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So, what about rationing medical care?
Topic Started: Jul 14 2010, 01:53 PM (204 Views)
kathyk
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Pisa-Carp
Ax was derided for using a cost-benefit (economic) analysis of abortions. It's become almost accepted in the medical community that health care rationing is going to become the way of the future with burgeoning health care costs, and, in fact, already has.

For doctors, rationing care is standard practice

Quote:
 
About 100,000 patients are on the waiting list for a transplant at any given time, and last year about 6,700 died while waiting. Some 28,000 were fortunate enough to receive an organ in 2008; the rest simply remained on the list.


These are life and death decisions for walking, breathing, humans that are driven by simple economies - if not just monetary, then the availability of organs. Why then should it be immoral to apply the same logic to abortions?
Blogging in Palestine: http://kksjournal.com/
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KlavierBauer
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HOLY CARP!!!
KathyK: You're WAY oversimplifying the problem cited above in the transplant example.
The VAST majority of transplant recipients are kidney patients - of the 100k patients awaiting a transplant, 80+k of them are waiting for kidneys. Of the kidney patients the VAST majority of them die while waiting for transplant ONLY if they choose to, as there is life sustaining treatment available at zero cost to them (even if they're here illegally).
The reason people die has to do with the second "simple economy" you recognize, not the first, that being the availability of organs. Furthermore, this economy is anything but simple. There are plenty of available organs that are denied simply because family members of the deceased choose not to recognize the donor's wishes.
Again, all kidney transplant patients are covered by Medicare, so the monetary argument is moot. Medicare will not only pay for the transplant for the recipient, but in the case of living donors will pay for the donor's surgery as well.
Organ availability is the real issue, and it isn't even the issue of availability - it's the issue of education vs. ignorance. People think signing their drivers license makes them an organ donor when it doesn't.
The problem is a relatively easy one to overcome, but the current system doesn't allow for a simple solution. The new system will make this process even more difficult, and we'll see the lists get even longer unless something changes.

Healthcare rationing is a simple matter of supply/demand. As supply decreases demand rises, as a result you have to ration supply.

Ax was derided because his argument about abortions being "cost effective" was flawed on many levels.
Edited by KlavierBauer, Jul 14 2010, 02:11 PM.
"I realize you want him to touch you all over and give you babies, but his handling of the PR side really did screw the pooch." - Ivory Thumper
"He said sleepily: "Don't worry mom, my dick is like hot logs in the morning." - Apple

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jon-nyc
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Cheers
I'm waiting for my community death panel to form, hoping I can get an appointment.


Seriously, though, health care will always be rationed, either through queuing or the price system, or both. Solid organ transplants are an unusual case, since the rationing is forced upon us by organ availability. (of course we could do a lot to make more organs available, especially kidneys)
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KlavierBauer
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HOLY CARP!!!
There's no shortage of organs - there's a shortage of organ procurement.
"I realize you want him to touch you all over and give you babies, but his handling of the PR side really did screw the pooch." - Ivory Thumper
"He said sleepily: "Don't worry mom, my dick is like hot logs in the morning." - Apple

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jon-nyc
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Cheers
There's a shortage of organs available for transplant. It could be greatly improved, especially for kidneys.
In my defense, I was left unsupervised.
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Copper
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Shortstop

There's a shortage of private jets available for transplant.

There's a shortage of diamond rings available for transplant.

There's a shortage of caviar and champagne available for transplant.

There's a shortage of money available for transplant.
The Confederate soldier was peculiar in that he was ever ready to fight, but never ready to submit to the routine duty and discipline of the camp or the march. The soldiers were determined to be soldiers after their own notions, and do their duty, for the love of it, as they thought best. Carlton McCarthy
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