A Couple Of Items Of Interest

Not A Long Read For Busy People

(Editor's Note: From time to time we allow the old fella an opportunity to vent some spleen, or just ramble. Once in a while he gets it right.)

IMMUNIZATIONS.

Regular readers of these columns will be surprised to know that I think there is something medical our government(s) could do better than private healthcare providers. That is a program under which ALL immunizations, childhood “baby shots” up to influenza vaccine for seniors, would be provided by some public health entity.

How about vaccine clinics in shopping malls, schools, post offices, or in kiosks near train and subway stations? No fuss, no waits, and no charge. One stop vaccine centers would have all the consent forms, the information sheets (possible reactions, etc), and could keep the records in a gigantic data base operated by the same people who keep track of, say, tax payments. This could even be recorded for each person on a microchip imbedded in newborns along with the hospital ID band put on them at birth.

Of course, some of us would slip through even these narrow cracks and fail to get our proper protection. But, what the heck, aren’t we still a free country?

RELUCTANT POSTER BOY.

Here’s a sad story which is too often replayed in the US. A middle-aged, self employed man who felt he was in excellent health, applied for health insurance but was turned down. The company to which he applied said he had three things against him which precluded their being able to offer him coverage.

He had a history of taking a medication for high blood pressure, had a history of having taken “diet pills”, and had a history of having too high a PSA number (that’s the screening test for prostate cancer).

A year ago, he had none of these. He went to see his doctor because he wanted to “do the right thing” and get checked out. Borderline elevation of his BP led to a prescription for a beta blocker drug, a borderline elevation of his PSA led to a consultation with a urologist (no cancer was found), mild fatigue was treated briefly with a stimulant, which also happened to be a “diet pill.”

So. After a few months, he quit all the above since they didn’t seem to make much difference in his life or how he felt, and then --- and then ---? He tried to get high deductible health insurance from Company X and they refused him. Although this was just one company, it is likely that any other to which he applied, given access to the same information, indelibly written in his medical records, would do likewise.

The cold fact of the insurance industry is that they will not make money insuring people who, according to their list of even remotely possible faults, is not a perfect risk.

That brings us up to date, but (oops!) also brings us to another of those little things which our government could do for us but irritatingly doesn’t. This man, and the thousands, or millions, like him who could afford insurance but are denied it as individuals, needs an alternative source for his high deductible insurance. Why couldn’t this be a pooled risk private resource with, perhaps, government involvement or backing?

This would correct only one problem in our sick system and would probably, like other programs which inject more money into it, inflate costs. (Sigh!) We really need an extreme makeover, don’t we?

(Another Note From The Editor: We’re working on that. If you’d like to know how we’re progressing, click on the link below.)