US health-care system increases the dangers of an epidemic

www.brainshrub.com/epidemic

The privatized health-care system in this country is a disaster waiting to happen.

There are many who point out that medical care in this country is already a disaster for the poor. While it is true that every year thousands of Americans die because they couldn't get access to the treatment they needed in time, that isn't what I'm talking about.

I contend that the privatized health-care system will act as a catalyst for a disaster that will make 9/11 and hurricane Katrina look like petty annoyances.

The danger occurred to me after a slight cold earlier this week. It was nothing serious: A mild fever, lots of coughing and my shoulders were sore. I cured myself with a few bowls of chicken soup and Cold-Ezze. I probably picked up the bug from someone in the crowd at the peace-rally in DC last week.

Two days ago, a friend emailed me about a news story that made me concerned that whatever I had might be a bit more serious than initially thought.



My first thought after reading this was: "I have to go to a doctor ASAP!"

My second thought: "Crap. How can I pay for the doctor right now?"

While I am insured, my $2500 yearly deducible hasn't been met. Last week, I had a tooth capped that cost about $700, so I was tapped out of cash until my next paycheck. The hospital emergency room would have been ridiculously expensive, so that wasn't an option.

There is a free clinic in my town, but I've tried getting treatment there in the past; Unless you're willing to arrive an hour before the clinic opens, to wait in a long line at the door, your chances of getting seen by a doctor the same day are slim. Unless I could find a way to take a full day off of work, public health services were not available to me.

Now, I'm not going to be hyperbolic about my situation. If the cold had gotten much worse, I would have dragged myself to the nearest hospital. While I didn't honestly believe that I was in any real danger, it did inspire me to imagine a disturbing scenario:

Suppose a highly contagious, and deadly, pathogen was exposed to the crowd in Washington DC? We have over 40 million Americans without health insurance. What are the ramifications of having a significant chunk of the American population not having access to a physician when they first fall ill?

Unless a virus only attacks the insured or the wealthy, the United State's privatized health-care system does not provide an efficient way to quickly detect a new epidemic. To be sure, once people started dying, citizens would flock to the hospitals; But in the critical early stages of the disease, when the most could have been done to prevent it’s spread, many Americas will unwittingly spread the virus for strictly economic reasons.

The Bush Administration is notorious for ignoring early warnings of impending disaster. We know today that George Bush was warned in advance that Osama Bin Laden was determined to attack the US with commercial aircraft. We also know today that the Administration was aware that a category 5 hurricane would break the levees in New Orleans.

The current administration, and the Republican Congress, has been warned repeatedly that the United States is not ready to deal with an artificial or naturally occurring disease epidemic. Dr. Dennis O'Leary, President of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health-care Organizations stated back in testimony from October 2001:



Years! They have been warning us for years!

The above reference is but the tip of the iceberg: Research for this essay shows two disturbing facts: 1) The medical community has been screaming at the top of it’s lungs to legislators that the US is not prepared for an epidemic. 2) These warnings have gone largely unheeded.

The reason these warnings are ignored, I think, is because the obvious solution is anathema to the pro-corporate ideology of the Republican party: A single-payer health-care system is the cheapest, most effective, way to minimize the pain and suffering from an epidemic. This "big government" solution makes conservatives squirm for the same reasons they objected to the banning of child labor: It will cost the wealthy elite money to fund the reforms.

Perhaps the Republicans have learned from their experiences of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina? Perhaps they will heed the warnings coming to them from the medical community, and call for a system to extend health-care coverage for all.

www.brainshrub.com/epidemic

When the next flu pandemic does happen, and it will, I wonder what the political fallout will be?

a deadly disease that has initial symptoms like a flu would spread quickly among the uninsured, who aren't likely to see a doctor for a common condition.

to act in a public minded way. There are some things that are of national interest, public health being one of those. We cannot expect bill frist to take any more losses on his HCA stock by acting in the public interest. By definition it is stockholders interest he pursues. These are not interchangeable.

an effective band aid approach to disease--not a coherant "system"

US health-care system increases the dangers of an epidemic

hidden below the radar for the most point.