This disgusts me:
In the Treatment of Diabetes, Success Often Does Not Pay
"But seven years later, even as the number of New Yorkers with Type 2 diabetes has nearly doubled, three of the four centers, including Beth Israel’s, have closed.
They did not shut down because they had failed their patients. They closed because they had failed to make money. They were victims of the byzantine world of American health care, in which the real profit is made not by controlling chronic diseases like diabetes but by treating their many complications.
Insurers, for example, will often refuse to pay $150 for a diabetic to see a podiatrist, who can help prevent foot ailments associated with the disease. Nearly all of them, though, cover amputations, which typically cost more than $30,000."
(Urbina, NY Times, 1/11/06)
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology
Bizarro world continues, huh.
It’s sad when good health care boils down to whether there’s money to be made. It happened many years ago with mental health care, resulting in more and more people living on the street.