Rush Limbaugh had to go to the hospital a few days ago suffering from chest pain. They didn’t find anything cardiac related, and Limbaugh was released. On his release, he was quoted in an Associated Press article in the Wichita Eagle on January 2, 2010, as saying, that he got the best health treatment in the world "right here in the United States of America."
"I don't think there's one thing wrong with the American health care system," Limbaugh said. "I got no special treatment other than what anybody else that would have called 911 and had been brought in with the same kinds of symptoms."
I am truly glad that Mr. Limbaugh was able to get the diagnosis and treatment that he needed at that time. However, as someone with both fame and money, Mr. Limbaugh hasn’t a clue whether there’s anything wrong with the health care system or not. I challenge him to attempt to receive care anonymously, without insurance, and without money. I challenge him to say the same words regarding our health care system after a few years of trying to find free clinics, applying for Medicaid, navigating the emergency room, and hoping against hope that he won’t need an expensive antibiotic to treat a very treatable condition.
An article in today’s Eagle (January 3, 2010) tells of crowds waiting all night for vision, dental, and medical examinations and treatment in Tennessee. A 26 year old mother of three says she has waited “pretty much as long as I can remember” to escape the pain throbbing through her jaws. Her husband is out of work. Medical insurance is out of the question.
Over the next two days, providers at that clinic will have seen 701 patients. They will have extracted 852 teeth, filled 234 others, tested 345 pairs of eyes, and had 87 people examined by an M.D. The bill, if someone was paying, would total over $138,000. And this is just one clinic in one area over two days.
The people that finance and provide the clinic say it’s been this way during the entire 17 year period they’ve been doing this. The clinic just completed was number 587 and was held at a local high school.
Would Mr. Limbaugh have been willing to wait “pretty much as long as (he) can remember” to have those pains in his chest examined? Would he have driven for two hours with three kids, waited overnight in line over 10 hours, and waited some more the next day (with those three kids) in order to be seen by a provider who didn’t have access to the latest and greatest medical equipment, laboratory, or diagnostic instruments? Who had hundreds more people lined up to see him or her? Give me a break.
Yet thousands of people live this way, dealing with their medical and dental care as they can and as others are willing to provide. Having no choice, they wait for the next free clinic which could be next week or next year. They hope against hope that they will be healthy enough between clinics that they will be able to continue to function.
I give Mr. Limbaugh credit, though. His comments certainly qualify for the “stupid comments of an ignoramus” award. They’re right up there with President Bush’s comment that health care is always accessible. “People have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room,” he is quoted as saying in Cleveland, Ohio a few years ago.
By the way, while the EMTALA law requires emergency rooms to provide an examination and stabilization to anyone presenting without regard to ability to pay, that is ALL it requires. No emergency room is required to provide treatment that is not life-saving or does not stabilize the patient’s medical condition. The fact that many emergency rooms DO provide treatment in addition to what EMTALA requires is testament to the generosity of many health care providers. I wonder if Mr. Limbaugh or Mr. Bush would be satisfied with this kind of health care?
P.S. (added later) When Mr. Limbaugh and the mother of three in Tennessee receive substantially the same care in substantially the same time frame for substantially the same out of pocket dollars for the same condition, with substantially the same hope of a good outcome, then health care will be closer to what it should be. As it is now, it is ludicrous to think that both of these people will be treated in the same manner if they both present with the same problem at the same health care institution at the same time. And anyone who thinks that they will be treated equally with the same chance for a good outcome hasn't yet crawled out from under the rock they've been living under all these years.
6 comments:
I agree with all you say here. Comments like the ones he made are just stupid, i.e. lack the knowledge of where many people in this country are. In addition to all that, on 60 Minutes last evening the story was told, again, of how ludicrous the treatment of veterans is in this country. I wonder if Mr. Limbaugh would have the same story is he was a wounded veteran seeking treatment.
WDK
I am all for people who truly need help, having done all within their power that they are able to do, receiving the help they need. It is my belief, however, that what is currently proposed in Congress is not going to solve this problem; it is only going to exacerbate it (could we have some major tort reform, please?). There's also this from the above-mentioned article: "Weder [a doctor participating in the free clinic] notices many patients who say they can't afford basic prescriptions--now carried by discounters for as little as $4 a month--have cigarettes in their shirt pockets that cost more than the pills." How about a little personal responsibility?
I don't know what the correct answer is to the health care issue. I have never (to my knowledge) said that the current bill (or any similar measure) was one that I approved of and hoped would pass. There's a lot in this bill, if I understand it right, that I don't like. And there's far, far too much hypocrisy on both sides in D.C. for my blood. But, to me, that is secondary.
Mr. Limbaugh's comments, while asinine, ignorant, and haughty, also rate as a secondary issue.
Primary is that the One who created us all probably doesn't care much what the Congress does regarding this issue, or what Mr. Limbaugh says. He expects us as Christians to care for the sick, feed the hungry, and clothe the poor. I don't think He ever qualified his commands with exceptions for smokers, drinkers, carousers, or potheads (you can add homosexuals, muslims, or anyone else to this list and it would be just as valid).
Additionally, (and I'm not saying MamaRedd is doing this in any stretch of the imagination...she needs to answer for herself) anyone who would deny health care to someone because they smoked (or were overweight, or had a family history of stroke, or didn't exercise enough, or didn't eat the right foods, or didn't wear seat belts...let's get them all out on the table, not just one or two) or denied health care to the children of that person because of that person's shortcomings has to have more than one screw loose and a heart colder than that of Mr. Grinch or Mr. Scrooge.
I don't have a problem with feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, or clothing the poor. I do have a problem doing that for people who are able to do that for themselves. The Bible says that you must work and not steal, you must provide for your own family and if you don't you're worse than an infidel. You must pay your taxes, you must obey the government, and Paul says to qualify the widows and orphans before they receive assistance from the church. Again, I have no issue helping deserving folks. But, I do not feel called upon to help those who manipulate the system, lie on applications, have a mentality of entitlement, spend money on cable TV and booze before buying their kids cereal, eat or sell the food their kids bring home from school on Fridays that's supposed to feed kids on the weekends, quit jobs because they don't like the boss, sell their vision cards, manufacture meth in the same house their kids sleep in, take their last dollar and buy a lottery ticket, get pregnant with their 8th kid by the same loser who doesn't work and who fathered the last 7, sell drugs out of the Section 8 house my tax dollars are paying the rent on, the list goes on. All of these scenarios I have seen in my years of working in the arena of public assistance and in public education. My challenge to you would be to work at the SRS office for a week. Your heart would be broken by the poverty you see, but you'd be aghast at the abuse of available resources to help folks who have knowingly and intentionally burned bridges behind them as they have manipulated their way through life.
I also should add that I do not care for Mr. Limbaugh. I find him arrogant and pompous, however, he is entitled to his opinions. Many many folks agree with most of what he says.
I want to jump back into this discussion for a brief moment. My biggest "complaint" is about rich people who rip off the whole health, medicare, etc. system to the tune of billions of dollars. It makes whatever "ripping" is done by the poor folks look quite trite. I don't think Jesus put qualifications on helping people, i.e. the Good Samaritan story? Thanks Planks for such an energized discussion!
WDK
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