current Kojo Nnamdi show on economics of health care

1) this discussion is too important to be left to politicians and economists. Please include physicians to get their input.
2) I am a physician working in an oncology department at a hospital here in Washington. I regularly see poor people with metastatic cancer on the first day that they come in to be seen by a physician. Surely, socioeconomic factors are contributory. It is disgraceful that poor people have to choose between food, shelter and medical care.
3) I also have seen patients who have accumulated a considerable estate lose it all to medical expenses that have not been covered by their insurance.

Tags: cancer, healthcare

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Permalink Reply by Giovanna on August 24, 2009 at 1:56pm: Thank you for speaking from your own, incontrovertible experience.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by David L. Koonce on August 24, 2009 at 2:13pm: I managed to catch the very end. Thank you for speaking out.
I lost a former employee early this year. He lost a job because of the down turn in the housing industry...this led him to make a couple of job changes leading him to come to work for me in a small bank. We offer health insurance as a benefit but because of the cost we can only pay a portion leaving the employee with a relatively expensive monthly insurance bill. My employee was only 40yrs old but a little over weight. We work in a stressful industry and get paid only commission. He struggled to make ends meet and chose not to take the insurance plan we have because of the cost. He left my company ... and about 3 months later I received a call explaining that he had died of a hear attack. The doctors said that it looked as if he had 2 previous heart attacks.
I believe that he would have gone to the doctor if we had some sort of a plan that he could have afforded. Thus I believe he died because we do not have an affordable option!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Brendan Sweeney (WAMU 88.5) on August 24, 2009 at 3:19pm: Thanks for the stories and ideas. We are in the process of collecting ideas for possible follow-up shows on health reform.

I think it could be very interesting to follow the path of individual patients and get a sense of what the current system looks like from the ground-up.

If you haven't caught it, the Kojo Nnamdi Show has talked with medical doctors a few times over the last few weeks. I recall an interesting examination of how medical health records are transforming the doctor-patient rela....

WAMU 88.5 Reporter Sabri Ben Achour had an interesting piece on Metro Connection last Friday on the "Have Nots and Have Not Enoughs".

Cheers,
Brendan (Kojo Nnamdi Show Producer); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bruce E. on August 24, 2009 at 3:20pm: I'm a bit taken a back by all the discussions on health care reform. For some delusional reason I thought all Americans wanted universal coverage. I always felt that people would want to pay a little more tax money to ensure everyone was covered. I hear all the conservatives complaining with over wraught emotion, but I don't see any real push back from the liberals.

With that said, I do think the WH is not properly getting the information out. They seem to be defending a program from republican attacks on what is not true. But they are defending a program that most americans don't fully understand. If they had the proper public information campain, then no amount of fear rhetoric from republicans would gain traction.; ▶ Reply to This