Letter - Health Care Fiction - Letter - NYTimes.com

Letter - Health Care Fiction - Letter - NYTimes.com:

Too well said not to cite in its entirety...

"Re “Feeling No Pain,” by Paul Krugman (column, Aug. 29):

Mr. Krugman rightly notes that emergency room care cannot substitute for health insurance since the cost will be billed directly to the patient.

There is another reason emergency rooms cannot provide adequate health care. Emergency rooms are for emergencies. They can treat a patient in a diabetic coma, but they cannot provide continuing help in managing diabetes. They can treat a full-blown asthma attack, but they cannot provide the medications needed to manage asthma daily.

They can treat a woman who has gone into early labor, but they cannot provide prenatal care.
Emergency rooms cannot offer any help for managing Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s or cancer. On a more basic level, they cannot provide eyeglasses, hearing aids or dentures.

Republican claims that no American is without access to health care because “you can just go to an emergency room” are openly false as well as appallingly callous.

Elizabeth Vandiver
Walla Walla, Wash., Aug. 29, 2008"

Sphere: Related Content