Health Care-less

This week, I want to return to a serious topic. I want to talk about…

…healthcare.


Okay, for those of you still here, I’d like to talk about something very frustrating that I learned about one of our local doctors the other day. It’s just another bit of evidence that an over-inflated bureaucracy does nothing but get in the way of its true purpose and stated goals.

This doctor uses innovative and somewhat non-traditional techniques in treating her patients. These people often have long-term illnesses and/or conditions. So the care they need, while aimed toward cure, is focused on daily life issues. It’s about making their life “today” better — while still working toward the possibility of cure, tomorrow.

The doctor does not ignore, in any way, the concept of ultimate cure. However, she understands better than most doctors, that the patient has to live in the real world. They need treatment that will help them live a decent life with their condition, as they strive toward ridding themselves of it. This “palliative” care is a concept that many doctors brush aside. This physician, however, listens to her patients, and becomes familiar with their day-to-day needs, desires, and goals. She takes the time to learn how her patient lives, and does all she can to enhance their quality of life.

Many of her patients have life-long issues, such as diabetes, amputation and various other disabilities. Treating these patients ( who often have chronic and persistent wounds), requires a pragmatic approach, which focuses not so much on ridding them of their malady, as it does helping them to live with it. This is her mission, and I can tell you without reservation, that she does it well, and her methods work!

The government, on the other hand: Well, they’re not so sure.

The good folks at the bureaucratic red-tape capitol of the universe, which we lovingly call “Medicare” have been hassling this good doctor, and refusing to pay her for her work. They’ve been drowning her in pointless paperwork, and generally giving her a hard time. Apparently, they feel bad that she’s been helping her patients to feel good. According to their various computers, data sheets and policy books, “feeling good” is not a billable service. I guess they don't consider quality of life to be durable medical equipment. It’s okay to try to cure your patient, but if you try to make their life a little more pleasant in the “now” —well, they just can’t cover that.

The pencil pushers claim her treatment methods are unproven, and unapproved. Yet they, in fact, are approved for other circumstances. And the scientific evidence clearly shows that the methods are also beneficial when used in the way she's using them.  Her patients are a clear testament to the fact that they do work.

But Medicare can’t put a code on comfort, fill a spreadsheet with security, or pigeonhole peace of mind. So they shake their little fingers and turn up their noses. They can’t see past the end of their desks, nor do they even want to try. Thinking outside of the box is not in the Federal Register. So anything that comes along that shakes up their confined, mundane world is immediately dismissed and, if necessary, dispatched at all cost.

I won’t pretend to have any answer for this; but it seems like they could work the human condition into the equation somehow. Some value could be placed on living a good life — not just a long one. I understand that the government, and the taxpayers are averse to wasting money, and that’s as it should be. However, is it wasteful to provide comfort, dignity, and security to our neighbors for whom our tax dollars are meant to help? Is it unwise to ignore alternative methods, which might just help people? Is it good policy to let people suffer, simply because you can’t completely cure them within the confines of some arbitrary timeline? In the end, aren’t the increased costs of treating patients for complications, avoidable accidents, and illnesses brought on by years of misery, going to cost the taxpayers even more?

The folks at Medicare should sneak away from their paper cages and venture out into the real world. They should make an investment in finding out what really works well, and what people really need. I won’t begin to dive into the murky waters of the healthcare reform debate. But it just scares the hell out of me to think that the system may soon become even more bureaucratic, with exponentially more decision-making power given over to policy wonks and number crunchers. I don’t want my quality of life determined by some guy who flunked out of MIT because his solar robot exploded.


Next week: Another episode of “Yard Wars!”