Denver's Republican Dream of Health Care

I have a rose named Denver's Dream. It's an orange blooming miniature, quite prolific. It has nothing to do with this blog entry. While the White House is attempting to grab dictatorial powers of infinite incarceration without access to the courts, while Bush vacations while the Middle East burns, while the Senate Republicans are loading up the minimum wage bill with tax cuts for Paris Hilton and sweetheart deals to restauranteurs, while Delay is forced to run in gerrymandered Texas as the courts contemplate yet another redistricting, while FDA staffers reveal that the decision to block over-the-counter sales of Plan B, a move that could stop more abortions than a Wingnut Supreme Court, was made in advance of even seeing the scientific evidence in its favor and the while Right continues to want to ban abortion rather than following their constituents' wishes for a balanced approach, Denver approaches the Republicans' dream of the American Health Care System, emergency room care for all.

According to Dr. Vince Markovchick, Denver Health’s director of emergency medicine in an interview on Denver's KCFR's "Colorado Matters," the emergency room has become the medical first stop for those without health care, a number that has ballooned to 47 million under the Republicans' compassionate conservative rule. As a result, at Denver Health, a safety net hospital, patients are waiting up to 48 hours to be moved from the ER to an inpatient bed. Dr. Markovchick attributes this directly to the medical insurance crisis in the country: Un- and Underinsured patients can't pay, they use the "safety net" hospitals as their primary care, the hospitals run in the red and are closed, compounding the problem. Many of the patients could have been treated earlier for chronic problems such as diabetes or hypertension, problem is, they can't afford it. Not only would the early treatment be cheaper, it would improve the patients' quality of life.

Think the Compassionate Conservatives are going to do anything about it? They've stood by as companies cut or eliminated medical benefits and done nothing. They stand by and let emergency rooms where it costs $450 if the doctor says good evening become primary care facilities and treat catastrophic conditions when a simple, low-cost intervention earlier might have prevented the problem. No, they'll continue to believe the problem will be solved by giving money to the richest 2% of Americans while allowing 47 million of us to go uninsured and to have to rely on emergency rooms for our medical care.

It's the Republican dream: Two percent of the population have access to 98% of our medical services. Meanwhile, some uninsured person has been suffering at Denver Health for the last two days waiting for a hospital room and, according to Dr. Markovchick, Denver isn't nearly as bad off as most cities. So if the interests of the top 2% of income earners in this country are yours, vote Republican.