Chapter 17: A Claim of a Right to Health Care |
Section 5. Decision Scenarios Summary of Methodology for Analyzing and resolving Cases involving moral dilemmas in Health Care: All are at Department of Bioethics & Humanities at the University of Washington School of Medicine. ================================================================================== SCENARIOS: For each of the scenarios you should consider how a person would reach a decision if that person were using the basic principles from EACH of the following traditions:
========================================================= DECISION SCENARIOS: 1. Lack of Health Care coverage for children of workers 2. Health Care coverage for only the least expensive treatment options 3.Self Employed and self Insured and Unable to pay for expensive treatments 4. Underinsured 5.Rationing and priorities for procedures 6.Custodial Care: Self imposed poverty- pauperization to qualify for state provided care =======================================
Decision Scenario 1 “You need to bring Time back in about two weeks and let me have another look at him, “ Dr. Jane Mallory said, “I suspect he’s got a form of inflammatory bowel disease, and I want to see how he does with the drugs and diet. I Few can’t get the disease under control, he might have to have surgery.” “I’m sorry, Doctor,” Mr. Hinshaw said. “I just don’t have the money. My insurance policy at work covers me, but my wife and kids aren’t covered.”
From: Munson, Ronald. INTERVENTION AND REFLECTION.6th ED.,Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Company,2000 ., Page 861, Decision Scenario 2
“We can offer you a couple of options,” Dr. Kenton said. “Whatever will make the pain stay away,” Bill Czahz said. “We can do coronary artery-bypass surgery. Two arteries are involved, so for you it would be a double bypass.” “This isn’t something experimental?” surgery get rid of their angina.” “I don’t much like the idea of being
cut, but I’d do most anything to stop those chest pains.” “What about the angina pains?” Mr. Czahz asked. “There’s the problem. Medical treatment can do something about th pains, but it’s really not as effective as surgery.” “So I’ll take the surgery.” “That’s right.” “So I have to make up the difference
myself?” “Dr. Kenton, there’s no way I can do that.” “Okay, then. I just wanted you to know what the possibilities were. We can put you on a treatment program, and I’m sure you’ll do just fine.” “But what about the angina pain?”
From: Munson, Ronald. INTERVENTION AND REFLECTION.6th ED.,Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Company,2000 ., Page 861-862, Decision Scenario 3
The cashier’s office of Archway Memorial Hospital is, even for the wealthy and best educated, a place of frustration. Bills are presented in the form of long computer printouts, covered with unfamiliar names referring to supplies, medical treatment, and diagnostic tests. Associated with each item is a price that seem absurdly high. For someone without medical insurance, being faced with such a bill is more than confusing—it’s frightening. And that was just the situation that Marvin Baldesi found himself in. “Your age make you ineligible for
Medicare,” said Ms. Kearney, the Archway billing officer. “And you say you
aren’t covered by a private insurance plan?” “ Normally, we wouldn’t have admitted you,” said Ms. Kearney. “It’s only because you came in as an acute emergency that you were allowed to run up such a bill.” She paused. “You’re going to need some follow-up treatments, too.” Mr. Baldesi looked down to keep from meeting Ms. Kearney’s eyes. He felt embarrassed. He had always paid his bills, and now this woman didn’t bother to disguise the fact that she saw him as a deadbeat. “Do you have any savings?” Ms. Kearny asked. “About fifty dollars. Just enough to
keep the account open.: “But the bill is almost fifty thousand dollars,” Mr. Baldesi said. “I can’t borrow money like that. My family and friends don’t have it, and no bank would loan it to me without collateral.” “Then you’ll have to get a lawyer and
declare bankruptcy.” “I don’t know any,” said Ms. Kearney. “But that’s not really my problem. But Archway has to be paid. You received our services, and we have to have the money for them.”
From: Munson, Ronald. INTERVENTION AND REFLECTION.6th ED.,Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Company,2000 ., Page 862-863, Decision Scenario 4
When the pain began, Alan Warfard was certain he was having a heart attack. The pain lasted more than an hour, and when it was finally over he was weak and exhausted. He knew there was something seriously wrong with him, and as soon as he was able, he called his next-door neighbor and asked her to drive him to Southwest Hospital. “You have no insurance coverage, except
for Medicare?” the man at the admitting desk asked Mr. Warfard. “No private
insurance at all?” “Can you show us any financial records, such as savings-account passbooks, to establish that you are able to pay your charges here?” “I live on my Social Security check, and I don’t have a savings account.” “Do you have any relatives willing to sign a statement assuming financial responsibility for your treatment here?” “I’m afraid not,” Mr. Warfard said. “But I don’t see what the problem is. I told you—I’m covered by Medicare. Isn’t that enough?” The admitting clerk shook his head. “I’m afraid it’s not. We don’t know what your treatment is likely to cost, and we don’t know whether Medicare would pay for all of it. You know, they pay only a certain amount, and you might run up bills about that. This is a private hospital, and I’m afraid that, without your being able to guarantee that you can pay us, I can’t admit you for treatment.” “But I’m sick,” Mr. Warfard said.
“What am I supposed to do, just go home and die?” The phrase “people like you” stung Mr. Warfard’s pride. After all those years of paying his taxes and being a good citizen, how could he be dismissed so easily?
From: Munson, Ronald. INTERVENTION AND REFLECTION.6th ED.,Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Company,2000 ., Page 863, Decision Scenario 5
“Let me see if I understand you correctly,” Mrs. Burgone said. “I need a liver transplant, but I’m not allowed to have such an operation?” “That’s correct,” Dr. Popp said. “The National Health policy stipulates that transplant surgery cannot be performed on patients over the age of seventy.” Mrs. Burgone shook her head. “But I don’t expect National Health to pay for it. I’m able to pay for it myself.” “That doesn’t matter. It’s a matter of
social policy, not medicine. The idea is that we can’t afford, as a
society, to do everything for every patient. You might be able to pay for
such an operation, but not everybody can. Then society would have to pay
for those who can’t afford it, and society can’t afford to do that.
Consequently, to be fair, the operation is denied to everyone above the age
of seventy.”
From: Munson, Ronald. INTERVENTION AND REFLECTION.6th ED.,Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Company,2000 ., Page 863, Decision Scenario 6
“Let me explain it to you, Mr. Faust,” Charles Young said. “Although your wife is covered by Medicare, we cannot pay for the care she is receiving in the nursing home. As an Alzheimer’s patient, she’s getting custodial care, and that is explicitly excluded from Medicare coverage. Do you have any insurance?” “My wife and I both have coverage through my job. Bu the benefits office told me exactly the same thing. My policy doesn’t cover long-term, chronic, or custodial care.” “I’m sorry to hear that,” Young said. “That means that you’ll have to pay the total cost of care yourself.” “Where can a sales rep get that kind of
money?” Mr. Faust said. “A nursing home will cost me forty or fifty
thousand dollars a year. If I sell our house and use all our savings, I
could pay for maybe a year or two, but then I wouldn’t have anything to live
on myself. Where could I live? How could I eat?” “I’m sorry to say that’s true.” |
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