Discussing an MSNBC Healthcare article..

[terry]

Hissyspit  Donating Member  (1000+ posts)  Journal  Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list  Donate to DU!      Mon Nov-16-09 10:26 PM
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"She's decided against treatment. A reasonable decision under the circumstances."   Updated at 1:49 AM
   
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Edited on Mon Nov-16-09 11:25 PM by Hissyspit
If you missed it, Keith Olbermann read this entire column on tonight's Countdown written by one of the show's producers in his response to what he saw at the free health clinic held in New Orleans this weekend past after Olbermann called for a fundraising to hold the clinics. Please read it if you missed the show. VIDEO is here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33975919/ns/msnbc_tv-countd...

Health reform's human stories

Countdown producer bears witness to America's health care shortcomings

MSNBC
updated 2 hours, 37 minutes ago

Rich Stockwell
Senior producer, 'Countdown'

New Orleans, La. — - It happened as I watched a 50-something woman walk out, after spending several hours being attended to by volunteer doctors. "She's decided against treatment. A reasonable decision under the circumstances," the doctor tells us as she heads for the next patient. The president of the board of the National Association of Free Health Clinics tells me why: "It's stage-four breast cancer, her body is filled with tumors." I don't know when that woman last saw a doctor. But I do know that if she had health insurance, the odds she would have seen a doctor long ago are much higher, and her chances for an earlier diagnosis and treatment would have been far greater.

After watching for hours as the patients moved through the clinic, it was hard to believe that I was in America.

Eighty-three percent of the patients they see are employed, they are not accepting other government help on a large scale, not "welfare queens" as some would like to have us believe. They are tax-paying, good, upstanding citizens who are trying to make it and give their kids a better life just like you and me.

Ninety percent of the patients who came through Saturday's clinic had two or more diagnoses.

Eighty-two percent had a life-threatening condition such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or hypertension. They are victims of a system built with corporate profits at its center, which long ago forgot the moral imperative that should drive us to show compassion to our fellow men and women.

Health reform is not about Democrats or Republicans or who can score political points for the next election, it's about people. It's about fairness and justice in a system that knows none. I'd defy even the most hardened capitalist-loving-conservative to do what I did on Saturday and continue to pretend that the system in place right now is working.

Countdown chose to highlight and raise money for the Association of Free Clinics because we knew the work they do is so vitally important and we wanted to show in real terms how great the need is. We invited several politicians to attend so they could see first hand how critical the situation is. All declined. Some explained that they talk with constituents all the time and know very well of the need for reform.

I have news for them, these people didn't need to speak. Their actions spoke far louder than any words. Having to get a check up and diagnoses at a free clinic because they have no other option tells you all you need to know. There are no words that can accurately describe the quiet desperation on the faces of the patients. Every single one I spoke to, and every one I heard talking with doctors, expressed their gratitude for the event and wished that they were held more often.

- snip -

I spoke with a nurse who was there not as a volunteer, but as a patient. He works two part time jobs at hospitals providing quality care to those who have the one thing he doesn't. Many of his patients share his condition of high blood pressure, but they are fortunate to have insurance to pay for him to care for them while he goes without.

His situation is not uncommon, he has tried for years to get more hours at one of his jobs so he will be eligible for benefits, but it hasn't happened yet. Our system of for-profit health care can't afford to give him and others benefits - might make the stock price drop a penny or two.

The last time the media gathered at that convention center, it was for a natural disaster in which our government was rendered useless due to incompetence.

- snip -

I have changed. I am gratified that just over one thousand people were able to get the minimal amount of care and resources for follow up. But, I am heart-sick for the many more like them who didn't have the time or didn't know that they could get care on Saturday.

- snip -

Politicians continue to tell us we are the most compassionate and caring people, and clearly we have done much good in the world. I left the event overwhelmed by the hard work and dedication of the volunteers, doctors, nurses, other medical professionals, as well as ordinary citizens who came to help. I am left with one overwhelming question: what does it say about us as a nation of people who can live in a country so rich and yet allow this to continue?

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Yes really what does it say about this country that we allow volunteers to help people. VOLUNTEERS.. people who decided to help because it's the right thing to do, not because someone is holding a gun to their head.  Oh the horror!!!

Having to get a check up and diagnoses at a free clinic because they have no other option tells you all you need to know.  There are no words that can accurately describe the quiet desperation on the faces of the patients.

And this is what the democrats want for all of us.  They totally miss the irony.

[Lord Undies]

Yes, Little Goons, just wait until they're all "free" clinics, except without the kind loving volunteers.

Little Goons, who will cost more to maintain than they are worth, will be the first ones sent home with a government-issued Mandatory Kevorkian Kit.   

[Randy]

Yes, Little Goons, just wait until they're all "free" clinics, except without the kind loving volunteers.

Little Goons, who will cost more to maintain than they are worth, will be the first ones sent home with a government-issued Mandatory Kevorkian Kit.   

Or they could just put some Paraquat in the pot supply....  :innocent:

[Lord Undies]

Or they could just put some Paraquat in the pot supply....  :innocent:

That would cause the funeral industry to be overwhelmed and then we'd need Universal Final care.

[Randy]

That would cause the funeral industry to be overwhelmed and then we'd need Universal Final care.

 


Think of it as the 2010 Funeral Home Economic Stimulus Package. We could call it Cash for Junkies. That way the DUmmies would be all over it. 

[GOBUCKS]

That would cause the funeral industry to be overwhelmed and then we'd need Universal Final care.

Death is too important to be left to for-profit companies.