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The Insane Cost of Medical Care, Budget Cuts, and the People Who Suffer and Face Dying
- Apr 5, 2009 at 7:19 PM
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- Comments (11) Total Views (171) Everyone can see this journal post.
Sickening... (video available at the link)
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/03/60minutes/main4917055.shtml?tag=main_home_webExclusive
(CBS) The economic crisis is hurting society's most vulnerable. For some people these days - especially cancer patients - losing a job and health insurance could mean losing life-saving care as cash-strapped public hospitals are forced to cut critical charity care.
60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley reports from Las Vegas, where cancer sufferers were recently told the county hospital would no longer provide outpatient cancer treatments, leaving uninsured patients searching for help.
Pelley's story will be broadcast this Sunday, April 5, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
Helen Sharp, 63, has been battling lymphoma for eight months. Her illness prevents her from working, she has no health insurance and she has relied on charity chemotherapy provided by the county hospital, University Medical Center in Las Vegas. She was one of 2,000 patients told recently that UMC's outpatient chemotherapy was ending. "I don't want to die. I shouldn't have to die," she tells Pelley. "This is a county hospital...for people that, like me...have lost their insurance [and do not] have any other resources," says Sharp.
Sharp called private cancer treatment centers on a list provided by UMC to ask for help. "One drug is almost $50,000...Who can afford that?" she wonders. After weeks of uncertainty, Sharp was admitted to UMC and given chemotherapy under an exception for inpatients.
Roy Scales, a laid-off security guard, has spent months searching for treatment for his lung cancer. "Where am I going to find help? I am messing with a disease that will kill you." He called the private cancer centers on UMC's list and, of the 25 he estimated he called, none would accept payment from a county medical assistance program. Asked what he was going to do, Scales answers, "Die peacefully." After finally consulting a doctor, he has entered a hospice.
Sharp, Scales and others like them are the indirect victims of a slowdown in tourism revenues in Las Vegas that have greatly impacted Nevada's ability to fund programs like UMC's outpatient cancer clinic. UMC's budget lost $21 million overnight, says its CEO, Kathy Silver.
"The hardest hit area for us was the Medicaid budget. We were already...budgeted to lose $51 million....that brought our loss... to $72 million," she says. She has been forced to choose among programs, keeping the ones unique to her facility, like trauma care, and cutting others, such as the outpatient oncology clinic, that are duplicated at private hospitals.
It's bad news for all involved. "The financial situation that we find ourselves in caused us to make some decisions...all of us...would rather have not made," she tells Pelley. "I think this is happening to some degree, probably, in every public hospital across the country," says Silver.
Produced by Shawn Efran and Catherine Herrick
© MMIX, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments:
This breaks my heart.
But didn't you know? Health care is a luxury and should only be available to those who can afford it.
Empathy is a luxury available only to those who have hearts.
this is sad and sick. our people are sick and dying because the government let the health care industry go crazy with power.
People are really unaware of how hard it is when you don't have medical insurance.....or if insurance doesn't cover necessary treatments. You are left all out on your own, with very few options.
I hate the idea of "Big Brother" taking care of us, but our health care system is BROKEN---for most citizens to be paying thousands out of pocket and still have others dying when drugs are available, it's shocking. We need a central, socialized healthcare system, rather than lining the pockets of shareholders the way that most insurance companies and hospitals are currently doing.
busywithkids, i totally agree with you.
I have not been able to afford health insurance in over 4 years--I had to choose between health insurance and paying my mortgage. Since my husband passed away in June, I am having to live off the proceeds of his (sadly inadequate) life insurance while my house is on the market. I am one of the lucky ones, though. So far, I have been healthy!
Empathy is a luxury available only to those who have hearts.
So true. And it seems that there are very few who have either one.
But didn't you know? Health care is a luxury and should only be available to those who can afford it.
Empathy is a luxury available only to those who have hearts.
Exactly what I was going to say! I could not agree with you more.
Much Love
Alex
It is unfortunate that greed has allowed people to disregard the welfare of people like this. This has gone way too far.
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Asked what he was going to do, Scales answers, "Die peacefully."
That is SO insanely sad. This man had to commit himself to preparation to DIE because he couldn't get medical care in THIS country? This should NEVER, EVER happen!
- RanaAurora
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