How bad is it in the US? Enough that some need third-world medical charity missions

[krakknisse]

Just saw this on local TV (in a Northern European country), from CBS 60 minutes (aired on March 2nd, 2008). Shocking to me, at least. Apparently, some parts of the US are now so poor that they need third-world type medical charity missions. Poor sheeple.

For this particular mission, they went to Knoxville, Tennessee. That's not a remote backwater: it is a city of 175,000 and 655,000 in the metro area, apparently mostly based around the university and Department of Energy facilities including Oak Ridge..

Remote Area Medical is a charity that does third-world type medical charity missions. They fly in teams of doctors, surgeons, dentists and opticians.

[Guest]

Re: How bad is it in the US? Enough that some need third-world medical charity missio

Yeah, CBS would never do a propaganda piece based on promoting their own particular agenda. : )

There's a reason their ratings are terrible. Pravda was more objective.

[tree]

Re: How bad is it in the US? Enough that some need third-world medical charity missio

What is the agenda of CBS?

[ax]

Re: How bad is it in the US? Enough that some need third-world medical charity missio

Just saw this on local TV (in a Northern European country), from CBS 60 minutes (aired on March 2nd, 2008). Shocking to me, at least. Apparently, some parts of the US are now so poor that they need third-world type medical charity missions. Poor sheeple.

For this particular mission, they went to Knoxville, Tennessee. That's not a remote backwater: it is a city of 175,000 and 655,000 in the metro area, apparently mostly based around the university and Department of Energy facilities including Oak Ridge..

Remote Area Medical is a charity that does third-world type medical charity missions. They fly in teams of doctors, surgeons, dentists and opticians.

Not quite so uncommon as you might think. A mere 5 miles from Jupiter Island, the highest income/capita city in the U.S. (Tiger Woods, Greg Norman have little homes there) is a local clinic that offers free medical care 2x/week on top of the already low-cost care they usually provide. They generally take care of migrant workers and people who have fallen through the Medicaid cracks.

[c1ue]

Re: How bad is it in the US? Enough that some need third-world medical charity missio

Not quite so uncommon as you might think. A mere 5 miles from Jupiter Island, the highest income/capita city in the U.S. (Tiger Woods, Greg Norman have little homes there) is a local clinic that offers free medical care 2x/week on top of the already low-cost care they usually provide. They generally take care of migrant workers and people who have fallen through the Medicaid cracks.

I wonder how many of those people are working menial jobs in the rich households?

[Guest]

Re: How bad is it in the US? Enough that some need third-world medical charity missio

What is the agenda of CBS?

Nationalized healthcare.

newsflash. There have always been poor people. There always will be. 10% of any population will not do what it takes to get by, either through incapacity or unwillingness.

For decades now Americans have spent their healthcare dollars on trips to Disney World, flat panel TV's, starbucks, furniture, designer clothing, beer, drugs, eating out, and new cars. Millions of Americans ignored their opportunities for virtually free kindergarten through college educations and now cannot earn above a substinance living. Millions more have children they cannot afford to raise. Our tax system even rewards them for that.

At what point does our duty to support these people end? Americans are not nearly so poor as lazy and foolish. A report on how foolish they have been would be much more useful. Calling it "poverty" as if it's a disease doesn't solve anything.

I mow lawns for a living and have a house, two vehicles, a nice retirement fund, health insurance ($190/mo at age 44), and can see a dr for a $30 copay even with high blood pressure and a bad blood profile before I got this insurance. So boo hoo. One could easily pay for most healthcare by simply delivering pizzas or working a part time job. My wife didn't have just one job till she was in her 30's. I worked 6 days a week till I was in my mid 30's. So boo hoo, cry me a river for the lazy fools.

Seperate out the blind, crippled, retarded, and otherwise incapacitated I'm more than willing to help and you could still fill stadiums with the number of people lining up for "free" healthcare. You'd also find many of these same people lining up for beer at the same stadium at a ballgame the next day.

[krakknisse]

Re: How bad is it in the US? Enough that some need third-world medical charity missio

Nationalized healthcare.

newsflash. There have always been poor people. There always will be. 10% of any population will not do what it takes to get by, either through incapacity or unwillingness.

For decades now Americans have spent their healthcare dollars on trips to Disney World, flat panel TV's, starbucks, furniture, designer clothing, beer, drugs, eating out, and new cars. Millions of Americans ignored their opportunities for virtually free kindergarten through college educations and now cannot earn above a substinance living. Millions more have children they cannot afford to raise. Our tax system even rewards them for that.

At what point does our duty to support these people end? Americans are not nearly so poor as lazy and foolish. A report on how foolish they have been would be much more useful. Calling it "poverty" as if it's a disease doesn't solve anything.

I mow lawns for a living and have a house, two vehicles, a nice retirement fund, health insurance ($190/mo at age 44), and can see a dr for a $30 copay even with high blood pressure and a bad blood profile before I got this insurance. So boo hoo. One could easily pay for most healthcare by simply delivering pizzas or working a part time job. My wife didn't have just one job till she was in her 30's. I worked 6 days a week till I was in my mid 30's. So boo hoo, cry me a river for the lazy fools.

Seperate out the blind, crippled, retarded, and otherwise incapacitated I'm more than willing to help and you could still fill stadiums with the number of people lining up for "free" healthcare. You'd also find many of these same people lining up for beer at the same stadium at a ballgame the next day.

brucec24: Good input. I was thinking about African abject poverty, which may very well have been the intention of CBS. But the comparison with a third-world country is not necessarily all that off. One of the prime reasons these types of medical care are needed in third world countries, at least, is simply the absolute devastating levels of poverty (<$1/day). The US situation cannot be compared - or can it? Let's try to connect the dots. One of the primary reasons for African deep poverty is, to sum it up in a sentence, very poor government. Singapore had the same GDP/capita in the 1940s as many poor African countries - but now is one of the highest in the world. The litany is long, but basically it is about poor government. Now, if you'll pardon my French, are we starting to see an eerie outline (barely) of misgovernment in the US? Misgovernment not on the same level, but of the same type. Misgovernment that leads to the same types of counter-productive personal economic decisions. Economic elites that have their legal and property rights much more strongly enforced, inflation that toasts the not-so-middle class and the poor, disincentives to produce jobs, and an unholy alliance between growing economic elites and the growing poor that feed off the carcass of productive America? Whew. Hope that doesn't seem too tinfoil.

[ax]

Re: How bad is it in the US? Enough that some need third-world medical charity missio

Nationalized healthcare.

newsflash. There have always been poor people. There always will be. 10% of any population will not do what it takes to get by, either through incapacity or unwillingness.

For decades now Americans have spent their healthcare dollars on trips to Disney World, flat panel TV's, starbucks, furniture, designer clothing, beer, drugs, eating out, and new cars. Millions of Americans ignored their opportunities for virtually free kindergarten through college educations and now cannot earn above a substinance living. Millions more have children they cannot afford to raise. Our tax system even rewards them for that.

At what point does our duty to support these people end? Americans are not nearly so poor as lazy and foolish. A report on how foolish they have been would be much more useful. Calling it "poverty" as if it's a disease doesn't solve anything.

I mow lawns for a living and have a house, two vehicles, a nice retirement fund, health insurance ($190/mo at age 44), and can see a dr for a $30 copay even with high blood pressure and a bad blood profile before I got this insurance. So boo hoo. One could easily pay for most healthcare by simply delivering pizzas or working a part time job. My wife didn't have just one job till she was in her 30's. I worked 6 days a week till I was in my mid 30's. So boo hoo, cry me a river for the lazy fools.

Seperate out the blind, crippled, retarded, and otherwise incapacitated I'm more than willing to help and you could still fill stadiums with the number of people lining up for "free" healthcare. You'd also find many of these same people lining up for beer at the same stadium at a ballgame the next day.

Brucec42, we seem to concur on these issues. As an emergency room/urgent care PA, I can only tell all that being sick/underinsured has become an event in this country. Whole families travel to the ER for the purposes of 1. Free healthcare (no insurance, underinsurance with no intention of ever paying their bill) 2. To get out of work for the day/week 3. To give meaning to/gain sympathy for their daily lives. "Emergency" has lost all meaning.

To combat this in Florida, many hospitals have gone to a "qualified medical screening exam" from one of the practitioners. If the practitioner such as myself deems the visit "non-emergent" (rash, sore throat, stubbed toe, medication refill/drug seeker), then the patient is asked to pay for the visit up-front as they would at a doctor's office or urgent care. As you can imagine, this has had quite a shock value for Medicaid and underinsured patients who have gotten used to using the ER as their primary doctor.

So far, this has help up in court....

[tree]

Re: How bad is it in the US? Enough that some need third-world medical charity missio

Nationalized healthcare.

newsflash. There have always been poor people. There always will be. 10% of any population will not do what it takes to get by, either through incapacity or unwillingness.

For decades now Americans have spent their healthcare dollars on trips to Disney World, flat panel TV's, starbucks, furniture, designer clothing, beer, drugs, eating out, and new cars. Millions of Americans ignored their opportunities for virtually free kindergarten through college educations and now cannot earn above a substinance living. Millions more have children they cannot afford to raise. Our tax system even rewards them for that.

At what point does our duty to support these people end? Americans are not nearly so poor as lazy and foolish. A report on how foolish they have been would be much more useful. Calling it "poverty" as if it's a disease doesn't solve anything.

I mow lawns for a living and have a house, two vehicles, a nice retirement fund, health insurance ($190/mo at age 44), and can see a dr for a $30 copay even with high blood pressure and a bad blood profile before I got this insurance. So boo hoo. One could easily pay for most healthcare by simply delivering pizzas or working a part time job. My wife didn't have just one job till she was in her 30's. I worked 6 days a week till I was in my mid 30's. So boo hoo, cry me a river for the lazy fools.

Seperate out the blind, crippled, retarded, and otherwise incapacitated I'm more than willing to help and you could still fill stadiums with the number of people lining up for "free" healthcare. You'd also find many of these same people lining up for beer at the same stadium at a ballgame the next day.

Why would CBS favor nationalized health care? Do its owners -- can't remember who it is now -- have a vested interest in nationalizing health care? Or are they just bleeding-heart Commies?

And, by the by, having written extensively about private/solo health insurance over the years, I personally do not count on it saving my butt. (As someone who has had cancer, the only solo coverage I could get in the open market has a drug coverage of just $1,500 a year, which is nothing if I suddenly need drugs to treat an illness.)

And yes, I too am frugal. No flat-screen TV, no new car or designer hair-dos, blah, blah, blah. Getting majorly ill is majorly expensive--it can wipe out your life savings, believe me. If not for the union health insurance I had when I got cancer and needed multiple surgeries, I would have been financially destroyed.

Are all those European nations just so dumb as to have nationalized health care? Are we just so much smarter?
Seriously, there's something here I don't understand.

Lastly, for what it's worth, solo health care is still relatively affordable in your healthy 40s. Hit 50 and the premium price band starts getting pretty ferocious every year going forward, along with the (hospital-surgical) co-pays. And yes, I ate healthy, exercised, blah, blah blah, and I got cancer. It happens.

[Guest]

Re: How bad is it in the US? Enough that some need third-world medical charity missio

Why would CBS favor nationalized health care? Do its owners -- can't remember who it is now -- have a vested interest in nationalizing health care? Or are they just bleeding-heart Commies?

And, by the by, having written extensively about private/solo health insurance over the years, I personally do not count on it saving my butt. (As someone who has had cancer, the only solo coverage I could get in the open market has a drug coverage of just $1,500 a year, which is nothing if I suddenly need drugs to treat an illness.)

And yes, I too am frugal. No flat-screen TV, no new car or designer hair-dos, blah, blah, blah. Getting majorly ill is majorly expensive--it can wipe out your life savings, believe me. If not for the union health insurance I had when I got cancer and needed multiple surgeries, I would have been financially destroyed.

Are all those European nations just so dumb as to have nationalized health care? Are we just so much smarter?
Seriously, there's something here I don't understand.

Lastly, for what it's worth, solo health care is still relatively affordable in your healthy 40s. Hit 50 and the premium price band starts getting pretty ferocious every year going forward, along with the (hospital-surgical) co-pays. And yes, I ate healthy, exercised, blah, blah blah, and I got cancer. It happens.

CBS has a pretty long history of left-leaning politics (see the circumstances of Dan Rather's inglorious departure for just one example).

My wife had a ton of health concerns that caused her to be rejected by many plans, but she did get covered. I agree there is a problem with getting coverage as an indvidual after a job loss (vs a group policy) even though one has had continuous coverage. The current law requires your new employer's plan to cover you if you had existing coverage continuously, but individuals are left out on their own. So anyone w/o a near-perfect health record becomes hard to insure as they age and don't work for an employer with coverage.

I'm not defending the current system as perfect. There are several serious flaws, and it's getting close to unworkable. But none that haven't had reasonable solutions offered and rejected for various reasons already. Usually it comes down to turf wars over various narrow interests by the parties involved.

One problem is that the very passing on of costs to the employer through group policies defeats the market mechanisms that hold costs down. My wife's employer was paying over $800/mo for our very good coverage. But we only paid about $200 of that. Had we been paying all $800 we would simply have gone to a higher deductible plan that cost less. But when you can walk in and get ANY test you want for nothing, you're going to consume much more healthcare. In her case, because we had such good insurance, they ran her through multiple MRI's, sleep tests, and drugs all to treat what turned out to be a simple thyroid condition! If we'd have been paying the bills, we would have rejected some of the tests. This major corporation she worked for had tens of thousands of insured going to the doctor for $15, going to the emergency room for FREE, buying expensive boutique drugs for just $25/month (One drug I took cost the insurer $90/mo instead of the near identical OTC drug that cost $30). But since $30 was more than $25, I used the insurance and they paid out $65 plus my $25, effectively tripling the cost of treatment.

I could go on, but my point was that my research indicates that a very very high percentage of uninsured are NOT cases of pre-existing conditions, the sub-65 y/o aged, etc. It's young people who might pay $85/mo deciding to spend it on beer and clothes, illegal aliens, and others who simply choose to decline coverage thorugh an employer.

It would be far cheaper to simply identify the truly needy and cover them than to turn healthcare into the DMV or DOT in terms of quality of service and care and cost and waste.

Maybe a law simply requiring insurers to cover anyone who has had comparable continuous coverage at the same rate (plus 10% maybe) as their group policy members would handle your situation. But I'd like to see all health insurance brought back to the consumer level so that market forces can cut out the fat from the system.