Socialism, Capitalism, and the Banality of Health Care
Friday after work I was biking home when I unexpectedly hit what I guess was a pothole and wound up flipping over the handlebars of my bike. The bars hit my chest on the way over, meaning that when I wound up on the ground the wind was totally knocked out of me giving the appearance that I might have had a serious concussion or something even though in fact I didn’t hit my head at all. At any rate, two nice women saw the thing go down and, concerned, called and got a paramedic sent to the scene. There really wasn’t much of anything to be done, but he nicely verified that my left hand wasn’t broken, helped wrap my wrists, may or may not have saved the fingernail on my left middle finger, etc. Not bad for socialized medicine.
At any rate, fortunately I don’t think I need any further medical treatment because it’s the weekend and the US private sector in its infinite glory has degreed that basically no doctors work weekends. There is one urgent care clinic in DC that maintains limited weekend hours, but—of course—my insurance plan doesn’t cover it.
The larger issue here is that while some medicine is very high-tech and cutting edge and so forth actually most medical problems in people’s lives are extremely banal. Little kids get sick all the time and their parents are worried. People fall and break bones or sprain joints and at a minimum need to be checked for concussions. People need strep throat tests and depending on how the test checks out, they may need antibiotics. And it seems to me that with this kind of thing—your banal basic health care for people with minor everyday problems—there’s an extremely strong case for UK-style direct public provision .
69 Responses to “Socialism, Capitalism, and the Banality of Health Care”
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July 26th, 2009 at 11:35 am
No it’s not!
July 26th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Nearly 80% of the things I would like to see a doctor about are minor things that end up going away before my appointment arrives (generally 3-4 weeks from when I make it). I guess that means I might worry too much about pains and bumps, but whenever I hear about the horrible wait times in Canada I just remember when I had a bunch of painful bumps on my temple but couldn’t get an appointment for 4 weeks. USA! USA!
July 26th, 2009 at 11:39 am
More details needed.
What did it cost and who payed what portion?
July 26th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Glad you’re ok….
I went to the emergency room in Australia, along the Great Ocean Road, after I burned my hand on a fireplace window. The nurse had to call in the doctor from home, and another nurse, and they warned me this will cost me. When they rang up my total I was expecting a bill in the thousands or at least several hundred. The total? $70, and that included a painkiller prescription filled by them. GASP!
July 26th, 2009 at 11:54 am
You’re damn lucky — when I fell on a city sidewalk a couple of years ago and broke my shoulder, the less-than-two-mile ambulance ride to the hospital after my friend called 911 cost me $500, not covered by insurance, of course. Who knew the FDNY billed for services? We don’t even have socialized street care.
July 26th, 2009 at 11:57 am
How long then before they will be opening field hospitals in Washington, DC at the weekend?
July 26th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Glad to hear you weren’t badly injured – were you wearing a helmet?
As for health care – 1) for the ‘banal’ illnesses that we always have to deal with – it doesn’t actually take a doctor to perform a test for strep throat, nor to prescribe the antibiotic if the test is positive, yet many place will require a patient to see a doctor. And to be billed for the five minutes the doctor takes to look at your throat and the result of the test and agree with the RN or PA that, yes – you sure do need those antibiotics… There are a lot of very basic treatments that do not actually require a physician to do the work, another way that we could save money on health care might be to change those regulations…
ex animo
July 26th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
decreed?
July 26th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
What Jo said.
Before we turn to full-blown socialized medicine, let’s break up the monopoly doctors have on treating a lot of these mundane conditions. A nurse practitioner or a physician assistant – who are more likely to work weekend or evening hours for a fraction of the salary – are perfectly capable of treating a kid with the sniffles. You don’t need a $200,000 medical degree to do a lot of this work.
July 26th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
I’m not sure how falling off a bicycle makes “an extremely strong case” for socialized medicine, but I do have two comments. First, almost all physicians participate in night and weekend call because most hospitals require it to maintain staff privileges. Second, Matt’s accident does prove that where one sits (or in his case, falls) often determines where one stands, in this case health care reform. Matt, being young and, I hope, otherwise healthy, does not have an established relationship with a physician, so he was by himself to cope with his accident. For the chronically ill (there are lots of those folks, due to advancements in treatment of diabetes, cancer, heart disease, etc.), the old, and the nearly old (me), that’s not the case. We are usually on a first name basis with a physician. Unfortunately, that same segment (except for the old) is often one doctor visit away from losing health care coverage. For them (us), health care reform can’t come soon enough, at least if it includes community rating and national standards for insurance. Matt and I sit in a different place, which explains why reform is so difficult. I believe reform is more likely if the focus is on the segment that is the most sypathetic (Americans are a sympathetic people), which is the chronically ill. Reform has no chance if the focus is on those who choose (for whatever reason) not to purchase health insurance. Or young people who fall off a bicycle.
July 26th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Road repair is pretty basic too, but if roads were in better shape, there’d probably be fewer accidents that cause people’s injuries and that’d provide health care cost savings too.
July 26th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Precisely, Matthew. I live in the UK & the thought that you’d be restricted from going to the doctor to get something checked out because of the price of an appointment is simply alien to us. The thought of what would have happened had my poor family been living in America is fairly terrifying, I must say…
July 26th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
What won’t Matt do to meet women?
July 26th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
As others have said a Nurse Practitioner led walk in clinic meets all the needs for this type of “banal” treatment. Looking from the outside (a Brit living in Canada)the over ephasis of the importance of doctors is one of the reasons thet US health care spending is so high. I guess this is because patients in the US see themselves as “customers” and thus demand the guy in the white coat rather than the guy in scrubs.
July 26th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
It is rather odd that a nurse can prescribe a psychotropic medication that can cause psychotic episodes, but not an antibiotic.
July 26th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Proud of you Matt. Bloggin’ injured. That’s why I come here. My blogger is tough as (finger) nails.
Paramedics are cool as hell. They have practically been a taxi service the last 4 or 5 years for my Mom and Dad. Paramedics seem born to the work. They are fast and efficient and courteous and caring.
Those taxi rides are expensive, however. Usually $800 a pop. Thank god my parents have socialized medicine. Otherwise a proud old warrior and his even prouder woman would be living life in shit pan alley. Or dead.
July 26th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Are you suggesting that we need shamans or old wives (of the old wives tales fame) to treat our banal health problems?
Then go get an old wife. Or go to Tijuana.
I need an MD from an honest to goodness US Medical School when I pound my head against concrete.
July 26th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Re: As others have said a Nurse Practitioner led walk in clinic meets all the needs for this type of “banal” treatment.
We do have these types of clinics in the US, but they are rather limited in what they can treat. I went to CVS’ Minute Walk-in Clinic last winter with symptoms of bronchitis. Unfortunately since I also have chronic asthma the nurse practioner was not allowed to treat me for any respiratory conditions, so off I went instead to the Urgent Care clinic. It’s been my observation that the Minute Clinic in CVS (I go to the store itself rather frequently as it’s a block from my workplace) never has any business, other than people getting flu shots there in the fall. A lot of people do seem to want a full MD instead.
July 26th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Actually, various stores in the private sector (Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, Target, etc) have been slowly rolling out clinics that operate out of their pharmacy sections that hire nurses to diagnose minor ailments. (And refer to real doctors if the problems require more expertise or equipment than they are able to provide.) It seems like a reasonably good idea, although there’s various complaints from real doctors that it could hurt the doctor-patient relationship or quality of care or whatever.
July 26th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Have you ever tried to get any government service on a weekend? Other than the post office, there’s not really a lot open on Saturday, and nothing on Sunday.
This has nothing to do with public vs. private; it has to do with the culture of the professional class in the US. In general, white collar people don’t work weekends. Govt run health care will be open on Saturday as soon as the DMV is.
meaning, not soon.
July 26th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
I fell while rock climbing about a year ago, broke my fall with my hands, and got a Distal Radius Fracture. A middle-aged and older osteoporosis thing.
Drink your milk, lift weight to thicken bones, and learn how to fall while you’re young. That’s my recommend.
July 26th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
In the Euro country where I live, you’d need a shotgun to see an MD outside of a hospital, too.
July 26th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
In the Euro country where I live, you’d need a shotgun to see an MD outside of a hospital on a weekend, too.
July 26th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
To give a specific example, I went jogging in Germany on May 31, too soon after getting a stress fracture. That was on a Sunday. The next day was a bank holiday. I asked the desk for an advil, and was told that not only couldn’t they give me one, but no pharmacies were open either – the only way I could get advil was to find an emergency room.
Heck, in the US, the hotel would have had advil, or, at worst, I could have found a 24 hour convenience store, holiday or not.
This isn’t an indictment of German health care, either – just a pointer that local culture has far more to do with when things are and are not open than with the way the system runs (public, private, or hybrid)
July 26th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Er, James, my insurance company isn’t open on weekends, either. And since we’re not talking about public health CARE but public health INSURANCE, then the weekend hours are pretty moot, huh?
Also, ALL of SW Ohio’s BMVs have Saturday hours. The center-city ones have Sunday hours too.
Would a proliferation of health consumption centers reduce the need for EMT calls? A 911 call could then be triaged by location, saying “if you can walk to the CVS two blocks away, do so.” I think I’d rather do that for a minor injury than risk being taken to the ER, which would almost certainly be further and take longer. And cost, y’know, at least $1500.
July 26th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
“Have you ever tried to get any government service on a weekend?”
Where I live the DMV is open on Saturday, and the public library is open both weekend days. What gov’t service do you want to be open on the weekend?
July 26th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Actually, the drugstore mini-clinics are a bad idea. Their goal is to skim off the parts of the practice a doctor might actually make money from, like administering vaccines, and leave to the doctor the expensive parts, like hiring qualified employees. Having been a nurse for over 25 years, the drugstore mini-clinics remind me of my favorite Dylan line- “his nurse, some local loser, is in charge of the cyanide hole/ and she also keeps the cards that read “Have mercy on my soul”. Probably any passer-by in the street could give you advice as good as you’d get from a drugstore “nurse”.
All Matt has to do is venture out on a weekend to find the territory many of us live in 24/7, a land with no accessible clinics or emergency rooms. We’re hoping to get a clinic in my part of the county in two years- now that we’ve taxed ourselves to build it. The ER will still be a $1000 ambulance ride away.
July 26th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Matt,
Glad to hear you are okay.
Have you started to re-evaluate your anti-car views yet?
By the time you have a wife and kids, you will. Most definitely. You’ll buy her a big, safe gas-guzzler.
July 26th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
the US private sector in its infinite glory has de[c]reed that basically no doctors work weekends.
You, clearly, don’t have any friends or family members who are doctors.
July 26th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Govt run health care will be open on Saturday as soon as the DMV is.
Every DMV I’ve ever been to has been open Saturdays. Whereas many banks haven’t been (or are only open 9-12).
Though what’s most annoying are mechanics not being open. I always wait far longer than I should to get car problems fixed just due to the logistical difficulty of getting the car there when he’s only open the exact same hours that I work.
July 26th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Govt run health care will be open on Saturday as soon as the DMV is.
James, I have a quick question: is everyone you associate with so stupid that they would accept this as an argument from you without calling you the dumbest motherfucker on the face of the earth? Because I can’t imagine any conservative with half a brain saying this in my presence while still being accorded any amount of intellectual respect. I have a feeling that you mouth off with your conservative talking points around a group of people who are incredibly stupid in your real life or around people who are too afraid to talk back to you, like your cowed family, and never realize how stupid what you’re saying is.
But then again, surrounding yourself with conservatives not only means you don’t learn how stupid your talking points are, it means that you become progressively more and more stupid over time.
July 26th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
I was scuba-ing in Curacao and while ascending, when 20 feet from the surface (no deeper, thank heavens), my weight belt fell off and I went rocketing up. A few hours later I felt weird so, following proper precautions, I went to the hospital in town where the doctor interviewed me at length and let me sit in a room breathing O2 for a couple of hours. He interviewed me again, we didn’t think anything was wrong, and I left. $75. They didn’t have to do much, but I took up a room for two or more hours, used a good 30 minutes of the doctor’s time, and breathed their O2. It was a reasonable price, I think.
July 26th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Glad you’re OK. I crashed my bike twice in 8 years, both times breaking two bones. The first time one of the bones was a clavicle which healed funny leading to chronic back issues. The second time my arm was in a cast for 12 weeks, which sucked. Result: I am leary of bicycle commuting. I believe statistics show driving is more lethal per mile travelled (considering only accidents, not the health benefits of bicycling). I don’t know if there are good statistics on injuries per mile travelled — I imagine they would be hard to collect.
July 26th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
rayalward is correct in that almost all doctors have to work an enormous number of nights and weekends for free during their lives, during and after residency thanks to licensing requirements and the need to maintain staffing privileges at hospitals. The only difference you need to show up at the hospital and actually sick (not unharmed as Matt was) to see one. If Matt or many of the commenters had ever been seriously ill in an American hospital, they would seen realize that there is 24 hour coverage here that is a lot more extensive than in Britain and France (both of which I have done externships in).
Also, I wish Matt good luck in trying to get NP or PAs to work weekends or nights since practices in our area have completely failed to find these mythical people who love doing that.
July 26th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
I was recently out of town and got injured on a Saturday and waited until Monday to seek treatment because I wouldn’t let my hosts take me to see any doctor until I had contacted my insurance provider, their out-of-state affiliate, and the claims department. Finally, after a series of Monday morning calls, I was advised to go see a particular local doctor.
Last week I got the letter stating they were refusing to pay for the visit that they recommend I make to the doctor of their choice. Why again did I wait two days? So that I would have to pay entirely out of pocket for a doctor of their choosing rather than one of my choosing?
Oops, I didn’t intend this to be about stupid insurance companies. It was meant to be a tale about how the “closed for the weekend” aspect of our medical system caused me to sit around for 2 days with a bleeding eyeball, because I’m too petrified of seeking any sort of medical attention without pre-approval from my insurance company.
July 26th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
rayalward is correct in that almost all doctors have to work an enormous number of nights and weekends for free during their lives
There are times when MattY writes something so appallingly ignorant and uninformed which bespeaks a stunning amount of inexperience with the outside world that I wonder why The Atlantic and CAP hired him in the first place. This is definitely one of those times.
I even wonder why I read his blog during these moments, but then I remember that it’s because I like discussing things with his more interesting commenters and the opportunity to pummel the right wing ignoramuses.
July 26th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
When I was a kid growing up in the San Fernando Valley, I rode my bike to school most days.
Now, most of the few people you see riding bikes in the San Fernando Valley are people with DUIs who will go to prison if caught driving a car.
Bike riding was dangerous back then, and it’s just gotten more dangerous as the population density and thus traffic have grown substantially. That’s why parents are so leery of having their kids ride bikes.
July 26th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
I’m down with using nurse practitioners for this kind of stuff.
Where’s serial catowner?
July 26th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Bike riding was dangerous back then, and it’s just gotten more dangerous as the population density and thus traffic have grown substantially.
MattY hit a pothole. Why are you using this thread to grind whatever personal axe you have about bicycling in the San Fernando Valley?
July 26th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
MattY hit a pothole. Why are you using this thread to grind whatever personal axe you have about bicycling in the San Fernando Valley?
Actually, I find it a nice change of pace from the obsessive racial axe he has to grind.
July 26th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Were you in a small town in Germany? When I was stationed there, I had a hard time getting groceries after work, because the sidewalks rolled up at sundown. Guess the hausfraus did the shopping in the day time.
July 26th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Tyro – you didn’t actually read any of what I wrote, did you? In Germany, I could get a freaking advil without going to an emergency room, either on Sunday (everything else closed), or on Monday (it was a bank holiday). Since I would have been triaged low, I didn’t really feel like waiting in an endless line to get 2 lousy advil.
Here in Maryland, the local DMV closes at noon on Saturday, and isn’t open on Sunday at all – I’d expect that govt clinics would operate under pretty much the same kinds of hours, for pretty much the same reasons. Meaning, if you want health services on most of the weekend, you’ll have to hit an emergency room.
i.e., not a heck of a lot different than it is now.
July 26th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
Actually, I find it a nice change of pace from the obsessive racial axe he has to grind.
But I wonder who he thinks has the most drunk driving convictions and are forced to ride bikes. Could it be those drunken, devil-horned folks from down south?
July 26th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
glad you’re okay, matt.
replace your helmet, to be on the safe side–it may have taken a hit you didn’t notice.
also, replace your gloves. good heavy gloves won’t keep you from breaking your wrists, but they’ll help keep skin on your palms and keep your fingers attached.
and sailer, you’re an ignoramus. plenty of married men with kids still bike to work every day.
July 26th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Tyro – you didn’t actually read any of what I wrote, did you?
I read exactly what you wrote, and it was some of the most ignorant shit I’ve read from someone who’s clearly and uninformed ignorant dumbfuck who goes around mouthing off ignorant opinions and expecting to be taken seriously. You’ve interrupted a conversation about policy with some uninformed vomit, which is typical from someone who substitutes right-wing talking points for thought.
The health care plan is about providing a means of universal coverage, which is the way it works in most countries, not who employs the doctors (neither medicare nor private insurance companies employ doctors directly, which you are obviously too stupid and ignorant to understand because you know nothing). Having you been paying attention to health care policy issues at all or does someone just feed you right wing talking points which you regurgitate? You obviously live your life with enough stupid people around you that you stay stupid shit like this and no one calls you on it, leaving you to say stupid, thoughtless things that you have no idea about, and then you walk in here and say the same stupid shit you say.
July 26th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
Another extremity of a health care system is India (and I am sure other countries in similar stages of development).
Only recently, when asked about the reason for sad state of government hospitals in New Delhi, India’s Minister of Health replied, and I am not kidding,’Only God knows what to do about that’.
July 26th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
You boys play rough. I like it.
July 26th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Here in Maryland, the local DMV closes at noon on Saturday, and isn’t open on Sunday at all – I’d expect that govt clinics would operate under pretty much the same kinds of hours, for pretty much the same reasons. Meaning, if you want health services on most of the weekend, you’ll have to hit an emergency room.
Well, it’s nice to know that you actually just lied in your first post, since you knew your DMV was open on Saturdays. And all the ones I’ve ever been to are open all day.
But I digress. I’m still not sure exactly what your point is. Matt’s post was about how not only does the private sector take weekends off, but what urgent care there was available wasn’t covered by his insurance. Since nobody’s talking about a NHS-type system, a public option (or even single payer) would still involve private clinics and not the government-run ones you’re railing against.
And hey, you’re a free market guy. There’s clearly a need for medical care on weekends. Why hasn’t the market provided this in most places? It’s simply too inconvenient to make money outside of M-F 9-5?
July 26th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Re: Govt run health care will be open on Saturday as soon as the DMV is.
Guess this also explains why you can’t get a cop or a fireman on weekends. (By the way, I’ve lived places where the DMV did have Saturday morning hours).
Re: I’d expect that govt clinics would operate under pretty much the same kinds of hours, for pretty much the same reasons.
Private clinics already operate that way, so why would you blame the government for that? And your analogy with the DMV was awkward since you were already aware that your state’s DMV is open on Saturdays. You might have better chosen something like the tax office or City Council that really is closed on weekends. As for buying Advil I doubt US pharmacies would change their hours in response to anything currently being discussed in Congress. They make money after all by being open on weekends– and US pharmacies generally double as convenience stores as well, so they have a huge incentive to be open when customers are out and about. Many European nations (and Japan too) have inherited a restricted business system from the old medieval guild days whereby they joyfully practice the worst sorts of restraint-of-trade. This has little to do with socialized anything and everything to do with a mindless conservatism which sees every tradition as sacrosanct and change as everywhere bad.
July 26th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
“But I wonder who he thinks has the most drunk driving convictions and are forced to ride bikes. Could it be those drunken, devil-horned folks from down south?”
American Indians have the worse drunk driving rates, followed by those Latinos with a high degree of Amerindian ancestry, probably followed by Northern Europeans. Overall, whites and blacks are similar in drunk driving rates.
Southern Europeans, Chinese, and Jews have the fewest problems with alcohol.
July 26th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
I have a family and we don’t own a car, although we do use a car share to get groceries and visit family and friends in the suburbs. And I live in Chicago, which while it’s pretty cycling friendly in terms of design is pretty nasty in terms of weather. I have lots of cyclist friends who also have families and get along without cars, so the idea that once Yggles decides to spawn he’ll have to buy a gas guzzler seems like a case of projection to me. Of course lots of people really do need cars to get around, but that’s usually because they’ve foolishly chosen to live in a poorly designed community.
July 26th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Also, this helmet foolishness is silly. I wear a helmet because it can’t hurt, but helmets are about as useful in a real crash as wearing a condom on your head. The way to not hurt yourself on a bike is to be safe, which includes looking out for potholes in the street! Knowing how to cycle safely and wearing lights are orders of magnitude more important than wearing a helmet.
July 26th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Govt run health care will be open on Saturday as soon as the DMV is.
A cursory googling has once again proved that you sir, are a liar.
Lookie here, govt run health care open on Saturday AND Sunday:
http://www.madison.va.gov/visitors/visiting.asp
Liar liar liar.
July 26th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
This is not rocket science. Group Health in Seattle solved this years ago (about 20 years ago or more) with a consulting nurse. If you don’t know whether you should go to the ER, you talk with the consulting nurse, and she tells you what to do, whether it be an intelligent ‘watch and wait’ or come on in.
This works for Group Health because they are serious about it. They want their subscribers to be healthy. There are other scenarios where this idea fails miserably- a ‘mini-clinic’ at a drugstore being a good example. In the drugstore the “nurse”, who may not actually be a nurse at all, works for the drugstore. This so-called nurse doesn’t have any connection with a system that wants you to be healthy, and probably can’t say much at all for fear of being sued for malpractice.
In spite of the commenters testifying that doctors work nights and weekends, the coverage for most private hospitals is dreadful after offices close, and for clinics, simply nonexistent. The public and university hospitals in major cities have excellent on-call coverage 24/7, the private hospitals, not so much. Any nurse who has had to ‘call the doctor’ at 0200 will know what I’m saying.
July 26th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Incidentally, the link between prophylactic healthcare and universal coverage is pretty strong here. People seek help for two reasons- a problem too big to handle, or a problem they don’t understand.
A person with an ongoing and longstanding relationship with a doctor or a practice will be educated by the doctor about health changes they can expect with aging and the activities they are involved in. This is one of the best reasons for an annual visit- to learn what you do not need to seek help for, because it is a normal minor torment of living.
This is where your ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It’s plain to see, when we educate new mothers about infants, so they won’t run to the doctor with every loose stool, but it applies to all of us. The more you know about your health, the less time you’re going to spend in doctor’s offices- and for most of us, that’s a big plus.
July 26th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
And it seems to me that with this kind of thing—your banal basic health care for people with minor everyday problems—there’s an extremely strong case for UK-style direct public provision .
There’s an even stronger case that you just pay for your minor, banal basic fingernail-wrapping health care yourself.
Can’t afford it Matthew Yglesias?
July 26th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
It’s amazing — amazing — that doctors don’t work, outside the ER and a rare urgent care clinic, on weekends and nights. Having office hours not limited to bankers’ hours would save the economy how much in avoided ER visits?
July 26th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
P.S. Not sure if I’m the first to point this out, but the fact that Matthew’s plan wouldn’t have covered him going to that urgent care clinic doesn’t mean he couldn’t have gone.
July 26th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
[...] The Upper Class’s Burning Need For Socialized Medicine July 27, 2009, 1:51 am Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: health care, socialism, upper class socialists, Yglesias Matthew Yglesias fell off his bicycle, and to him that illustrates the need for socialized medicine. [...]
July 27th, 2009 at 12:13 am
@53 Yeah, but Madison is almost European. It really is anomalous, well, in this country.
And bike helmets certainly do help.
July 27th, 2009 at 12:27 am
Well, it’s nice to know that you actually just lied in your first post, since you knew your DMV was open on Saturdays. And all the ones I’ve ever been to are open all day.
He lied about something else, too (or is just stupid): German cities have a rotation among pharmacies that are open 24 hours, so that there’s always at least one open 24 hours, depending on the size of the city or town.
July 27th, 2009 at 1:35 am
You have a strange faith in “system[s] that want you to be healthy”. And certainly the part about malpractice applies to all nurses.
It’s pretty clear that you have some emotionally-motivated bias against these drugstore clinics, probably related to your own personal experience working as a nurse and what you consider normal and proper. It’s also clear that you’ve not offered any real arguments against these drugstore clinics. You just don’t like them. That’s apparently the sum-total of your basis for taking a particular position on public policy. It’s a theme of yours, I’ve noticed.
July 27th, 2009 at 1:36 am
I’m a doctor. I work a minimum of 32 hours in the hospital on one in every three weekends. One of the remaining two, I work a minimum of one overnight in-hospital shift Friday night. That means, if you count Friday night as a “weekend” night, I work 2 out of every 3 weekends. Can you tell me where it was decreed that “basically no doctors work weekends,” because I’m really trying not to feel stewpid right now?
July 27th, 2009 at 1:47 am
Oh, also:
Most physicians, including pediatricians, do not make money and, in fact, quite often lose money in administering vaccines. I know this personally—but it is also easily Googled.
If you are going to argue authoritatively—not just in tone, but especially by invoking your own expertise—then you have a responsibility to assert things which are not false…even when you have strong personal feelings on a topic and feel the need to lecture others about it.
July 27th, 2009 at 2:15 am
[...] On the other hand, Matthew Yglesias, after a bad bicycle accident in DC, wonders about the complexity of it all: [...]
July 27th, 2009 at 9:50 am
Also — it’s hard to type with injured hands!
Does anyone else find it ironic that there were no major typographical errors in a post that Matt explicitly states was typed with injured hands?
July 27th, 2009 at 10:27 am
It seemed cruel to click the Google Reader “Like” button on a post where Matt talks about getting hurt, so I’m commenting.
In the past three months, I’ve gone to Urgent Care twice; once, after falling off my horse and hitting my head, and second, after breaking my arm. Both times, I’ve had to make an appointment. I didn’t get to just walk into Urgent Care. Oh no, Kaiser made me make an appointment. When I broke my arm earlier this month, I was at the clinic for three hours and I still had to come back the next day for a consult with the MD. I’m convinced that only ER doctors and doctors on TV work nights and weekends.
July 27th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
When I got bad tonsillitis on a weekend the only place I could find was the Minute Clinic within CVS in Alexandria. Very quick, friendly service and was covered by my insurance. But they have only a limited list of procedures they perform, certainly not urgent care. Medicine is certainly one thing that should not be subject to cultural habits of days of rest.
July 27th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Keith Ellis, there is no need to argue about any of this. In fact, if you consider the mini-clinic at a drugstore to be your provider of choice, I urge you to use them. Nothing pleases me more than to see someone get just what they deserve.