"There’s evidence that not having insurance increases suffering,"
I worked in hospitals before anybody used the term "managed care".
I was around when the JCAHO, the top health care accrediation institution, was just "The JC".
By the time I had spent my second year working in a psychiatric hospital, I had realized that sometimes folks might get their treatment "adjusted" according to their ability to pay the hospital.
I was a lot more correct than I knew: I thought, even I might have been a tad cynical.
But no.
The quality of initial diagnosis you can get very often depends on the quality of insurance you have
ATLANTA — A nationwide study has found that the uninsured and those covered by Medicaid are more likely than those with private insurance to receive a diagnosis of cancer in late stages, often diminishing their chances of survival.
The study by researchers with the American Cancer Society also found that blacks had a higher risk of late diagnosis, even after accounting for their disproportionately high rates of being uninsured and underinsured. The study’s authors speculated that the disparity might be caused by a lack of health literacy and an inadequate supply of providers in minority communities. The study is to be published online Monday in The Lancet Oncology.
What does this mean?
It means that when the MD and/or hospital sees they are having to work on you for a cut rate, you are going to get cut-rate service.
The study’s authors concluded that "individuals without private insurance are not receiving optimum care in terms of cancer screening or timely diagnosis and follow-up with health care providers." Advanced-stage diagnosis, they wrote, "leads to increased morbidity, decreased quality of life and survival and, often, increased costs."
It's capitalism again.
There is NO profit in helping human beings, at least as long as powerful people whine and balk at treating humans as humans.
It should be a pointed Democratic Party value that every living American (folks can split hairs about what that means someplace else, ok?) are entitled to proper, decent healthcare.
Taking care of people, at least medically, shouldn't be viewed as some sort of communist handout.
And a cynical person like myself cannot let the appearances that capitalism would like to hasten the demise of the poorer people who vastly outnumber those lucky enough to be wealthy or at least adequately insured.
I have long thought this based on the actions of MEdicaid, which will prefer to let people get sick by not funding enough treatment for them so they return to the hospital and die. It costs more for the person to die than to give the extra medicine or treatment, but I always think Medicaid wants the pesky ill to drop dead.
And so they do.