There are two things I generally avoid.
- Reading articles linked from the FARK politics tab, and the FARK comment threads on those articles. I don’t need more rage in my life.
- Blogging about health care, and health care reform. Look, I think the system has major problems. I wish I knew how to fix it. I don’t. I think things are too deeply intertwingled for there to be a single easy fix, or even a series of easy fixes. I’m worried that once you start tugging on the pieces, the entire thing will collapse like a giant game of Jenga.
I do think there’s been a handful of sane voices in the debate: I was really impressed with David Goldhill’s “How American Health Care Killed My Father“, for example.
That being said, Lawrence sent me over to that territory I usually don’t tread in (for this link about what TV shows are popular among Republicans and Democrats) and I stumbled across another Atlantic article there: “God Help You. You’re on Dialysis.”
I’m having trouble finding my way into writing about that, because there’s still some raw emotions involved. Also, what I saw involves the lives of some other people, who may not want their personal business spread all over the Internets.
That being said, much of what’s in that article rings a giant freaking bell. Infection control issues? Yes. “When patients do take on the system, they can pay a heavy price.” Oh, my, yes. Clinics pushing medication that they could charge Medicare for? You betcha. “The expanding grip of DaVita and Fresenius.” Yes, though to be fair, what else would you expect? If the Government is paying 100% of the cost for dialysis, they have an incentive to drive costs down as much as possible. If they drive down costs, the people who can even afford to provide the service in the first place are the ones who can cut costs and consolidate operations.
While I was composing this post, Instapundit linked to the article as well. The comments from the person who works in the industry are particularly interesting, I think.