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American Health Costs Outweigh Benefits: A difficult lesson
Sam Wertheimer | Wednesday 22nd July 2009|
My grandmother struggled to compare health care costs and benefits during her battle with cancer. For the price of innovative, high-tech, specialty care, she received painful chemical injections, disquieting overnight stays in the hospital, and slightly increased odds of returning to the golf course - odds already slim for a 92 year-old. Despite the high costs and the poor chances of benefit, the decision to abandon this care regimen still proved difficult. Only after enduring three rounds of chemo did my grandmother decide to end the treatment. A few days after her decision, she passed away peacefully, at home with her family. Now President Obama must help all Americans in their struggle to weigh health care costs and benefits. His task includes pointing out that, like my grandmother, Americans receive dubious benefits for the price of innovative, high-tech, specialty care. The results of American health care include poorer health outcomes than many other developed nations, and variable health care access and quality throughout the country. Making this clear to Americans will be a struggle because, unlike my grandmother, many patients remain unaware of the costs. If the President can overcome this lack of knowledge, perhaps he can convince Americans to act like my grandmother and peacefully abandon high-cost, low-benefit health care. Tonight's news conference will be a good place to attempt this good work. Add a comment below or contact Sam: samjmhealth@gmail.com |
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Mary Miche 23 July 2009 When my Dad had his second serious heart attack at age 83, the doctors quickly encouraged him to have bypass surgery. The day before the surgery, I was visiting him when one of the social workers interviewed him about his emotional state . He answered every question with an assurance that he had completed his life work. After surgery, he was in intense pain. He did not have the strength to recover. He died within a few weeks. Certainly, the open heart surgery hastened the end, but at a cost, both to him and to the HMO. I wished I had written to the hospital to suggest that an in-depth emotional questionnaire would have found that he didn't have the will to push through the pain of recovery. He would have lived longer, in less pain, if he had been treated for congestive heart failure by less invasive methods, but that treatment does not pay out big bucks from Medicare. If we made more use of psychological help rather than surgery, we might see better outcomes. marymiche@jps.net
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Ben Stillman 22 July 2009 I, probably like most people who know little about health care, have always equated cost-cutting for hospitals, doctors, and pharmaceutical companies with dangerous declines in quality in a sector already seemingly lacking in funds. Learning about areas in which health care costs outweigh the benefits is truly eye opening. Thanks for sharing your personal story. It is certainly a complex issue and a potentially curious one to raise at this point in time given our national economy, but I trust our president at least to be transparent. And in this issue, transparency of costs and benefits seems truly important in identifying ways in which our system can be altered. Keep up the good work!
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Sam Wertheimer Is blogging |
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Malaria No More
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The Fund for Public Health in New York Inc.
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Malaria No More
New York, New York Community Fundraising (OnLine) Manager
Autism Speaks
New York, NY Chief Development Officer
Physicians for Human Rights
Cambridge, MA SNAP Policy Analyst
The Fund for Public Health in New York Inc.
New York, New York Director of Development
Mount Sinai Health System
Chicago, Illinois








