Funferal

Healthcare in the USA

In today’s Daily Illini there’s another installment in their series on binge-drinking among students. Right on the front page of the newspaper there’s a quote from a student:

Paramedics tested Siah’s blood alcohol content and said that he needed to go to the hospital for alcohol poisoning. Before they could get Siah into an ambulance, he refused and signed a refusal of care form freeing the hospital from any responsibilities or liabilities with regards to Siah’s health that night.
I probably should’ve gone to the hospital, Siah said. But, I’m a cheapskate. I didn’t want to pay for it.

I couldn’t help thinking: yes, binge-drinking is an important problem (reportedly 61% of students binge-drink – and they’re using a five drink definition for males rather than the 3 drink definition being used in Ireland) – but how are we not seeing stories about this, about the fact that the cost of emergency health-care is so high as to act as a deterrent. I’ve expressed my opinion to friends previously that cost, not just the fear of being expelled from the university or losing funding, is a factor dissuading students from seeking necessary help. And all of this is merely relatively minor aspect of issues surrounding healthcare costs.
Now Greg Palast has posted a terribly poignant anecdote on his website which highlights the obscenity of the system:

I was in the drug store today out here in Podunk. Some old guy in front of me was picking up his little paper bag of prescription medicine. The lady behind the counter handed him a credit card slip and said, I’m sorry.
She was sorry because the bill was over $1,200. The old man stared at the charge card receipt and stared at it some more. Hesitating, he signed, then said, I hope I die before I have to pay for the next re-fill.
He wasn’t joking. The lady behind the counter said, Oh, don’t ever say that. And she said it in such a way that it was clear she’d heard the same thought before, in different words, from too many of the old folk that come by.