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from the think-of-the-children's...-mother dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
The US has a shameful record when it comes to caring for its moms. As Ars has reported before, the rate of women dying during pregnancy or childbirth is higher—much higher—than in any other developed country. By some estimates, mothers die in the US at a rate six-times that seen in Italy and three-times the rate in the UK, for instance. And of those that survive, tens of thousands suffer devastating injuries and near-death experiences each year.
Nevertheless, health researchers, hospital organizations, policy makers, and state task forces have been working to understand and reverse the horrific numbers—often doing so with limited resources and reliance on volunteers. While reports have offered glimpses of the problem, a new investigation by USA Today provides one of the sharpest pictures yet.
Many of the pregnant women and mothers who suffer and die in this country do so from easily preventable, common complications—and hospitals know exactly what safety features and practices are needed to spare mothers' lives and suffering, they just aren't using them. Women are left to bleed to death because doctors don't bother monitoring blood loss. Women suffer strokes and seizures and even die because doctors and nurses fail to treat their high blood pressure in time. The bottom line is stunning, simple negligence.
[...] While high blood pressure is one of the top causes of maternal deaths and complications, experts estimate that up to 60 percent of hypertensive deaths are preventable.
Hemorrhaging is another common but easily treatable complication. Women can bleed to death in as little as five minutes during childbirth. Yet experts estimate that 90 percent of maternal deaths from extreme blood loss are preventable. Such strategies to avoid harms are simple things, like weighing bloody pads to monitor blood loss (not relying on inaccurate visual estimates), having medications and supplies to curb blood loss readily available in a mobile cart, and responding promptly to signs of trouble.
Such simple steps have been recommended by experts for years. But in interviews with USA Today, many hospitals admitted they weren't following guidelines.
To put the data in real terms, USA Todaytold the story of 24-year-old Ali Lowry, who bled internally for hours after delivering by Cesarean section in an Ohio hospital in 2013. Her blood pressure registered at alarmingly low levels—52/26, 57/25, 56/24, 59/27—for more than three hours before staff responded. By the time she was airlifted to another hospital for life-saving surgery, her heart had stopped and she needed a hysterectomy. She eventually settled a lawsuit with her doctor and the hospital, which denied wrongdoing.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Friday August 03 2018, @03:15PM (14 children)
That's great, but what are you going to do if you need heart surgery? Or some time in ICU?
All that money you spent in the cash only clinics won't count towards your deducible, so there is little reason to use the cash-only clinics if you think you might need to use your insurance.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday August 03 2018, @03:20PM (13 children)
That's where things like an HSA and cash-only facilities that are willing to finance the debt for you (most are from what I hear) come in. It's still going to be massively less expensive.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 03 2018, @05:16PM (7 children)
So we're still back to square one with many people unable to afford insurance, but if they can't then one health crisis and they are ruined.
Great system! The best! The only metric we care about is doing gangbusters! Oh what metric? People not getting a free lunch! Hands outta my pocket bitch, die in the gutter you worthless moneyless scum!
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 04 2018, @01:23AM (6 children)
What part of get the treatment and then pay it out says no healthcare to you? Wait, did you want someone else to pay for what you receive? Okay, I get you now.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 04 2018, @02:56AM (5 children)
With health insurance you are paying for what you aren't getting. You're paying for the armies of MBAs to skim off most of your payments to line their pockets and build up a useless paperwork empire. You're paying for the armies of MBAs that get in the way of the nurses and doctors by understaffing the crews. You're paying for armies of MBAs to block and even override the decisions experienced doctors regarding treating patients. You're paying for armies of MBAs that collude with insurance companies to rip you the fuck off [propublica.org]. Notice a common thread in that?
You of all people should be a big fan of single-payer.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 04 2018, @04:01AM (2 children)
You've got yourself a fallacy going there. It is not a binary choice. There are as many options as you can think up.
What gives you that idea? If it's compulsory it's no way in hell ever going to get my backing. I'm about individual liberty. If it's not compulsory, it's not single-payer because generally healthy folks are going to opt out rather than pay for something they're not going to be using.
All that aside, I fundamentally dislike insurance of any kind. Given the choice, I prefer the route of personal responsibility for myself. What you do is your business but I strongly dislike the ideas of others paying my way or of wasting money.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 04 2018, @04:13AM (1 child)
Because single payer is more efficient and has better health outcomes for the entire country. If you are against it then you are an idiot. It is that simple, and for someone qho cries "taxation is theft" it seems like you would especially appreciate more efficient usage if your tax dollars.
I know what you'll argue, "that requires more money taken out of my pockets by the barrel of a gun!!!" but that is stupidly short sighted.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 04 2018, @09:55PM
More efficient use of money stolen from my pocket is not a good thing or a bad thing, it's an irrelevant thing.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 04 2018, @04:20AM (1 child)
That's not the system he proposed.
However, the system he does propose constitutes slavery. If you get sick, you become enslaved to paying back the capitalists (with interest, compounded) if you want to get well again. Or you could just die. Your choice.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 04 2018, @04:26AM
Slavery? Really? Idiot.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Friday August 03 2018, @05:51PM (4 children)
And when I have a crushingly high bill? I know, perhaps someone could sell insurance to cover those events? Do those cash clinics provide ICUs and all manner of specialized services?
Look, I am not defending the current situation, but these cash clinics are not a solution either. You are going to need to go to a traditional (insurance driven) medical provider some time, and without insurance, you will be bankrupted if you don't have insurance. So, you need to address my comment of deductibles.
I believe that the root of the problem is that there is too much profit in medicine. The excess profit allows insurance companies to siphon off approximately 1/3 of all medical costs while massively distorting the market. That distortion prevents meaningful change.
The other part of the problem is that too many idiots in the USA believe that the current situation actually provides the best medical care: it doesn't. It frequently provides more expensive but less effective treatments (speaking from personal experience). The only way medicine in the USA is greater than in other countries is cost.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday August 03 2018, @06:45PM
That's not strictly true. Many experimental tools were first used in US medicine...though possibly only in the hospitals associated with an engineering college, I'd need to check that.
However, it is broadly true...depending on which country you are comparing it with, and which medical specialty.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 04 2018, @01:36AM (2 children)
Let me answer that question with another question. What makes you think you deserve millions of dollars worth of treatment?
Seriously, if you were contributing millions of dollars worth of value to society, you would be being paid millions of dollars. You're not, so what makes you think that you deserve that much value worth of the products of other people's labors?
Regardless, you're looking to pick a fight where there isn't one to be had. If you want insurance, pay for insurance and go to a facility that accepts it. I personally think you'd be better off using an HSA and cash-only facilities and taking an insurance policy designed strictly for catastrophic issues but whatever blows your skirt up.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 06 2018, @04:26PM (1 child)
Because they are a living breathing human being you fucking sociopath.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday August 06 2018, @07:41PM
That you so obviously cannot pin down my emotions regarding this issue tells me that you're the one with a lack of empathy. Care to try again?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.