Posted on 02/28/2013 7:43:14 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
For a look into the future at what will be a wonderful medical system I’ve always appreciated Solzhenitsyn.
Especially the short story “The Right Hand”
“The Right Hand” features a homeless man who, possessing only a decades-old commendation for “counter-revolutionary service,” is neglected medical treatment.
The way in which he is blown off is heartbreaking.
His major work dealing with socialized healthcare is
“Cancer Ward”.
Here’s a quick summary I found online:
The story takes place in the men’s cancer ward of a hospital in a city in Soviet Central Asia. The patients in Ward 13 all suffer from cancer, but differ in age, personality, nationality, and social class (as if such a thing could be possible in the Soviet “classless” society!). We are first introduced to Pavel Rusanov, a Communist Party functionary, who enters the hospital because of a rapidly-growing neck tumor.
We soon learn, however, that the book’s central character is Oleg Kostoglotov, a young man who has recently been discharged from a penal camp and is now “eternally” exiled to this particular province. Only two weeks earlier, he was admitted to the ward in grave condition from an unspecified tumor, but he has responded rapidly to radiation therapy. Among the doctors are Zoya, a medical student; Vera Gangart, a young radiologist; and Lyudmila Dontsova, the chief of radiation therapy.
Rusanov and Kostoglotov respond to therapy and are eventually discharged; other patients remain in the ward, get worse, or are sent home to die. In the end Kostoglotov boards a train to the site of his “eternal” exile: “The long awaited happy life had come, it had come! But Oleg somehow did not recognize it.”
Commentary
Solzhenitzyn himself was released from a labor camp in early 1953, just before Stalin’s death, and was exiled to a village in Kazakhstan. While incarcerated, he had been operated on for a tumor, but was not told the diagnosis. He subsequently developed a recurrence, received radiotherapy in Tashkent, and recovered.
In The Cancer Ward Solzhenitzyn transforms these experiences into a multifaceted tale about Soviet society during the period of hope and liberalization after Stalin’s death. Cancer, of course, is an obvious metaphor for the totalitarian state. The novel also provides an interesting look at mid-century Soviet medicine and medical ethics. Of course, the paternalism evident here (e.g. lack of truth-telling and informed consent) was also characteristic of American medicine in the 1950’s and remains an important concern in professional ethics.
The novel also explores the personal qualities and motivation of physicians, and the issue of intimate relationships between doctors and patients. Probably the book’s strongest points are its insight into human nature and the believability of its characters.
The Government must force Doctors to comply by threatening their license to practice, eventually.
This is a mess that will never work in the USA. Period.
For those of us who can't wait in line behind fifty bums waiting to scam the system
for pain killers, we'll have home visits and those Doctors who do house calls will
be able to survive. In order to pay for it all, the Gov must continue with Death Panels and
lower payments to health care providers and create and never win situation.
It's in the bill.
“The drugs are priced that high because you pay that much. It is a “captive” market.”
Or maybe because many of us have insurance and consider the sticker prices crazy but don’t pay them, so the upward price spiral chugs along. But now insurance rates are getting out of hand. Surprise, huh?
You’re correct, it is a captive market. I’m not sure what to do about that.
Everyone wants the very best care possible. In an advanced technological culture, that is VERY expensive. If it can be done, and someone can pay for it, everyone will want it - and insist on getting it for “free”.
Surgeries (and gory details) aside, I had a $55,000 hospital stay once. Three weeks. That works out to about $100/hr. In an age where sweeping floors or flipping burgers gets you over $7/hr, and a robust salary is $50/hr, is $100/hr for teams of trained medical staff equipped with advanced technology hovering over you 24/7 really so bad?
Another time a doctor was paid $8000 for his work on me. I’d say that’s quite fair, considering he was repairing my heart.
Sure there are absurd expenses charged. Go after them. Be aware that demanding premium services with technically advanced equipment and difficult chemistries is very, very expensive.
Excellent article —
Beyond the captive market, there is the world wide cost shifting. Countries with socialized health care systems “negotiate” the prices they are willing to pay for medications. They are effectively offering a token amount as an alternative to otherwise violating manufacturer patents and making a generic version themselves. In effect, American prescription users are financing all the research and testing for the entire world. If the costs of research and failed drugs were dispersed among several billion folks instead of a hundred million, our prices would be lower.
You are correct, we are subsidizing most of the R&D, but that isn't the whole reason for the price.
The other side is a wide gap between actual price, and perceived price. I had to take some acid controls for a stomach condition. I payed $3, my insurance paid $80.
The SAME drug is in Prilosac OTC, and costs $30 for the same dosage.
That is a $50 mark up in actual price, but I only perceive the $3 cost.
All the surgical advances kept a kid with pyloric stenosis alive. All the cardiac surgery advances kept a kid with Tetralogy alive. All the neonatology, critical care, neurosurgery, nutrition, etc., kept premature kids alive.
No way was it just sulfa drugs and penicillin.
In fact, the first antibiotics, penicillin and sulfa drugs, were not available until WW2... the elongation in life expectancy started well before 1939.
It was a worldwide army of people working their behinds off, caring for the sick, and doing research on millions of different things.
Not just antibiotics.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.