Clearly we have a badly broken system. I've been saying it for several decades. I'm appalled by the number of people who move from covered to uncovered with the speed that some people change their underwear. I'm watching colleagues here in Northern Calif. who're burnt out and frustrated beyond their tolerance, who're leaving practice, either for other parts of the country (this part of California has become known in the medical community as the Bosnia of health care) or leaving medicine all together. I built a practice from scratch, which a generation ago, I would have sold at retirement. Today, its worth nothing. When I give up, that'll be it. I will not be able to sell it.
We NEED a nat'l solution to the crisis of access to care, but we cannot even get a blasted children's health program out of our current government, something that would be considerably less expensive than making sure that all adults are covered. So far, there hasn't been the political will. So some 46 million Americans are without health coverage. I'm NOT including people with either Medicare or Medicaid here, just folks who have absolutely nothing. It's causing a crisis for our hospitals, and for our communities.
Health care costs caused 25% of all declared bankrupcies in the US. What was our glorious gov't's response to this disaster? Addressing the root cause of non- coverage? Working on a plan for universal care? Hell, no! They made bankrupcy more difficult to declare.
Forgive me for this diatribe. My upset with our system, or lack thereof has been a very raw nerve for a long time. This Quaker, a man who believes in absolute equality, has been majorly stressed for a long time by a system that says to so many, "I've got mine and you can go to hell."
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-10-19 04:40 pm (UTC)We NEED a nat'l solution to the crisis of access to care, but we cannot even get a blasted children's health program out of our current government, something that would be considerably less expensive than making sure that all adults are covered. So far, there hasn't been the political will. So some 46 million Americans are without health coverage. I'm NOT including people with either Medicare or Medicaid here, just folks who have absolutely nothing. It's causing a crisis for our hospitals, and for our communities.
Health care costs caused 25% of all declared bankrupcies in the US. What was our glorious gov't's response to this disaster? Addressing the root cause of non- coverage? Working on a plan for universal care? Hell, no! They made bankrupcy more difficult to declare.
Forgive me for this diatribe. My upset with our system, or lack thereof has been a very raw nerve for a long time. This Quaker, a man who believes in absolute equality, has been majorly stressed for a long time by a system that says to so many, "I've got mine and you can go to hell."