Over the past few months, I have read over 1000 pages of medical records of various claimants seeking disability benefits. Here’s the crazy thing about our system—what you already may know:
The very poor wait until their health conditions have reached crisis stage before they go to the emergency room. They then undergo every test known to medical science and the doctors patch them up as best they can, telling them to follow up with a recommended doctor, which they don’t do because then they have to pay up front and they can't afford it. The doctors write them prescriptions for medications they never fill and send them out into the world, until they crash again—never paying much, if anything, for their care.
Studies show that those who follow this routine are more likely to become disabled, and their work histories are more inconsistent.
The insured enter the system gradually. Their care is more precise and pin-pointed and they endure chronic illnesses longer. When disability is inevitable, they enter the system much later in life.
I realize this is anecdotal, but you would probably be alarmed at the extensive care the poor get that is untimely, ineffectual, and often excessive, because there isn't a relationship of trust, nor a foundation of care between the doctor and the patient that makes the art of medicine more precise. Does it make any sense?
One of my clients on Medicaid is in end-stage renal failure. He explained he can’t get on the waiting list for a transplant because Medicaid won’t pay for a dental exam. I don’t know–just seems odd.
Loren M. Lambert © April 26, 2012
The very poor wait until their health conditions have reached crisis stage before they go to the emergency room. They then undergo every test known to medical science and the doctors patch them up as best they can, telling them to follow up with a recommended doctor, which they don’t do because then they have to pay up front and they can't afford it. The doctors write them prescriptions for medications they never fill and send them out into the world, until they crash again—never paying much, if anything, for their care.
Studies show that those who follow this routine are more likely to become disabled, and their work histories are more inconsistent.
The insured enter the system gradually. Their care is more precise and pin-pointed and they endure chronic illnesses longer. When disability is inevitable, they enter the system much later in life.
I realize this is anecdotal, but you would probably be alarmed at the extensive care the poor get that is untimely, ineffectual, and often excessive, because there isn't a relationship of trust, nor a foundation of care between the doctor and the patient that makes the art of medicine more precise. Does it make any sense?
One of my clients on Medicaid is in end-stage renal failure. He explained he can’t get on the waiting list for a transplant because Medicaid won’t pay for a dental exam. I don’t know–just seems odd.
Loren M. Lambert © April 26, 2012
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