The Herald, South Florida’s major newspaper, headlined the unthinkable this past week: Jackson Halts Dialysis of Poor Patients .  One of the nation’s top-rated hospitals, Miami’s Jackson Health System had to adopt a policy that would deprive some 175 indigent patients of critical, life-saving care because it could no longer afford to provide it.

Hardly a decision taken lightly by the hospital administration, the financially strapped institution finally had to draw the line on life. Fortunately for those patients , some of the other area hospitals volunteered to take up the slack for all but about 4o. These would have to seek care in the city’s emergency rooms, where the law requires the hospitals to provide critical care regardless of the financial condition of the patient—or the hospital!

This, to me, is a tragic and stunning case in point that illustrates a simple fact: no matter how humane and compassionate the issue, the ultimate truth is that there simply ain’t no free lunch. As much as we would like to characterize medical care as a right rather than a privilege, without the funds to provide it, it vanishes.

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Back in June, I posted a message—a rant, actually—about healthcare. This was before the issue had stirred up as much of a hornets’ nest it has around the country in recent weeks.

My premise was that we got along just fine before an entire new industry inserted itself between providers and patients, ostensibly to make the healthcare process more efficient and to serve as a watchdog on behalf of the public. Its charter was to prevent you and me from being taken advantage of by the “greedy” doctors, hospitals, and others who serve the sick.

But that burgeoning industry has grown like a cancer, taking more and more money from both provider and patient in order to satisfy its voracious appetite for funds to pay its minions and satisfy its shareholders. And it has become more the problem than the solution.

At the end, I asked for some suggestions to resolve this “healthcare problem.”

Read more…

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I may be getting on in years, but I can easily remember…and not all that long ago…when the only participants in the health care arena were the patients and the providers. (Hey, I’m even old enough to remember house calls!)

You might have paid a good bit more for a visit to the doctor than you do now (when you finally gave in to the fact that you really ought to go). But, you paid only when you went to see him or her. And, the doctor, whom you’d known for years, took the time to deal with your problem and ask about your family. He really made you feel like he cared, because he did. Then, of course, he made enough money to give you the time he needed to exercise that care. Read more…

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