Re: The Shock Doctrine in Action in New Orleans

[Scott Hays <shays@ccwebster.net>]

On Dec 23, 2007, at 10:50 AM, aburke5054@aol.com wrote:

> I can't speak to the economics and returns of health care, but the  
> idea
> that people will put their own money into providing education doesn't
> exactly terrify me.

Nor did the economics and returns of having a good insurance policy  
terrify holders of CIGNA Corp. health care insurance plans ... until  
some underwriter sitting at a desk in Philadelphia, following to the  
letter corporate directives aimed at maximizing profit and reducing  
cost, denied a request from doctors at UCLA Medical Center for a  
liver transplant for a seventeen year old patient.  Who then,  
inconveniently, died.  This is but one tragic example of how the  
'economics' of health care interfere with medical judgment and  
practice at the alter of profit.  The young girl's unnecessary death  
drew national attention to the (mal) practice of for-profit health  
care.  A litany of similar stories, though not always as tragic,   
surfaced in the media for a couple of days ... only to disappear into  
the miasma of for-profit Christmas ... demonstrating repeatedly that  
the health and well-being of patients covered in for-profit health  
care plans and hmos is not always the most important consideration  
when making economic decisions regarding matters of medical  
practice.  For-profit schools make the same types of judgments all  
the time, though the outcome is not always life-threatening (in the  
short term).  EMOs and Educational Care Insurance do not strike me as  
a viable or non-terrifying way to go.

"I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box  
when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it"
                  --Terry Pratchett

Scott Hays
shays@ccwebster.netwebster.net