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Health care reform: Westmoreland laborer gets relief from $44,000 toothache bill, but taxpayers won't. Will reform fix this situation?
Date published: 12/28/2009
BY FRANK DELANO Kenneth Van Deusen of Westmoreland County received rapid, effective care in September for his life-threatening tooth infection. He was lucky. In 2007, 12-year-old Deamonte Driver of Maryland died of an infection that spread to his brain from an abscessed tooth. Driver was covered by Medicaid, but was unable to get either a filling or a tooth extraction that might have saved his life. Van Deusen, a 32-year-old laborer who lacks medical and dental insurance, is rightly worried about the effects on his credit rating of his $43,991.88 in medical bills. "I guess I'll have bad credit the rest of my life," he said. But the expense of his ordeal will not be his alone. The journey that began with a toothache took him across a sea of red ink that increases taxes and medical costs for everyone. Van Deusen, who figures he made about $2,000 last year, will not have to pay a dime of his $25,529.13 bill at VCU Medical Center. He qualified for the hospital's indigent-care program. The cost of his lifesaving treatment at VCU will be paid by state and federal tax dollars. This year, Virginia taxpayers will pay $193 million for indigent care at two state-run teaching hospitals. VCU Medical Center will receive $118 million and the University of Virginia Medical Center will get $75 million. But most of the rest of Van Deusen's bills may end up being written off as uncollectible debts. Bad debts in the nation's health care system are "a huge, invisible, undeclared tax" on people who can afford health insurance and health care, said Craig Yale, a vice president of Air Methods Corp. Air Methods, which flew Van Deusen to Richmond, is the largest air ambulance company in the United States. According to its 2008 annual report, the company reduced its revenues from $630 million to $500 million to account for uncompensated care.
Date published: 12/28/2009
There's no doubt his life was saved. I question to what extent we should maintain a safety net to compensate for someone's ignorance and stupidity. The article lays out numerous opportunities that were available to him. It was HIS responsibility to find them! I have 6 people (including myself) that have to make a 80-mile round trip to the dentist whenever we need his services (closest provider in our network). Bottom line-it was there for him when needed. No way a single-payer system could do better.
we pay twice as much per capita for health care in this
country and this guy's experience gives us some excellent
insight as to why.
We have the best urgent/intervention care in the world but
our primary care system SUCKS. Even people with
insurance get short shrift ...UNTIL they get a VERY
EXPENSIVE - PROFITABLE illness.. then the system kicks
in to spare no cost to tend to them.
That 40K helicopter ride also goes to folks with insurance,
who, had they gotten care earlier would not have needed
it.
people in his circumstance are never sure they can get
cheap care .... they often have to wait for
appointments....the system is not really set up to help them
head off trouble before it get's worse.
Heck, even people WITH insurance gets discouraged from
seeing a doctor... delayed appointments.. etc..
you can blame this fella and maybe in this circumstance,
he had some culpability but in general what happened to
him is what is wrong with our system - and ya'll know this.
we all know this - it's broke.
I'm not trying to be mean, just realistic. NO WAY did this problem become this serious overnight. Instead, it was likely the culmination of years, maybe a lifetime of neglectful behavior. The lack of any indication of personal responsibility here is the root (no pun intended) of what's wrong with our society today. The FLS doesn't seem to be interested in pursuing this angle either. I would feel better about that if there was something more in the article than an off-hand remark about future credit issues.
I said "again", because my initial remarks mysteriously vanished after being posted. 1-Did the FLS have nothing better to report front-page above-the-fold that day (let's see-bombing in Motown, Iran's nuke issues among others come to mind)? 2-A 32 YOA person needs to do a gut check if he can't find regular work unless he's qualified for disability. I commute 70+ miles one-way IOT keep my family in W-Co. I'm nearly 15 years older, don't have a degree, but just suck it up. He should too.
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