5.28.2009
Atul Gawande on soaring health care costs
An interesting piece from Atul Gawande (a doctor who writes articles also) about one un-remarked-upon contributor to high health care costs - doctors who think of themselves like a business and not like health care providers. Noting that some places like McAllen, Texas have really high costs while other places don't. Fascinating read.
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4 comments/complaints:
Good stuff. Have you seen Sicko? I'll accept the slant of the film, but our health care system is disgusting.
That WAS a great piece, and the issue he gets at doesn't seem to me (who just spent a couple of years as a medical journalist) to be on the table of current health-care reform discussions.
Didn't see Sicko. I'm ambivalent about it, being Canadian and having deep experience with the Canadian system. In an environment where everyone has equal access to health care, no one has good access to health care.
I had a friend whose father, diagnosed with bone cancer and told that if the diagnosis was right he'd have 10 weeks to live, was scheduled for a bone scan 12 weeks later because that was the waiting list time. Couldn't go to another hospital because 12 weeks is the waiting list - he'd get the first available hospital anyway so no need to move.
Individual anecdotes don't replace systematic study, but there's one.
France's system is superior to Canada's.
Seems there would be a way around your friend's problem. Likeluy death before expiration of waiting period would seem to me to be grounds to move up the list.
That said - have you tried to get an appointment with a specialist physician in the states lately?
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