>On Aug 31, 9:46=A0am, "george conklin"
nospam.com> wrote:>> "Herman Rubin"
odds.stat.purdue.edu> wrote in message>>> The President should be an exception, but consider how
>>> much medical care would cost if everyone had Kennedy's
>>> treatment. =A0 It would exceed the national income by far.
>>> And yet Kennedy is for government healthcare.
>> =A0 =A0Herman, Kennedy is getting what might best be called standard trea=
>tment
>> for his brain tumor. =A0Your fears are unfounded yet again. =A0Duke will =
>operate
>> on you the same as for Kennedy.
>But "it would exceed the national income by far" *if* we all had
>Kennedy type brain tumors?
The initial diagnosis on Kennedy was that it was untreatable.
If it had been covered by a national health plan, it would
have gone no further.
There is a massive shortage of nurses and nursing aides.
There also is a massive shortage of doctors in diagnostic
areas, where there is great importance, but where there
are no expensive "procedures". Another problem with both
"insurance" and with a national health program is that the
ones receiving the benefits, the patients, have little say.
A fair part of the cost of medical treatments requiring
any kind of nursing care is that too much cannot be done
by the patient, but requires doctor's approval, and often
the quite competent patient cannot even just take the
medicine or even the over-the-counter stuff, but needs
to have it meted out by medical personnel. This is much
more expensive than it looks, and takes the time of the
medical personnel, of which there is not enough.
No more "doctor's orders", unless the patient is not
competent to make any kind of decisions. But this will
not solve the shortage problem, and it will not work if
the government gets into the act. Beware the camel
getting its nose into the tent.
--
This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views
are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.
Herman Rubin, Department of Statistics, Purdue University
hrubin@
stat.purdue.edu Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558
