Pictured below is a young physician by the name of Dr. Starner Jones. His short two-paragraph letter to the White House accurately puts the blame on a "Culture Crisis" instead of a "Health Care Crisis". It's worth a quick read:
Dear Mr. President:
During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ringtone.
While glancing over her patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as "Medicaid"! During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one costly pack of cigarettes every day and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer.
And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman's health care? I contend that our nation's "health care crisis" is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture", a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. It is a culture based in the irresponsible credo that "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me".
Once you fix this "culture crisis" that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly our nation's health care difficulties will disappear.
Respectfully,
STARNER JONES, MD
6 comments:
You are already paying for her health care. And you are paying for the most expensive health care - emergency services.
A health plan with preventative care and a primary care physician who knows the patient and her history might also be able to do something to address the 'culture crisis.'
I allowed this comment to show the increasing stupidity of the left. To begin with President Reagan put into law the mandate that all hospitals had to accept everyone entry to the Emergency Room regardless of their ability to pay. The intent of this law was to offer emergency room care to everyone, whether they could pay or not. It was the democrats that re interpreted the law to mean that as long as you can make it to the ER your bill would be paid. The result of this originally compassionate bill was the use of every ER in America as a primary care physician function. The ERs were never intended for this usage. The democrats think that preventative care can change policy? This is a rediculous premise, only recinding policy can change this, and the present healthcare reform doesn't address this change at all......so what the hell will change?
Yes, I took my 53 year old overweight husband to the ER with heart palpitations and chest pain. After two hours we hadn't been given a room and he "wasn't dead yet." We got to know the others in the ER. One was a child with a 100 degree fever for a whole week, so they thought they should bring him in. A lot were non-emergencies. We need to define what an emergency is.
And yes, my husband - acid reflux. He's fine. But what of the other true emergencies?
Either way the law is enforced, we the taxpayers, will still be paying for the most expensive care - last resort emergency care - for 30+ million uninsured Americans.
Preventative care *in addition to* policy reform, will cut costs and relieve pressure on severely overburdened and underpaid ERs.
As to your final point, I'm not defending the current proposals, but would contend that the current system need to change.
The worst part of the original mandate, was that hospitals were forced to absorb the "loss" of people who couldn't pay because of the "enormous" profit hospitals make. This is but one more social mandate the government forces in to law and that private business most swallow.If government thinks it is such a needed social policy, why don't they pay for it?
I worked at a hospital for almost a year. Part of my job had me going to or through the emergency room at least 10 times per night. Tuesday through Thursday the emergency room was pretty quiet but Friday through Monday it was like a madhouse. People with legitmite reasons to be there were delayed being seen by hours because most people in there were either drunk or stoned and hurt themselves or they were looking to get a doctor's excuse to miss work. Many who were there to have an excuse to miss work didn't have insurance. Why isn't the government going after these people for repayment? Why aren't they going after the ones who are on welfare for partial repayment. Start making everyone pay a $25.00 co-pay for every emergency room visit whether you have insurance or not and many of these people would stop going and draining the system
Post a Comment