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Some weeks ago I developed a "tickle" in my left ear. Over the next 48 hours, the tickle progressed to mild pain, fullness and diminished hearing. As it was by then a weekend, I proceeded, dutifully and within the speed limit, to my Incline Village Community Hospital.
As I suspected, I had become the forlorn possessor of an "outer ear" infection requiring topical antibiotics. In the bad old days this now eminently treatable condition could have progressed to a raging infection and permanent deafness in that ear, if not worse. Ah! The wonders of modern antibiotics.
Upon thanking the good doctor at the emergency room, I trundled over to Raley's with my prized antibiotic prescription and learned that five milliliters, i.e. maybe 30 drops, would set me back $70. Undaunted, I chose my favorite credit card, and within four days that ear of mine was just as good as its companion in exercising a talent honed by a long departed grandmother, that of highly selective hearing loss. You know what I mean. If grandma didn't like the message, she hadn't heard it.
The point of this story? Health care has become so expensive, and I haven't even seen the hospital and doctor bills yet!
Indeed, it's so expensive that approximately 30 percent of Incline Village/Crystal Bay residents don't have it. Which means that an adult family member in that circumstance who develops an "infection" will likely go untreated, likely pass it on to the kids, who will in turn arrive at school and pass it on to schoolmates who will go home and pass it on to their parents who just might have health insurance. Moral: Not getting medical treatment can be expensive.
Finally, the national conversation is, once again, after 15 years, beginning to look at the real costs of failing to provide health care for all. Virtually every Democratic candidate for president is talking about some form of "universal" health care, be it expanded Medicare, single payer, or a requirement that all citizens carry health insurance in much the same way that all car owners are required to carry automobile insurance.
Similar ideas are finally and startlingly being promulgated by large corporations, think Wal-Mart and Safeway, as these behemoths come to understand the true costs to their companies of allowing our presently decaying and ever more dysfunctional health care system to cost more and provide less to ever fewer people.
At the state level, about 14 states are now considering some form of a state health plan for all citizens. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney touts the new Massachusetts health care plan for all as his most important achievement as state governor. More recently, Gov. Schwarzenegger of California has proposed a similar plan.
Meanwhile, in Nevada the newly published Report of the Legislative Committee on Health Care describes, "serious issues facing its health care system." These include a "severe shortage of health care professionals;" an uninsured population of a least 19 percent, fourth highest in the nation; rapid population growth; a tragically low percentage of Medicaid recipients, Nevada ranks 47 on this measure; and a primitive mental health system in a state that ranks first among western states in the prevalence of mental illness, yet 37 in mental health spending.
Turning to yet another "report," and here, frankly, I confess an element of cynicism about the value of all these study projects when the health care needs of the state seem so self evident, the Human Services Strategic Plan for Reno, Sparks and Washoe County provides an elegantly documented 168-page guide of available resources with an accompanying set of goals to increase the efficiency of service delivery. While it's an admirably professional effort, there is a "business as usual" quality to the document, which may enthrall bureaucrats but omits any declaration of the yawning gap between regional health care needs and the available resources.
Finally, the Incline Vision subcommittee on Human Services set a number of laudable goals at last weekend's public meeting including increasing the availability of health care for the uninsured and access to substance abuse and mental health services. Nice work, but achieving these goals will require a shift in national and local priorities.
As a physician, I decry the absence of adequate resources to meet even the most basic health care needs of many of our citizens. Practicing good medicine is a privilege and an obligation. Providing witness to a decaying health care system in the wealthiest nation on earth feels obligatory when you know that people die needlessly because they cannot afford health care.
As I see it, Nevada politicians, from the governor on down to commissioners and trustees must provide visionary leadership on this issue if "the great state of Nevada" means to serve its citizens well.
Andrew Whyman is a nearly-retired physician who has resided in Incline full-time for three years.
As I suspected, I had become the forlorn possessor of an "outer ear" infection requiring topical antibiotics. In the bad old days this now eminently treatable condition could have progressed to a raging infection and permanent deafness in that ear, if not worse. Ah! The wonders of modern antibiotics.
Upon thanking the good doctor at the emergency room, I trundled over to Raley's with my prized antibiotic prescription and learned that five milliliters, i.e. maybe 30 drops, would set me back $70. Undaunted, I chose my favorite credit card, and within four days that ear of mine was just as good as its companion in exercising a talent honed by a long departed grandmother, that of highly selective hearing loss. You know what I mean. If grandma didn't like the message, she hadn't heard it.
The point of this story? Health care has become so expensive, and I haven't even seen the hospital and doctor bills yet!
Indeed, it's so expensive that approximately 30 percent of Incline Village/Crystal Bay residents don't have it. Which means that an adult family member in that circumstance who develops an "infection" will likely go untreated, likely pass it on to the kids, who will in turn arrive at school and pass it on to schoolmates who will go home and pass it on to their parents who just might have health insurance. Moral: Not getting medical treatment can be expensive.
Finally, the national conversation is, once again, after 15 years, beginning to look at the real costs of failing to provide health care for all. Virtually every Democratic candidate for president is talking about some form of "universal" health care, be it expanded Medicare, single payer, or a requirement that all citizens carry health insurance in much the same way that all car owners are required to carry automobile insurance.
Similar ideas are finally and startlingly being promulgated by large corporations, think Wal-Mart and Safeway, as these behemoths come to understand the true costs to their companies of allowing our presently decaying and ever more dysfunctional health care system to cost more and provide less to ever fewer people.
At the state level, about 14 states are now considering some form of a state health plan for all citizens. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney touts the new Massachusetts health care plan for all as his most important achievement as state governor. More recently, Gov. Schwarzenegger of California has proposed a similar plan.
Meanwhile, in Nevada the newly published Report of the Legislative Committee on Health Care describes, "serious issues facing its health care system." These include a "severe shortage of health care professionals;" an uninsured population of a least 19 percent, fourth highest in the nation; rapid population growth; a tragically low percentage of Medicaid recipients, Nevada ranks 47 on this measure; and a primitive mental health system in a state that ranks first among western states in the prevalence of mental illness, yet 37 in mental health spending.
Turning to yet another "report," and here, frankly, I confess an element of cynicism about the value of all these study projects when the health care needs of the state seem so self evident, the Human Services Strategic Plan for Reno, Sparks and Washoe County provides an elegantly documented 168-page guide of available resources with an accompanying set of goals to increase the efficiency of service delivery. While it's an admirably professional effort, there is a "business as usual" quality to the document, which may enthrall bureaucrats but omits any declaration of the yawning gap between regional health care needs and the available resources.
Finally, the Incline Vision subcommittee on Human Services set a number of laudable goals at last weekend's public meeting including increasing the availability of health care for the uninsured and access to substance abuse and mental health services. Nice work, but achieving these goals will require a shift in national and local priorities.
As a physician, I decry the absence of adequate resources to meet even the most basic health care needs of many of our citizens. Practicing good medicine is a privilege and an obligation. Providing witness to a decaying health care system in the wealthiest nation on earth feels obligatory when you know that people die needlessly because they cannot afford health care.
As I see it, Nevada politicians, from the governor on down to commissioners and trustees must provide visionary leadership on this issue if "the great state of Nevada" means to serve its citizens well.
Andrew Whyman is a nearly-retired physician who has resided in Incline full-time for three years.
