Doug;

The health care industry in the United States does not address a rather large segment of our population. If you have money, insurance or both you will receive medical care of some sort. The type of care is dependent upon the quality of physicians and in the case of HMO’s, a clerk determines life and death situations all too often. Let us say that our health care system is less than perfect. If you are able to afford health care in this country then you are fortunate.

Should we dismiss all those persons who cannot afford health care in the United States? In California, we have made improvements in assisting those without insurance to have access to medical care. There are so many negative stories about the health care system. An aside: Even those who receive medical care are at risk when you consider that more patients are killed by doctors in this country than the number of people killed by guns.

Our recent history in medical care, say the last fifty years has changed. Fifty years ago your family doctor made house calls. Thirty years ago doctors became corporations and invested in businesses and real estate and began a indifferent attitude with patients and the medical system.

Twenty years ago hospitals decided to compete with each other and obtained the best of every type of machine available such as MRI’s and the ability to treat many medical specialties. There was and is so much redundancy of available service that many hospitals are under utilized. The patients have to pay increased cost to pay off the debt of under utilized medical facilities. It has been stated the city of Seattle has more MRI’s than the entire country of Canada!

Ten years ago the medical insurance industry, led by many medical doctors, decided to change things. Today the insurance industry decides what they will treat and what they will not treat. Clerks read a script that has been predefined and decide if a patient will receive treatment. Health care has been taken out of the hands of the physician and placed into the hands of a minimum wage employee.

What is the answer to the question of medical care for a nation? If you have money you have access to medical care. What about those that do not have access? What do they do?

By the way my wife is closely tied to the medical industry and we have discussed these issues for over 30 years. We have many horror stories about medical care or others and ourselves in life threatening situations. It is not a joke to be wheeled into the trauma center at U.C. Davis and told by the head doctor, “You are going to die”!, and then have a medical worker ask you, “Who is your insurance carrier and what is your policy number”! Medical care. Such a term. Those in the medical profession all too often express indifference to patients. Our “Me only”! society can be very revolting.

Tom - Glad to be alive in spite of “medical care”. Prayer helps more than one might know.