I got back to Savannah on Tuesday mid-day and then worked a few hours before I absolutely crashed. Home was very fun, but trying to spend quality time with all the people I love in both Massachusetts and Philadelphia was quite exhausting.
This week, while I worked only 3 and a half days, seemed long. I always hate trying to catch up on phone calls after being out of the office, and plus the clinic underwent a lot of changes during the two weeks I was gone.
Since getting back, I've been thinking a lot about what people should be expected to pay for and why. Here's a little background on why this is on my mind:
St. Catherine Laboure Medical Clinic, where I volunteered throughout college, charges patients $10 per visit. I never really understood why, since that small amount clearly doesn't do a lot to cut costs and since people who were unable to pay were not turned away. However, now that I work at a free clinic, I've noticed a different type of entitlement present. It seems that since our care is free, it has no value to some of our patients.
On the latter point, two particular patients come to mind. Granted, these are two white middle-aged adults, and are not representative of my clientele, but are nonetheless people that my clinic serves.
The first is a male who had some sort of emergency surgery on his leg. The operation probably would've cost upwards of $50,000, but it was done practically free. Last week, the man came in and casually mentioned that he had run out of his Plavix, a medicine that prevents harmful blood clots. If he had developed a blood clot, the operation could have very well been undone and he would've needed another surgery, but he honestly didn't seem too concerned about it. I wonder if he would have been more careful if he had to pay the majority of his hospital bill...
The second is a female who had a stroke and discharged herself from the hospital against medical advice (AMA) because she didn't want a large bill. The following week, she became our patient. Since then, she has needed quite a few tests (CT scans, MRIs, etc.) I explained to her that as a Good Samaritan patient, the hospital would write off the costs of the use of the rooms/machines, but that she would be responsible for the doctors' fees to read these tests. Normally, getting a simple x-ray read costs $85, and the patient has the ability to pay $5/month until it's paid off. However, this woman's tests cost about $400 each to be read. She was quite upset when she got the bills, and I agree that prices of medical care in this country are way out of control. But I also didn't know how to politely say that she's lucky that she doesn't have to pay the entire bill for the tests, and, quite frankly, she's lucky to be alive and well after her stroke.
Personally, I am a fan of socialized medicine. I think that everyone should pay for health care via their taxes, but that local, state, and federal governments should also be contributing towards the costs. I think costs need to be reduced by curbing pharmaceutical costs and by capping how much money people can sue for in malpractice suits.
But the reality is that this will probably never happen in the United States. So I guess there's really no point in thinking about this stuff too hard...
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