A Story of "Murder by Spreadsheet"

She was covered by her employer's health plan and also, of course, by Workman's Comp, since her injury happened while she was on the job. You'd think this would be a good situation, right? More insurance coverage is better because if company A can't cover you, company B will, right?

Wrong.

Instead of getting her into surgery to repair the rotator cuff, the two insurers started a battle over who was responsible for her care. Neither one wanted to pay for it, because it would cut into their profits. So while she waited for them to come to some kind of an agreement, she had to stay at home, on full workman's comp disability, and her doctors prescribed megadoses of painkillers - specifically, ibuprofen - for her to use to deal with the pain. And, of course, she was in excruciating pain, so she took them.

Rad More...

The Killers Amongst Us

by Eddie C

All the way back in 2002 there was a disturbing piece in the paper. It was in May of that year when USA Today mentioned the fact that "More than 18,000 adults in the USA die each year because they are uninsured and can't get proper health care."

This story that some may find disturbing was printed when there was only 40 million uninsured Americans. With conservative estimates at 47 million now uninsured related deaths must have risen.  According to one source the death toll was up to 22,000 by 2006. But even if the number stayed stagnate by the end of this year that means 144,000 dead Americans since 2002!

Does 200,000 deaths during the first decade of the new millennium sound like a national emergency? In the richest nation on earth it sounds like the worst atrocity imaginable. The poor have Medicaid and the rich have money so those deaths could be called middle class genocide.

Somebody or some group of people need to account for this but who do you blame?  

It is extremely obvious that empathy is in short supply because of a heartless media and gutless politicians setting the tone. A nation where military contractors are allowed to make budget decisions on the most efficient killing machines but doctors have their hands tied in making medical decisions is far worse than just broken. In order for the national debate to move forward we must first get the issue in perspective, someone is killing our people.

Many progressives may feel that with a new popular president in office this is not the time for reality. Accountability would be counterproductive at a time when elected officials are finally in agreement that something must be done. How did we get to a point where more Americans seem to be upset about immigrants receiving free health care than this ongoing middle class genocide?    

Before assigning blame a little perspective is in order. How much media coverage did terrorism receive in the past decade and how much media coverage did Americans who just wanted to live but were not allowed to get? If more Americans were aware of the fact that in excess of 18,000 Americans  per year are getting killed by a for profit industry would "Well we will never get anything done with Bush in office" still have been an excuse?  

200,000 dead Americans through lack of coverage matches the disputed U.N. death toll in Darfur. The African genocide represents violent deaths often covered by the media with American politicians constantly talking about answers while 200,000 Americans die silently. Our own people have been ignored by our leaders and the media so their neighbors will not notice. Answers are now expected from the people who worked so hard to cover up the questions?

Or a comparison could be made with Bush's personal war in Iraq that gets a whole lot of media coverage. Some politician's definition of progress is launching an imperialist war without a draft buteven the American death toll in Vietnam is far less that a third of our forgotten dead Americans. The number of Americans who have died in this sad American decade serving their nation by fighting a war in Iraq is a little over two percent of the Americans who have perished due to lack of health care. One could say that the 200,000 silent deaths and the 4,250 that have gotten American's attention are related in some death in the name of profit scheme but those forgotten Americans did not volunteer. The fact is that even when you add in the Iraqi deaths since America invaded the highest estimates are still only half the number of people who died due to lack of coverage.

These forgotten Americans who have become a hidden statistic does sound like a violence against the people in the name of commerce but perhaps war deaths are not the proper comparison. Now that public outcry gave politicians an attitude adjustment the more than 18,000 uninsured who die each year is greater than the annual deaths in the U.S.A. from AIDS. The number of American who die from lack of health care doesn't even come close to smoking related deaths but smoking greatly contributes to the runaway cost of health care and the way our elected officials points to the morality of our leadership. At 440,000 deaths per year tobacco has proven to be the most toxic substance on earth but there is money to be made so the government went partners with the tobacco companies. In the interest of commerce cigarettes remain legal and our elected officials are patting themselves on the back over funding SCHIP through a cigarette tax. That's health care!      

Or how about the fact that on a list of leading causes of death for Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 being uninsured ranks third! In a nation that ranks forty-fifth in life expectancy we just went through a presidential election with no candidate addressing the issue of hard working Americans who are forced to detach from the workforce because of age. Nothing but silence, as I tried to point out in Medical Coverage: What about Americans between 55 and 64?  

So who should take the blame for all of these deaths? Another "Let's just forgive and forget" in America or placing the blame on a for profit industry that Barack Obama feels should stay in business is not the answer. Is it the health insurance companies that are killing Americans? I don't recall any health insurance company employees promising to serve the people. A great deal of blame has been placed on the AHIP but the lobbyist group are not public servents. Should we blame the actual insurance companies who are only committed to their shareholders? Blame the hospitals that administer treatment by the most expensive means possible or the elected officials who have refused to regulate hospitals? Should we blame the media where once again the service of the shareholders is the only priority?

An honest look at what has gone on in this nation over the past fifteen years points to a truly despicable leadership. Were it not for the cover up of the many facts we would have change by now. Many advocates of H.R. 676 should have been given the opportunity to get on national television to reveal the many facts like the U.S. ranking last in preventing deaths from treatable conditions but honest and objective people were denied access to the debate. Instead elected officials were sitting across from media pundits fabrication stories about the horrors of medical treatment in Canada and France and the United Kingdom.

Seriously with the amount of Americans dying from lack of health care this nation should be having celebrities on commercials telling the facts that have been limited to the progressive blogs. There should be Jerry Lewis style telethons for the suffering Americans. But I can't even remember a elected official bringing up the true facts that working Americans have been forced to face on national television.

The invented negatives still seem to get a whole spin cycle in the drug company dependent media without a peep out of many of the signers of H.R.676. Why does it seem that only the progressive bloggers in this nation know the facts? Doesn’t it seem in the history of health care reform that H.R. 676 has never been anything more than a carrot on a string? The national debate has been slanted for far too long and the few Democrats in congress who sign a bill every two years that is never meant to leave committee don't get a pass. Not that they have all been silent all of the time but the few time that Dennis Kucinich has gotten on national television, the occasional Pete Stark C-SPAN sound bite and John Conyers  sitting down every now and then talking with H.R. 676 advocacy groups has not gotten the message out.

Outside of a new president have the players changed? Is the misrepresentation going to continue or will they be able to pass legislation that will end the insane spending and cut themselves off from the big campaign contributions that have kept a serious solutions off the table?  

The mendacity that has been fed to the American public is still causing damage today. In the previous election Barack Obama ran and won the presidency without advocating for health care for all. Neither candidate endorsed single payer health care but after all the pain a Democrat was still not ready. On the campaign trail the President promised a savings to the  typical American family up to $2,500 in an still employer based health care plan where Americans will be able to transfer from job to job and the preexisting conditions will be done away with.  

Today he is talking about affordable health care for all and setting aside money for that possibility, some of it coming from cuts in existing federal medical assistance programs!

The officials said the resulting increase in revenues, estimated at $318 billion over 10 years, would account for about half of a $634 billion "reserve fund" that Mr. Obama will set aside in his budget to address changes in the health care system. The other half would come from proposed cost savings in Medicare, Medicaid and other health programs.

This is all so hard to digest since it is breaking news right now. But it sounds like a down payment to cover a for profit universal health care fund. Why does it seem like only the progressive bloggers understand that administrative waste accounts for roughly 31% of the money spent on health care and that America can afford H.R. 676?

Yesterday DrSteveB wrote Health Reform and Costs - They Are Lying To You (Obama too) When will they stop lying? When will America get to the point where everyone knows that the only way to fix the medical disaster is to remove the profits?

I really don't have any answers but one thing I do know is that the same people inside the beltway who claim to have the answers killed about 200,000 of my fellow Americans and I think that fact should see some light. The more light it receives, the more reality we will hear.  

 

More Murder by Spreadsheet

For lack of a dentist, a boy dies

Deamonte, died at the age of 12, Prince Georges County, Maryland:

Deamonte, a seventh grader in Prince George’s County, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C., died because he didn’t have health insurance to cover an $80 tooth extraction. The inexcusable loss of this 12-year-old’s life started when he complained of a toothache. His mother, Alyce, who works at low-paying jobs, didn’t have employer health insurance, and had been focused on finding a dentist to see Deamonte’s brother, who had six rotting teeth. Their Medicaid insurance coverage had been cut off, and Alyce’s efforts to renew the coverage were ensnarled in red tape and bureaucratic delays.

Here is Devante's tragic story.

Devante, died at the age of 14, Houston, Texas:
Devante was a 13-year-old boy with advanced cancer of the kidneys who went without any health coverage for four months while his mother attempted to renew his Medicaid coverage. Although his mother, Tamika, submitted at least three renewal applications beginning in February 2006—one through the financial counselor at Texas Children's Hospital—and called the CHIP/Medicaid hotline dozens of times, there was no record of Devante's case in the system when advocates contacted the call center on his behalf in August 2006. Because of a state staffing shortage, officials say his application went unprocessed.

Meanwhile, Devante went without any health insurance and had to depend on clinical trials for care as his tumors continued to grow.

Health protection yanked:

Jessica Bath claims Blue Shield scoured for reasons to drop her and her son because he needed costly care; the firm says mom left out medical issue on application

Four months after her first son, Jack, was born, Jessica Bath received a letter from her health insurance company, Blue Shield of California, saying she and Jack were no longer covered. Jack was born at Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center on April 8, 2003, with a hole in his heart. Bath was counting on Blue Shield to pay for a scheduled surgery to repair it.

Suddenly, both she and Jack were uninsured.

"It was absolutely devastating for us," Bath said. "How were we going to pay for his heart surgery?"

WORK HARD, AND SAY WHAT, PLAY BY THE RULES?

To understand the challenges of insuring the health of the nation’s work force, consider Varney’s Book Store.

A Portrait of the Working Insured After a long bout with emphysema an employee at Varney’s, a family-owned business in Manhattan, Kan., died several years ago. But for Varney’s health insurer, her legacy lived on.

The next year, 2002, the insurer raised Varney’s premiums by 28 percent — even though most of the other three dozen employees were significantly younger and healthier than their departed colleague, who had been in her mid-70’s. And Varney’s premiums continued to climb.

. . .Such are the challenges for smaller businesses in Kansas and the many other states where laws permit insurers to raise health premiums substantially for small employers when one worker incurs significant medical bills.

And it is why, as state legislatures, Congress and presidential candidates of all stripes debate the growing problem of Americans without health insurance, the struggles of small businesses — which employ about 40 percent of the nation’s work force — are likely to become a central issue. Small-business employees are one of the fastest-growing segments of the nation’s 44 million uninsured; they now represent at least 20 percent of the total, according to federal census data. And even modest-size employers like Varney’s that say they remain committed to providing benefits find themselves wondering how long they can continue.

Plights of uninsured stir efforts to sway lawmakers

WASHINGTON — Tamika Scott lost her 14-year-old son to cancer on March 1, less than a year after he lost his health insurance and was forced to go on clinical trials.

Within a month of his death, Scott was in the nation's capital telling her story to members of Congress. It was too late to help her son, Devante Johnson, but not the nation's 47 million uninsured, including 9 million children.

"When it touches home, everything changes," says Scott, 34, of Houston. "Then you're ready to change the world."

As Congress and state legislatures grapple this year with how to help the uninsured, lawmakers are increasingly hearing not only from lobbyists and health care advocates but from people who have suffered without insurance.

They are people like Alyce Driver of Maryland, whose 12-year-old son Deamonte died in February from an infection that spread from his tooth to his brain. People like Camilla Tecsy of New York, also 12, who lost health insurance for several months while battling cystic fibrosis. People like Mekeal Cusic of Mississippi, who couldn't get coverage for her 10-year-old daughter Keyonna because of intestinal problems suffered three years ago.

All have been to Washington this spring to personalize an otherwise complex financial issue. "There are heart-wrenching stories that really do rip your heart out," says Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del.

Can This Patient Be Saved?

As a surgeon, I’ve seen some pretty large tumors. I’ve excised fist-size thyroid cancers from people’s necks and abdominal masses bigger than your head. When I do, this is what almost invariably happens: the anesthesiologist puts the patient to sleep, the nurse unsnaps the gown, everyone takes a sharp breath, and someone blurts out, "How could someone let that thing get so huge?"

I try to describe how slowly and imperceptibly it grew. But staring at the beast it has become, no one buys the explanation. Even the patients are mystified. One day they looked in the mirror, they’ll say, and the mass seemed to have ballooned overnight. It hadn’t, of course. Usually, it’s been growing — and, worse, sometimes spreading — for years.

. . .It’s as true of societies as of individuals. We did not muster the will to reform our long-broken banking system, for example, until it actually collapsed in the Great Depression.

This is, in a nutshell, the trouble with our health care crisis. Our health care system has eroded badly, but it has not collapsed. So we do nothing.

Firefighter Denied Life-Saving Treatment

Tonight, Local 2 investigates why some insurance companies are refusing
to pay for potentially life-saving medical treatments. Have you looked
closely at your health insurance plan?

Chances are, you wouldn't
notice the wording we've discovered that's leaving patients and not the
insurance companies stuck paying for treatment that might save their
lives.

Local 2 investigative reporter Amy Davis found it happening all over Texas.

Imagine being told by your doctor that drugs offered in a clinical trial are now your best chance to beat deadly cancer. But
your insurance company says it won't pay for any of it. That's the
battle facing a veteran Houston firefighter, and we've found the same
thing could happen to you. "You either fight them or you give up," said Steve Jahnke, Houston Fire Department district chief.

more... www.click2houston.com/news

You shouldn't have to fight your insurance company while you are trying to fight for your life.