11.15.2009

Your brief anecdote from my weekend on call

The phones, they will not stop ringing!!

Anyhow, in between the many, many patients I have seen thus far, I got a call from the ER giving me a brief description of a patient who will need follow-up. The doctor said that they are seeing whole families there who have moved from other states to Maine in order to get health care benefits.

I do not know if this is actually an observable trend or simply the impression of one ER doc, so take it with a gigantic grain of salt, but I thought it was an interesting enough little blurb to pass along.

Now then... back to the trenches

5 comments:

  1. Oooh, yes, and we can do this to the WHOLE USA by passing CongressCare! Fences with cath and release won't be enough. I know I'd crawl from Terra del Fuego over broken glass by pulling myself along with my tongue if it meant I'd get medical care for my child. I don't think I'm all that unusual in this regard.

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  2. The reason many come to Maine is our access to benefits, that when compared to other states is somewhat easier. I have a hunch this shall end with the new budget that will reflect the massive declining revenues for the state. As a leading legislator said we will be faced with cuts in the Human Resources like never before. This is not a good time to be a poor person, not that any time was ever a good time to be poor. Hopefully our poor will have some relief when congress finally has a reconciled bill dealing with health care.

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  3. Shorter UJ: Nancy knows how to get the magic unicorns to poop cash. Lots of cash. Really, really lots of cash.

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  4. GJ, that's an awfully facile analysis. First of all, don't kid yourself that immigrant families aren't already coming to the US for health care. I worked in the ED at Bellevue in New York City. The immigrant families are already here, have been here forever, and will continue to come. This bill will, perhaps, induce more to come, but I doubt it will make an appreciable difference.

    Second, the health care reform bill will not liberalize enrollment to the point that illegal immigrants will magically qualify. If they buy coverage through a public option, then yes, some might be. But they'd be buying it, which does not bother me in the slightest.

    Oh, yes. Nancy Pelosi. Booga, booga, booga. yawn

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  5. I'm not quite so naive as to believe illegals stay away from the healthcare here. Of course they come; I'd try too if I had a sick child that couldn't be helped in my home country, and damn the ICE. There is an essentially infinite demand for healthcare when someone else is paying for it. Let's let some State, like, ohhh, MA for instance, or TN if you'd rather, try this kind of insurance reform, and see what happens... oh, wait. Snap.

    Illegals? Of course they qualify. Show me where it says they don't. No one knows what in the [*(&*&%$]; certainly not the maroons who voted on it. Repubs and Dems didn't even know their speeches were written by the same lobbyists. How stupid can you get?

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