Voices: Medical Katrinas

City wants to buy weather radios for those without

Phil Jones had been working on a construction project outside his house all day on May 22 and was unaware that a tornado watch had been issued. Once he was inside, though, his weather radio went off, and he learned that a warning had been issued.

Opinion

Discussion

November 4, 2009

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Wed Nov 04, 2009, 11:36 PM CST

There are wonderful intentions and desires in our search for “universal” health care. What have we learned from prescription Medicare D experience? We’ve seen the difficulty in acclimating seniors to 30-something plans in Missouri. We’ve seen some clinical and laboratory fees approximately doubled by the layers of effort to process, record and report the many claims. In some cases, the patient cost with and without coverage is almost the same, with an equal amount going “to the system.”

Any “universal” system will be the next obstacle to define and enforce. We should probably be prepared to expect that in the near term. Despite the purest of motives, the logjam will be like several medical “Katrinas.” Does that conjure any visions?

Bill Hawkins

Joplin

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