Money Matters or Health Matters
No patient should be turned away from any doctor or hospital because they cannot pay. If after doing a background check on the patient's income, the doctor finds out they are capable of paying, they should be billed. If they still refuse to pay, they should take it out of their income. The government should reimburse the doctor immediately if a patient cannot pay. Since this will make the doctor's patient load larger in most cases, the government should also provide so many nurses and/or Physician Assistants who are paid by the government to assist those doctors. This would help spread out the care of the many patients who usually have to sit for long hours waiting to be seen in free clinics and hospital waiting rooms. It is so wrong for good people to have to sit in smelly waiting rooms for hours, sometimes bleeding on the floor as they wait, or feeling so sick that they end up passing out while waiting. It would also keep a lot of people from having to drive so far for care.
There should be two different waiting rooms for all doctors' offices, not just some of the pediatrics, but all doctors; one that is for the sick and one that is for well patient care. It should be required that each doctor has enough physicians to provide for walk-in patients who need immediate care. As it is, if you come down with a bad earache or a severe sore throat, etc, most of the doctors I have had on Medicaid cannot even see you until days later. This usually sends the person to the Emergency Room when the patient could have been handled a lot easier and quicker in a doctor's office. I realize it would be difficult for some people to sit there with someone who is homeless, especially if that person smells or is very sick. In this case, perhaps they could have a specific clinic for the homeless. It should be made clear that anyone with a very serious disease would have to acquire a card that would send them to a specific doctor, clinic or hospital. Sometimes people get so angry when patients with certain diseases are allowed the same care, especially if it is caused by sharing needles or careless sexual habits, but the truth is, a lot of these people contracted these diseases through a blood transfusion or perhaps even some freak accident. If a person has contracted something due to carelessness or foolishness on their part, perhaps they should be required to carry a card that admits them to certain clinics or doctors, as well. I say this because the greater portion of our population live in fear of catching something from a guy/girl who comes in an office or hospital looking unclean. I, myself think everyone should be treated equally. People make stupid mistakes, some worse than others, but we all make stupid mistakes and bad decisions.
I know that the government has a lot of money sitting there waiting to be used for grants and sometimes all of it is not used. Whatever is left over should be applied to our healthcare for the following year. No one should be refused health care. There has to be a way that the government can put their heads together without prejudice and without controlling everybody. I do not believe anyone should be on a waiting list just because they do not have the money for the surgery they need or some transplant that is needed. If there is a way to cure, it should never be held back. It does not matter how young or old the person is, no one should be treated like an object. Each living human being should not have to suffer because they do not have the money for dentistry, vision care, or any health issue. The world got by with doctors going door to door, accepting whatever payment the person could give many years ago. It was a good neighbor policy that was strong among people. If we could only go back to some of the old ways and stop progressing people into their graves, so many people would not be dying and suffering in our country. If only the good neighbor policy traveled all the way to the Whitehouse and down to the least of God's children. All men are created equally and should be treated equally unless they are some mass murderer or rapist. Then, I believe they should have to wait and suffer just like the people they caused to suffer. Prisoners have better health care than I do most of the time; better than my children.
Why not put bombs and billions of dollars used for fuel in Space Programs and a lot of other expensive programs on hold until most of our problems with the economy and health care gets resolved. Perhaps if the poor were allowed to get out of this rut, it would travel right up the ladder and make for a better place to raise our kids and give them the health care they deserve.
