HealthyConcerns.com

What my doctor thinks about health care reform

Had my annual exam last week. I've had the same gynecologist for about 6 years now, and every year we have a very enjoyable conversation, even as she's poking and prodding me.

This time, as is not too unexpected, we discussed health care reform.

My doctor is frustrated. She actively avoids the news and reading or hearing about how it's going.

You see, she works for Kaiser, which is the nation's largest non-profit health plan. According to her, she has it great. According to her, she makes medical decisions based only on what makes sense for her patient, and she can't imagine being in a for-profit situation (especially in private practice) where you had to worry about whether your treatment plan will make you enough money.

It's not that Kaiser doesn't make revenues, they have huge revenues. They charge premiums and co-pays like any other health plan. But they don't have a fiduciary duty to make money for shareholders who have no vested interest in the health of their patients...who, in fact, have an interest in actions that occasionally sacrifice their patients' health in order to maximize profit.

I recently have been on a kick of saying that we should return to the not-so-distant pass when there weren't for-profit health insurance companies, with their bureaucrats making the calls on whether you can be covered for various procedures.

My doctor validated that fairly gut-based line of thinking this week.

Domestic violence as a pre-existing condition. Say wha'?

Did you know that in nine states it is legal to consider domestic violence as a "pre-existing condition" and to therefore deny medical coverage of treatments related to said violence?

It's true.

For a personal take on the meaning of that, read PunditMom's story.

I thought, in honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, you all should know.

Not that I feel good about knowing. I'm pretty sure I wish I didn't know that. Because I certainly wish it weren't true.

Especially when domestic violence stats still look like this:

Nearly one in every four women are beaten or raped by a partner during adulthood.1

␣ 1 in 6 women and 1 in 33 men have experienced an attempted or completed rape.2

␣ Three women are killed by a current or former intimate partner each day in America, on average.3

␣ Over 22 percent of women and 7.4 percent of men surveyed, reported being physically assaulted by a current or former partner in their lifetime.4

␣ Approximately 2.3 million people each year in the United States are raped and/or physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend. Women who were physically assaulted by an intimate partner averaged 6.9 physical assaults per year by the same partner.5

␣ Approximately 37% of women seeking injury-related treatment in hospital emergency rooms were there because of injuries inflicted by a current or former spouse/partner.6

␣ Women are at an increased risk of harm shortly after separation from an abusive partner.7

[Source: National Network to End Domestic Violence]

Check that last stat: Women are at increased risk after leaving the abuser. So if they try to extricate themselves from this "pre-existing condition", they are actually at more risk of "developing" that "condition" and needing treatment...which can be denied.

Bah! And Feh! 

Another BlogHer Conference Call with a Congressperson

Following on BlogHer's conference calls with Senator Klobuchar (D-Minn) and Representative McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash), we bring you the third call with Representative George Miller (D-Calif). It's tomorrow at 11AM Pacific. 

If you want to listen to the first two calls, the audio is available here:

Senator Klobuchar

Rep. McMorris Rodgers

We're talking to Democrats and Republicans. And these Congresspeople are completely open to having members of both or any part on the calls with them. All we ask is that the questions remain as civil as the rest of the debates on BlogHer.

We'd like to show that civil debate is possible. That there is more to political discourse online than either an echo chamber or a flame-war.

So far, so good.