Ricky Alardo, a homeless alcoholic nicknamed Ricky Ricardo, swigs cheap vodka by day at his favorite corner in Washington Heights, then calls an ambulance to chauffeur him to the hospital for a free meal and a warm place to sleep, courtesy of taxpayers who fund his Medicaid benefits.
For a chronic caller like Alardo -- who phones 911 four or five times a week -- the annual medical bill can be as high as $300,000. Over 13 years, the length of time he has been abusing the emergency room, he has cost the medical system an estimated $3.9 million.
There's more, and it's a classic example of what happens when people know that someone else is picking up the tab. People who pay their own way or have major-medical style policies with high deductibles simply aren't going to behave like that.
But if the government takes everything over, there will be no incentive not to act like Ricky Alardo.
And no way to opt out.
It's easy to say that health care is a right. (As I explained in this post, I disagree, which along with a quarter couple of dollars, will might buy me a cup of coffee.)
But what is health care? Free ambulance rides to the ER whenever someone has a sore throat? If I don't do things like that, I resent the hell out of having to pay for people who do, and I think a lot of others feel the same way.
MORE: Using an outdated figure of speech above, I mistakenly suggested that a cup of coffee could be purchased for a quarter. (My bad.)
posted by Eric on 07.13.09 at 06:41 PM
Comments
I had some friends in grad school who grew up in the Soviet era. They once bought camping gear at Target, went camping with it, then returned it to the store. Their thinking was that if the store was foolish enough to have a liberal return policy, then they would be fools if they didn't take advantage of it. They said that's the way people thought back home.
I think that you may not only see more gaming of the system under GovCare, you may eventually see an acceptance of it as normal, with no stigma attached.
A quarter? Wow! Where is your coffee shop?
SteveBrooklineMA · July 13, 2009 7:25 PM
The insane are impossible to deal with inside a sane system.
Perhaps our current system is insane? Yes... it is insane to treat them as if they were sane. Of course they need a bed and food. Why not make that available outside the ER? Is our legal system and array of inflexible laws preventing that?
Or... are these men sane to get what they need by manipulating the system we've set up?
Why not set up a system that accommodates them? If they can sleep on an ER cot... why not set up a ward of them they can be transferred to?
Then those horribly uncomfortable ER cots can be put to good use and something better designed for ER patients with more treatable conditions.
I think a better solution, Donna, would be to tell people "You're not sick. Go away." And if they persist, don't give them the free ride to the hospital.
But that would get someone sued for malpractice or something.
Many (Most?) people, at a fundamental level, don't care about anybody but themselves. I understand I live in Narcissism, VA and near Ego-centric, MD (the Greater DC metropolitcan region), but you see it everywhere.
So no matter what "helping" system you devise, there will be people who will abuse it.
The only good thing about the current fall of civilization (besides its hilarity) will be all these iceholes "demanding their rights" after the fall and the stunned looks as they realize that nobody cares about their precious selves.
That'll be funny.
Veeshir · July 14, 2009 11:24 AM
Loren, the insane are sick and really can't be told to just go away. An ER is not the place to daily deal with a chronic disease, but that doesn't mean they're not sick.
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Don?t bang your head!
I had some friends in grad school who grew up in the Soviet era. They once bought camping gear at Target, went camping with it, then returned it to the store. Their thinking was that if the store was foolish enough to have a liberal return policy, then they would be fools if they didn't take advantage of it. They said that's the way people thought back home.
I think that you may not only see more gaming of the system under GovCare, you may eventually see an acceptance of it as normal, with no stigma attached.
A quarter? Wow! Where is your coffee shop?