The Uninsured See the Untrained

The Uninsured See the Untrained

I see a lot of uninsured patients. Things are a bit better with some of the health care reforms, but at the turn of the century about 25% of my patient had no insurance.

Many patients with insurance lacked coverage for home antibiotics and other therapies they needed. I have never had a patient not get the care they require, although it is no surprise to me the that number one cause of bankruptcy in the US is medical bills.

Worse than bankruptcy are those who come in too late to save because they lacked insurance. In my world it has been the uninsured diabetic who comes in with a severe infection or an HIV patient who finally shows up at the very end of their disease and die.

Morbidity and mortality due to lack of insurance is not common but is approximately the same as guns or car accidents:

It's estimated there are between 20,000 and 45,000 deaths a year due to lack of health insurance.

What if you cannot afford health care? What are your options? It seems increasingly that Americans are using alternative providers

60% of adults who saw a practitioner for chiropractic had at least some health insurance coverage for this approach, far fewer adults seeing a practitioner for acupuncture (25%) or massage therapy (15%) had coverage for these approaches.

Annoyingly, the report doesn't mention why they were seeing alternative providers. That is was massage, acupuncture, and chiropractic suggests the reason for the alternative provider visits was pain, which I suppose is perversely reassuring. Pain, while awful, is not life threatening like diabetes or AIDS if ignored.

Still, it is dispiriting. It is bad enough when 1 in 6 of our citizens are uninsured and disproportionately suffer as a result. That they then have to turn to pseudo-medicine for their care makes it sadder still.

Part of the reason health care in the US is second to none.  

Because we are 37th.

Will Kansas legalize acupuncture and Oriental medi...
Points of Interest 01/22/2015

Related Posts