Metapost
Friday, October 23 2009
A few odds and ends – what others call a tab dump, except I include a little more commentary:
Ian Pearl has muscular dystrophy; naturally, his insurers describe him as a “dog” and a “trainwreck”. They cancelled insurance policies in an entire community, so they could get him off the books. One of the most morally problematic aspects of employer-based insurance is that a chronically ill patient with serious medical needs not only costs his co-workers money, but possibly the ability to get access to health care at all. If what were at stake was, say, my ability to get treatment versus a co-worker’s ability to get asthma meds for her kid, that would be a pretty easy decision. What’s really at stake is both my and my co-workers’ needs for health care, versus the demands of our insurer’s shareholders for ever-growing profits. The way the rules are set up, we can’t win.
Stephanie Tatel’s son has leukemia, which means he can’t be vaccinated and is highly vulnerable to infectious disease. The fact that some people choose not to vaccinate their children means she can’t put her kid into day care. Tatel’s piece echoes a point I made earlier in the week: people who refuse to get vaccines aren’t just endangering themselves, but also putting at risk the most vulnerable people in society.
Trish Torrey has a good post titled “Patients – the Invisible Stakeholders“. At a conference on health care, she asked about patient representation; she was told, “We are all patients.” Which is, of course, bullshit. If you need a reminder why, re-read this post of mine.
Finally, Austin Frakt takes a look at who exactly health reform would help most. It turns out a lot of chronically ill people end up falling through the cracks in our health care system, in part because of overly narrow Medicaid eligibility requirements. In Texas, for example, a family of four earning $3,000 a year would be ineligible for Medicaid – if my math is correct. The post is a little wonky and a bit dense, but points to an important problem. And before you think, “but those a sick poor people”, ask what came first: illness or poverty? My guess is illness played a big role in putting them into their present circumstances.
