Homeless Americans Skip Screenings And Medications, End Up Hospitalized On Taxpayers Dime.

PRLog (Press Release) - Feb 11, 2010 -
Dr. Zoë A. Lewis, producer and host of Blogtalkradio’s, 'Hospice Radio', founder of Hope Through Knowledge Resources. Org. and bestselling author on Alzheimer’s disease asks, “What is cheaper for the tax payer: an asthma inhaler, or a week in the ICU on a ventilator, a vial of insulin, or a month in rehab after a diabetic coma?  There is no trick here, what is cheaper, blood pressure and heart pills costing $20 a month, or emergent bypass surgery with a 6 figure price tag?  Yet, the greatest incalculable cost goes to the patient who can’t afford the medications and ends up with irreversible organ damage and further disability.”
After one of her recent patients in Jacksonville, Fl told her his heart wrenching story, Dr. Z. Lewis, a per diem hospitalist contracted to work in hospitals where medical services are most needed, decided to get busy broadening her grassroots educational campaign using her radio program and website, to tell the stories of uninsured patients to her broad base of listeners.  ‘Hospice Radio’ with over one year of  acclaimed programming, has also earned an international following with links to Jewish TV in South Africa, among others. The program is noncommercial with free downloads and is dedicated to hope through knowledge covering topics on aging and end-of-life-care, including dementia, which is Dr. Lewis’s specialty. “I had to make a shift in the radio program topics to include what is happening in the hospitals and what I am seeing. It is really sobering our system places such contradictions on care, paying for high-priced care and forgoing the cheapest.  It seems evident while our healthcare reform bill is still in debate; one thing is not left to argument: uninsured, homeless and poverty stricken Americans are sending the government and the taxpayer their version of a healthcare ‘recovery’ bill. Taxpayers have been footing the  ‘recovery’  of these folks during their hospitalizations and the cost is inestimable. I saw the Michael Moore movie Sicko thinking I’d seen the worst.  Now with the jobless rate going up, foreclosures everywhere, I am seeing lengthy hospitalizations that are a direct result of poor strategy, non preventative screening, and unaffordable medications for basic illnesses.   The sick folks simply get sicker after missing preventative care and routine medicines.  Take for example Mr. X, a diabetic and hypertensive 52 year old unemployed security guard who has been living out of his truck since last November. Unable to make ends meet to pay for gas, food, water or his medications, he reasoned to me, meds cost $205 a month and he had to choose.  Once the crushing chest pain hit him, a massive heart attack, and bypass later, who really chose? Him or the system?
Dr. Zoë A.  Lewis will discuss her views on the state of American healthcare for those at poverty levels  in her one hour program, Friday February 19, 1-2 EST. The show will be open to any live caller by using Guest call-in number: (347) 884-9029.  The views of Dr. Zoe A Lewis are not politically endorsed.  
Hospice Radio archives can be accessed with direct link at www.zoealewis.com or at www.blogtalkradio.com/profile.aspx?userurl=drzoehospiceradio.

Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/10529263/1