Uninsured Trauma Patients More Likely to Die: Study

Upon entering the ER insurance is not known, presumably, and everyone is treated equally unless you have been there before. Upon admission to the ICU it IS established and decisions in care, whether consciously or not, are tainted by the issue of reimbursement. Case management, physicians, and behind the scenes administration make decisions based on reimbursement. Some patients are milked and some are sacrificed. Is a line crossed? Depends on who is drawing the line. There are people desperate to keep other people; people worth less than they are, from getting anything at a better value like 'free health care' even if EVERYONE got the same deal at the same time there are all those years they paid into the system and will continue to pay as a 'more productive and valuable' member of the 'population' - NOT the society. Would not want to use any word close to social/socialism at this juncture.

Now, this anonymous trauma patient may have other factors to consider but because they were not insured they did not have access to all the preventative medicine they could have. Fewer annual physicals where hidden dangers like hypertension, diabetes, or COPD could be identified and corrected. Fewer if any visits to a dentist for better teeth and gums and not be fighting off a mild infection all the time. The patient may have been able to seek treatment for substance abuse and avoid the trauma in the first place or not been chronically ill or had a known-unknown addiction that complicated recovery in the ICU. All of these are factors that reduce your chances of survival when the odds are sometimes very, very low. All are factors that can be linked to utilization of adequate health care. Health care that is not universal, by it's omission causes harm, and has become another tool of hate.

James Parham of MO 1:34PM November 17, 2009