trucking company involved. After legal fees and other expenses, the remaining $417,000 was put in a special trust. It was to be used for Mrs. Shank's care.

Instead, all of it is now slated to go to Mrs. Shank's former employer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Two years ago, the retail giant's health plan sued the Shanks for the $470,000 it had spent on her medical care. A federal judge ruled last year in Wal-Mart's favor, backed by an appeals-court decision in August. Now, her family has to rely on Medicaid and Mrs. Shank's social-security payments to keep up her round-the-clock care.

"I don't understand why they need to do this," says Mr. Shank on a recent visit to the nursing home, between shifts as a maintenance worker and running a tanning salon. "This girl needs the money more than they do." Mrs. Shank, who needs help with eating and other basic tasks, spends more time alone since Mr. Shank had to let her private caregiver go. At some point, he says, she may have to be moved from a private to a semi-private room in the nursing home where she lives.

So insurance companies can now limit how much care you get, what kind of care you get and now can go after you in the event of some horrific accident? These are the same insurance companies we want running out health care system? Hell no!

A story like this should leave the neo-cons in a real pickle. They can attack the Shank family for being on "the system". I mean they do need the universal healthcare called Medicaid - but that is only because they were taken to the cleaners by Wal-Mart, which now gives a case for tort reform.

If there was ever a case for government regulation of an industry, this is it. If a company can go back after you for a settlement like this, then why the hell should a person watch half their paycheck go to health insurance?

Now let's think more about the facts here. A $700,000 settlement for an accident causing permanent damage like this is very low. Why did Wal-Mart go after the victim, instead of going after the company that created this situation? The trucking company should be the ones paying this, not the Shanks. Of course in a world of the best legal coverage for the richest, people like the Shanks don't stand a chance.

Yeah we also need tort reform. We need a tort reform to level the playing field and make it so a lower class citizen gets the same kind of legal protection as the richest. Just like we need healthcare reform that insures the lowest class citizen gets the exact same care as the highest class citizen.