Readers Write: Lessons From an Emergency Room Nightmare

By Heather Gehlert, AlterNet. Posted December 27, 2008.

beachcomberT says that diagnostic mistakes "in a health system driven more by cost factors than what's best for the patient" should not come as a surprise: "Insurance companies are doing all they can to steer people away from costly tests and emergency-room visits, preferring they go to cheaper urgent-care stations. Besides publicizing mortality stats of hospitals, let's have some mortality stats on health insurance companies. It's relatively easy to find out which ones are making the most money; virtually impossible to find out which ones are doing a good job at saving lives."

A for-profit system can also work against patients by causing them to delay or avoid care for fear of outrageous costs. That can be true for uninsured and insured patients alike. Pollack, the author of the article being discussed, admitted money was in the back of his mind when he and his wife were trying to decide if she really needed medical attention or not. "We were ... swayed by the expected hassle and expense of an ER visit," he writes. "We envisioned paying a large bill to be prescribed some Tums. Last year, Veronica went out-of-network for urgent care. That cost $700."

AlterNet reader driftwolf, who has lived in several countries, writes that "one thing stands out about this article: the overwhelming worry about cost. About going bankrupt just because someone in your family is sick, even if you have health insurance, just because they might not cover it or you're going (a term I've not heard before) 'out of network.'

"That, to me, is just wrong. Completely, utterly, irreparably wrong. It's sick. It's disgusting. It does not belong in a society that prides itself on being 'better' than everywhere else.

"For me, it's another good reason to stay away from the U.S. and keep to countries that understand and act upon the ideal that the health of its citizens really is the most important 'national security' issue you can have."

As health care continues to become a larger and larger part of our national dialogue, AlterNet will keep you up to speed on the conversation. So check back often, and keep those comments rolling.

Some other great health care stories you might have missed this year: Cancer at 23: How Health Insurance Failed Me by Carey Purcell, Criminal Health Care: My Experience in Insurance Company Hell by Eric Stoner, and Want to Save Some Lives? Here is a Simple Formula for Identifying Strokes by AlterNet's Don Hazen.

See more stories tagged with: health, health care, misdiagnosis, diagnostic error, medical mistakes

Heather Gehlert is a managing editor at AlterNet.

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