Health Care's Front Lines: 24 Hours In The ER

USA Today:

Dr. Robert O'Connor had taken charge of the emergency room only minutes earlier when the cellphone in his pocket rang: The Western Albemarle Rescue Squad was on its way with a 14-month-old girl who had suffered a possible seizure.

Ten minutes later, Tyler McNeely climbed out of the ambulance, her face frantic and her pale, subdued baby in her arms. Shana Crabtree, a third-year resident in green scrubs, waited for them at the University of Virginia Medical Center. EMT Andrew Todhunter delivered a staccato summary of Clara's vital signs.

Read the whole story: USA Today

Comments

[rich3324]

Our good friend is an ER doc who said the system is completely broke. The government will not pay for medicine and meters for people with diabetes, but we will pay for dialysis after their kidneys fail. This is one reason why you see so many dialysis centers.

[tucsoncindy]

Congressman Anthony Weiner Single-Payer http://hr676.org webinfo...a must read

[CTtransplant]

NO trigger!!! And NO waiting five years !!!

Never ever ever give up!!! Folks, do not forget the marches on September 13th!!!
If not now, when? If not us, who?

Kennedy was one of our greatest champions of health care reform. He carried the torch for a long time...and now it is up to us to continue to carry it!

Our elected officials in Congress receive health care mostly paid for by us tax payers, yet many are trying to make it impossible for us to purchase an affordable plan of our own :

While many of us are struggling to afford medical insurance/medical bills.
While Congress people try to stop healthcare reform.
While Congress people accept large contributions from lobbyists to prevent health care reform.

Please sign these petitions - and by all means, spread the word! Thank you!

http://www.petitiononline.com/PubOp676/petition.html
http://www.democrats.com/honor-ted-kennedy?cid=ZGVtczQ0MTA5OGRlbXM=
http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5649/t/4922/content.jsp?content_KEY=2763&tag=hk1_typ-e1

[tucsoncindy]

I have congestive heart failure. I'm in my 3rd stage of this disease. Last year I was dropped from Cobra Insurance after the Bank I was once employed with got taken over by the FDIC. Also during this time I was being considered for a Heart Transplant and scheduled for my 2nd Pacemaker/Defib...
I was turned down for my Heart Transplant. Without the 2ndPacemaker operation I would or could have died. My medications even under Cobra were costing me $400 or so per month. Last summer I was in my 2nd year of no income living on my credit cards. Sound familiar....Lost it All. Now on State Paid Welfare Medical Coverage until my SSDI kicks in next February. I now owe more money than I have every made in my Life!!! Sound Familiar... Am I angry and bitter..only at having to pay for my medical coverage with my life. A Good Read on HuffPost by Congressman Anthony Weiner..a must read A Second Look at Single Payer Medcial Coverage. Please HR676 ( Amendended by Weiner )

[Grannysue]

I was the business manager for a group of eight emergency room and trauma physicians, people of all walks of life go to the E.R. with Insurance and without. They passed the EMTALA laws in the eighties because of the dumping that was going on, emergency rooms were sending patients in cabs and other vehicles to other hospitals because they didn't have health care insurance, so EMTALA guaranteed all patients would be "screened" and "assessed" at a minimum. When I started working for the group in 2003 the emergency room self pays were at 17% by the end of 2008 they were at 47%, now let's think who ran the country during those years when more and more Americans were losing their jobs and Insurance?

[CTtransplant]

Thank you! People need to be reminded of this - often!

[musselmanm]

If the people that go to the Er are cut off, will they choose health insurance for their family? Perhaps vehicle insurance will fall by the wayside for them. Thereby leaving you and your family unprotected except by lawsuit when you take to the streets.

[musselmanm]

What trigger will be pulled when the people paying outlandish premiums for junk insurance figure out the are paying for those that do not pay?

What about the poor folds when they are denied ER care due to insured people raising heck?

What trigger do you think they will pull when their children die because of no free ER?

[PlaceboStudman]

Did anyone else even notice that HuffPo *completely* ignored this weekend's biggest health care (and I mean real health care, not insurance) event? The Jerry Lewis MDA telethon was this weekend and NOBODY on HuffPo took notice

Sad

[musselmanm]

People that pay for private health care can pay for the citizens that just go to the ER. Exactly like now.
We just need to make sure that those with the private insurance guarantee the profits of the health care field.

[musselmanm]

Why would any f'in one ever pay for insurance? Just go to the ER, it will be free! Unless you own anything.
How is that for a co-op?
Radical? Left wing Semi-Socialist, Union man, YES I AM!

[jack7576]

free market is the ONLY solution

[CR46]

Because that has been working so well so far????

[brooklyncitizen]

"....while many of those with good coverage worry that changes will cost them more and disrupt a system they think works pretty well."

That's just it. The idea of good coverage is a myth. You have good coverage until you have to use it; even without having to use it there are high-co-pays, high premiums and deductibles and drugs to pay for.Also,good coverage is an employment benefit once that job is gone well.....we have the mess many are living through today.

Often in a group plan with an employer people are dropped once their coverage is used for a major procedure or illness; I've known several people that were let go from work after extensive and costly illness .
THe whole system is broken and it is disingenuous to present it as a concern for only the "uninsured".

[CR46]

Not only that, a severe illness can easily set a person over their "lifetime" max benefits. I have a 2 yr old great nephew with lyphoma, we are hopeful that he will make it through his treatment and survive this devistating illness, but his parents (with good health insurance) are already planning on losing their home and going bankrupt. Everyone with insurance is one accident or illness away from bankruptcy.

[brooklyncitizen]

:( so sorry.