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Problem with Americas healthcare

Dear Mr. President:

During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive Shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive
Brand of tennis shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ringtone.

While glancing over her Patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as "Medicaid"! During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one costly pack of cigarettes every day and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer.

And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman's health care?

I contend that our nation's "health care crisis" is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture", a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance.

It is a culture based on the irresponsible credo that "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me". Once you fix this "culture crisis" that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly our nation's health care difficulties will disappear.

Respectfully,
STARNER JONES, MD

Whether the person known as "Starner Jones" is real or not, the situation he describes is common.

December 24, 2012

21 Comments • Newest first

BBD

Actually I see no difference than you paying your private insurance using the same money you gave them to give a smoker who is under the same insurance company as you. So in the end you lose in both worlds.

Reply December 25, 2012
TrueAtheist

[quote=aznseal]You're ignoring my question. Do you honestly believe there's nothing wrong with people using food stamps for alcohol and cigarettes.[/quote]

That's a negative byproduct that happens when society addresses the more pertinent problem of helping people afford food for their children.

Reply December 25, 2012
aznseal

[quote=TrueAtheist]So the entire system should be overturned because someone misuses their funds?

If your problem is with the misuse of government expenditure then Wall-Street and corporate welfare is a million times worse and fiscally far more significant than people misusing their welfare checks.

You're making a problem out of a pebble when there is a mountain you are choosing to ignore.[/quote]

You're ignoring my question. Do you honestly believe there's nothing wrong with people using food stamps for alcohol and cigarettes.

Reply December 25, 2012
TrueAtheist

[quote=aznseal]@TrueAtheist: The Starner Jones letter is real. Whether the exact version of it I posted is correct word for word or not is another issue, but as far as I can tell, he did write a letter similar to this. And yes, if someone uses food stamps for cigs and alcohol then something's wrong.[/quote]

So the entire system should be overturned because someone misuses their funds?

If your problem is with the misuse of government expenditure then Wall-Street and corporate welfare is a million times worse and fiscally far more significant than people misusing their welfare checks.

You're making a problem out of a pebble when there is a mountain you are choosing to ignore.

Reply December 25, 2012
aznseal

@TrueAtheist: The Starner Jones letter is real. Whether the exact version of it I posted is correct word for word or not is another issue, but as far as I can tell, he did write a letter similar to this. And yes, if someone uses food stamps for cigs and alcohol then something's wrong. Do you honestly see nothing wrong with using food stamps to buy cigs/alcohol? Lol.

And no, thinking our "reforms" suck has nothing to do with Obama winning.

Reply December 25, 2012 - edited
SleepyHobo

[quote=aznseal]IMO A step in the right direction would have some sort of reward program where through regularly schedules health screens, if one is healthy (no excess liquor/tobacco, drugs, etc) and if one is actively seeking a job (if able) or if one is putting in money if they can (minimum wage job), then they should be granted healthcare privileges.[/quote]

Why make this legislation when the lawmakers trying to pass it won't include themselves.

Reply December 25, 2012 - edited
TrueAtheist

Still bitter Romney lost I see.

Also, most of these Facebook chain letters are completely fake.

@zoneflare2 When and where was the last time you saw one of these people? How many people like this have you seen in your life? Do you know their life story or are you making assumptions? Do you think people on food stamps should not be allowed to buy cigarettes and alcohol? If you answered yes to the previous question then be prepared to change the entire constitution.

Reply December 25, 2012 - edited
FwuffehStarz

I think you should post this on reddit if you actually want a honest post and opinions.

Reply December 25, 2012 - edited
Telatsu

The problem is, you're suffering from confirmation bias. The vast majority of people who do receive this, aren't the ones who are adorned with "expensive tastes."
Furthermore, let's talk about patient history. These tattoos could easily have been from another time, how much do you know about the patients past? Have they only recently fallen on hard times? Is the fact she's smoking cigarettes from a time when not only she could more easily afford them, but also the beginning of her addiction? Furthermore, did you know having gold teeth is actually now one of the cheaper prosthetic due to it most likely not being of pure quality and is often not even gold? I wonder, did you also ask the patient about this? To address the pretzels and beer; Ignoring the fact it seemed to come out of nowhere and is incongruous to the conversation, pretzels and beer don't exactly cost anything expensive. At all.

But to bring it back to confirmation bias, I wonder how many people that come in under "Medicaid" and are "sufficiently" poor for you to feel it is worth it? The role of arbiter that you assume here is both ignorant and petty. Whether we like it or not, there are some who are of lower income who do not spend their money wisely. But for you to feel that this means they should be neglected healthcare is probably one of the more asinine things I've heard here, and this is Basilmarket. Because having worked closely volunteering and with a multitude of friends who are on the pre-med, pharm, and are active Nurses here at the University of Michigan hospital as well as a multitude of others, what you say is, while not uncommon, certainly not the majority.

Reply December 25, 2012 - edited
aznseal

IMO A step in the right direction would have some sort of reward program where through regularly schedules health screens, if one is healthy (no excess liquor/tobacco, drugs, etc) and if one is actively seeking a job (if able) or if one is putting in money if they can (minimum wage job), then they should be granted healthcare privileges.

Reply December 25, 2012 - edited
steven7x23

[quote=mantris561]@aznseal your old enough to work in a hospital? are u a thirty year old guy playing maplestory after ur done with ur shift at the hospital?[/quote]

pretty sure he is medical stuffed
and smart and asian
but not 30
probably early to mid 20's

myself is late 20's early 30's

Reply December 25, 2012 - edited
aznseal

[quote=xreminiscing]Yes, there are people that abuse the system. However, programs like Medicare/Medicaid, welfare, food stamps, etc. do help out countless of other people the way they were intended to. I know that I personally I would have never been able to afford glasses, teeth cleanings, doctor checkups, shots for school, medicine, and a bunch of other things if it weren't for having Medi-Cal (California's version of Medicaid) as a little girl. Denying healthcare to all of the people that can't afford it due to the actions of some individuals is a little unfair. While Obamacare may not be perfect yet, it is still a step in the right direction. Canada's had universal health care for years now and they're doing just fine. Whereas all of the Americans here ask, "Why should we provide healthcare for everyone?", all of the Canadians from my school are always asking, "Why don't we provide healthcare for everyone?"[/quote]

I agree with most of this. Right now, I just feel like obamacare is a bandaid as opposed to a solution. We need to fix the source of the problem, not the symptoms.

Reply December 25, 2012 - edited
xreminiscing

Yes, there are people that abuse the system. However, programs like Medicare/Medicaid, welfare, food stamps, etc. do help out countless of other people the way they were intended to. I know that I personally I would have never been able to afford glasses, teeth cleanings, doctor checkups, shots for school, medicine, and a bunch of other things if it weren't for having Medi-Cal (California's version of Medicaid) as a little girl. Denying healthcare to all of the people that can't afford it due to the actions of some individuals is a little unfair. While Obamacare may not be perfect yet, it is still a step in the right direction. Canada's had universal health care for years now and they're doing just fine. Whereas all of the Americans here ask, "Why should we provide healthcare for everyone?", all of the Canadians from my school are always asking, "Why don't we provide healthcare for everyone?"

Reply December 24, 2012 - edited
ThatBox

I thought there was some kind of system where people had to pay health insurance if they could.

Reply December 24, 2012 - edited
pluckyoureyes

The issue isn't whether or not the person smokes / does bad things to their body. The issue is how on earth can we continue to afford this welfare / warfare system. Getting the federal reserve to print out endless supplies of money will only work for so long before the system blows.

I would personally love a utopian world where everyone has free access to everything. But the fact is, we live in an imperfect world with limited resources. Once we realize this, we will see why socialistic systems like this won't last long (especially for a country that is already trillions of dollars in debt).

Reply December 24, 2012 - edited
aznseal

[quote=Rozhin]@aznseal:
Details please?[/quote]

Their "choice" of using the ER as a free clinic is forcing heavy burden upon ER personnel. The burden is thus passed on to other patients.

See, I have no problems with paying for a governmental service is everyone (mostly everyone) benefits, but the reality of it is that under Obamacare, no one wins. It hurts the middle class, it annoys the upper class, and the lower class it actually helps won't get the benefit due to places rejecting medicare or the people just not caring.

Reply December 24, 2012 - edited
aznseal

[quote=Rozhin]you can try this. Let people make choices for themselves.

http://able2know.org/forum/obamacare/[/quote]

Their "choice" is simultaneously getting rid of the "choices" of someone else.

Reply December 24, 2012 - edited
aznseal

[quote=LeonZan]I really think basil isnt the place to talk about this even if you have valid points[/quote]

I think basil's the perfect place due to how many people here blindly follow Obama.

Reply December 24, 2012 - edited
aznseal

[quote=mantris561]@aznseal your old enough to work in a hospital? are u a thirty year old guy playing maplestory after ur done with ur shift at the hospital?[/quote]

I fail to see where I said I was Starner Jones.

Reply December 24, 2012 - edited
xDracius

I wonder how Canada's doing...

Reply December 24, 2012 - edited
aznseal

Snoovy is still not the basiler you're looking for.

Reply December 24, 2012 - edited