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Posted by WhiteCoat on September 30, 2008
A new special feature titled “Critical Condition” premiers tonight on PBS.
Read more about it here. Check local listings for the show here.
Should be eye-opening.
Hat tip to Mother Jones Magazine for the link.
MM said
I just watched it. Now, I am depressed.
I can already anticipate the criticism about some of the patients not taking care of themselves and putting themselves in that situation, but the bottom line is as one MD mentioned: care is rationed according to your ability to pay.
Even with the mentality of “healthcare is a privilege, not a right”, it is really sad that some people die of treatable conditions precisely because they do not have the means to get treatment.
This is what you unfortunately expect from a poor, undeveloped country, and it is happening here.
MM said
I was not finished!
Every case was about working class people of limited means, some with insurance, others without. In every case, they did not have the ability to pay for healthcare, be it the full price or their portion of the cost.
And so many think that the uninsured are the people on welfare or/and the lazy parasites of society. Sometimes all it takes is to lose your job.
mottsapplesauce said
I watched this & it reminded me of Michael Moore’s movie ‘SiCKO’. It focused on the same aspects: that more & more working class are losing health insurance, or have none at all. Their income is too high to qualify for government assistance yet they can barely make ends meet, or forgo preventative care just to make ends meet. After the program ended I took one look at my one-legged, quadriplegic husband, & then looked at my own body, diseased with Crohn’s, overweight from steroid therapy, & thanked God that we are able have full-time careers, for the time being. The AMA has started a proposal called Voice for the Uninsured. Check out the site: http://www.voicefortheuninsured.org/