Why Government Provided Health Care IS SOOOOO Wrong
Much has been said (in the last 2 years) about health care. All of the Democrats running for President (and most of the ones running for lesser offices) have been advocating some sort of government paid for insurance/health care as part of their official platform. I have written many posts outlining why government insurance/health care is not a good idea and today I have another one (HT Dennis Prager).
The emphasis is mine, and I will explain why that particular one is so very troubling to me.
My mother has been suffering from chronic pain for probably 20 years. She has rheumatoid arthritis, gout, a replacement hip, two knees in need of replacement, hyperthyroidism, heart issues and 7 vertebrae in her neck that are fused together. She is about as "chronic" as you will ever see.
In 2006, she had a physical collapse in her home (she lives alone as my parents are divorced). My sister found her (she had been out of town when the collapse happened) 4 days later at deaths door. We spent Easter weekend in the ICU wondering if she would recover or not! After two weeks of hospitalization for every kind of test under the sun, we had lots of possibilities but no physical reason for her collapse. It remains a mystery to this date. One of the things that her doctors at the hospital had us do was take an inventory of her medications and bring it in to him (to see if it was a drug interaction that caused the problem). Growing up, my sister and I used to joke about mom being a walking pharmacy, but what we found in her home was startling. There were approximately 40 different prescriptions from 3 different pharmacies and many were pain killers. While we don't know for sure if she over medicated, it is a possibility that we had to consider given what we knew.
That is why I find the highlighted passage to be so very disturbing! Encouraging people in chronic pain to self medicate without proper doctor supervision is a recipe for disaster. That person could get behind the wheel of a car (the last thing my mom remembered of that day was driving home from a luncheon with friends) and cause an accident. At the least, they could medicate themselves to death! Aside from that, people don't know about the subtle changes that need to be watched for when dealing with chronic health problems. My mother, being an RN by training, noticed some subtle changes in her breathing and circulation that led to the doctors testing for arterial blockage around the heart (which they found and cleared). If it were not for dealing with her health, I certainly would not have thought that the problems she was having to be worthy of a doctors visit....I probably would have written them off to my allergies or my weight. We are not trained physicians! Even the class on self care that the NHS provides will not be enough to make sure that everything necessary is covered. There are too many variables - ESPECIALLY with the elderly who tend to have multiple health problems.
I do realize that there are problems with our existing system of health care, but that does not mean we should just let the government take over the system. Patients and doctors and insurance carriers and hospitals AND legislators all need to work together in order to improve the system that we have. The system can be fixed, but having government pay for it is NOT the answer at all!
Millions of people with arthritis, asthma and even heart failure will be urged to treat themselves as part of a Government plan to save billions of pounds from the NHS budget.
Instead of going to hospital or consulting a doctor, patients will be encouraged to carry out "self care" as the Department of Health (DoH) tries to meet Treasury targets to curb spending.
The guidelines could mean people with chronic conditions:
• Monitoring their own heart activity, blood pressure and lung capacity using equipment installed in the home
• Reporting medical information to doctors remotely by telephone or computer
• Administering their own drugs and other treatment to "manage pain" and assessing the significance of changes in their condition
• Using relaxation techniques to relieve stress and avoid "panic" visits to emergency wards.
The emphasis is mine, and I will explain why that particular one is so very troubling to me.
My mother has been suffering from chronic pain for probably 20 years. She has rheumatoid arthritis, gout, a replacement hip, two knees in need of replacement, hyperthyroidism, heart issues and 7 vertebrae in her neck that are fused together. She is about as "chronic" as you will ever see.
In 2006, she had a physical collapse in her home (she lives alone as my parents are divorced). My sister found her (she had been out of town when the collapse happened) 4 days later at deaths door. We spent Easter weekend in the ICU wondering if she would recover or not! After two weeks of hospitalization for every kind of test under the sun, we had lots of possibilities but no physical reason for her collapse. It remains a mystery to this date. One of the things that her doctors at the hospital had us do was take an inventory of her medications and bring it in to him (to see if it was a drug interaction that caused the problem). Growing up, my sister and I used to joke about mom being a walking pharmacy, but what we found in her home was startling. There were approximately 40 different prescriptions from 3 different pharmacies and many were pain killers. While we don't know for sure if she over medicated, it is a possibility that we had to consider given what we knew.
That is why I find the highlighted passage to be so very disturbing! Encouraging people in chronic pain to self medicate without proper doctor supervision is a recipe for disaster. That person could get behind the wheel of a car (the last thing my mom remembered of that day was driving home from a luncheon with friends) and cause an accident. At the least, they could medicate themselves to death! Aside from that, people don't know about the subtle changes that need to be watched for when dealing with chronic health problems. My mother, being an RN by training, noticed some subtle changes in her breathing and circulation that led to the doctors testing for arterial blockage around the heart (which they found and cleared). If it were not for dealing with her health, I certainly would not have thought that the problems she was having to be worthy of a doctors visit....I probably would have written them off to my allergies or my weight. We are not trained physicians! Even the class on self care that the NHS provides will not be enough to make sure that everything necessary is covered. There are too many variables - ESPECIALLY with the elderly who tend to have multiple health problems.
I do realize that there are problems with our existing system of health care, but that does not mean we should just let the government take over the system. Patients and doctors and insurance carriers and hospitals AND legislators all need to work together in order to improve the system that we have. The system can be fixed, but having government pay for it is NOT the answer at all!
Labels: Nanny Government, Universal Health Care
posted by The Lady Logician at
3:56 PM
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