Openning argument

Opening Argument

The issues that surround healthcare are some of the most pressing and divisive in the United States during this time. Among the issues that are most significant are testing and cost. Medical tests are very important in that they save lives, but when tests are overdone or not done at all, they do not provide value to the patient. The cost of those tests is something worth considering, since the opinion of a large segment of the public is that medical testing is far too expensive and is preventing those who truly need treatment from getting it. While healthcare is a multi-faceted issue, being required to pay for substandard (or even nonexistent) care and being asked to pay for medical testing and treatment that was not received has come to the forefront of the debate recently.

For example, consider a patient who was admitted to the hospital despite the emergency room physician not finding anything medically wrong with the patient. Additionally, the patient did not otherwise meet admission requirements. The patient then spent a day and a half in the hospital with no further tests done, nor was the patient ever seen by the attending physician on call. After a day and a half, the patient was discharged without any specific diagnosis. While that might seem like a serious issue that was a complete mistake, the reality is that it happens quite often in the U.S. healthcare system. Hospitals keep patients but do not provide them with any actual medical care, and then they release them without determining whether they actually have a medical condition. In this way, these hospitals become almost like overly expensive hotel rooms. Certainly there is probably monitoring of the patient that takes place, but beyond that it becomes nearly impossible for the hospital to justify the cost when it comes to what they decide to charge the patient.

When these patients are released from the hospital, they generally see their primary care doctors, by whom they are diagnosed. Since they did not actually receive treatment while they were in the hospital, they are often shocked and appalled when they receive their bills for the stay. Even a day and a half can run thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars, because hospital prices are greatly inflated based on the care that the person actually receives. Of course, the other matter that comes along with these kinds of charges for medical care is on the side of the patient. He or she begins receiving bills for care that he or she feels was not received. Whether the patient pays these bills can have a serious effect on his or her credit rating, and can also cause other problems financially. There may come a time when the patient cannot meet his or her obligations to the hospital because of financial hardship, which produces an argument over whether the patient should even be paying for care that he or she believes has not been received while in the hospital.