What does a health crisis look like? See Houston

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-06-18-texas-health-care_N.htm

By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY
HOUSTON — Ijeoma Onye awoke one day last month short of breath, her head pounding. Her daughter, Ebere Hawkins, drove her 45 minutes from Katy, Texas, to Ben Taub General Hospital, where people without health insurance pay little or nothing for treatment.


Maria Gutierrez, in yellow, and hundreds of others wait to be seen at specialty clinics at Ben Taub General Hospital in Houston. Gutierrez was having her ankle checked after surgery.

Onye, 62, waited four hours to be seen. Still, going to the emergency room was faster than getting an appointment. For that, "you have to wait months," Hawkins says.

Ben Taub is the hub of the Harris County Hospital District, a network of hospitals and care centers serving the Houston area's 1.1 million uninsured residents and hundreds of thousands more with little coverage. Here, the national statistic of 45 million uninsured people is more than a number. It's a crisis.

Nationally, more than 15% are uninsured. In Texas it's nearly 24%, the Census Bureau says, the highest percentage among the states. Here in Harris County, it's 30%, according to state figures, the highest rate among the nation's top 10 metropolitan areas.

As the Houston area struggles to deal with a rising tide of uninsured, it offers a lesson for the nation: Let the problem get out of hand — to a point where nearly 1 in 3 people have no coverage — and you won't just have a less healthy population. You'll have an overwhelmed health care system.

"Texas is the case study for system implosion," says neurosurgeon Guy Clifton, founder of the Houston-area group Save Our ERs.

FULL story at link.

[babylonsister]

1. OMG! My DH just brought this paper home and I live in Houston!

That pic blew me away! Pretty pathetic, isn't it. And these people had appointments! Imagine an emergency room?

[leftofthedial]

2. Gawdalmighty jeezis bless capitalism

the greatest system on earth!

[Fovea]

3. it is a third world health care system

for a third world nation with a third world income distribution and a third world rule of privilege.

[lovuian]

4. Its absolutely a disaster

it came keep going like this and I predict a Major Recession and when that happens watch out

KABOOM

:nuke:

[Skittles]

5. and freeptards think America has THE best health care!!!!!!!

:puke:

[Slyder]

6. Not a health crisis........

but a health care distribution problem nearing a crisis. Some have too much and some have too little. With the health insurance companies seeking profits, doctors and hospitals maximizing income, abuse of nursing and support staffs, manufacturers and middle men taking us for all we are worth, and lawyers in the act, nobody gets the right amount of health care!

Thank God we don't have a health crisis! With this crap and with the public health infrastructure in disarray and extremely weak, a real health crisis would cripple the nation and lead to needless chaos and death. We can't even keep track of one man believed to have a seriously contagious form of TB!! How would we deal with millions ill at the same time!

[slipslidingaway]

7. K&R n/t