Comments on: IF YOUR CARE IS TOO EXPENSIVE … DIE! http://www.healthcarebs.com/2008/08/12/if-your-care-is-too-expensive-die/ Cleaning the Augean Stables of the Health Care Debate Thu, 10 May 2012 21:39:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Catron http://www.healthcarebs.com/2008/08/12/if-your-care-is-too-expensive-die/#comment-282670 Catron Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:28:54 +0000 http://www.healthcarebs.com/2008/08/12/if-your-care-is-too-expensive-die/#comment-282670 Marc, even if these tired canards had any basis in fact, they wouldn't be relevant. NICE is telling the NHS to let patients die if the cost of treatment exceeds some arbitrary number set by some apparatchik. That's hardly the same thing as someone forgoing a pair of eyeglesses until they dig up he money to pay for them. As to dental care, NHS patients have been reduced to pulling their own teeth because they can't get in to see a dentist. Marc, even if these tired canards had any basis in fact, they wouldn’t be relevant.

NICE is telling the NHS to let patients die if the cost of treatment exceeds some arbitrary number set by some apparatchik.

That’s hardly the same thing as someone forgoing a pair of eyeglesses until they dig up he money to pay for them.

As to dental care, NHS patients have been reduced to pulling their own teeth because they can’t get in to see a dentist.

]]> By: Marc Brown http://www.healthcarebs.com/2008/08/12/if-your-care-is-too-expensive-die/#comment-282053 Marc Brown Wed, 13 Aug 2008 23:26:05 +0000 http://www.healthcarebs.com/2008/08/12/if-your-care-is-too-expensive-die/#comment-282053 'but I feel compelled to point out that the market doesn’t kill anyone.' Sorry David - this just isn't true in the US. The excess deaths thanks to lack of health insurance are a matter of record, as are the huge health inequalities that blight your country. 'No one in our system would even consider withholding treatment based on cost.' This of course is not true. Across the spectrum of healthcare many millions of Americans go without treatment or drugs because they can't pay. According to your own government (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) last year one-fifth of Americans couldn't afford one or more of these services: medical care, prescription medicines, mental health care, dental care, or eyeglasses. ‘but I feel compelled to point out that the market doesn’t kill anyone.’

Sorry David – this just isn’t true in the US. The excess deaths thanks to lack of health insurance are a matter of record, as are the huge health inequalities that blight your country.

‘No one in our system would even consider withholding treatment based on cost.’

This of course is not true. Across the spectrum of healthcare many millions of Americans go without treatment or drugs because they can’t pay. According to your own government (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) last year one-fifth of Americans couldn’t afford one or more of these services: medical care, prescription medicines, mental health care, dental care, or eyeglasses.

]]> By: wd http://www.healthcarebs.com/2008/08/12/if-your-care-is-too-expensive-die/#comment-282110 wd Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:10:15 +0000 http://www.healthcarebs.com/2008/08/12/if-your-care-is-too-expensive-die/#comment-282110 Marc, Do you mean this "high standard of care available to all" Britons? http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/08/13/231806/patients-left-untreated-at-barnet-and-chase-farm-hospitals-nhs.htm Marc,

Do you mean this “high standard of care available to all” Britons?

http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/08/13/231806/patients-left-untreated-at-barnet-and-chase-farm-hospitals-nhs.htm

]]> By: Catron http://www.healthcarebs.com/2008/08/12/if-your-care-is-too-expensive-die/#comment-281909 Catron Wed, 13 Aug 2008 20:29:13 +0000 http://www.healthcarebs.com/2008/08/12/if-your-care-is-too-expensive-die/#comment-281909 "As for the market being a fairer way of killing people, the mind really does boggle ..." Glad to hear from you again, Marc, but I feel compelled to point out that the market doesn't kill anyone. No one in our system would even consider withholding treatment based on cost. I have many times seen hospitals and physicans devote copious resources to save indigent and homeless patients whose ability to pay was nil. At no time in my two decades in the health care biz have I ever encountered a single hospital or doctor that would consider the cost before deciding to save someone's life. “As for the market being a fairer way of killing people, the mind really does boggle …”

Glad to hear from you again, Marc, but I feel compelled to point out that the market doesn’t kill anyone.

No one in our system would even consider withholding treatment based on cost. I have many times seen hospitals and physicans devote copious resources to save indigent and homeless patients whose ability to pay was nil.

At no time in my two decades in the health care biz have I ever encountered a single hospital or doctor that would consider the cost before deciding to save someone’s life.

]]> By: Marc Brown http://www.healthcarebs.com/2008/08/12/if-your-care-is-too-expensive-die/#comment-281862 Marc Brown Wed, 13 Aug 2008 19:49:03 +0000 http://www.healthcarebs.com/2008/08/12/if-your-care-is-too-expensive-die/#comment-281862 As I can't post anything of great consequence now, all I can do is gasp with admiration at the new low levels to which you've stooped recently - it hardly seems possible. We had 32% wanting a complete healthcare rebuild - no matter you say - but by reckoning that's a little matter of 80 million people. As for the market being a fairer way of killing people, the mind really does boggle at how you can compare the gross inequality in American healthcare with the high standard of care available to all, free at the point of care, to all Britons. You can argue all you like about the marginal benefit of experimental drugs, but that's not where the vast bulk of care lies. As I can’t post anything of great consequence now, all I can do is gasp with admiration at the new low levels to which you’ve stooped recently – it hardly seems possible. We had 32% wanting a complete healthcare rebuild – no matter you say – but by reckoning that’s a little matter of 80 million people. As for the market being a fairer way of killing people, the mind really does boggle at how you can compare the gross inequality in American healthcare with the high standard of care available to all, free at the point of care, to all Britons. You can argue all you like about the marginal benefit of experimental drugs, but that’s not where the vast bulk of care lies.

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