Think it through…

Commonwealth Care, the grand experiment in Mandated Health Care administered by the  Commonwealth of  Massachusetts, isn’t doing so well. So the administrators of the plan are being forced to cut $115 million dollars from the plan. One of the ways they plan to “save money” is to slow enrollment. If you qualify for coverage but forget to choose a health plan, no longer will one be chosen for you. You’ll just be dropped. The Governor wanted to “help” by canceling dental coverage, but the legislature shoved that back in. They have a better plan: eliminate coverage for 28,000 legal Immigrants. Hey, why not, that’ll save $130 million dollars!

Limiting access and cutting benefits sounds a lot like healthcare rationing… rationing? Under the Massachusetts system, one of the nationalized healthcare plans that President Obama says could save us all by fixing our broken health care system? No way, the Ghost of Paul Revere would rise from his grave and ride again before that happened!

It happened… and there is a 25% sales tax increase, too. Welcome to Massachusetts!

Meanwhile, over at the local Veterans’ Administration (VA) hospital (another example of Universal Healthcare) no one seems to be really sure what is going on. Four hospitals seem to have forgotten how to sterilize their equipment, leading to 46 new cases of Hepatitis and six patients testing positive for HIV. Even after repeated alerts from the VA itself and numerous media reports, fewer than half of the VA’s facilities could produce evidence of proper sterilization procedures or training during the “surprise inspection” that a blind veteran could see coming.  Ninety-two veterans at a VA Cancer Clinic in Philadelphia also received incorrect Cancer treatments over a space of six years.

And as already mentioned on Funky Heart, The Indian Health Service is another example of a failed government run healthcare system. Back in 1787, the United States Government promised to provide healthcare to Native Indians on their reservations, and current statistics show how well we’ve respected neglected our obligation: The 2nd lowest life expectancy in the Western Hemisphere is among men living on Indian Reservations in South Dakota.

So America, here are three examples of centrally administered healthcare, involving the Federal Government on a national scale (twice) and a state run mandated healthcare system. Are you sure this is what you want?

Make your decision carefully – because you can’t put this genie back in the bottle.

Chronic Care in a new Healthcare System

Today’s entry is going to walk a fine line. I promised myself when I started this blog that I would not get political: after all, a Congenital Heart Defect develops long before a person’s political philosophy does. But there is an ill wind blowing…

Laurie Edwards over at A Chronic Dose has a great post on the need for chronic illness care. A healthy person’s need for usually has a finite beginning and ending date. They fall in the bathtub, for example, and break their leg. There’s a need for surgery and rehab and pain medication, but under normal circumstances that will end. The doctor will say that your leg looks good, there is no need to come back unless there is a problem. Chronic care patients, on the other hand, make continual trips to the well. Medications, treatments, supplies, the occasional hospitalization – the costs keep coming.

Lots of ideas are being tossed around for national health care reform. Kevin, MD contends that Medicare for all isn’t the answer. One reason, according to the Happy Hospitalist, is that FREE=MORE. Put a free soda pop dispenser on every floor of your hospital, and your customer satisfaction survey numbers go up! Dr. Wes agrees with Happy – give a little, and people tend to take a lot.

The Covert Rationing Blog thinks the decision has already been made, and we’ll eventually become a single payer system. The real fight is going to be if citizens are allowed to spend their own money to pursue healthcare. Apparently the answer is “no”… the State of Maryland is already considering  steps to make Private Pay illegal. Kevin, MD even goes so far as to call it “Health Care prohibition.”

When you are in control of the wallet, you get to choose what the money is spent on. Think about it – your child wants a piece of bubble gum, he comes running to you to ask for a quarter for the bubble gum machine. If you don’t want your child to have gum, you say no.

Mr. Government Health Man? Sir, I need to have my pacemaker replaced, the battery is running dry. Can I have a new one?

No, I’m afraid not. You see the doctor six times a year and you take 15 different medications. You’re draining the system. I’m sorry.

I’m draining the system? Mr. Government Health Man, Bill went to the doctor for pain in his ankle last year, and he had a bone scan, and an MRI, and X-Rays, just to prove that he had twisted it! I need my pacemaker, why don’t you go yell at Bill?

Obviously, these last paragraphs are an exaggeration. And I wish I was smart enough to say “This is the way you should reform health care…” but I have no idea where to even start.

But I know what scares me.