Monday, October 6, 2014

Why was Thomas Eric Duncan Sent Home from a Hospital in Texas? The Tea Party Problem.

Tea Party Hero Texas Governor
Rick Perry
Sometimes it can be infuriating when you listen to the parade of so called experts on cable news trying to explain situations that could easily be explained if you just bothered to ask the common man on the street. 

I am watching Don Lemon on CNN and he is trying to ask his "expert" guests why Thomas Eric Duncan was sent home from a hospital in Dallas, Texas, even when he had informed healthcare personnel that he was sick and had just come into the country from Liberia. 
Tea Party Radicals

Granted that Duncan had said on his airport travel form that he had had no contact with an Ebola patient in the last 21 days, he probably said that so that he won't be denied the chance to travel. Truthfully, given the spread of Ebola in Monrovia, Liberia, and the fact that people move about freely in the capital, how would anyone honestly know that they had not been in contact with an infected person? 

This question as to why Duncan was sent home, when he should have obviously been a red flag is being asked over and over on cable news channels and most of the "experts" do not seem to have an answer. Many are stupefied that health personnel at the hospital were not even able to connect the dots. Here was a fellow from Liberia presenting with fever, who was just given a prescription for antibiotics and told to go home. Why did this happen? This is the big question and all the experts do not have an answer. Well let me help by giving them the common man's answer in one phrase; health insurance!!!

Texas is a bastion of Tea Party politics. Texas governor Rick Perry and other Tea Party champions believe that affordable access to health insurance will be a magnet for illegal immigrants. Every single move made by the American government to provide access to affordable health care to low income people has been discouraged by states like Texas. Authorities in states like these feel it is better to protect the economy than ensure that all Americans have access to health care. 
The Enemies of Affordable Health Care

Even though anybody going to a hospital in America should be treated regardless of health insurance status, the treatment meted out to individuals without health insurance has to be seen to be believed. 

Duncan was just in the country and obviously did not have health insurance. He was also in Texas which probably has no state insurance exchange because Governor Rick Perry is a tea party hero who cares more about the federal deficit than the health care of poor citizens. Providing affordable health care is big government. To big men like Governor Perry who get their health management ideas from listening to the wisdom of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, helping people like Duncan to have access to affordable health care is an unnecessary entitlement. 

Duncan and his family probably could not afford to pay out of pocket for lab tests. So all that may have been done for him was to write a prescription for antibiotics, send him home, and hope that he has money to buy the antibiotics out of pocket and hopefully get better. If not, then good luck.
Thomas Eric Duncan

This case shows why the moves by conservatives to deny health care to illegal immigrants is terribly counterproductive. If an immigrant, legal or illegal comes into the country and has no access to affordable healthcare, these are some of the social costs that society will have to contend with in the future. Duncan was left to go home, possibly exposing scores of people to a deadly virus. The cost to society far exceeds whatever that state of Texas would have saved by not treating him like any other resident with health insurance.

People like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Bill Oreilly will go on their media platforms and rail against affordable healthcare because they are millionaires and can pay for any healthcare, no matter how expensive, even if they have to do so out of their own pockets. For these people, their dream is to see a repeal of the Affordable Healthcare Act. To the common man however, access to health care is the only barrier to bankruptcy in cases of medical crisis.
Ebola Outbreak

So the only people who are surprised by what happened down in Dallas, Texas are those who are out of touch with the problems of health care for low income people in USA. 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

My niece was treated at that very same hospital last year. She was very poor but given the best care available in their intensive care unit. Despite that she died 3 weeks later from liver disease. They screwed up when they released Duncan.

Anonymous said...

You have absolutely NO Idea what you are talking about. Before you go on a diatribe about Tea Party Radicals and conservatives make sure you actually know what you are talking about.

This has everything to do with illegal immigration and the security of our Borders. Before you go on about how I am anti immigration My mother brother and wife are all Naturalized citizens of the United States of America. All are conservatives and believe in the Conservative movement and the philosophies and principles of our founding fathers.

Every person in the United States legal or Illegal has access to the best healthcare in the world. It is the best health care system in the world because it is part of our Economy not our government. Mr Duncan was turned away because he did not present with all the symptoms of Ebola at the time of his visit.

As to why we conservitives are against the Affordable Healthcare Act is because the manner in which it was forced upon us and the fact that it is indeed an Un-affordable Government program that Forces Americans to purchase something they either can not afford, do not want, or already have at a lower more affordable price. My health care insurance Doubled as a result of this Affordable Health Care act. Hardly affordable if you ask me.

Anonymous said...

The US has the best health care system in the world because it is part of the economy not the government? Half of the time you tea partiers do not even know what you are talking about.

The statement that your health insurance doubled as a result of the affordable care act is a lie pure and simple. And yes we had the best care system in the world with over 40 million people unable to afford insurance before affordable care. And yes Obama was born in Kenya because you and your lot are clueless.

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