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Someone posed the question in another thread whether or not the pro-life stance of Palin is becoming a single issue for folks (I'm sick in bed, so I apologize for summarizing).
The election has definitely always had one topic that is most important to DH and I, but we were still looking at the entire picture. The one issue is medicine - it provides not only the livelihood for our family, but our parents are getting older and having more health problems pop up. So, I'll stop rambling.
You can read for yourselves - we got this alert from AAEM, but you can find references to this all over the net.
AAEM calls on McCain campaign to clarify stand on emergency department role
MILWAUKEE – An article in the August 27, 2008, Dallas Morning News
re-ignited a smoldering mischaracterization of health care delivery in the
United States. The news article reported John Goodman, president of the
National Center for Public Policy Analysis, stated that “anyone with access
to an emergency room effectively has insurance, albeit the government acts
as the payer of last resort.” Goodman’s suggestions raise considerable
concern with the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) because
Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign has acknowledged Mr. Goodman as
one who has “volunteered health policy advice” to the campaign.
AAEM urges the Senator to correct the record regarding the role of emergency
departments as the McCain campaign begins to address the pressing problem of
our nation’s health care system. In the past 15 years, annual emergency
department census in the United States increased by 25 million visits per
year, while 500 emergency departments closed and hospitals eliminated more
than 200,000 inpatient beds. These numbers add up to a crisis for emergency
departments in the U.S., struggling to accommodate the ever increasing
deficiencies of a broken health care system.
AAEM President Larry D. Weiss, MD JD FAAEM, states that, “While the federal
Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) requires emergency
medical care for all, its presence as the only federally mandated health
care enables a broken system." Dr. Weiss points to the June 2006 report of
the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) Committee on the Future of Emergency Care
in the United States Health System which portrays a brewing national
calamity in health care that already is a crisis playing out every day in
the emergency departments across the United States.
The traditional emergency department role of providing care that demands
immediate attention now serves a role with a creeping mission of expanded
responsibilities associated with care “of last resort." In its most recent
survey, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that visits to
hospital emergency departments in 2006 were 119.2 million, or 40.5 visits
per 100 persons, continuing a long-term rise in both indices.
Multiple layers of complexity in the health care system are exacerbated by
problems confronted in emergency departments, such as:
* Increases in emergency department visits continuing to be outpaced by an
aging population and waning access to primary care;
* Specialists reluctant to take calls in large part due to the contentious
nature of our current tort system; and
* Failure to enforce prohibitions of the corporate practice of medicine and
fee-splitting laws, which allow profiteers to degrade patient care quality.
The IOM attests, and AAEM concurs, that while the EMTALA law mandates
emergency medical care for all, emergency medicine currently is
overburdened, under-funded, and not the appropriate access to efficient,
affordable health care.
For those of you not totally familiar with emergency medicine, like any other specialty, there is no reimbursement for the uninsured, unless they are on Medicare or Medicaid. The trick is, they have to see all comers, regardless of their ability to pay. Basically, a patient could walk in, say "I owe you $100,000 which I can't pay," and they still have to be seen. While in theory EMTALA is great and can eliminate some discrimination, the use of EDs as primary care because of this law has totally overburdened the system. Primary care done in the ED, as opposed to an appropriate location, costs 3-4 times what it would in a truly outpatient setting. Not to mention the resources non-emergent patients take from patients with real emergencies. Last year, the total dollars written off for care in the ED not reimbursed by Medicare/Medicaid averaged around $140,000 for EACH emergency physician. This strain on EDs is hurting our entire healthcare system, as each specialty becomes affected somewhere along the line. I could go on for pages (my degree's in Health Policy - I really could go on for pages), but I won't. 
Anyway, Sarah Palin, her 17 year old daughter, or her husband and his DUI 50 years ago or whatever didn't make my decision for me. My family's future did. Glad some real issues are coming to light before November.
The election has definitely always had one topic that is most important to DH and I, but we were still looking at the entire picture. The one issue is medicine - it provides not only the livelihood for our family, but our parents are getting older and having more health problems pop up. So, I'll stop rambling.
You can read for yourselves - we got this alert from AAEM, but you can find references to this all over the net.
AAEM calls on McCain campaign to clarify stand on emergency department role
MILWAUKEE – An article in the August 27, 2008, Dallas Morning News
re-ignited a smoldering mischaracterization of health care delivery in the
United States. The news article reported John Goodman, president of the
National Center for Public Policy Analysis, stated that “anyone with access
to an emergency room effectively has insurance, albeit the government acts
as the payer of last resort.” Goodman’s suggestions raise considerable
concern with the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) because
Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign has acknowledged Mr. Goodman as
one who has “volunteered health policy advice” to the campaign.
AAEM urges the Senator to correct the record regarding the role of emergency
departments as the McCain campaign begins to address the pressing problem of
our nation’s health care system. In the past 15 years, annual emergency
department census in the United States increased by 25 million visits per
year, while 500 emergency departments closed and hospitals eliminated more
than 200,000 inpatient beds. These numbers add up to a crisis for emergency
departments in the U.S., struggling to accommodate the ever increasing
deficiencies of a broken health care system.
AAEM President Larry D. Weiss, MD JD FAAEM, states that, “While the federal
Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) requires emergency
medical care for all, its presence as the only federally mandated health
care enables a broken system." Dr. Weiss points to the June 2006 report of
the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) Committee on the Future of Emergency Care
in the United States Health System which portrays a brewing national
calamity in health care that already is a crisis playing out every day in
the emergency departments across the United States.
The traditional emergency department role of providing care that demands
immediate attention now serves a role with a creeping mission of expanded
responsibilities associated with care “of last resort." In its most recent
survey, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that visits to
hospital emergency departments in 2006 were 119.2 million, or 40.5 visits
per 100 persons, continuing a long-term rise in both indices.
Multiple layers of complexity in the health care system are exacerbated by
problems confronted in emergency departments, such as:
* Increases in emergency department visits continuing to be outpaced by an
aging population and waning access to primary care;
* Specialists reluctant to take calls in large part due to the contentious
nature of our current tort system; and
* Failure to enforce prohibitions of the corporate practice of medicine and
fee-splitting laws, which allow profiteers to degrade patient care quality.
The IOM attests, and AAEM concurs, that while the EMTALA law mandates
emergency medical care for all, emergency medicine currently is
overburdened, under-funded, and not the appropriate access to efficient,
affordable health care.
Anyway, Sarah Palin, her 17 year old daughter, or her husband and his DUI 50 years ago or whatever didn't make my decision for me. My family's future did. Glad some real issues are coming to light before November.
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