Health Care Reform

There are so many things wrong with our health care system, as exemplified in this article from the Strib:

Minnesota is first state with policy to stop billing after medical errors
It isn't a big change, hospital and insurance groups say, but one the rest of country could -- and should -- follow.

By Maura Lerner, Star Tribune

Minnesota's hospitals have formally agreed to stop charging patients and insurance companies for certain medical errors, such as operating on the wrong body part.

As a practical matter, it's not really a huge change, hospital officials say. But Minnesota is the first state in the country to adopt such a policy, which applies to 27 types of mistakes or "adverse events" that are never supposed to occur in hospitals but sometimes do.

Continued here.

Seriously? Not only is it scary that these mistakes happen, it's far scarier that you will then be charged to correct the situation. Surgeon leave some forceps in ya? Too bad you'll have to pay to have 'em taken back out. (Ok, maybe I exaggerate with the forceps, but the article says, "They include such things as leaving in a needle or sponge during surgery; operating on the wrong body part or wrong patient; burns; falls; serious medication errors, or festering bedsores.") I understand that the article goes on to say that in practice, Minnesota's hospitals don't generally charge for these types of things, but you'd think this would have long-ago been a no-brainer. And while it's good that Minnesota hospitals reported only 154 of these "adverse events" happened in our state last year out of more than 8 million patient visits, I'm also scared by the statistic that there is a list of things that are never supposed to happen in a hospital, but do, and that the list is so long. Maybe it's just me, but it's rather worrisome that you already know what accidents happen "frequently" in the hospitals, and then create a list that's twenty-seven items long.