To have and have not
Vice President Dick Cheney leaves George Washington University Hospital on Saturday with wife, Lynne, right, and daughter Elizabeth.
Dr. Jonathan Halperin of Mount Sinai Medical Center explains Vice President Dick Cheney's heart condition on "Today".
By Joe Davidson
MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR
WASHINGTON, July 2 — When Vice President Dick Cheney announced he might need an implantable device to regulate his erratic heartbeat, he said, “I look upon this as an insurance policy. It may never actually be needed, but if it is, then it’s obviously the right thing to do.”
It certainly was a wise thing to have the cardioverter defibrillator sewn into his body, below his left collarbone. The $25,000 pager size instrument is like having an emergency room always at Cheney’s behest, only better. The defibrillator works automatically to correct an erratic heartbeat that the vice president might not even notice.
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CHENEY’S IMPLANTED “insurance policy” could save his life. Millions of other Americans might not be so lucky. About 43 million people in this country have no health insurance. Without it, most of them have no means to obtain the kind of preventive health care that keeps Cheney’s ticker ticking.
“The evidence is pretty consistent,” said Jack Hadley, principal research associate at The Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., of people with health problems like Cheney’s. “They have higher mortality rates. They are more likely to die.”
NOTHING BUT THE BEST
The vice president gets the best in medical care, funded by tax dollars. That’s as it should be. What is not as it should be, is the way the American people allow so many to be without the health care they need.
As vice president, Cheney gets the best in medical care, funded by tax dollars. That’s as it should be. What is not as it should be, is the way the government and the American people allow so many to be without the health care they need.
“I think the overwhelming majority of people who are uninsured would not gain access to (Cheney’s) procedure,” said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a Washington-based organization that favors expanding health coverage. “The only thing they are guaranteed is emergency care when they are at risk of losing life or limb.”
The fact that implanting a heart regulator like Cheney’s is a routine procedure makes the disparity in services available to those with and without health insurance all the more stark. “The things that he had done are absolutely standard,” said Dr. Douglas P. Zipes, president of the American College of Cardiology. His shop at Indiana University implants about three devices a week.
HEALTH CARE HAVE-NOTS
A March report released by Families USA shows a marked difference in care for the insured and uninsured for a variety of ailments.
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The uninsured get half the number of lab tests, make significantly fewer visits to doctors, are much more likely to go without essential medicines, are screened far less often for high blood pressure or cholesterol and are much more likely to forgo treatment because they can’t afford it, according to the “Getting Less Care” report.
The report found that:
Uninsured people with arthritis are more than five times as likely to receive no prescriptions of any kind as their insured counterparts.
Among people diagnosed with high blood pressure, the uninsured were more than twice as likely to have had no blood pressure check in the past year.
Uninsured people with heart disease have 28 percent fewer visits to physicians’ offices, clinics, or hospital outpatient centers than insured people with heart disease.
Among those with hypertension and arthritis, the uninsured are more than three- and-one-half times as likely as the insured to lack a usual source of care.
For people with heart disease, one-quarter (26 percent) of the uninsured, compared to seven percent of the insured, report that they or a family member did not receive care due to cost — more than three and one-half-fold difference.
FEW RIGHTS FOR THE UNINSURED
Currently, the health care debate in Washington centers on the Patient’s Bill of Rights. That clearly will improve the way health insurance works for consumers, but only for those with health insurance. It does nothing for those without.
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The congressional budget resolution now being considered would provide $28 billion for the parents of poor children, who are already covered by the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program. With the resolution, members of Congress have “a significant opportunity” to expand health coverage to the uninsured, said Jocelyn Guyer, a senior policy analyst for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington, D.C. organization that researches the federal budget. “The question is whether they will take it up.”
Even if they take that significant opportunity, the $28 billion would only cover about 6 million low income, uninsured parents, according to Pollack. Those parents could then bring in some 7 million children who are eligible for, but not enrolled in, CHIP. That still leaves about 30 million people without coverage.
Getting everyone covered will be “a tenacious step by step process,” Pollack added. Meanwhile, the poor will continue to suffer — and to die before their time. |
