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Mental Illness, Tucson and the Urgent Need for Universal Care
I don't know whether Jared Loughner had health
insurance coverage, but the terrible events in Tucson got me thinking
about an uninsured patient I saw last month at a massive one-day mobile
free clinic for the uninsured in North Carolina. This was an event
sponsored by the apolitical non-partisan National Association of Free
Clinics (NAFC) and it delivered free care to over 1,200 uninsured
people.
Jan 21, 2011
I don't know whether Jared Loughner had health
insurance coverage, but the terrible events in Tucson got me thinking
about an uninsured patient I saw last month at a massive one-day mobile
free clinic for the uninsured in North Carolina. This was an event
sponsored by the apolitical non-partisan National Association of Free
Clinics (NAFC) and it delivered free care to over 1,200 uninsured
people.
I saw a very
worried mother with her 22-year-old son. He had told her a week earlier
that he was hearing voices that were telling him to hurt people. He told
her he'd actually been hearing voices for seven years, but as it
embarrassed him and they were never very scary he'd not mentioned it
until last week. Now this new message was terrifying him, and the voices
were becoming increasing compelling. He told me that he didn't know how
much longer he could continue to hold them off.
His
mother had tried calling several local psychiatrists but they all
refused to see him without insurance. She was reluctant to go to the
local emergency room as they had given her a really difficult time in
the past due to her own lack of insurance. She was about at her wits'
end, and then saw a notice about NAFC's one-day free clinic.
When
I saw him there, he was clearly very agitated and worried. He looked to
me like he could start taking action at any moment. Fortunately, we had
a psychiatrist who was also volunteering his day there and we were able
to get him immediately into an aggressive care plan.
We
all know that lack of health insurance in America is a tremendous
problem. Some 45,000 Americans die every year from lack of insurance.
More than half of bankruptcies are from unpredictably high medical
costs. Our businesses struggle to compete globally with other nations
that have more rationally solved this problem.
I
don't believe it's nearly as well recognized, however, that when our
neighbors don't have insurance, we're all at risk too. My patient's lack
of insurance jeopardized each and every one of us.
Partial
solutions and incomplete answers are just not acceptable in a country
like ours. We simply have to find a way to have universal access to high
quality of care, or we will all continue to pay the price, sometimes at
point-blank range.
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I don't know whether Jared Loughner had health
insurance coverage, but the terrible events in Tucson got me thinking
about an uninsured patient I saw last month at a massive one-day mobile
free clinic for the uninsured in North Carolina. This was an event
sponsored by the apolitical non-partisan National Association of Free
Clinics (NAFC) and it delivered free care to over 1,200 uninsured
people.
I saw a very
worried mother with her 22-year-old son. He had told her a week earlier
that he was hearing voices that were telling him to hurt people. He told
her he'd actually been hearing voices for seven years, but as it
embarrassed him and they were never very scary he'd not mentioned it
until last week. Now this new message was terrifying him, and the voices
were becoming increasing compelling. He told me that he didn't know how
much longer he could continue to hold them off.
His
mother had tried calling several local psychiatrists but they all
refused to see him without insurance. She was reluctant to go to the
local emergency room as they had given her a really difficult time in
the past due to her own lack of insurance. She was about at her wits'
end, and then saw a notice about NAFC's one-day free clinic.
When
I saw him there, he was clearly very agitated and worried. He looked to
me like he could start taking action at any moment. Fortunately, we had
a psychiatrist who was also volunteering his day there and we were able
to get him immediately into an aggressive care plan.
We
all know that lack of health insurance in America is a tremendous
problem. Some 45,000 Americans die every year from lack of insurance.
More than half of bankruptcies are from unpredictably high medical
costs. Our businesses struggle to compete globally with other nations
that have more rationally solved this problem.
I
don't believe it's nearly as well recognized, however, that when our
neighbors don't have insurance, we're all at risk too. My patient's lack
of insurance jeopardized each and every one of us.
Partial
solutions and incomplete answers are just not acceptable in a country
like ours. We simply have to find a way to have universal access to high
quality of care, or we will all continue to pay the price, sometimes at
point-blank range.
I don't know whether Jared Loughner had health
insurance coverage, but the terrible events in Tucson got me thinking
about an uninsured patient I saw last month at a massive one-day mobile
free clinic for the uninsured in North Carolina. This was an event
sponsored by the apolitical non-partisan National Association of Free
Clinics (NAFC) and it delivered free care to over 1,200 uninsured
people.
I saw a very
worried mother with her 22-year-old son. He had told her a week earlier
that he was hearing voices that were telling him to hurt people. He told
her he'd actually been hearing voices for seven years, but as it
embarrassed him and they were never very scary he'd not mentioned it
until last week. Now this new message was terrifying him, and the voices
were becoming increasing compelling. He told me that he didn't know how
much longer he could continue to hold them off.
His
mother had tried calling several local psychiatrists but they all
refused to see him without insurance. She was reluctant to go to the
local emergency room as they had given her a really difficult time in
the past due to her own lack of insurance. She was about at her wits'
end, and then saw a notice about NAFC's one-day free clinic.
When
I saw him there, he was clearly very agitated and worried. He looked to
me like he could start taking action at any moment. Fortunately, we had
a psychiatrist who was also volunteering his day there and we were able
to get him immediately into an aggressive care plan.
We
all know that lack of health insurance in America is a tremendous
problem. Some 45,000 Americans die every year from lack of insurance.
More than half of bankruptcies are from unpredictably high medical
costs. Our businesses struggle to compete globally with other nations
that have more rationally solved this problem.
I
don't believe it's nearly as well recognized, however, that when our
neighbors don't have insurance, we're all at risk too. My patient's lack
of insurance jeopardized each and every one of us.
Partial
solutions and incomplete answers are just not acceptable in a country
like ours. We simply have to find a way to have universal access to high
quality of care, or we will all continue to pay the price, sometimes at
point-blank range.
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